Poll! What's Your Favorite PowerPC Based Mac?

[Ih8reno]

I have both a 1.42GHZ eMac and a 20 inch 1.25GHZ iMac G4. I love them both but I have always found the iMac more of a piece of art and the eMac a very utilitarian machine. As for being a clunky tank, its nothing compared to my G3 all in one!

 

[bunnspecial]

This is a tough one - I love what I call the "style series" - the iMac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, and Titanium PowerBook G4. (Note: I'd separate the Ti from the Al PBG4s, as well as separating the "Clamshell" iBook from the poly/white iBook G3 from the iBook G4, and the Cube from the tower G4s.)

I picked the iMac G4 simply because it was the only one that you had its own separate listing for.

I'm in agreement with your thoughts.

In particular, I love Cubes enough that I've fallen into the habit of using them as functional "desk ornaments." All the ones I have are fully functional and used for some purpose, even if it's a break from working to play CivII or CivIII(or pick your other OS 9 game).

I always pair Cubes with an acrylic ADC studio/cinema display, an Apple Pro keyboard(M7803) and the "buttonless" M5769 Pro Mouse. IMO, this is absolutely the height of minimalism(and cable management) that would have made Steve Jobs proud.

I've played around with different display pairings. From a "time" point of view, the 15" LCD, 22" LCD, and 17" CRT were introduced pretty much concurrently. The 22" is my favorite, although they are hard to find and I feel like they are a bit taxing on the somewhat limited GPUs in Cubes(all of mine have upgraded GPUs, but pushing that many pixels makes them run hot). I feel like the CRT is overwhelming with the size of the Cube. I'm uncomfortable with a 2MX or 7500 pushing as many pixels as are in a 20" or 23" when confined to a Cube case, although these cards are capable of it. I've settled on the 17" LCD as my main Cube display as a compromise.

Here's my desk at home, with an iMac 5,2 and an 800mhz Cube.



I need to decide whether I'm going to bring my 500mhz or my 1.5ghz into work

 

[bunnspecial]

As for being a clunky tank, its nothing compared to my G3 all in one!

I'm working on buying one of those...hauling it home should be fun.

My issue with the eMac has not so much been the weight, but rather the fact that the whole 50lb package is slick plastic with no good place to grab onto it. The 60lb AIO at least has some decent places to hold on.

With that said, the absolute worst Apple item I've moved was my 21" graphite CRT. I hunted for one(either blueberry or graphite) for a couple of months-I received several "free if you come get it" offers, but none close. Finally, one popped up on Craigslist in Prospect, which is about 20 minutes outside Louisville. I made the arrangements to go out and buy it(I actually bought a bunch of stuff on that trip, and made another trip this week to buy more). In any case, the guy I bought it from had his assistant help me carry it out and put it in my car-which I'll add was a tight fit despite the fact that I don't exactly have a small car(I also had 3 G4 towers, a 17" ADC LCD, and two big boxes of software to get in).

Once I was home, however, I was all on my own with the CRT. As I typically do, I pulled up to my front door(perilous position, as the road is narrow with no designated parking) and struggled with getting it out of the car without dropping it. I managed to get it over onto the front porch(I typically leave stuff there while I pull around back into my actual parking place).

Once settled, I then had to haul the thing up two flights of steps to my "computer room". I can tell you that hauling a bulky 80lb monitor with no good hand holds is not easy under any of these circumstances. Once I was to the top of the steps, I ended up laying it CRT-down and sliding it on the carpet. I've actually had to move it a couple of times since, and in every case have ended up doing this to move it.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I always pair Cubes with an acrylic ADC studio/cinema display, an Apple Pro keyboard(M7803) and the "buttonless" M5769 Pro Mouse. IMO, this is absolutely the height of minimalism(and cable management) that would have made Steve Jobs proud.

I really need to get a 22" Cinema Display. I have a 17 and a 20. The 17 just feels too small, and the 20 doesn't work with the stock Rage 128 Pro. I have an upgrade card, but haven't gotten around to putting it in yet. (Plus, I'm having issues getting 10.3 or higher running on it - probably need to swap in different RAM.)

 

[Macdctr]

I have several PowerPC Macs in my collection but my current flavor are my PowerBook G4 12-inch laptops. I have two, a 1.5GHz and 1.33GHz. Both of which are fully functional and in excellent shape. I use them primarily for email/web surfing when going around town. Love how portable they are. People occasionally give my "books" a glance since they are no longer sold.

