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I this a good deal?

S

SamLikesHam

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 13, 2013
8
0
I am about to buy a used imac g5 1.6 ghz with 256mb ram and a 17" screen for an ipod touch 1g and a broken ipod touch 2g and 40$. Good deal?:eek: I think so but I just wanted to double check with the experts here on MacRumors.:D
 
They go for around 150 to 200 in my area. I've always wanted one, I just like that design. If you really want it I'd say go for it. I do have to caution you however. These iMacs have been prone to having capacitor failure on the logic board and the power supply. The back panel is easily removed with a Phillips head screw driver. You would then be able to see the state of the logic board capacitors. The power supply is harder to verify though. If you Google "imac g5 capacitors" you will see what I'm talking about. If it does have bad capacitors they can be replaced but you'll need to be handy with a soldering iron.

If it were me I'd pop the back off real quick and if the logic board capacitors looked ok I'd go for it. It would be a good little machine with a memory and hard drive upgrade.

good luck with whatever you decide to do!
 
Last edited:
Ok thanks! I am aware of the capacitor issue with these imacs but this one has been tested and works fine with os x 10.5. Thanks again
 
SamLikesHam said:
I am about to buy a used imac g5 1.6 ghz with 256mb ram and a 17" screen for an ipod touch 1g and a broken ipod touch 2g and 40$. Good deal?:eek: I think so but I just wanted to double check with the experts here on MacRumors.:D
Click to expand...

Does it have an airport card installed? What about the optional bluetooth module? If it doesn't have either of those, then I would not recommend it since it also does not have gigabit ethernet. It also does not have a superdrive but a combo-drive.

The RAM you would need to make this a truly good OS X 10.5 machine would cost you more than what you're paying for the machine.

If it does have the optional Airport and bluetooth and is in generally good shape and if you happen to have the necessary accessories an even some RAM, then yes. Otherwise, I would absolutely pass on that machine.
 
no it doesn't have either airport or Bluetooth but they are both old ipods that I don't use
 
SamLikesHam said:
no it doesn't have either airport or Bluetooth but they are both old ipods that I don't use
Click to expand...

Well if you want the machine then get it. I however would not spend money on a machine that isn't as useful as an iBook(which can be had for probably less that the $40 by itself in some places). With 256MB of RAM, Leopard is probably going to run poorly.
 
MisterKeeks said:
airport can be added very easily on that model.
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I'm sure that it can, but then that's an extra expense that I think will make that machine even less worth it. Why would you want to pay $40 on top of trading two iPods(even though one isn't working), just to buy a $20 airport card, +/-$40 worth of RAM, and then paying for a copy of Leopard? I would just wait and buy a more recent PPC iMac that already has all of that in it for around what it would cost just to upgrade that machine.
 
When I had it, I had a first gen 1.6GHz iMac G5 for $66 on ebay with Free Shipping. It had a airport card already but no bluetooth.

So, I'd buy it, then spend another $20-30 on some ram and a Airport card if you choose to want one!
 
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