Upgrade Tower vs. new eMac?

[stoid]

I have an older 733Mhz Quicksilver G4 tower with 80GB 7200RPM HD and 384MB of RAM. The newly out eMacs look to be great deal, as I am not the kind of person that likes to fiddle with the innards of my computer unless necessary. Please help me to discuss the pros and cons of upgrading my current tower vs. buying a new SuperDrive eMac. Since I find my tower to still be more than adequate, should I keep it for another year or two until it is not useful to me and then upgrade?

PS. I am an educator, so any Apple store purchases will reflect education discounts.

 

[Bhennies]

I have an older 733Mhz Quicksilver G4 tower with 80GB 7200RPM HD and 384MB of RAM. The newly out eMacs look to be great deal, as I am not the kind of person that likes to fiddle with the innards of my computer unless necessary. Please help me to discuss the pros and cons of upgrading my current tower vs. buying a new SuperDrive eMac. Since I find my tower to still be more than adequate, should I keep it for another year or two until it is not useful to me and then upgrade?

PS. I am an educator, so any Apple store purchases will reflect education discounts.

If it's more than adequate, then by all means hold off. I am still using my dual 500 g4 and am planning to hold off until the new g5's come out this summer. The most economical way to own a computer is to drive it until you simply can't anymore.

 

[flyfish29]

Since I find my tower to still be more than adequate, should I keep it for another year or two until it is not useful to me and then upgrade?

PS. I am an educator, so any Apple store purchases will reflect education discounts.

I would keep what you have...replace when necessary. In other words, if there is something that it can't do that you NEED to do then of course replace/upgrade. If there is something that you WANT it to do (whether faster or better) then you need to weigh the benefits of the actual speed increase or whatever improvement you are looking at and decide. For example...if you wanted a faster expereince using software program A then you would want to find out how much faster a new computer would run software A...and decide if x seconds faster for a specific operation is really worth the cost of upgrade/new machine?!?! Ask yourself how many times in a day/week do I really use that operation and is the additional x seconds or minutes really worth it to me.

I tend to wait to purchase until Apple comes out with the next big thing...then I usually wait a revision or two. For instance I had a performa...waited til third revision on the original iMac (let them work the bugs out and bump speeds a bit) then I waited to buy again until the flatscreen third revision again to work out any bugs as well as any bugs in OSx which I upgraded to since I could not run it effectively on my origiinal iMac. I would love to be able to afford the best and newest thing everytime it came out, but since both myself and my wife are educators we simply can't...even with ed. discuonts.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[stoid]

Well, it does seem like waiting is the best option, I just got a little excited when Apple finally released new machines.

If I were to sell it yet, where is the best place to get the most return on my investment?

 

[Capt Underpants]

Well, it does seem like waiting is the best option, I just got a little excited when Apple finally released new machines.

If I were to sell it yet, where is the best place to get the most return on my investment?

eBay, no doubt. Someone bought my iPod g3 10 Gb for $232.50 a few weeks ago, when he could've bought a new one for $250.00.

 

[Capt Underpants]

If it's more than adequate, then by all means hold off. I am still using my dual 500 g4 and am planning to hold off until the new g5's come out this summer. The most economical way to own a computer is to drive it until you simply can't anymore.

That may be the most economical way, but it sure isn't the most fun way!

 

[stoid]

eBay, no doubt. Someone bought my iPod g3 10 Gb for $232.50 a few weeks ago, when he could've bought a new one for $250.00.

I looked at eBay, but it's so hard to get an accurate reading on what my machine will really sell for, and I'd like to get an accurate number (within $50) to help me better judge the cost of upgrading.

 

[Capt Underpants]

I looked at eBay, but it's so hard to get an accurate reading on what my machine will really sell for, and I'd like to get an accurate number (within $50) to help me better judge the cost of upgrading.

This Item is a 733 with 384 MB RAM and a 40 GB HD. I'd say add 15 bucks to whatever this goes for, because you have 80 GB HD. It ends in 3 days.

 

[douglas]

Upgrade Tower vs. new eMac?

On a similar note, I have an older G4 tower, 350mhz, 128mb, running OS8.6 (and working just fine). I am considering purchasing a new emac as a 2nd machine, and upgrading my G4 to OS10.3.3. Can I upgade the ram, then load the OS10 from the new emac into my G4?

Further, I would then network these machines (and perhaps a 3rd machine later) thru a router, for internet and file sharing.

Any advice? Thanks

 

[stoid]

I don't think that there are differences in Mac OS X based on machine type, but it is against the End-User License Agreement to have one copy of OS X on more than one machine. I would go ahead and buy another copy as it is well worth the price.

