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Just picked up an eMac.

benvw99

benvw99

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 29, 2014
41
0
Selby, SD
So...

As the title probably explains, I got a virtually brand new eMac from our local newspaper business. Never seen the 'net. Ever.

Here are the specs on it (I only know some off the top of my head).

eMac 17" CRT display.
384 (ish) MB of RAM.
1 GHZ Processor.
2 FireWire 400 Ports.
3 USB (1.1?) Ports.
Mini VGA.


So now, I would like to know what these forgotten Macs are capable of. I connected it to the internet for the first time in its life, and I would like to know of a capable browser other than safari to use for daily computing.

Also, are there any must-have applications or games for it?

What is the maximum amount of RAM it can support unnoffically?

And what do I need to do to upgrade to a higher version of OS X? It currently is running 10.1.x I think, and it can also boot into classic 9.2.x.

Since I know nothing about these uncommon version of Macs, you guys could convince me that I just have a huge paperweight. So be honest please.

Thanks again.
 
Sounds like the 1GHz eMac with USB 1.1 and the Radeon 7500 graphics card. Not a terrible machine (I've got one back living in its box) but I felt it was pretty slow compared to the 1GHz G4 iMac. It'll take PC133 RAM, so 2x 512MB sticks will max it out at 1GB. After that, throw Leopard on it, and have fun! TenFourFox is a great browser, but even Safari 5 is still pretty good.
 
benvw99 said:
So now, I would like to know what these forgotten Macs are capable of. I connected it to the internet for the first time in its life, and I would like to know of a capable browser other than safari to use for daily computing.
Click to expand...
TenFourFox. Leopard Webkit.

benvw99 said:
Also, are there any must-have applications or games for it?
Click to expand...
That depends on what you want to do.

benvw99 said:
And what do I need to do to upgrade to a higher version of OS X? It currently is running 10.1.x I think, and it can also boot into classic 9.2.x.
Click to expand...
I would assume Leopard 10.5.8. You'll need to acquire a Leopard disk. Note that that amount of ram you have right now is seriously underpowered for Leopard. 1GB ram is really the starting point. 2GB or more is better, but I don't know how much the eMacs can take.

benvw99 said:
Since I know nothing about these uncommon version of Macs, you guys could convince me that I just have a huge paperweight. So be honest please.
Click to expand...
Think iMac. The eMacs were essentially iMacs for the education market.
 
An eMac that can boot to OS 9 will have (as you listed) USB 1.1 (really slow for file storage). There's two RAM slots for PC-133 SDRAM, each up to 512MB, for a max of 1GB total.
If you have 10.4 or 10.5 installed, then capable browsers can be Webkit Leopard, or TenFourFox
 
Ok. I think I will try to install 10.4 on it, but only because 10.5 seems a little RAM hungry for my eMac.

And for games, I am kinda into 3D adventure/action games, or even things like 2d platformers or something.

And I will try to grab some RAM for it. It wasnt too expensive for my ibook, so I doubt that it will be costly on the eMac.
 
If you upgrade the RAM, that might be a good time to replace the battery.
If it has been barely used for ten years, the battery is likely the original.
The eMacs eat batteries, particularly when left unplugged.
 
i would suggest UPGRADING your os x but keeping your os 9 on the machine. it can be a bear to reinstall os 9 once it's been deleted. it really takes up very little space, doesn't get in the way of anything and you don't know what cool old games you'll find only available on os 9 years down the road. you also mentioned storing music on an external drive. go with a firewire drive. (i find os 10.4 to be very stable and quite responsive on my similar specced machines)
 
I'm sorry if you feel bad about my answer, but I read you as wanting an honest answer:

Can you think of a spurious use you might want a computer for (like a machine in the vestibule, which you could quickly wake from sleep in order to check the day's weather; do you have a attic where you like to sit and write novels), or something like that? Because if not, this machine is as close to useless as a G4 can be.

