hey everyone! im new here to macrumors because im hopeuflly gonna be getting my mac in a day or two here. but heres the question. someone on craigslist has a perfect conditon imac g4. but he knows nothing about it. so i decided to text him and ask him for a trade. he said he would do a trade for an iphone keyboard case. you guys think its worth it? and do you consider the imac g4 as a nice computer still??
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Is this a good trade for an imac g4?
- Thread starter Ryistech
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Yes it will! You can still do a lot with a G4, however if it doesn't have a lot of RAM, it will be slower. If you max out the RAM and install Tiger or even Leopard on it you could have a great machine!
im going to be upgrading the ram. and ive looked around the internet alot and forums and cant find a tutorial on how to upgrade the os on these. all of the ones i found are using coding and iso. im 15 years old but can take apart a computer and put it back together with no problem. so it cant be that hard. just dont know where to start.. ive also seen alot of people complaining about youtube running on these?
MacTubes solves YouTube issues as it makes the video play in QuickTime as oppose to Flash. To upgrade the OS you'll need discs. Leopard is extremely expensive and the topic has been highly debated on whether it's feasible of obtaining it via other methods. Tiger is somewhat cheaper, and (IMO) is the optimal OS for any G4 under 1ghz.
If you give us the specs of the iMac we'll be able to tell you more about RAM and OS's etc.
All you have to do to install the OS is to pop in the DVD, press C when booting, and it will boot from the install disk. The installer is pretty easy to follow from there. You can always partition the HDD if you want to install two OS's on it. If you find the Mac OS X software not up-to-date enough for you, you might want to install Debian or MintPPC on it.
Huh? I love Macs as much as the next guy, but telling someone a G4 iMac that at best was discontinued 8 years ago is NOT as a good as something running a current OS with (very likely) 2-4x the RAM. If the OP is not really skilled, at best he can upgrade the RAM to maybe max out at 1.25GB, but even that likely pales to what his netbook has. Considering the max OS a G4 can have is 3 cycles behind (soon), it's not going to be a real improvement.
I'm afraid i agree - the iMac G4 may be a lovely machine etc but you cannot make out that it's a good replacement for a machine capable of running Windows 7 (ie. I assume relatively recent) - If he is playing games, encoding video, doing heavy Photoshop or anything CPU intensive he's going to notice a HUGE slowdown and will be quite surprised when he can't load virtually any current software he's used to using.
The iMac G4 is a lovely machine and may be still useable for internet, email, Office (old versions) etc. If you're doing anything much more than this on your current Windows 7 laptop though take into consideration that the G4 is probably a much slower machine than you are currently using and you cannot get up to date versions of most software.
G4 iMacs depending on the model can take 1GB or 2GB. They are still very usable machines for Internet use and other light tasks. While HD video editing is almost impossible, they can be used to edit SD content well. Despit their age, they can still do much. Unlike most 8 year old budget line Dell/HP boxes.
i mean yeah, my netbook is okay for what i do. just screen is small.. i mostly email, youtube, netflix, facebook, microsoft office and all that stuff.. and id put this on the kitchen bar to make it kinda like a whoever needs to use a computer here it is thing. and i just made another deal for a trade for a snowboard for a 2008 black macbook with 320 gb harddrive and 4 gbs of ram!!! score!!
You should be able to do Email, light web browsing, Facebook, and Microsoft Office 2004 with your iMac G4. I would say Office 2008, but I keep seeing people complaining about Office '08 on the older hardware, G4's mainly.
Netflix is impossible on an iMac G4, but you just mentioned getting a BlackBook so you can use Netflix on that.
EDIT 1: How powerful is the CPU in your iMac? For exapmle, 1.25GHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, etc... That really determines what you should/can do with it.
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Relax guys..
1) He's 15
2) It's a cool peice of hardware no matter the spec's
3) The net/notebook maybe more powerful but who really cares
4) The G4 would make a wonderful media server/juke box/movie player
5) I typed documents when I was his age in the early 90's, I think a G4 is more than capable of being a school computer. I just saw an MS office 2004 for Mac on Quoka.de for 5 euro I'm sure there are deals like that on craigs list.
6) He could flip it an make money if he's so inclined.
Old computers are not rational purchases they're emotional. I spent more on my newly aquired G5 (480 euro) than I would have, had I ordered a used MP from the states and had it shipped here. I bought it because I wanted a G5 not a MP. The right computer isn't always the most powerful one.
1) He's 15
2) It's a cool peice of hardware no matter the spec's
3) The net/notebook maybe more powerful but who really cares
4) The G4 would make a wonderful media server/juke box/movie player
5) I typed documents when I was his age in the early 90's, I think a G4 is more than capable of being a school computer. I just saw an MS office 2004 for Mac on Quoka.de for 5 euro I'm sure there are deals like that on craigs list.
6) He could flip it an make money if he's so inclined.
Old computers are not rational purchases they're emotional. I spent more on my newly aquired G5 (480 euro) than I would have, had I ordered a used MP from the states and had it shipped here. I bought it because I wanted a G5 not a MP. The right computer isn't always the most powerful one.
I completely understand what you're saying. I got into PPC's for the history myself. I was just asking about specs to direct him to the most efficient set up on his hardware. I wasn't hating on him or anything.
It wasn't you per se' it just seemed like everyone was ganging up on him.
Maybe I just took all the posts wrong as I'm wont to do.
Yeah, but to up the RAM to 2GB (if even possible on that model) requires several tools, thermal paste etc. It's not that easy...that's why I said 1.25GB (256MB internal and the easy one on the bottom of the base)
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I don't see it as everyone ganging up on him. Just telling him what it can and can't do. No reason to fool the kid into thinking he's going to get something equivalent to today's technology. G4's are nice, but not really usable unless you do some tweaks and/or hardware modifications.
He's a 15 year old that can take apart and put back together again computers. Opening up a G4 iMac would make a great new project. When he's in it he should replace the PRAM battery as it is nearing the end of its life and possibly upgrade the hard drive to a faster one. The stock hard drives in G4 iMacs are very slow.
Taking apart a "computer" is pretty different from an iMac. Anyone can pop the shell off a desktop computer...the iMac is (and always has been) a different beast. I've been working on computers on and off for almost two decades and even I was a bit annoyed with the iMac G4s internal design. Certainly not for the faint of heart.
But still, a 2GB iMac G4 (even the top of the line one which I have) isn't going to be a replacement for a Windows 7 Netbook especially if it's still rocking Panther on it with little to no way to legally obtain Tiger or Leopard for a "low" price.
thanks for all the info guys, its just straight up information. not ganging up. and i just got my macbook! upgraded to 4gb of ram and a momentus 500 sata gb internal drive! thing is amazing. i love it! and im looking at the g4 for more of a guest computer for quick checking emails and stuff like that. ill be upgrading the ram. and its the 1.25 one.
The 1.25GHz iMac should be good enough for that. Also, retro gaming in OS 9 and early OS X would go nicely as well. I play games on my 400MHz G4 and it does some well and in others it gets by. You on the other hand should be able to play all OS 9 games on high settings and low-mid settings on OS X games.
Mind you that anything with a spec requirement of over 1.25GHz will not perform well, you have a pretty good machine for what you plan on using it for.