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A budget mac

L

LordOfTheMacs

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 22, 2008
75
0
New Jersey
Hey all,
I have a friend looking to get into a mac very cheaply. She would use it for iTunes, surfing, e-mail and youtube. She would like to spend under $150
Any suggestions?
 
This is a lost cause you could get a mac for that price but it would probably be an iMac g3 running os9 if she had 1,000 I would go for the refurb rev a MacBook air it would work fine for what she wants to use it for. Or she could get a refurb white MacBook for $849
 
There are loads of iMac G3s on eBay. For $100 + shipping you can get a 600 Mhz, 512 MB RAM, 40GB HDD iMac running Tiger. Check it out. That system would do fine for email, word processing, and general surfing. Might have trouble with YouTube, though?

Gleadr said:
This is a lost cause you could get a mac for that price but it would probably be an iMac g3 running os9 if she had 1,000 I would go for the refurb rev a MacBook air it would work fine for what she wants to use it for. Or she could get a refurb white MacBook for $849
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: If the buyer in question had $1000 to spend, they would have said so. Not "I have $150 to spend".
 
Can you even get a PC with $150 that can run YouTube properly?

iMac G3 will have hard time running youtube videos...
 
Gleadr said:
This is a lost cause
Click to expand...

Pretty much, yes.

You could get a G4 iMac, eMac or PowerMac (probably not the MDD's, or evem the QuickSilver)..

G4's (with enough RAM) are good enough for average stuff. While they might be acceptable now, they are not at all future proof. They have been Apple's low-end processors since the introduction of the G5 in 2003....
 
The best value second hand Mac is the good old eMac. Some ebay sleuthing should bring up an 800mhz G4 which will run youtube vids. It may be a white elephant but it's a good solid performer for pocket change.
 
The eMac is probably in the right price range... if its local. Shipping a heavy eMac won't help things though.
 
akbc said:
Can you even get a PC with $150 that can run YouTube properly?

iMac G3 will have hard time running youtube videos...
Click to expand...

I have a PowerMac G4 500MHz with 512MB of ram and it doesn't play YouTube videos well. The sound is fine but the video is all choppy. I think i got mine like two years ago for like $250.
 
You are not going to find a mac like that unless you look at someplace like ebay or something. even then the computer would probably be crap. If those things are all she's going to do then she should look into a netbook cause those are going to be the closest things to $150.
 
I just saw a 1.25GHz eMac on Austin CL for $150. I don't use youtube very much but if an iPhone has no problem, surely this won't.
 
danny_w said:
I just saw a 1.25GHz eMac on Austin CL for $150. I don't use youtube very much but if an iPhone has no problem, surely this won't.
Click to expand...

A couple of my kids have these and they run YouTube happily. Only caveat is that some of these have capacitors that leak causing video problems and Apple probably won't fix them for free anymore, though some people are still getting lucky.
 
Wow, $150? Does she work at McDonalds?

In all seriousness, go with the iMac G3. But wow.
 
An eMac should suffice for around $150-$200. I got mine (in sig) for $207 with 768 mb of Ram and with Tiger on it 6 months ago. It runs Youtube well enough and for a first Mac it's great.
 
Doju said:
In all seriousness, go with the iMac G3. But wow.
Click to expand...
The G3 iMac is a great machine, but it won't fit this need. I have a 600Mhz with a new HDD and 1Gig of RAM. You might get every 20 frames on YouTube.

If video is negotiable, go for it. My old iMac sits in my kitchen and is great for iTunes, surfing, recipes, and the like. Great conversation piece for dinner parties, too. ;)
 
Slightly over budget, but not much. I managed to find the G4 in my signature for 225. just keep an eye on Craigslist or Kijiji for listings.
 
Would a powermac g4 quicksilver with 1.4 ghz sonnet PPC processor, 1GB ram, upgraded video card w/128mb, be enough to run youtube videos smoothly? Right now, I have a powermac g4 with 400mhz, 1gb ram, ati rage w/16mb, and that runs youtube videos choppy. I just want to be able to watch youtube(and other videos) smoothly. Do you think the quicksilver system mentioned above will suffice?
 
simplymuzik3 said:
Would a powermac g4 quicksilver with 1.4 ghz sonnet PPC processor, 1GB ram, upgraded video card w/128mb, be enough to run youtube videos smoothly? Right now, I have a powermac g4 with 400mhz, 1gb ram, ati rage w/16mb, and that runs youtube videos choppy. I just want to be able to watch youtube(and other videos) smoothly. Do you think the quicksilver system mentioned above will suffice?
Click to expand...

It would. My old 800mhz G4 iMac runs youtube without dropping frames but does max the processor out to 100%.
 
Hey all. I am also looking for a "budget" mac, but not a desktop. My girlfriend has a PowerBook G4 Titanium and its starting to fail, badly. She wants to get herself a MBP, but money is very tight. After reading this, I was thinking a PowerBook G4 Aluminum might be a better choice for her ATM. I assume it would be much cheaper (maybe ~$500 or less?) and would work with the software she already has (she is a musician and has a bunch of PPC editing software). Also it would have a lot more power then the PBG4 T. Anyway, I am trying to get an estimate on the price one on of them. Anyone know how much it would run her?

Thanks ahead of time for the help.
 
LordOfTheMacs said:
Hey all,
I have a friend looking to get into a mac very cheaply. She would use it for iTunes, surfing, e-mail and youtube. She would like to spend under $150
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Hackintosh netbook with OS X on it would be the only way to have a "decent" machine around that price range running Intel hardware with Leopard.
 
Why all the hatin' on the G4? I just recently bought my mother-in-law a 700MHz eMac w/512MB RAM and Tiger and it suits her needs (YouTube included) perfectly fine. I think any eMac would be a great first Mac and you can EASILY find them for $150 or less (I paid $80 for the one I bought, shipping included). I do, however, recommend getting plenty of RAM (512MB at a BARE MINIMUM) and if you do that the old G4 isn't too bad. Keep your eyes open and you might even find a G4 iMac in the mix, though it'll be more like $200+. I LOVED my old G4 iMac - gorgeous machine. My recommendation is to look for a 2004 edition eMac (1.0GHz plus, though there are 1.0's that are 2003 editions) - the '04 eMac includes either a 1.0 or 1.25GHz G4, USB 2.0 (most important), and DDR memory (much cheaper than PC133, usually, and up to 2GB RAM, at least unofficially). Check this one out this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-eMac-G4-1...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1308|301:1|293:1|294:50 (Its probably an '03, but for $139 shipped, who can complain? It doesn't have Tiger (has Panther), but it does have 512MB RAM)

Or this one, if you can go to about $185 or so:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-eMac-G4-1...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50 (More RAM, Superdrive, Tiger, still not sure on '03/'04)

Either should be great and there are TONS more on eBay with reasonable TOTAL prices. I simply searched "emac 1.0ghz" and found this in literally 30 seconds or less. Good luck - I personally think a 1.0+ eMac is the best way to go for around $150.
 
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