The eMac was Apple's Edu offering, which (in contrast to NeXT) meant that it was yesterday's tech for a relatively cheap price while maintaining a decent margin. Face it, the eMac was the extension of the original iMac, with the addition of G4, a bigger screen, and without the costly LCD display and original colours. The eMac's (and I know some liked them) were a throwback to an age Apple was working hard on leaving behind.

But, if you're set on making use of the thing: max out the RAM, install 10.4. and install whatever applications you may need.

RGDS,
 
benvw99 said:
It currently is running 10.1.x I think, and it can also boot into classic 9.2.x.
Click to expand...

Right here is where I stopped. UNTIL you go to 10.4, your only choice for web browsing is Classilla. http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/ This browser is downright awesome and is at least updated once in a while. In fact, with Classilla and the right abandonware, you might never want to leave Mac OS 9 (or the Classic layer of OS X at worst).

As for the OS, I have an old G4 733 MHz tower that runs Mac OS 10.5. It runs it wonderfully mainly because the RAM is 100% maxed out and it has more cache than those eMacs. Your mileage will vary, and using 10.5 might not be as good of an idea on the older model eMac.

It it were me and I had an eMac, it would become an OS 9 only machine. Many will boo me for saying this, but I'd have a definite niche for an eMac to fill as an OS 9 only machine.

I have a Digital Audio G4 running 10.5 (and this will soon become an OS 9 only machine) and a G5 tower running 10.5. Plus, I have an i5 Mac mini running 10.9.3. If I want/need an OS X experience, I can run any of those and that G5 will run OS X better than any eMac I would find. But getting an OS 9 lab up and running would be a dream, since I can procure a bunch of cheap software for OS 9 that would be easily workable.
 
seveej said:
The eMac was Apple's Edu offering, which (in contrast to NeXT) meant that it was yesterday's tech for a relatively cheap price while maintaining a decent margin. Face it, the eMac was the extension of the original iMac, with the addition of G4, a bigger screen, and without the costly LCD display and original colours. The eMac's (and I know some liked them) were a throwback to an age Apple was working hard on leaving behind
Click to expand...
I don't get where you're going with this. Aside from the shape, the eMac has NOTHING in common with the G3 iMac. Sure it was a machine built for education, but it came with 100% new technology inside. (And actually, NExT was aiming for higher ED with their systems too). Everything from the CPU and graphics chip to the 17" screen additional USB port. There was nothing "yesterday's tech" about it, unless you're willing to throw that badge on the iBook, PowerBooks, and Mac Minis of that period. It was right on par with other G4 Macs shipping at the time throughout it's entire run. In some cases it was even better. I'd take an 05 eMac over an original Mac Mini any day.
 
Last edited:
Hrududu said:
Sounds like the 1GHz eMac with USB 1.1 and the Radeon 7500 graphics card.
Click to expand...
Based on the description and looking at MacTracker, it could be either of...
– 'eMac (ATI Graphics)' May 03 –Oct 03
– 'eMac (1.0 GHz G4)' Oct 03 – Apr 04

These appear to be identical apart from the options: the 1GHz version of the 'ATI Graphics' was the upper of two variants, always shipped with a SuperDrive, and cost $1299; the '1.0 GHz G4' had the option of combo drive or SuperDrive.

BUT... if the OP has an interest in OS9, he should check out everymac.com as I *think* it's saying that SuperDrive models cannot boot OS9.

Hrududu said:
I don't get where you're going with this....
Click to expand...
Nor me. I had a 1.25GHz eMac for 3-4 years, and they were solid machines. According to MacTracker the Geekbench scores for the 1GHz eMacs were higher than those of the 1GHz 17" iMac of the same period. Ditto the 1.25/1.42GHz models versus the equivalent Minis. And the single processor Power Macs didn't fare much better, out the box.

They were 'education market' only in as much as school departments refused to splash out unnecessarily on overpriced, *fugly* iLamps!
 
My emac comes with the combo drive. So os9 is an option, and in my opinion a good one. I have used the "classic" feature in OS X, and it has actually been really speedy.

