So... 1.25ghz G4 eMac... usable?

Flash sites will be slow. Leopard costs more than the machine.

My G4 ibook crashes the browser when a webpage with flash comes up. I only have 512 RAM though, so maybe you'll get by with 1 G.
iTunes plays fine but the speakers are just horrible. You'll probably want to use headphones or external speakers.
I'm not sure what you'd gain from going to Leopard???

sikkinixx said:

Hmmm... maybe I should try to play with it first.

I thought Leopard actually helped performance a bit on the older units? Or maybe I am on something

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Yeah you might want to check it out first. As far as the Leopard thing, I know a lot of people have done it, but honestly, I didn't see any difference on my newer machines in term of speed. Maybe I'm on something too.

BTW - Diggin' your avatar.

Believe it or not, I use that very same machine every single day for my business. It works fine with Leopard. I also have an iMac & a MacBook that we use at home and obviously these are MUCH faster than the eMac. But for running quickbooks, MS office, iTunes, emailing, web surfing, etc etc it's a very capable machine. It's also the only mac I've EVER owned that didn't require a logicboard replacement or 3. It's a tank.

I can't see any reason to replace it anytime soon either. For my needs it's a workhorse that I've been very pleased with.

sikkinixx said:

Hmmm... maybe I should try to play with it first.

I thought Leopard actually helped performance a bit on the older units? Or maybe I am on something

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leopard will slow it down in most cases
tiger is best and flashplayer 9 ,
dont ever install flashplayer 10 as it slows everything to a standstill

otherwise the eMac 1.25 is fine

Agreed, will be fine for what you'll be using it for. I'm back to my 1.5 ghz g4 powerbook running tiger (again) after several failures with my new mbp required it to be returned to california. I didn't find that the 2.53 ghz core 2 duo with 4 gb ram was all that much faster than the g4 and the g4 is actually much better at streaming video (flash? I'm assuming).

sikkinixx said:

It's been a long while since I have used a G4 mac, my last one was my 12" Powerbook. But a 1.25ghz eMac is available to me for $75 and I am seriously tempted. I always had a soft spot for their spiffy white exterior.

How usable is the G4 nowadays? Just for iTunes, websurfing, etc. I have a PC but I mostly just game on it. The unit has 1GB of Ram, 80GB hdd plus Airport Extreme and Tiger. Worth putting Leopard on it?

I might see if I can try it first but just wanted general thoughts.

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I'd get it,I had a 1Ghz eMac for awhile with 1GB of ram and it ram youtube and many other heavy flash sites really well.It would be a good first Mac,or upgrade from pc.

If it works OK, I don't think you can go wrong for $75, at least as a secondary machine. With 1GB of RAM and a G4, keep Tiger - trust me - I had a PB G4 and it was a dog with Leopard but A-OK with Tiger.

I say go for it...

MacHamster68 said:

leopard will slow it down in most cases
tiger is best and flashplayer 9 ,
dont ever install flashplayer 10 as it slows everything to a standstill

otherwise the eMac 1.25 is fine

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Win 7 works great on my pc with almost the same specs. Why wouldn't leopard?

sikkinixx said:

How usable is the G4 nowadays? Just for iTunes, websurfing, etc. I have a PC but I mostly just game on it. The unit has 1GB of Ram, 80GB hdd plus Airport Extreme and Tiger. Worth putting Leopard on it?

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For sure! I've got the 1.25 GHZ eMac and have been running Leopard for a few months now and it definitely runs better with Leopard than it did with Panther. Up until a few days ago I was only running 512 mb of ram also, but I now have 1.5 GB in there (which made a nice difference!). I'm sure the newer Macs would run rings around this one, but it has been a very reliable machine for me and with 1.5 GB of ram in there it can do everything that I need it to do (iTunes, websurfing, email and even Photoshop CS3 works well with it)

I bought this eMac brand new 5 years ago and it's been very faithful to me, I'm gonna keep it forever! (I'd like to get a Mac Mini in the next year but I'll keep this old beast since it's worth more to me than it is to sell it someone else)

My 1.25 GHz Powerbook runs fine, but it's not really made for YouTube, or other flash sites. I have Leopard on it, and it handles it fine.

It does have upgraded RAM, though, to 1.25 GB.

macgeek18 said:

I'd get it,I had a 1Ghz eMac for awhile with 1GB of ram and it ram youtube and many other heavy flash sites really well.It would be a good first Mac,or upgrade from pc.