I also have a functional "Kanga" and two "Pismos" in my collection. I don't play with my Kanga too much as it is a very rare laptop. The Pismos come out every once-in-awhile but right now my 12" G4 laptops are satisfying my current itch... It is nice to choose which laptop I can use at any given time

edit: I forgot to mention I also have a Dual 2.5GHZ PowerMac G5 tower I'm not currently using but I love this computer. I purchased this computer from a PC Tech who didn't know how to fix it. This computer had a bad power supply, which I was able to replace and the computer has been restored and upgraded while in my care. It was replaced by my 1st Gen MacPro tower back in 2008 so that's the only reason I'm not currently using it. Right now it's stored in my closet until the need arises for another tower in my network

 

[bunnspecial]

I really need to get a 22" Cinema Display. I have a 17 and a 20. The 17 just feels too small, and the 20 doesn't work with the stock Rage 128 Pro. I have an upgrade card, but haven't gotten around to putting it in yet. (Plus, I'm having issues getting 10.3 or higher running on it - probably need to swap in different RAM.)

I was actually quite shocked to see the original MSRP of the 22" Cinema-working from memory it was around $3000 while the 15" LCD and 17" CRT that came out at the same time were well under $1000. I suppose it was a premium display at the time, and I think the fact that you see relatively few of them now is evidence of that. The 20" displays are a dime a dozen in comparison, and even the 23" displays are easier to find.

Something else that has always fascinated me about the 22" is that it's the only one of the ADC series of displays to use physical buttons. Even the CRT and 15" released at the same time use capacitive buttons. I love the fact that you do actually get up/down buttons for brightness control-as I'm sure you know on all the other ADC displays touching the left button just brings up display preferences.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Blue and White G3 Tower.

Simply put: when this Mac came out, it blew everyone away.
Such a completely different approach to Tower computers, building on the new looks of the iMac.

This Mac looked cool, had superb performance stats, was very, very easily upgradeable thanks to the amazingly designed "door", had all the newest technology anyone wanted in place:
• PCI
• 100 Mb ethernet
• USB
• FireWire
• IDE HD
• 100 MHz bus
• up to 400 MHz

This Mac, especially running Mac OS X Server 1.x was the Ultimate Mac.

The Power Mac G4 was simply built upon the Blue and White design.
Not until the Power Mac G5 did Apple truly alter the design of Power Mac Towers.

 

[maxsix]

My pristine late 2002 fully optioned PowerBook Ti. The last of them.

Of all the prior Apple laptops I've owned, and there are many, all bought new, this Ti is just wonderful. So much fun, so reliable and so satisfying that I kept it, continue to use it periodically just to keep it from rotting away. Its great for writing.

 

[barbu]

Not sure if it counts as modern, but if the Beige G3/AiO is getting represented, I would like to show some love for the magical, mystical, drop-dead gorgeous Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. OMFG i love 90s designs and this was the pinnacle. Bose subwoofer, TV tuner card, G3-upgradeable... I have lusted after the TAM for all these long years. I have never seen one in person and probably never will. I doubt I'll ever be able to afford one.
But damn, what a machine.

 

[MacCubed]

Not sure if it counts as modern, but if the Beige G3/AiO is getting represented, I would like to show some love for the magical, mystical, drop-dead gorgeous Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. OMFG i love 90s designs and this was the pinnacle. Bose subwoofer, TV tuner card, G3-upgradeable... I have lusted after the TAM for all these long years. I have never seen one in person and probably never will. I doubt I'll ever be able to afford one.
But damn, what a machine.

The TAMs always remind me of this old CD player I used to have, same CD door in the front, and the speakers went up the side, just like the TAM. It also had a round stand, the only thing was the CD player was silver not grey! And the G3 AIO is "Modern" as it has a G3 CPU by default.

 

[barbu]

... the G3 AIO is "Modern" as it has a G3 CPU by default.

Yeah fair enough, I was thinking favourite PPC but after I posted, I noticed that you specified the G-series.
In that case, G4 Cube forever :-D

 

[Deadandgone?]

I only ever had the G5 iMac bought in 2004 and it was running, albeit a little unstable, until it completely failed earlier this year. I have replaced it with an early Intel model (A1207) and hope there is still quite a bit of life in it still.

 

[SkyBell]

To all the eMac fans, why do you like them so much more than, say, the iMac G4? I happen to have 2 eMacs (700MHz, 1.25GHz), and they aren't anything too special to me. I'd much prefer to have an iMac G4 because of the sleek design, vs a heavy block.

I'm not dissing the eMac, they have their bonuses, like their kickin' speakers, and their super high res and beautiful CRT, but its still a heavy and clunky white tank, lol.

'
The iMac G4 certainly had a very nice design, but I think the eMac had a unique and rather curious design itself - of course it takes much of the design cues from the iMac G3, but adds it's own (not so) subtle quirks to the unit as a whole.

