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Which is a better buy 450Mhz Cube or Powermac G4 800mhz Quicksilver

dwl017

dwl017

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2007
562
0
Murder Capitol DC
A buddy of mine is offering me my choice of two differnt machines both are being sold for just a few bucks since its an old friend. These are not on Ebay so please dont ask sorry.

Machine #1 bone stock 450Mhz cube with stock 256 memory and stock 20gb hard drive no mods bone stock Panther is the OS.

Machine #2 Powermac G4 Quicksilver 800Mhz Tiger is the OS

512 mb/80GB/ 512mb memory,80GB IDE, two Firewire ports 400mb, two USB ports,Ethernet port, 56Kbps modem, nVidia GeForce2 MX with 32mb Vram.

Which would you buy ? both are under $300

Cosmetic condition is fair on both and they both work 100% no problems at all.
 
800MHz QS for sure

dwl017 said:
A buddy of mine is offering me my choice of two differnt machines both are being sold for just a few bucks since its an old friend. These are not on Ebay so please dont ask sorry.

Machine #1 bone stock 450Mhz cube with stock 256 memory and stock 20gb hard drive no mods bone stock Panther is the OS.

Machine #2 Powermac G4 Quicksilver 800Mhz Tiger is the OS

512 mb/80GB/ 512mb memory,80GB IDE, two Firewire ports 400mb, two USB ports,Ethernet port, 56Kbps modem, nVidia GeForce2 MX with 32mb Vram.

Which would you buy ? both are under $300
Click to expand...
800MHz QS for sure
 
Do you want it as a piece of history? Or as a machine to use?
For nostalgic purposes get the cube, for actual use, get the tower.
(seems to be easy enough to me)
 
Vader said:
Do you want it as a piece of history? Or as a machine to use?
For nostalgic purposes get the cube, for actual use, get the tower.
(seems to be easy enough to me)
Click to expand...


I agree with Vader, the Cube is great if you want to own a piece of Apple history, the Power Mac G4 Quicksilver is the better choice if you want a machine to use. :)
 
BEWARE THE CUBE CRACKS!!!

My in-laws have one of the cracked cubes...have heard this is a problem with them...so far it has not affected its performance...but beware.

cracks

That being said, Apple supposedly says it is due to a mold process and not actual cracks. NOt sure how it ended up but sure looked like cracks to me.

I liked the looks of he cube, but performance doesn't add up to the other choice!
 
The QS is easier and cheaper to upgrade, and is one of the prettiest towers Apple ever made...the Cube is fantastic looking but requires more tinkering to upgrade, and has some limitations (video card upgrades can get complicated, depending on what you want).

A tough choice but personally I'd go with the extra power of the QS.
 
The Cube would be perfect if you're using it just to browse the web, email, some office work, listening to Hoff™ tunes or as a bittorrent station.

The QS would be great if you needed the horsepower to do extra work, or needed upgradeable components, although at 800mhz, it aint much so you're better off with a mac mini or low-end G5.
 
I'm a Cube fan, but if space and quietness aren't a consideration then obviously the tower is the better buy in terms of performance and upgradeability.
 
If the Cube would be powerful enough to meet your needs, go for it. One plus that I don't think was mentioned was that the Cube is fanless. Definitley a plus for a small apartment or if you just hate the constant hum of a larger desktop machine.

But the others are right about the QS being way more expandable and already has more double the ram and double the mHz.

On looks alone, Cube. On specs alone, QS.
 
The quicksilver. It's just a much better computer.

When you said "a few bucks," I thought you meant like $50. But "less than $300?" The cube isn't even worth $300, so I'd hope a friend trying to be nice would be offering it to you for a fair bit less.
 
Watch video compatibility on the Cube!

I have a Cube (though I think it has an upgraded video card) and the display is incompatible with anything else.
 
Don't waste your time on the Cube. I have plenty of old Macs that are doing nothing for me, and the nostalgia trip lasts for about 3 minutes.

A QS is actually the kind of computer I will look to get in the future. Get the Quicksilver.
 
wordmunger said:
Watch video compatibility on the Cube!

I have a Cube (though I think it has an upgraded video card) and the display is incompatible with anything else.
Click to expand...

Does your Cube have an ADC card? This is a consideration for anyone buying a Cube today -- the stock video cards were ADC, which means you either need an ADC display or a video card change-out. Of course the PowerMacs of that era were also ADC.

A Cube is far more than a nostalgia trip, BTW. A lot of us are still using one every day.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Does your Cube have an ADC card? This is a consideration for anyone buying a Cube today -- the stock video cards were ADC, which means you either need an ADC display or a video card change-out.
Click to expand...

No. You just need a cheap ADC->DVI or ADC->VGA adapter. I have both.

The Cube. You can upgrade it to 1.4GHz with L3 for $300.
I have 1.8GHz without L3, so that is not much faster.

1.8 without L3 for Quicksilver costs $290.
 
IJ Reilly said:
True. Don't know what I was thinking. :eek:

But probably about connecting an ADC monitor to a non-ADC card, which is a $100 adventure. I have one of those.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's right.. that's what I was thinking too -- I was remembering the thought process I went through that convinced me to get an iMac instead of a mini -- I'd have to pay upwards of $100 to use the monitor on my Cube.
 
Vader said:
Do you want it as a piece of history? Or as a machine to use?
For nostalgic purposes get the cube, for actual use, get the tower.
(seems to be easy enough to me)
Click to expand...

Exactly. This is what i did. Bought the Cube for history purposes, then turned around and bought myself a Dual G4 1.42 tower, for personal use/work.
 
Personally, i would get the PowerMac. The cost of upgrading the memory, the processor, and HD alone would just make it a hassle.

You're going to have to upgrade the memory one way or another. 256MB just isn't enough, 512MB is barely enough now (Granted another 256 would be $30) A 450MHz processor is slow. I don't see the point in upgrading the processor, when you could just buy a new MacMini for roughly the same cost (Processor + Machine). 20GB of HD space is fine if you're just surfing the web... but once you get into pictures, music, video, etc... you're going to want more. It all boils down to how you're going to be using your machine, how much space you have in your work area, and if you have the patience to upgrade your machine.

hope that helped...
 
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