Is a $250 iMac G4 worth it?

laptoplover2 said:

The specs are at least 1 GHz G4 Processor, there's 512 MB of ram (But I can upgrade it on the website real cheap), and an 80 GB hard drive. It's the 15 inch one, and it looks like it's probably in good condition. I don't know if it comes with the keyboard and mouse yet, but I have my own apple keyboard and mouse. Just curious, do you think it's worth it?
--By the way I'm gonna become a YouTube partner soon, so around like my first paycheck is when I would buy it.

Click to expand...

$250 is a little hi. but they are a very nice computer i have the 1ghz usb 2.0 model with 1.5 GB Ram running leopard and i love it. i got mine for $15 + gave the persion a old win. 2000 pc. look on ebay i bet you can get one for less then $150 shiped

$250 is way too high for this computer.
EDIT: There are many 17" iMac G4s that sold on eBay for less than $200. One complete 15" sold for $55.

thats way to much! stay away...

my local graigslist (vanc,cdn)...just did a check

-$100,$95,$50,$60,$80

Thats wayyyyy to much to spend

Even by UK standards (where every Apple product costs a lot more than the US) that's still pricey.

Definitely have a look at spares and "for parts" listings. Earlier I found a 1GH 17" for £84 (135 USD) just because it lacked a DVD drive.

I'll echo what everyone else said - way too much....I got the G4 in my sig (came with 512MB RAM and 80GB drive) for $100 in October a year ago.

normally i would say the same ..to much money ,
but if that company (which we dont know) did refurbish them ,i mean with refurbished to open the iMac up clean it inside and replace parts if necessary
some companies take great care about refurbishing old Mac's to highest possible standard and give 6 month to 1 year warranties , then it could be well worth the extra money .
Just be aware on every company that takes great care come a couple dozens others who just want your money and give a ...(f- word) about the Mac's internal condition .
That is generally a big Mac problem no matter if PPC or intel ( but intel's are prime target today) , reason is that great resale value , and honesty ends where double figured profits are starting that goes especially for Mac's . In PC's that kind of profit margin is impossible because they unlike Mac's drop their value by half within the first year.

MacHamster68 said:

normally i would say the same ..to much money ,
but if that company (which we dont know) did refurbish them ,i mean with refurbished to open the iMac up clean it inside and replace parts if necessary

Click to expand...

Yeah, but even if it's "refurbished" you could buy about 4 used ones for the price of this. It's not a fair price for an old, obsolete computer.

Again, me echoing everyone else's view... WAYYY too much, even in the UK you can get a decent one (1.25ghz, 640mb, 80gb HDD, with all the extras eg. speakers, mouse, keyboard) for £100 ($160)

If I were you and had a budget of $250, I'd opt for an iMac G5 iSight (1.9ghz, 2gb RAM, OSX 10.5) Or look at the early Intel Macbooks

Hope this helps

yes right you can always get a cheaper one , like you can if you are lucky snap a 2009 iMac 27" for that price too .
i know somebody who recently has bought 20 used iMac 2009/2010 models for absolute next to nothing from a shop which went into liquidation , equalled @ €50 each great thing if one knows a bailiff (Gerichtsvollzieher)


sorry all sold already within 2 days again to another shop with around €300 profit on each and most did not even work at all

laptoplover2 said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-...item1e67fea1bb&autorefresh=true#ht_500wt_1019
That looks like something that I could afford right now without even getting YouTube partnership yet

If not though, is an average price for these right now like at most $150 or around there? ... by the way about how fast are these guys?

Click to expand...

Stay away from those older models. They're way to slow for day to day use. The 1.25 I had was barely fast enough to handle flash audio (hypem).

^^^I second this. Minimum is USB 2.0 (1.0 GHz+). Perfect would be 1.25 17". It can run 10.5 with HW accelerated CI. Rest with lower specs are (nowadays) just (damn) good looking toys

Edit: whoever was asking $250 for one is out of their mind

You could always watch that one on ebay. In terms of buying old technology I'd personally rather own a G4 than a G5 if I was buying one today. It just doesn't make sense to spend too much on one especially when you consider how old the display must be. Pay careful attention to the shipping configuration as when you're buying something older, you don't want to have to dump a lot of cash to make it usable.

the iMac G4 even its 700mhz model are nice collector items , but the 1.25 ghz ones are the way to go if usability is a priority , and those are more expensicve then the lower spec ones

so why not settle for a affordable Mac that beats even the 1.25 ghz 20" iMac G4

i dont mean a intel Mac , i mean the eMac 1.42 ghz G4 from 2005 ,very easy to upgrade to 2 gb ram and even easier to install a airport express card ( no tools required )
positive is double the level 2 cache size compared with the iMac G4 and the ati radeon 9600 with 64mb vram and i like the look that screams 70's, it's the last G4 AIO that was sold until 2006 , better and cheaper to get then a Mini G4 or iMac G4

Let's just say I bought this computer for 380$:

-G5 dual core 2.3
4 gb ram
DL super drive
1 tb hdd
Nvidia GeForce 6600
Leopard install discs
iLife 08 install discs
external iSight camera

I wouldn't buy any G4 iMac for over 100. 100 is really stretching it too, considering what software those computers can run well. I might pay 120 for the 20 inch if it was in immaculate condition and came with a bunch of software discs to add to my collection of discs...