Poll: Would you be interested in a $599 monitor-less G4 Mac?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Would you be interested in a $599 monitor-less G4 Mac? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=194&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

[Stelliform]

Most definitely. Especially if it was upgradeable. I bought a <gasp> PC last computer purchase for my office since I needed a cheap machine. And the eMac's were just a bit too much.

[vniow]

Ohhh yeah!

[Nermal]

While I personally probably wouldn't buy one (can't justify buying a second computer), I think they should definitely offer this sort of system for those that want it. Lots of switchers already have a display, and don't want to have to buy a new one.

[MacBandit]

I would buy 2 right now. Even though I don't have a job.

[ratspg]

Well, if it came out a couple years ago, yea. But I mean, why would I want to buy a low-end mac? if i'm on a high end mac already? if i was considering switching, which is what its supposvely geared for, then yea id go for it. but they'd have to kill the eMac, like right away... with a rock, or a stick or something... lol (Kung Pow)

[Buggy]

It completely depends upon the specs

[melchior]

i doubt this would be a computer to satisfy people using their computer professionally. what it will satisfy is this:

a cheap machine to run OS X. that's all a lot of people want.

[WinterMute]

I bought an eMac to cover home and school stuff for the family, it's a good machine, but the option of choosing a monitor would have made it perfect, space is a premium, and a flat-panel unit on the wall would have been excellent.

As it is, I'll probably stay with the eMAC till it expires now, although I'd be plenty interested in the specs when they arrive.

I have around 300 students studying music technology who would be very interested in such a unit, especially with a big HD and FireWire:D

[phgreer]

Yes, most definitely! I could use one at the office for a file/intranet server. We're talking about a small 4 person staff here and even then only two of us use computers a lot. Trust me an Xserve would be major overkill.


I would also suggest or even buy one for both my in-laws and parents. My dad keeps showing me these stupid ads he keeps getting on his fax at work for cheap wintel boxes and keeps saying he doesn't need anything fancy or want a bunch of "periphials" hanging off it. Of course apple needs to put a good solitare game on the computers my dad plays with my brother's laptap and thinks spider solitare is all that. ;)

I have a perfectly fine 17 inch CRT sitting in my closet right now but my wife got to the point she needed a LCD kind of monitor. (CRT's give her headaches because of the screen flicker and yes I had a good video card and good refresh rate but that's just the nature of CRT's.

[Roger1]

I would definately be interested in one of these. Especially if it came with a superdrive (I know, dream on). :)

[KLFloyd]

Hmm, I voted before I thought. I said I would probably be interested but now that I look at it, it's not that great a deal after all. If you buy a $599 box then you still need a display, so now look at Apple's display lineup and the cheapest display they offer is $699. So if we were going to combine the two purchases we'd be looking at $1300 and could have bought an iMac.

If I think Apple could get a computer out the door, display and all for $699 even if it wasn't a flat screen display then it would be a huge draw. Apple needs a strategy to compete with families who are in the market for just a cheep basic computer, which was what I thought the iMacs were supposed to be, but now they've turned semi-pro as well. You see the adds for Dell Machines and Gateways out the door for $699 and Apple just really can't compete.

The eMac doesn't seem to be a huge seller. Maybe if they dropped the price $100 it would fit in this market. Though the option for a flat screen is nice.

Regardless, Apple needs to spend some money on promotion. When was the last time you saw a commercial promoting an economical Apple Computer for the family? They need to be pushing OSX stability, digital hub features, and the fact that it can be made very family friendly with multiple users.

Just my two cents...

[eric_n_dfw]

Originally posted by KLFloyd
Hmm, I voted before I thought. I said I would probably be interested but now that I look at it, it's not that great a deal after all. If you buy a $599 box then you still need a display, so now look at Apple's display lineup and the cheapest display they offer is $699. So if we were going to combine the two purchases we'd be looking at $1300 and could have bought an iMac.

If I think Apple could get a computer out the door, display and all for $699 even if it wasn't a flat screen display then it would be a huge draw. Apple needs a strategy to compete with families who are in the market for just a cheep basic computer, which was what I thought the iMacs were supposed to be, but now they've turned semi-pro as well. You see the adds for Dell Machines and Gateways out the door for $699 and Apple just really can't compete.
Like this one? (from the Apple Store) Sell it for cost as part of a package deal or something:

[Mr. Anderson]

I'll be getting a 970 when they come out and the low end G4 has no real appeal. However, as a second cheap machine to replace my old 450 MHz G4, it has some appeal.

That way I could get a really nice new machine and my wife could get the low end version (she doesn't do more than spread sheets and word documents - I'm doing the 3D animation and video). And keeping my old monitor and getting rid of the Sawtooth would be quite nice. The performance on the machine would be close to 3 times what I have now.

But the real question is what the thing comes installed with and will it have the same enclosure as the old G4s? Bringing back something a little bigger than the Cube and not as big as the current PowerMac box would also be quite nice.

