Your info is true but somewhat outdated. With an updated ROM, the 1GHz will boot natively into OS9. Mine does.
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iMac G4 absurd prices
- Thread starter retta283
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Your info is true but somewhat outdated. With an updated ROM, the 1GHz will boot natively into OS9. Mine does.
It's too bad the necks on these things are so fragile. I bought an 800Mhz on eBay for a decent price and when it showed up (after 2 months in the post office, but that's another story) the neck has some metal bent in. I have no idea how that could have happened, if it was in shipping or happened while the seller had it. It still works, but there's a terrible scraping sound whenever the neck goes up or down. The screen can be wiggled around from side to side too, not sure what's causing that.
the research institute I worked at filled a skip full of PPC Macs back in 2016 - so I took home a 1.25 GHz G4 17" iMac that day.
Got a nice bit of cash, so I'm back into picking up former pieces of my collection. Prices on these G4 systems are still just as absurd as they were when I started these. iMac G3 prices also seem high, which is insane to me. Those are touchy little computers from what I've heard, even damaged ones I see going for $150+. Titanium Powerbooks are similar.
It's really frustrating that people that actually want to use these things have to suffer on the prices because some YouTuber wants an old computer on their shelf. I may give up on buying PPC from eBay altogether, but no one in my area has anything. I'm trying a bit on the forums here to see what people are willing to sell for.
It's really frustrating that people that actually want to use these things have to suffer on the prices because some YouTuber wants an old computer on their shelf. I may give up on buying PPC from eBay altogether, but no one in my area has anything. I'm trying a bit on the forums here to see what people are willing to sell for.
I'm willing to cut down on my PPC notebooks but they all have a German keyboard layout and shipping will be expensive if you're not in Europe.
Come on Bunns, come clean, exactly how many is "a few".........?
After the 20" I've found the 17" 1.25GHz model is the next most difficult to find. Both excellent but I now prefer the latter.
Its safe to state, that all PowerPC systems, even old models which are now really rare are going up in price. As we move to 2021 and beyond its going to get worse as these will be collectors items. My PB G4 1GHZ Titanium cost me 100.00, but it had some issues with the paint, but works great and no issues. its also much faster than my PB G4 1.67 which i owned previously. The 7447A/B was slow as heck because it lacked L3 cache. Seems L3 cache does a lot to speed things up - PowerLogix was wrong when they wrote their stupid article about L3 cache not speeding up any G4.
8 months later, I have finally purchased one. I really wanted a 20" or 17", but I ended up with a 15". One plus of this though is that some older games without widescreen support will fill the whole screen, and they play at the same size as the 17". Still, someday I hope to go larger.
Was still $80, but it's appears to be in good shape overall and fully functions other than a wonky SuperDrive. $80 still is a bit high for me for a 15", but that is the cheapest I have found so far of any size, especially in this good condition. I will report back when I get it how it works out.
Was still $80, but it's appears to be in good shape overall and fully functions other than a wonky SuperDrive. $80 still is a bit high for me for a 15", but that is the cheapest I have found so far of any size, especially in this good condition. I will report back when I get it how it works out.
Good for you on finding one, look forward to seeing a few pics when it arrives.
The 17" USB2 1.25GHz model still rates as one of my favourite Macs of all time, and it gets more regular use than my 20".
If you feel up to it, don't forget to remove the rats nest of dust & debris that always seems to accumulate inside these. And repaste the CPU and heat sinks for good measure. Lot's of info available on how to achieve this.
The 17" USB2 1.25GHz model still rates as one of my favourite Macs of all time, and it gets more regular use than my 20".
If you feel up to it, don't forget to remove the rats nest of dust & debris that always seems to accumulate inside these. And repaste the CPU and heat sinks for good measure. Lot's of info available on how to achieve this.
@retta283 My MDD 2003 ran me about $100, as it was also the cheapest I could find at the time - however, I did not know the extent of its neglect until it actually arrived. Had I known, I probably would have thought twice.
Considering what I actually received, I'm still miffed about that, especially when I found another one recently for about $20 less, which had the copper heatsink (which means it could have been a DP 1.42), was in much better condition, and came with a 15" Studio Display. Arrgh!
However, given the state I have the system in now, I can't complain too badly...
Considering what I actually received, I'm still miffed about that, especially when I found another one recently for about $20 less, which had the copper heatsink (which means it could have been a DP 1.42), was in much better condition, and came with a 15" Studio Display. Arrgh!
However, given the state I have the system in now, I can't complain too badly...
I got a 2006 24" iMac a few months ago for $150, this was more than I wanted to spend on one but it had the sought-after upgraded GPU, and all the original discs/accessories so I thought it was worth it. 2006 24" units are getting rare and expensive from my findings, so I thought might as well get the upgraded one while I can. One of my most sought-after Macs for a while.