But I have been trying to upgrade to 10.4, and I got a disc from a friend. I plugged in my external DVD drive, and it worked like a charm. I clicked the icon to install OS X, and it rebooted normally. When I booted up again, it just went into panther! (Sorry if I said it was running 10.1, it's not. Panther is its normal OS).

So my question here is how do I get it to boot from an external DVD drive?
 
benvw99 said:
My emac comes with the combo drive. So os9 is an option, and in my opinion a good one. I have used the "classic" feature in OS X, and it has actually been really speedy.

But I have been trying to upgrade to 10.4, and I got a disc from a friend. I plugged in my external DVD drive, and it worked like a charm. I clicked the icon to install OS X, and it rebooted normally. When I booted up again, it just went into panther! (Sorry if I said it was running 10.1, it's not. Panther is its normal OS).

So my question here is how do I get it to boot from an external DVD drive?
Click to expand...

Hold the OPT key at boot. Sometimes if you use a PC keyboard the OPT key is actually Alt, and the Command key is actually the Windows key. Just saying you may need to try either the Windows key or the Alt key if using a PC style keyboard.
 
benvw99 said:
...
But I have been trying to upgrade to 10.4, and I got a disc from a friend. I plugged in my external DVD drive, and it worked like a charm. I clicked the icon to install OS X, and it rebooted normally. When I booted up again, it just went into panther! (Sorry if I said it was running 10.1, it's not. Panther is its normal OS).

So my question here is how do I get it to boot from an external DVD drive?
Click to expand...

If you are using a USB external - you can't boot your eMac to an OS X installer using a USB device - unless you go through a specific setup in open firmware.
If you are using an external firewire DVD, then you should be able to boot to your installer DVD by holding down the Option key, and selecting the installer from that option boot screen.
 
DeltaMac said:
If you are using a USB external - you can't boot your eMac to an OS X installer using a USB device - unless you go through a specific setup in open firmware.

If you are using an external firewire DVD, then you should be able to boot to your installer DVD by holding down the Option key, and selecting the installer from that option boot screen.
Click to expand...


I installed Tiger by using an external USB DVD drive made by Targus. It worked well but was slow since it was an iBook G3 which is pre-USB 2.0. It does indeed work with USB drives.
 
Finally. It took me over a year to get this to work. My emac is the first computer I ever got to actually install a newer version of OS X correctly.



Looks like I'm gonna have to try this method on my blueberry imac g3, graphite imac g3, and my 7 powermac g4's.

Currently at 25% for checking the installation DVD. Everyone was right... USB 1.1 DVD installer is PAINFULLY slow. Oh well. I might go grab a sandwich or something while I wait.
 
benvw99 said:
Finally. It took me over a year to get this to work. My emac is the first computer I ever got to actually install a newer version of OS X correctly.

[url=http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag54/benvw99/Mobile%20Uploads/BDB16E74-E6C7-4B78-85D0-F3ACA2D322EF_zps8nr7upoc.jpg]Image[/URL]

Looks like I'm gonna have to try this method on my blueberry imac g3, graphite imac g3, and my 7 powermac g4's.

Currently at 25% for checking the installation DVD. Everyone was right... USB 1.1 DVD installer is PAINFULLY slow. Oh well. I might go grab a sandwich or something while I wait.
Click to expand...

It is going to take a while. It took over an hour and a half on my iBook G3 600 MHz.
 
Well it finished while I was at work. Now I'm onto the abundant software updates!

Needs ram desperately. Will buy some soon. What kind should I look for?
 
Hrududu said:
I don't get where you're going with this. Aside from the shape, the eMac has NOTHING in common with the G3 iMac. Sure it was a machine built for education, but it came with 100% new technology inside. (And actually, NExT was aiming for higher ED with their systems too). Everything from the CPU and graphics chip to the 17" screen additional USB port. There was nothing "yesterday's tech" about it, unless you're willing to throw that badge on the iBook, PowerBooks, and Mac Minis of that period. It was right on par with other G4 Macs shipping at the time throughout it's entire run. In some cases it was even better. I'd take an 05 eMac over an original Mac Mini any day.
Click to expand...

