Need Advice: Should I upgrade now or wait after "Snow Leopard"?

Haemorrage · Jan 22, 2009

Hey there everyone

I'm a newbie to the world of Mac and need some advice about my eMac.
Is it worth upgrading all the parts in my eMac to the machine's maximum and the OS or should I wait and save up to buy a new Mac? The new mac I had in mind was a Mac Mini but I figured that if I were to wait, I would get it after the new version of Mac OS X "Snow Leopard" I keep hearing about.

Just to give you an insight, I'm a university student that does most of the basic tasks like word processing, web surfing, email, IM chatting, music and movie playing and some games like Sims 2.

Thank you in advance

fa8362 · Jan 22, 2009

I don't know anything about the eMac, but if you're interested in the Mini and don't absolutely need it right now, you should wait, since there's a new model coming within the next few months.

econoline06 · Jan 22, 2009

The eMac is a G4 based machine and hardly worth $50 in terms of computing power (for collectors its a different story). Hands down get the Mini when Snow Leopard comes out, especially since it won't run on PowerPC based machines.

jayselle · Jan 22, 2009

A lot of people will say to "wait". Those were the same people saying wait in November until MacWorld. Apple is a progressive company and is constantly release new and better products, however, the good news is that all their products are excellent.

Look into getting the cheaper 20" iMac. You can even save a little by going refreshed. It's plenty fast for what you need and has a very nice screen. The all in one setup is perfect for small spaces such as a dorm room. The current line of iMac will have absolutely no problem running Snow Leopard.

jon08 · Jan 22, 2009

How much will it cost to upgrade to Snow Leopard?

Chedam · Jan 22, 2009

The price hasn't been confirmed, but be prepared to pay the same price as Leopard. Although it isn't a featured filled release, Snow Leopard is still more powerful under the hood.

Haemorrage · Jan 23, 2009

jayselle said:
A lot of people will say to "wait". Those were the same people saying wait in November until MacWorld. Apple is a progressive company and is constantly release new and better products, however, the good news is that all their products are excellent.

Look into getting the cheaper 20" iMac. You can even save a little by going refreshed. It's plenty fast for what you need and has a very nice screen. The all in one setup is perfect for small spaces such as a dorm room. The current line of iMac will have absolutely no problem running Snow Leopard.

Where do I find one of those refurbished Macs that I keep hearing about?

Also, how is the 20" iMac cheaper compared to the Mac Mini?

LERsince1991 · Jan 23, 2009

if you go onto the apple store website go to the bottom and on the right should be refurbished macs undr special deals. at least thats what it is for the uk i'd imagine there all similar

imac is £780 mac mini is £400 with a screen ontop and a keyboard+mouse I think so its not cheaper (depending on your monitor) but it will be better value if you wanted a 20" screen or something and its faster.

also I'd add that I think you should wait.

lamina · Jan 23, 2009

Sims 2 on an eMac? Wow.

If you're really set on a Mac Mini, you should wait. The current model is really outdated. It will do what you want, but why spend money now on something that will (hopefully) be updated soon.

In my opinion, a 20" iMac is the way to go, especially refurbished. It takes very little space and they are truly very fast machines. I vote for the iMac.

mobilehaathi · Jan 23, 2009

Buy a new mac, either mini or 20 in imac. Not worth upgrading the emac.

Oneness · Jan 23, 2009

I would go with the 20" iMac also. If you follow the advice of 'wait a few months for the Mac Mini update' you could be waiting forever...

iChrisG · Jan 23, 2009

eMac's are nice. If you used it this long I'm sure you can wait for a few months and get a Mac Mini when Snow Leopard comes out. That would be a good idea, I hope you have fun!

Haemorrage · Jan 23, 2009

LERsince1991 said:
if you go onto the apple store website go to the bottom and on the right should be refurbished macs undr special deals. at least thats what it is for the uk i'd imagine there all similar

imac is £780 mac mini is £400 with a screen ontop and a keyboard+mouse I think so its not cheaper (depending on your monitor) but it will be better value if you wanted a 20" screen or something and its faster.

also I'd add that I think you should wait.

Thanks for the help about finding the refurbished macs on their website.

As for the keyboard, mouse and screen, I can use the keyboard and mouse I got with the eMac. As for the screen, I just got a 24" widescreen for free from my friend yesterday

ChrisA · Jan 23, 2009

Haemorrage said:
Hey there everyone

I'm a newbie to the world of Mac and need some advice about my eMac.
Is it worth upgrading all the parts in my eMac to the machine's maximum

I't so cheap to add RAM now that is is always worth it. If you can double of better the RAM you will notice the difference

Haemorrage · Jan 23, 2009

iChrisG said:
eMac's are nice. If you used it this long I'm sure you can wait for a few months and get a Mac Mini when Snow Leopard comes out. That would be a good idea, I hope you have fun!