However, it came to me with many problems, a very poor screen with image retention and uneven backlight with severe yellowing. GPU also seems to be dying, even that it is the 7600 GT upgrade. It runs very hot even after cleaning and the HDD is burning up as a result. Needless to say I was disappointed by this, and I was out of luck in terms of return/refund. I do plan to part it out to get a bit of cash back.
As a result of the above, I am quite concerned about my coming G4, hopefully it will be alright. Recently I did good to get a 17" MBP for cheap, I actually bought a 17" PB but there was a mixup with his orders so I was sent the wrong machine. It's in pristine condition and runs well though so I decided to hold on to it, even got a small refund as an apology for the mixup. It really is hit or miss with these old Macs.
And here I thought I was spending a lot to get a positively pristine 2003 G4 MDD. I love that I can convince a PMG5 to share files for my Windows systems. I love that I even found a way to play music from my utterly complex and convoluted music library, mp3, flac, wma, ogg, and everything, even being able to use the playlists I created with Winamp a very long time ago. But that's only barely possible in the Mac OS because VLC got fairly recent builds in Leopard.
And that's the problem with seeing iMac G4 systems for going for as high as they are, they're not being sold as functioning computers. They're being sold as art pieces. I'm not denying there's art in them, far from it, but when you ignore the computer inside it, that's just sad. PowerPC Macs are an extinct branch of the PPC family, and we're unlikely to see consumer PowerPC hardware in the future, given the space it lives in now.
Yes, they're maybe not so good at browsing the internet anymore, but people who grew up with this stuff, or grew up wanting it should have a chance to finally have one of the best looking Macs they ever made. Really, the whole era is filled with frankly stunning looking hardware. Between that and the G4 Cube? I just want to see these computers get to do work, even if that work is actually play.
And that's the problem with seeing iMac G4 systems for going for as high as they are, they're not being sold as functioning computers. They're being sold as art pieces. I'm not denying there's art in them, far from it, but when you ignore the computer inside it, that's just sad. PowerPC Macs are an extinct branch of the PPC family, and we're unlikely to see consumer PowerPC hardware in the future, given the space it lives in now.
Yes, they're maybe not so good at browsing the internet anymore, but people who grew up with this stuff, or grew up wanting it should have a chance to finally have one of the best looking Macs they ever made. Really, the whole era is filled with frankly stunning looking hardware. Between that and the G4 Cube? I just want to see these computers get to do work, even if that work is actually play.
Go ahead, shout me down but this is the way to give an iMac G4 a new life.
www.dremeljunkie.com
Modding your iMac G4 into a Modern Computer
iMac G4 from Power PC to Modern Intel Desktop Dremeljunkie and the iMac G4 I started this blog to share some projects, the most importa...
I mean, if it's this or possibly literally rotting (because people who want them for the art don't understand they need to remove the pram battery) on a shelf as an art object, I'd take this in a heartbeat.Go ahead, shout me down but this is the way to give an iMac G4 a new life.
Modding your iMac G4 into a Modern Computer
iMac G4 from Power PC to Modern Intel Desktop Dremeljunkie and the iMac G4 I started this blog to share some projects, the most importa...
For the iMac G4, all you really need is to sort out the noisy fan inside with something sounding a bit less like a vacuum cleaner, grab a pair of Apple Pro speakers and you have a decent looking music player.
I've got two 1.25ghz iMac G4s, both bought very cheaply locally. One of them will eventually go in my game room as a music player (gotta get through the coof lockdown by our tyrannical governor Gretched Witless first), but I'm not sure yet what to do with the other.
I'll tell you, a G4 makes a great music player. It's weird to say, but they just sound better. And, they sound better even over the same speakers I use elsewhere. Of course, I am comparing to fairly crappy integrated x86 audio on my laptops and desktop, so I probably shouldn't be surprised.
Orwell was close. He definitely nailed the newspeak element.
I don't think Orwell would have misquoted Franklin, though.
I was referring to the first line that @z970mp quoted, paraphasing 1984. You're absolutely right, although it's still up in the air who actually made that quote, correct or not...
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I always make money from it. No, it's not just these dumb youtubers that make the price go up. The machines simply start to become rare to find, and with less supply and greater demand, the price goes up. I usually buy computers that are worthless crap (I can quote a current example, some core2duo laptop) I clean it and keep it in perfect condition and keep it, and in a few years today's core2duo that are worth nothing will be expensive.
Here in my country I bought an imac for R$ 80 years ago and sold it on the internet last week for R$ 1500.
Even taking inflation into account, I made more than 10x what I paid.
Only the 20" model does. I think it's slightly worse than the one in the early G5s, but it might be the same. I have no access to one so can't verify. Lots of good reviews for display quality/viewing angles at the time though.
Only the 20" I believe. The 17" have a lot of color shift when viewed off angle. I remember comparing the 17" and the 20" in the Apple stores back in 2003 or 2004 and the color on the 20" was just so much better. Looked identical to apples other 20" standalone displays at the time.