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eMac thoughts?

sparkleytone

sparkleytone

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 28, 2001
2,308
0
Greensboro, NC
Hey all. I just sprung for my second mac ever :D My g/f seems to think its for her :eek: I figured I was getting a great deal even tho the eMacs have had their share of problems. This is what I got on a very constrained college budget.

eMac 700 (refurbished)
128MB RAM (I have a 512 to put in)
40GB HD
CD-ROM (I own a FW burner and 60GB HD)

Price: $694

I didn't order from Apple's special deals since I got a better deal with outpost.com not charging tax and free shipping.

What do you guys/girls/vniow think??

edit: and of course i'm going to be joining in the folding team now that I have an always on machine.
 
I got one of those boxes...

...for my daughter. She loves it, and it's working great. The only problems I had (with the refurb I ordered from Apple):

  • No mouse was included. I purchased one at a local store.
  • Jaguar was not included. I had to get a copy and load it myself. It shipped with OS X 10.1.5.

Just be prepared to do a little work on it when you get it, depending on the configuration that hits your doorstep.

Tom
 
Re: I got one of those boxes...

Originally posted by Tom Light
...for my daughter. She loves it, and it's working great. The only problems I had (with the refurb I ordered from Apple):

  • No mouse was included. I purchased one at a local store.
  • Jaguar was not included. I had to get a copy and load it myself. It shipped with OS X 10.1.5.

Just be prepared to do a little work on it when you get it, depending on the configuration that hits your doorstep.

Tom
Click to expand...

heh, being that I used to build PC's and help everyone with theirs, I always assume there is work to be done, and in fact MAKE work for myself.

I always reformat and install the OS, and will do so with Jaguar. Luckily I bought a Logitech MX500 mouse from the Apple Store along with an HP 5550 printer. So I don't have to worry about the mouse either.

How old is your daughter? I wish my parents had been kind enough to buy me the equivalent of a G4 when I was younger :)
 
I got the same deal for $740 with sales tax from Apple, then put in a 120GB HD and SuperDrive... it is the best $1000 computer ever! :)
 
superdrive?

did you do the install yourself? If so was it pretty simple and where did you buy the superdrive from?
 
Originally posted by cubist
Make sure you get the tilt & swivel!
Click to expand...

ahh...theres the question i meant to ask but forgot about.

do i really need it??

also, Apple][Forever, where did you get your SuperDrive?? How much was it?? That is gonna be one of the first things I get for it.
 
Re: eMac thoughts?

Originally posted by sparkleytone

What do you guys/girls/vniow think??
Click to expand...


You know I love you, right?
attachment.php


I'd say go ahead and get it, it's not the prettiest or fastest machine in the world, but it works and will fulfill most people's needs just fine.

And if you intend on taking it apart to put a Superdrive in it, see this manual:
http://angbandcvs.homedns.org:8081/guides/emac.pdf

And let your g/f on it every once in awhile why don't cha?
attachment.php
 
I just recently got one of the refurbished emacs from apple. And I must say I love it, It fits great in my small apt. And it matches my airport. And I even picked up one of the Refurbished ibook 800's for my wonderful GF for putting up with me whoring off of her ibook 500 during the month transition that I sold my g4 533 tower and getting the emac.

Then she sold her ibook 500 to my brother so's it would stay in the family cuz she is very emotional about that 500, its the machine I conned her into buying and switching to mac.....now she hates windows with a passion.

I use FCP3 on the emac and I don't have any real big beef with the speed, it will tide me over til the 970's

She loves her new ibook, I love my emac. We are all very happy. Except for classes, classes suck. Damn School anyway.
 
DEFINITELY get the T&S stand... worth every penny. The computer looks weird without it...

The superdrive and hard drive is an easy install if you're comfortable working on electronic equipment. If you've built a PC, repaired a VCR, etc. etc. it's not hard. It's probably not a first-time project if you're not a screwdriver kind of person.

Check out my and Paul Wilkinson's pages on this:

http://www.chriscieslak.com/emachdd
http://www.wilko.com/emac

I bought my SuperDrive (actually a Pioneer DVR 105, which is the drive Apple uses in most of their machines) via eBay for about $200. Office supply stores sometimes have Cendyne DVD-Rs (which are just Pioneers in a different cardboard box) for $300 with a $100 rebate.
 
Even with an apple-supplied manual for that machine, it is a pain to take apart the eMac. I had to change out a few CRT/A.B.'s on them, and it is not a pretty sight. They are great machines. Also, fyi, they had some kind of thermal pad on the HD, I never tried to remove it from the drive, but I would assume that if you ever upgrade the drive, you will need another one of those pads, which may or may not be available to order from an apple service provider.
 
sorry to bump this, but timbloom & sparklytone:

i was worried about those too, but when i swapped the OEM drive (which is 5400 according to Maxtor's datasheet) for a bigass WD 120GB, i was able to peel the pads right off. They're kinda slimy, like sticking a piece of bologna to your HDD, but not sticky.

Originally posted by timbloom
Even with an apple-supplied manual for that machine, it is a pain to take apart the eMac. I had to change out a few CRT/A.B.'s on them, and it is not a pretty sight. They are great machines. Also, fyi, they had some kind of thermal pad on the HD, I never tried to remove it from the drive, but I would assume that if you ever upgrade the drive, you will need another one of those pads, which may or may not be available to order from an apple service provider.
Click to expand...
 
Emac

If available buy an extended warranty.

I manage a several labs in my school system. We bought 50 in December and I have had to send 9 of them in for repair.

4- tube blew
1 Arcing off capacitor
2- nic card (part of Motherboard)
1 usb connection
1 motherboard

but they are a cool machine

50 emac 700/256/40/cdrw
 
As with Metrolotus, I have to agree about the extended warranty - we have had to return 7-8 out of a lab of 30 for a variet of faults - the lab has been in place for about six months now, and has been two down almost permanently ever since, with similar problems as he described.

Also you *have* to get the T&S stand - without it the computer feels too low for a start.

Anyway, good luck with the machine - I have one on my desk at work and I really quite like the little thing :)
 
i really like the machine. alot. but i have a problem with it. it seems the firewire controller is faulty. :( it wont even boot to the hardware test cd, it just goes into open firmware mode. being that a major reason for having it is access to my 60GB and 24x CDRW at all times, I gotta take it in and get it fixed. Other than that its a great machine. The G4 is definitely nice to have.
 
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