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Dual processor g4's - why so expensive??

M

Muttster

macrumors member
Original poster
I want to thank all of you for your advice earlier about buying a G4 vs. waiting. i do have another question though about G4's.

On ebay, the dual processor G4 1 ghz and 1.25 ghz go for about $600 to $800. Most of you told me to wait for an intel mac but it makes me wonder; why are these supposed obsolete macs going for such a high price? I know that you can get better video cards and more hard drives but should they be going for that high? You can get a nicely equiped mini for $800-900 so why are these computers just a little less expensive. How would the performance of a dual 1.25 ghz powermac be compared to my 512k 1.25 mini?

What do you use your g4's for and how long will they be a viable machine? I like the fact that they can be upgraded but don't want it to be a doorstop in a year.

Any and all comments are appreciated.
 
Yeah. Having a Mac in the computer world is like owning a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Even the old ones are bad ass.😎
 
I have the Dual 1Ghz G4 with 9800 Pro, 1Gig ram and 200GIG HD. It's slowing down a lot when using it/comparing it to today's standard. You can still use all the programs but you'll just be waiting for things to finish.
 
Hi Matt,

I think it's b/c even though there are faster machines, the G4s are still fast enough (i would think faster than your mini, but i have no benchmarking to back me up 🙂 My dually G4 (knock on wood 3 times for good luck) is still rock solid, performs without a hitch, albeit a bit slower than my G5 (ok..alot slower). It still handles my 4500+ photos in iphoto with ease, plays DVDs and scrolls through Itunes just as quick as my G5. I'm seriously considering the verifax (I think that's the name) fan to quieten the wind tunnel noise and make it my 'play' machine once I can buy a mac pro for the business.

plus, you can still fit 4 hard drives inside which is a huge bonus. i hate the fact my g5 can't do that (although i have an esata enclosure which does the trick).

i'm going to kiss my G4 right now 🙂

Cheers,
Keebler
 
Keebler said:
I'm seriously considering the verifax (I think that's the name) fan to quieten the wind tunnel noise and make it my 'play' machine once I can buy a mac pro for the business.

plus, you can still fit 4 hard drives inside which is a huge bonus....
Click to expand...


It's Verax. I have the full solution (the M10 + M11) in my dual 1.4 G4 and it made some difference, not earth-shatteringly quiet but worth it. However, its ability to cool the entire case has been reduced and overheating has often happened in the summer months since I added a third drive to it. Will be moving these drives to externals before this summer.
 
lilstewart said:
Just an FYI- in general, Macs keep there resale rate very high for a good number of years... 🙂
Click to expand...

True to a point - however you can get a g3 300 for $100 or less.

A g4 dual 1 ghz processor or a powermac g5 1.6 costs as much or more than a mac mini. Is it just the ability to upgrade.

Can a g5 with 2-3 meg of ram outperform most mac minis?
 
Muttster said:
True to a point - however you can get a g3 300 for $100 or less.

A g4 dual 1 ghz processor or a powermac g5 1.6 costs as much or more than a mac mini. Is it just the ability to upgrade.

Can a g5 with 2-3 meg of ram outperform most mac minis?
Click to expand...

Do they still even make 2 or 3 meg ram modules anymore?
 
Also bear in mind that the G4 PowerMacs were the last to boot OS9, making the dual CPU G4s the highest possible spec available for that OS.
 
Blue Velvet said:
It's Verax. I have the full solution (the M10 + M11) in my dual 1.4 G4 and it made some difference, not earth-shatteringly quiet but worth it. However, its ability to cool the entire case has been reduced and overheating has often happened in the summer months since I added a third drive to it. Will be moving these drives to externals before this summer.
Click to expand...

thanks BV...i actually did more research and found out that they are no longer selling these units (or, they are no longer available which probably means the same thing). i should have jumped on it last year. ugh. now, my wind tunnel shall remain a wind tunnel 🙂
 
I love my Dual G4. I would buy another even at the price mentioned above. These G4's will probably be supported for a couple more years yet, so i think they are still worth that price.
 
I have a dual-867 MDD G4 Powermac. Purchased in late 2002 and still going strong (OS upgrades from 10.2 to 10.3 to 10.4, and still able to boot OS 9) in early 2007.

In its time it's received an additional hard drive, a dual-layer superdrive, a PCI USB2/FW400 card, an airport card that I removed from an airport basestation I wasn't using, a USB Bluetooth dongle, an additional 512MB stick of ram (taking it to 768). There's not much that can't be done by a modern machine; it's just a little slower.
 
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