My little Mac dilemma...

[TML]

Hi there

I'm facing a bit of a dilemma here. My computer mentor/tutor is selling his Powermac G4 for £350. Below is what he'll be including in that price...

Powermac G4 (pre-Quicksilver) with 756MB RAM, 450MHz, 3rd party DVD reader/CD burner

All software that’s installed on it (things like Photoshop 7, Premiere 6, Macromedia Studio MX, Toast, etc)

A Phillips 17” screen

An internal 1Gb Jaz drive with 5 x 1Gb removable disks (whatever this is)

A Wacom tablet

An Apple keyboard

A 2 button USB mouse + the standard Mac mouse

OS X 10.3 Server

And OS 10.3 panther dual boot

2 hard drives (I'm guessing they'll be about 20GB each)

The good point is that, yes, it's a Mac. I think it will be fun, reliable and quite fast to design my websites and Photoshop designs on. But I do have a few doubts...


- Do the specs (756MB RAM, 450MHz) seem good value for £350? Will it be fast enough?

- Should I wait until April next year, then purchase a brand spanking new Mac Mini for example, with an Intel chip? Will I get more bang for my money if I wait? Or will i regret letting this deal go?

- Would it be possible to run this Mac and the two other household computers off one Linksys router?

- Would my this Mac still be worth something in 2-3 years time after Apple switches to Intel?

I'd really appreciate your advice on this - my main doubt isn't the money but much I can get out of it.

I am a PC user *hides* but I've had a bit of experience on a Mac and am willing to switch to one - I think this will be a good time to do just that.

I wouldn't expect you to answer all these questions but I'd be grateful if you could help!

Cheers

Lloyd

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Well from what I understand 350 pounds is nearly $700 US. So a new Mac mini could be purchased instead. For a 450mHz G4, I would say no. Do not buy that machine. It is built up pretty well, and there is a 17" monitor which sweetens the deal a bit, but as for the machine, I wouldn't bother.
When the switch comes for Apple to Intel, I wouldn't expect that until the end of the summer 2006 (if not longer). A Mac Mini now would be just fine, and also when Apple goes to Intel there will be no problems with current hardware, Apple wouldn't turn there back on anyone with today's hardware. I'd give at least 3 years past the Intel switch until today's hardware might be phased out from the Mac OS.

450mHz is not fast enough. A Mac Mini would blow it away.

 

[shadowmoses]

For what your getting there its not really worth the £££ yes it will run OS X and isnt too slow but when you consider you can get a mac mini for roughly the same money it isnt worth it....

I suggest you save a bit longer and get a mac mini base model for £359 and a cheap 15" LCD for about £100...

The mini will be a far better purchase in the long haul not to mention it is a newer machine with the advantages of a smaller footprint, USB 2 and a way faster processor and better graphics card.....

SHadOW

 

[brianus]

^ I have to concur with the above. The 450MHz G4 is a fine machine (I use one every day), but when you can get a more than 3x faster, smaller, modern G4 with Tiger and a SuperDrive for less money (Mini), your mentor's asking price doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[TML]

Thanks for all your advise!

So I guess at the moment it's a no to the G4. But I'm still wondering if the Mac Mini will be cheaper and better value with an Intel processor?

My current budget for a Mac at the moment is about £500 - and probably won't be much different in a year or two. What kind of Mac will I be able to pick up in April 2006?

 

[Mavimao]

Well from what I understand 350 pounds is nearly $700 US.

This is true, but everything in Britain is SO much more expensive than in the States. Almost to the point where the number of pounds an item costs in the UK is the same number of dollars that same object costs in the states.

Everything is such a rip-off!

But you England people were saying this is pretty expensive? How much is a mini in the UK?

 

[Legacy]

This is true, but everything in Britain is SO much more expensive than in the States. Almost to the point where the number of pounds an item costs in the UK is the same number of dollars that same object costs in the states.

Everything is such a rip-off!

But you England people were saying this is pretty expensive? How much is a mini in the UK?

£359 for the base model, £429 for 1.42ghz and £499 for the Superdrive...(Education FE discount is 6% and HE discount is 12% off that price)