I have an cheapo monitor with the tower that looks like it's about to give out soon anyway, so I may need to buy a monitor soon anyway. Perhaps once it finally goes out, it'll give me enough reasons to upgrade. Thanks again for you help!

 

[jemeinc]

" I am considering purchasing a new emac as a 2nd machine, and upgrading my G4 to OS10.3.3. Can I upgade the ram, then load the OS10 from the new emac into my G4?"


The copy you get with the purchase of your new eMac will be serialized for that computer... Therefore you can only use it on that computer... If you bought a copy of Panther separately it wouldn't be—therefore you could install it on as many computers as you like- though Apple does not want you to do that, & would prefer you buy a family pack for multiple computers... I'm pretty sure that is the way it works- if that's wrong someone please correct me...

 

[Bhennies]

I don't think that there are differences in Mac OS X based on machine type, but it is against the End-User License Agreement to have one copy of OS X on more than one machine. I would go ahead and buy another copy as it is well worth the price.

My understanding is that you can license up to 5 machines on one upgrade. I remember reading that somewhere.

 

[stoid]

My understanding is that you can license up to 5 machines on one upgrade. I remember reading that somewhere.

You can license 5. If you get the Family Pack.

 

[solvs]

Well, you could upgrade the RAM, which is easy enough to do. Also a CPU upgrade if you're so inclined. And just buy a new monitor.

But you said you don't like to fiddle, so you could trade up. It wouldn't be the education discount, but you can go to someplace like www.powermax.com to do a trade in. You buy a new eMac, send in your old Tower, and they check it over and credit you the difference. Just tell them the specs and they'll give you a rough estimate of what it worth.

 

[QCassidy352]

" I am considering purchasing a new emac as a 2nd machine, and upgrading my G4 to OS10.3.3. Can I upgade the ram, then load the OS10 from the new emac into my G4?"


The copy you get with the purchase of your new eMac will be serialized for that computer... Therefore you can only use it on that computer... If you bought a copy of Panther separately it wouldn't be—therefore you could install it on as many computers as you like- though Apple does not want you to do that, & would prefer you buy a family pack for multiple computers... I'm pretty sure that is the way it works- if that's wrong someone please correct me...

that is incorrect. The OS X disc that comes with the emac will work just fine on the old G4. It is illegal to use the emac disc for the G4 of course (though I would argue, not really immoral) but you *can* do it.

However, I would not recommend putting OS X on a machine that slow. I know some people do it, but IMHO, the snails pace at which it will run will negate any positive user experience that you would get from upgrading.

 

[Steven1621]

I have an older 733Mhz Quicksilver G4 tower with 80GB 7200RPM HD and 384MB of RAM. The newly out eMacs look to be great deal, as I am not the kind of person that likes to fiddle with the innards of my computer unless necessary. Please help me to discuss the pros and cons of upgrading my current tower vs. buying a new SuperDrive eMac. Since I find my tower to still be more than adequate, should I keep it for another year or two until it is not useful to me and then upgrade?

PS. I am an educator, so any Apple store purchases will reflect education discounts.

is your present computer lacking in its ability to take care of your computing needs? if it is, your answer is simple.

 

[flyfish29]

It is illegal to use the emac disc for the G4 of course (though I would argue, not really immoral) but you *can* do it.
/QUOTE]

How is it not immoral...If you buy one book for your den's bookcase is it ok to steal another copy for your bookshelf in your bedroom. That is what one is doing when putting the same software on two computers when only owning one license. Just because it is a product that can be duplicated so easily doesn't mean it is just or right to copy it.

 

[Horrortaxi]

Original poster--if you're happy with the performance of your current computer, don't upgrade. Actually I don't think an eMac is an upgrade over a Quicksilver--it's a lateral move at best.

QCassidy352, I don't see how OS X, a G4 350, and a snail's pace all go together. The guy is light on RAM but if he takes care of that his computer will run OS X just fine. I run it on 2 G4s just a bit faster than that and it's great. I also run it on G3s slower than that and it's fine.

 

[stoid]

The only real complaint I have at this time is over GarageBand being slightly below par, but I'd imagine with a RAM upgrade, that'll be easily fixed. I guess I should expect that it's going to not burn through everything anymore since it is nearly 3 years old. And QCassidy, Mac OS 10.3 flies on it beautifully. In fact, the IT department at the high school is switching even all of our old Ruby iMacs to Panther this summer. I would say that other than the high RAM requirement Panther is almost as fast as 9, not to mention all the awesome new features.