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eMac thoughts
- Thread starter retta283
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Go for the last model - USB2, good GPU and a great display. Mine ran Leopard great - sadly, I threw mine out in a mad phase of minimalism when I moved house 
The 1.25 and 1.42 Modems are great machines, especially the crt is awesome! But you definitely have to regulate the fan as it is quite loud...
The IDE-Controller is faster than the powerbooks and the speakers are not bad.
If you want a heavy, bulky, not-that-pretty, not-that-quiet, energy hungry but cheap G4 computer, an eMac is a good choice I personally love the two I have, but they are for sure not everybody's choice
The IDE-Controller is faster than the powerbooks and the speakers are not bad.
If you want a heavy, bulky, not-that-pretty, not-that-quiet, energy hungry but cheap G4 computer, an eMac is a good choice
I personally love the two I have, but they are for sure not everybody's choice
When Apple introduced the first PowerMac with a DVD Burner– I was stoked–the ability to create and burn your own DVD's. Seemed fantastic. (Until one saw the prices of a quicksilver Powermac).
Later, when Apple added a DVD burner to the eMac, it was the cheapest way to get a Mac with a DVD recorder.
It is heavy because of the built in CRT but it was designed for schools, so it wouldn't be vulnerable to expensive LCD breakage. I thought the design of the eMac was brilliant and clean-- and looked especially great if you removed the plastic grills from the speakers. I had considered an aftermarket "stand" for the eMac, but it was fine sitting on the desktop as is.
Loved the thing.
I love the eMac. It was my first PowerPC Mac as a hobbyist. I've said it before, but the thing is essentially what would happen if an iMac G3 and Power Mac G4 had a baby. Especially for the last model, it's got iMac looks, and Power Mac internals. As far as it's prices, you can't beat a 1.42 GHz G4, 64mb Radeon 9600 + 2 GB RAM. Stick an SSD in there, and the MDD has competition for fastest G4 on the block. (The only reason it wouldn't outrun it is the lack of L3 cache.)
To top it all off, it's cheap as hell. It's also loud as hell if you don't clean internals out. Heavy as hell, too. But it's a desktop, so chances are you weren't planning on always taking it with you.
But don't forget slick as hell, especially if you add the stand and the Pro Keyboard + Mouse.
They really were in their aesthetic prime when they made the thing.
Tiger and Leopard are very good fits for this machine.
To top it all off, it's cheap as hell. It's also loud as hell if you don't clean internals out. Heavy as hell, too. But it's a desktop, so chances are you weren't planning on always taking it with you.
But don't forget slick as hell, especially if you add the stand and the Pro Keyboard + Mouse.
They really were in their aesthetic prime when they made the thing.
Tiger and Leopard are very good fits for this machine.
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The later eMacs with the 1.25ghz and 1.42ghz have the same problem with capacitors as the early iMac G5s do. Watch out for that. I have one that is currently dead because of that.
This is a known issue?
I haven't had any problems with mine, and I haven't ever heard of it as a general precaution. (Unless I am ill-informed, which is not impossible for anyone to accomplish.)
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It is a known issue. I found that out the hard way after I bought an eMac and wouldn't boot anything I threw at it. After googling for a long while I found that out.
I pulled off the cover and found visibly bad caps. I've seen many other reports of this. They were around the same time as those iMac G5 and used the same bad caps.
What is it with Apple and their incessant graphical failures... That's 5+ machines I can name off the top of my head now...
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Well these are the capacitors on the logic board. Both these eMacs and imac G5s affected can be fixed by recapping if you have the type of resources to do that. I'm not aware of GPU problems on eMacs.
I know there are capacitor issues but i've had 3 eMacs (800, 1.25 & 1.42) and 3 G5 iMacs (1.8, 1.9 & 2.1) - none of them had bad caps - it's not a foregone conclusion.
The older ones are. Like the 800Mhz. The newer ones are okay as long as the caps are done. Some might never go bad, but thats usually not the case. As dronecatcher said above, sometimes you'll have good luck with them. Personally I've owned 2 iMac G5s and both of them have had bad caps. The only eMac I've ever had has bad caps. Powermac G5s are also known to fail miserably and I've got 3 working ones. Everything is just sort of a gamble I guess.
I have 2 1.25 eMacs. One has an upgraded hard drive, and the other has an SSD. Both have replacement DVD burners, fastest that I could find when PATA burners were still easily available. At least one is used nearly daily. The eMac makes a fine DVD/CD duplicator. I use it to copy everything from music CDs to a variety of OS ISOs. I keep an old version of Toast that does most copying for me. The eMac with SSD, and a DVD burner that is much faster than the original superdrive, makes very short work of copying. Also, these eMacs are my test rigs when I need to format/test older hard drives. For me, they work better than Intel Macs for some of those jobs, so they remain useful for me.
I have replaced hundreds of logic boards in eMacs, back in the day when schools were using lots of eMacs, so I know where to find those swelling capacitors. Both of my eMacs get torn down about once a year, just to check. Both remain good (but one had the logic board replaced about 2008, the other remains good)
I have replaced hundreds of logic boards in eMacs, back in the day when schools were using lots of eMacs, so I know where to find those swelling capacitors. Both of my eMacs get torn down about once a year, just to check. Both remain good (but one had the logic board replaced about 2008, the other remains good)
From my experience, the eMac was built like a tank. The only failures I have seen have been dead hard drives, otherwise they are mostly unstoppable.
My own 1.42 is running just fine. Although the CRT is darker than all the LCD/LED/IPS screens on my desk by comparison.
Ill pass for the stand.. thanks hahaI love the eMac. It was my first PowerPC Mac as a hobbyist. I've said it before, but the thing is essentially what would happen if an iMac G3 and Power Mac G4 had a baby. Especially for the last model, it's got iMac looks, and Power Mac internals. As far as it's prices, you can't beat a 1.42 GHz G4, 64mb Radeon 9600 + 2 GB RAM. Stick an SSD in there, and the MDD has competition for fastest G4 on the block. (The only reason it wouldn't outrun it is the lack of L3 cache.)
To top it all off, it's cheap as hell. It's also loud as hell if you don't clean internals out. Heavy as hell, too. But it's a desktop, so chances are you weren't planning on always taking it with you.
But don't forget slick as hell, especially if you add the stand and the Pro Keyboard + Mouse.
View attachment 825170
They really were in their aesthetic prime when they made the thing.
Tiger and Leopard are very good fits for this machine.