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Really? Because my powerbook has a better processor, and more ram, and does not like youtube.

Maybe it would work better with Tiger?

Leopard is not recommended, it will be excruciatingly slow. Tiger on the other hand will be very satisfactory on this system. For $75 get, load Tiger + ClickToFlash, and enjoy your retro Mac!

my eMac 1.42 works perfect its my main computer for everything , and it does flash very well i have connected a second monitor to it and installed screenspanning doctor so now i have the 16" from the eMac plus another 17" , which was quiet tricky to find a monitor that is matching the color and design and matching resolutions , gave up at the end and bought a glossy white monitor which can produce 1280x960
so now i have 33" in total and it works perfectly

just to let you know albeit the mini g4 1.42 shares the same processor and nominal has the same 64mb vram , the eMac 1.42 has the better graphics card (radeon 9600 in the eMac compared to the 9200 of the mini)supporting core image and quarz extreme, ok it mirrors only screens by default , as apple has disabled the spanning feature in the open firmware, but screenspanning doctor works fine and enables that feature so you can use a second screen
and the mini g4 is maxed out with 1gb ram while the emac supports up to 2 gb ram which does make a difference too when you start multi tasking (more then 2 apps open at once )
especially if you need or want to use windows under virtual pc ,
virtual pc does a really good job if it has enough ram and if you are able to dedicate 1 gb ramit helps a lot ,
then windows xp really runs ,i dont want to use windows really but its nice to have it available if needs must
the eMac is the workhorse , and i love it
just to mention it , the eMac is a bit loud , but its not annoying as its constant fan speed ,no up and downs , but does not need to be, get zalman fanmate and connect it then you can hardly hear it , and no it does not overheat if the fan speed is a bit lower ( not fully switched of please)
apple did adjust the fan speed on the safe side , the emac will ,i assume still work in the middle of a dessert in summer and daytime temperature of 150F without heat problem in its native settings so in a normal environment like in the living room you rarely get 120F so you can drop the fanspeed and make it quiet

the price is a bit steep , but not far off , emacs are sought after as they are workhorses , have to remember they had been designed for use in schools , so they have to withstand some rough treatment , and they cope well , stickers are common ,even more common are safety marks done with a soldering iron on top of the eMacs so you are lucky not to get one of those, stickers can be removed and if you use a bit of car polish you can even get it nice and shiny again ,
dusting inside is a good idea and there are some good sites like this one here that show you how to take it apart step by step
http://www.wilko.com/emac/

once you took it apart take the back case and soak it in water with washing up liquid , works wonder
it gets really clean again especially the clear vented plastic bit tends to get a bit yellowish/brownish over time but with soaking it in washing up liquid becomes like new again
just make sure its dry again befor you put it back together as water and electricity dont mix very well

sikkinixx said:

I took a look at the eMac today.

Much faster than I thought (clean install of Tiger helps...) couldn't really test Flash since loading youtube made Safari crash while other sites gave me crap about not being updated. Screen is nice too.

Bad stuff is I got it mixed up. The $75 version is only 1ghz and has 512mb of ram. The one I looked at was $130 because of the 1gb of ram, plus airport, DVD-RW and such. Bit of a bummer. Also it was dirty... Needs a take apart and dusting in a bad way. Bit of sticker residue along the side too (I hate stickers so much). No discs to be included either and the keyboard isn't the original. I have an extra copy of Leopard, but not Tiger so I am a bit hesitant. I don't mind ripping it apart to clean it and add more stuff but I am bummed about the price.

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$130 sounds a little expensive for a 1.25GHz model. If it were the 1.42 then it would probably be worth it for the extra processor power and nicer graphics card. At least the eMac can be upgraded to 2GB of RAM whereas the Mini tops out at 1GB. Also, that 184pin PC2700 RAM is super cheap these days.

Hrududu said:

Also, that 184pin PC2700 RAM is super cheap these days.

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True! I got 1GB of 184 pin PC2700 ram for my eMac from E Bay for just $34! I was considering buying another 1 GB to replace the 512 mb I've got in one of the ram slots right now, but I'm just not sure if going from 1.5 to 2 GB of ram would really make all that noticeable of a difference on this eMac.

ok i always think about our uk prices for used macs and $130 are just over £80
and thats a bargain price not to be missed for the uk
ok i know we in europe pay nearly double for what you guys in the us get the used macs if i see the prices on ebay .com , i get tears in my eyes and want to immigrate immediately