I've only had the eMac for a month. I bought it used for AU$207.50 off ebay but having had a look around this website and reading people's opinions, I can come to the conclusion that I got screwed over.

I think the only thing I'm going to do to the eMac is upgrade the RAM so I can install Leopard and get used to using leopard. My previous mac experiance was with the original iMac G3 (revision A, bondi blue) and I managed to run OS 9 and OS X 10.1 on it. I figured that this eMac would be a cheap way to get myself familiar with the Leopard.

lamina · Jan 24, 2009

I wouldn't install Leopard on an eMac. What's its clock speed?

Bite the bullet and go with the entry-level refurb iMac. You'll save money and have a SWEET computer that will completely blow your mind in terms of speed difference between your eMac and new iMac.

Haemorrage · Jan 24, 2009

lamina said:
I wouldn't install Leopard on an eMac. What's its clock speed?

Bite the bullet and go with the entry-level refurb iMac. You'll save money and have a SWEET computer that will completely blow your mind in terms of speed difference between your eMac and new iMac.

The CPU speed on the eMac is 1GHz. I would honestly would get the iMac if I didn't have a 24" widescreen LCD monitor given to me but since that has happened, I might as well get a Mac Mini.

CalumC · Jan 24, 2009

Haemorrage said:
The CPU speed on the eMac is 1GHz. I would honestly would get the iMac if I didn't have a 24" widescreen LCD monitor given to me but since that has happened, I might as well get a Mac Mini.

Point understood, but still, wait. The current mac mini is one of the worst value for money computers available, hopefully with an update it will be one of the best value.

Haemorrage · Jan 24, 2009

CalumC said:
Point understood, but still, wait. The current mac mini is one of the worst value for money computers available, hopefully with an update it will be one of the best value.

I hope so too because the features (ignoring the optical drive) aren't much better than the Asus EeePC I have. One complaint I do have with any Mac at the moment is the optical drives.... why have a combo drive as an option? Everyone knows that nobody goes out to buy an external or internal combo drive. Everyone buys or uses a DVD Burner. I honestly think that the Superdrive should be a standard feature just like USB 2.0 or Firewire. The only thing that a Superdrive can't read or write is Blu-ray discs.

Haemorrage · Jan 24, 2009

ChrisA said:
I't so cheap to add RAM now that is is always worth it. If you can double of better the RAM you will notice the difference

That's usually true about RAM but the thing with my eMac is that it uses the old-school SD-RAM not the more modern DDR-RAM. Because of that, the prices for that type of RAM has gone up since it's now considered obsolete.

Mactagonist · Jan 24, 2009

Haemorrage said:
I hope so too because the features (ignoring the optical drive) aren't much better than the Asus EeePC I have. One complaint I do have with any Mac at the moment is the optical drives.... why have a combo drive as an option? Everyone knows that nobody goes out to buy an external or internal combo drive. Everyone buys or uses a DVD Burner. I honestly think that the Superdrive should be a standard feature just like USB 2.0 or Firewire. The only thing that a Superdrive can't read or write is Blu-ray discs.

It is there in the lowest end Mac to help encourage you to upsell yourself to the higher end model!

And for those who just dont care about an optical drive.

Haemorrage · Jan 24, 2009

BryanHarig said:
It is there in the lowest end Mac to help encourage you to upsell yourself to the higher end model!

And for those who just dont care about an optical drive.

I find it a bit sad how they would do that. I know that Apple has to make money but it's also supposed to be the same company who's at the cutting edge of personal computing. So, when you have a near obsolete feature like that it just gives an extra reason for Windows die-hards to point and laugh

CalumC · Jan 25, 2009

Haemorrage said:
I hope so too because the features (ignoring the optical drive) aren't much better than the Asus EeePC I have. One complaint I do have with any Mac at the moment is the optical drives.... why have a combo drive as an option? Everyone knows that nobody goes out to buy an external or internal combo drive. Everyone buys or uses a DVD Burner. I honestly think that the Superdrive should be a standard feature just like USB 2.0 or Firewire. The only thing that a Superdrive can't read or write is Blu-ray discs.

While I'm still going with the fact that the mac mini does need upgrading, i don't think that everyone desperately needs a superdrive, some people just don't have any need for dvd burning. Having said that, I do agree that Apple ought to have it as standard in line with their position of manufacturing high quality machines.

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