D

[RHutch]

I probably wouldn't be interested in this for myself, but I know people who would be. Both of my brothers and my parents are using 6500's that I gave them a couple years ago. They don't have a need for anything fancy, just some internet usage and playing some simple games. None of them users their computer enough to justify spending more than $500-$600. While they like the looks and speed of my machine, they just don't need what I have. It would be a waste of money. But they might all be tempted to buy new machines of the type being suggested here. It would be a huge upgrade in speed, stability of the OS, and the cool new iApps.

I think Apple really needs to do this.

[Bear]

It might be good if it was usable as a low end file server or maybe an iTunes server. Dedicated to the task at hand.

Without having to have a keyboard or monitor on it.

[pilotgi]

The G4 represents older technology. I would be hesitant to spend even $599 for last year's tech. But it might appeal to people whose priority is the bottom line.

[mactastic]

I'd be very interested. And it would be the final straw for alot of switchers when they can have an OSX machine for that cheap, and keep their old monitor. It would also be a good way for apple to keep making money off the g4 or something similiar. As long as it is expandable with AGP and PCI, people will be interested. I'd love one for a home server kind of thing, where I could stuff hard drives in it and have massive amounts of storage for cheap.

[wdlove]

I voted no, because I want to save up my money to purchase my new Power Mac G5 PPC 970! Don't really have a need for another G4 at this time!

[Macmaniac]

I'd do anything to get a better low cost gaming and video editing computer. $600 is a great price, as long as it has FW, a vid card larger than 32mb and some expandability I would go out and buy one. For us starving students its a great deal.

[jkojima]

I'd be all over a headless, inexpensive G4 with one proviso: it would have to have an upgradable video card (standard AGP). Ideally it would also have at least one open PCI slot, gigabit Ethernet, and space for 2 hard drives. Basically I would think twice if it was a completely closed system (like an iMac minus the screen.)

I'd use it as a home entertainment machine and server. It would be a second computer - augmenting my PowerBook.

[melchior]

the inability to upgrade the video card is what keeps me from buying an iMac. (not that i can upgrade my iBook or anything, but unless i have expandability i wouldn't get one)

if the box was say 1GHz with expandability you could add a decent video card (a rom-flashed pc card) and some memory (even a sound card, if that's your thing) and have a nice little machine for cheap.

[Laslo Panaflex]

I think that this is a great idea, many linux/unix users would love to use OS X, but the hardware is too expensive. If there was a bare G4 I think that it would fill this niche. Just think about it, the more linux unix converts, the better OS X will become. Just look at all the great freeware apps that are just GUI's on top of command line code, these exist becuase of the great unix users that are pouring their souls into OS X.

I for one, would not buy one personally, I need a high end computer for video and graphics, but I guess that all depends on the price of the new PPC970 G5 GX Xmac, if they are really high priced, I might not be able to afford one.

Originally posted by pilotgi

I would be hesitant to spend even $599 for last year's tech.


G4 is 4 years old tech, and people still pay loads of dough for it. :)

[TiMacLover]

I think this is a great idea. This would be good for everyone I think. If you look iBook 300mhz/Pismo Powerbooks/G4 Graphites still all go for around 5-700$ so I think this would lower those value prices. And for me I am a hardcore mac fan and addict, but Apple's pricing is too high for me, so this would give me a chance to buy a new mac or a older G3/G4 on ebay at a lower cost, I miss OS X and OS 9.

My PC cost 300$ that is cheap, I got a custom case, 1.6GHZ AMD, 512MB ram, 10 GIG HD, and CDRW. That is A LOT cheaper than a mac.

[Eniregnat]

This might be a good cost effective solution for thoes of us that can afford a new iMac, but already have a good LCD screen.

[MacBandit]

My previous statement before saying I would be two is based on one thing. They need to include a video out so I can connect it to my tvs. Then I would use it as a video and music server and maybe even a Tivo. I would also use it for Folding.

[scem0]

no option for 'hell yeah!'?

[melchior]

Originally posted by MacBandit
My previous statement before saying I would be two is based on one thing. They need to include a video out so I can connect it to my tvs. Then I would use it as a video and music server and maybe even a Tivo. I would also use it for Folding.

you know... for those 4 things you want to do... music server, video server, tivo, folding.

they would all be much better served by a linux box... you could spend a bit extra on your cpu and just think about all those folding units. you can always say it was on your 2 dual-1.42 Powermacs :cool:

if someone will actually use the computer, for word processing, web surfing, email, etc... then OS X is what you want, but if it's really just a server, than linux would serve much more nicely and cheaply, in my opinion.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by melchior
you know... for those 4 things you want to do... music server, video server, tivo, folding.

they would all be much better served by a linux box... you could spend a bit extra on your cpu and just think about all those folding units. you can always say it was on your 2 dual-1.42 Powermacs :cool:

if someone will actually use the computer, for word processing, web surfing, email, etc... then OS X is what you want, but if it's really just a server, than linux would serve much more nicely and cheaply, in my opinion.


Linux is cool but not OSX cool. Sorry I'm not interested. Even if it's 4x as much.