First, while both the eMac and NeXT were aimed at the EDU market, they were aimed at widely different segments - just look at the price points.

Second, the last CRT's Apple ever shipped were in the eMacs - by quite a wide margin in fact.

Third, while the eMac may not have inherited the color scheme from the G3 iMacs, it inherited the form factor and much of the philosophy.

Finally, comparing the 2003 1ghz iMac with the contemporary eMac:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_1.0_17_fp.html
And
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/specs/emac_1.0.html

Shared characteristics:
17" display
Similar GB2 score
Modem, Ethernet, USB and FW ports

iMac wins in
Faster RAM (DDR SDRAM)
Higher max RAM (2GB versus 1GB)
Higher VRAM (64 vs 32 MB)
Higher native resolution.
Faster ATA interface (ATA100 vs. ATA66)
Better spec'd optical drive in base config

eMac wins
Lower original price
Could run OS9 natively

Inconclusive:
GPU (Radeon 7500 vs GeForce 4 MX) (See http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/Radeon7500_vs_Geforce4MX/index2.html )

RGDS,
 
seveej said:
First, while both the eMac and NeXT were aimed at the EDU market, they were aimed at widely different segments - just look at the price points.

Second, the last CRT's Apple ever shipped were in the eMacs - by quite a wide margin in fact.

Third, while the eMac may not have inherited the color scheme from the G3 iMacs, it inherited the form factor and much of the philosophy.

Finally, comparing the 2003 1ghz iMac with the contemporary eMac:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_1.0_17_fp.html
And
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/specs/emac_1.0.html

Shared characteristics:
17" display
Similar GB2 score
Modem, Ethernet, USB and FW ports

iMac wins in
Faster RAM (DDR SDRAM)
Higher max RAM (2GB versus 1GB)
Higher VRAM (64 vs 32 MB)
Higher native resolution.
Faster ATA interface (ATA100 vs. ATA66)
Better spec'd optical drive in base config

eMac wins
Lower original price
Could run OS9 natively

Inconclusive:
GPU (Radeon 7500 vs GeForce 4 MX) (See http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/Radeon7500_vs_Geforce4MX/index2.html )

RGDS,
Click to expand...
So you give the iMac a win in GPU, but then say it's a wash? Either way, the only real wins for the iMac would be DDR RAM and the ATA-6 bus. At the end of the day, real world performance between the two is nearly identical. The benchmarks & spec sheets prove it, and as an owner of BOTH of these exact machines, I'll vouch that the user experience for both is almost the same. The trend continues throughout the eMac's lifespan. Yes, the iMac got the G5 and pulled away, but the Mac Mini came along and in more ways than not, was a worse machine. Moral of the story, the eMac was just as good a computer as other Macs in the lineup. Was the shape and CRT screen cutting edge or as pretty? NO! but the form factor and CRT make it extremely durable for classrooms of sticky-fignered kids. That makes it perfectly logical to use in this machine.
 
mojolicious said:
Or (with regards to 'prettiness') YES! depending on personal taste.

:)
Click to expand...

I clearly remember setting up a 32-eMac lab by myself, and cursing how slippery those 50-pound curvy cases can be. Even when you find the hand holds, there's a lot of effort involved when moving an eMac.
(yeah, I know, I'm just a whiny guy - but I've also moved literally hundreds of those things)
Just retired my last eMac (my personal system) last week. Had to move on due to Intel-only software.
 
Decided to give it to my grandpa. No need for it.

He does want wireless on it. I have an airport card but it does not seem to fit.

Does my model of emac require an airport xtreme or am I installing it wrong?
 
I think any 1 GHz and higher take an Airport Extreme card, and not the older Airport card.
You can tell by looking closely at the internal slot for the card.
The older Airport card has a double row of pins, with a socket that accepts that.
The newer Airport Extreme has a card-edge connector (no pins in the connector at all, just contacts on the edge of the card.)
 
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