Furthermore, the top tier eMac was a fair bit more powerful and expandable, topping out at 1.42 GHz and 2 GB RAM, as opposed to the iMac G4 top tier of 1.25 GHz and 1 GB. Finally, like you said, that screen and built-in speaker setup can't be beat.

I'd like to own an iMac G4 someday, but to be honest my eMac has stolen my heart as far as PPC desktops go.

 

[Xandros]

I've never used one ironically, but I've always liked the look of and the found the appeal of the G5 PowerMac to be my favourite so that's what I voted for. I still may buy a G5 one of these days for no reason other than to say I have one, since I have a G4 MDD (June 2003) that's also very good but given OS X is stuck at 10.5.8 on both machines there's not much to really improve upon the MDD I have really, other than of course power.

 

[bunnspecial]

One small point-the later(DDR) iMac G4s will readily take 2gb of RAM. For the non-tech-savvy person 1.5gb is easy by putting a 1gb SO-DIMM in the bottom. If you're not afraid to open the dome, it's no big deal to change out the "internal" stick to 1gb also.

Also, I think the external iMac Pro speakers beat the internal eMac ones.

Admittedly, the best eMac GPU is better than the best iMac GPU.

 

[LightBulbFun]

another plus to the eMac is the very first model the 700/800Mhz ones are officially supported with OS X Server 1.2V3 where any iMac (be it G4 or G3) ain't officially supported altho Id think you could still get away with installing it like the Powerbooks. (altho I have never used an eMac I do have a soft spot for them I Like the desgine of them etc... I wish to acquire a 1st gen or 1.42Ghz one at some point)

 

[128keaton]

One small point-the later(DDR) iMac G4s will readily take 2gb of RAM. For the non-tech-savvy person 1.5gb is easy by putting a 1gb SO-DIMM in the bottom. If you're not afraid to open the dome, it's no big deal to change out the "internal" stick to 1gb also.

Also, I think the external iMac Pro speakers beat the internal eMac ones.

Admittedly, the best eMac GPU is better than the best iMac GPU.

You can change the internal stick? Wow. I have the USB 2.0 iMac, could I feasibly do this.

 

[bunnspecial]

You can change the internal stick? Wow. I have the USB 2.0 iMac, could I feasibly do this.

Yes indeed you can.

 

[MacCubed]

The choice between an iMac G4 and an eMac G4 are pretty close for me. Both have a bit of nostalgia for me, as I use/used them in school. I love the design of the iMac, and the CRT on the eMac is stunning. The eMac is has better specs, and the iMac has the better design. I would like to have both, but I have limited space, so the iMac would be the better choice for me. I love both Macs, and would enjoy having both

 

[hamis92]

From desktops, it's the 20-inch iMac G4, hands down. Its elegant and versatile design beats anything that has existed before it and after it. I so wish I could own one some day; without it my small collection feels incomplete. From notebooks, it's the 12-inch PowerBook G4. I think it still has just the best proportions of all Apple notebooks.

 

[AmazingHenry]

Figured I'd revive this thread as we have some new members since it was posted, including me .

Love the iMac G4 and all the iBooks!

 

[MultiFinder17]

So far as design goes, pretty much anything from 2000-2001 was stellar. In my office, I have an iMac G4 and a G4 cube on a shelf, as I still think those are the two most gorgeous machines Apple has ever made.

Nostalgia-wise? The graphite G4. A G4/500DP was my main driver for just over six years, from 2003-2009, and I have so many memories of that machine; it's spent the last several years in a closet since I don't really have a use for it, but I can't bear to part ways with it either.

 

[amagichnich]

In my office, I have an iMac G4 and a G4 cube on a shelf, as I still think those are the two most gorgeous machines Apple has ever made.

They are indeed!
But I also really love the orange and lime iMac G3s and Clamshells, wish I had at least one of those.
eMac is missing in the poll!! When I first saw one I thought that it's the ugliest computer Apple ever made... seven years later I own two of them and kinda love their design Except for the fan I call the eMac the perfect school and movie machine I know. Sharp CRT, powerful inbuilt sound, DVD drive and reasonable speed. And it looks quite good on my desk and every visitor just goes crazy about this machine

 

[MacCubed]

Well, since this thread has been revived for the newer members of the forums, there was an issue when I made this poll.

Basically, MacRumors only allows a certain amount of items in a poll, which led to many models of computers being grouped. I would have split the iBook G3 and G4, and also add the eMac...

I said this earlier, if you want to vote for the eMac, vote for the Mini G4!

-Side note, you can't edit polls, but I would change it if I could!

 

[amagichnich]

I know you mentioned that before, I had quite some fun time reading the old comments. Especially Eriks 'I hate colorful macs' statements

Splitting them all up would've been to much for one thread, IMO the poll is sufficient as is