[-hh]

Originally posted by Buggy
It completely depends upon the specs

This was why I voted "Possibly".

You can't decide simply by the price point - - you always have to look at the total value, which means you need to see spec's.


For anyone who wishes to disagree, please first put your money where your mouth is: I'd be quite happy to sell you my monitor-less 8500 with its G4 upgrade card for $599.



-hh

[visor]

well, I never understood why anyone would want to buy a new display everytime he bought a new processor.

Displays stay much longer around and will do a job well, even though it is nice to have a bigger one once in a while.

So if you's offer an emac superdrive withoout the display for 600 euros end price - i'd get one.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by visor
well, I never understood why anyone would want to buy a new display everytime he bought a new processor.

Displays stay much longer around and will do a job well, even though it is nice to have a bigger one once in a while.

So if you's offer an emac superdrive withoout the display for 600 euros end price - i'd get one.

Not to mention the waste and pollution that comes from so many wasted displays when the computer is finally disposed of.

[QuiteSure]

I was just thinking this morning that this would be the perfect box to put on my secretary's desk. We already have a 17" monitor that suits us all just fine. In fact, I was even toying with the idea of adding a cheap BestBuy XP box for the purpose -- sort of a reverse switch -- because there's no apple solution that will accomplish what I want. That's why I would buy at least one, and may be more (for my father, my uncle, my son, my daughter, etc.)

[iShater]

I would absolutely get one, if it was fast enough that is.

After getting my iBook, I am now looking at a powermac to do more iMovie stuff and do some gaming. But personally I do not want to invest in a new monitor, mine is fine thank you.

So I would get it and make it my main computer to compliment the iBook.

And for $599 or so, it would be a steal compared to the eMac, which is not an option for me.

[deryk]

I would love one. I need to upgrade soon and I don't necessarily need an iMac or eMac.

[gsdali]

this is just what I need for the house server. OK so maybe it's be overkill for a few mail servers anda media server but the price is right, of course a little lower would be appreciated.

[zigzag]

This poll is strange... If I don't know the specs, how can I answer?

*g*

Is it upgradeable?
Is it fast?
So many more questions come to mind...

I voted possibly, there is no way to know :confused:

[ThomasJefferson]

Simply must have the specs in order to decide. My fear.. is that Jobs has a few thousand 500 mhz chips piled about .. "nightmare on infinite loop part deux".

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by ThomasJefferson
Simply must have the specs in order to decide. My fear.. is that Jobs has a few thousand 500 mhz chips piled about .. "nightmare on infinite loop part deux".

mwhahaha, Cube Rebirth!

Sccooorrreee!

I want one, just to manually upgrade.

Stick a dual 1 GHZ in there, 1 Gig o' Ram, use some throw away monitor and POOF, a really nice system for cheap.

[Fender2112]

It would all depend on the specs and how upgradeable it would be.

I would not want to buy a cheap box and then turn around and spend more on it to bring it up to speed. My buying policy has always been to: first, set my budget and then find a balance between specs and value. This usually gets me a mid level machine with a few extras. For example, I may give up speed and get more memory or a better video card.

This box would also have to be upgradeable by more than just adding a bigger hard drive and more ram. I like slots...lots of slots. I'd rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them.

[MacBandit]

I think it would be safe to look at the low end eMac and remove the monitor and expect the same specs as that. That would be a lot of computer for $600.

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by MacBandit
I think it would be safe to look at the low end eMac and remove the monitor and expect the same specs as that. That would be a lot of computer for $600.

Eh, lets hope a little better.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by MrMacman
Eh, lets hope a little better.

Well yeah if it's released in time but $600 for an eMac without monitor is a hell of a price. The eMac is a good price in my oppionion to start with and the monitor by no means costs $300.

[melchior]

Originally posted by MrMacman
Eh, lets hope a little better.

if this is in works, and i doubt it is, i think you can expect less specs than the curren emac...

[eyelikeart]

At one time I would have jumped on this one, but now it seems fruitless. I've already invested over $5k in Macs over the past year, and one of those was just a "holdover" till the bigger & better machines are out kicking some ass. :D

[tazo]

A 599 g4 would be able to capture that, brand new low-end P4 market that is ever popular with pc consumers. etc.

[tazo]

::::::::::::double post:::::::::::::

[PretendPCuser]

If you are competing on price alone, then once someone comes out with something cheaper, you either beat the price or you're out of business. Obviously, Apple is diff. from the PC market in that way, but if they do make a $600 machine, will people be all mad when Dell goes down to $399? *(They might all ready be there).

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by PretendPCuser
If you are competing on price alone, then once someone comes out with something cheaper, you either beat the price or you're out of business. Obviously, Apple is diff. from the PC market in that way, but if they do make a $600 machine, will people be all mad when Dell goes down to $399? *(They might all ready be there).

You can already buy PCs for well under $500 and you can buy a PC for $500 with a monitor. I don't think the point is to beat them at price but to simply play into the game a little. Also this would make Macs affordable for a lot lot more people many of which already have a monitor.