Who has an eMac?

[SkyBell]

I've been thinking of getting one to replace my Mac mini. While my Mini is Intel, it's also horribly crippled by an RAM installation accident, and can't do anything much except browse the web. (It does not have an optical drive, hard drive, sound card, airport antenna or bluetooth.) So yeah, I've been thinking about giving it to my sister since she wants a Mac so much, and replacing it.

One more reason for this is, my iBook G4 is starting to have things break on it, and I might also be selling it because of these issues. I'm not completely decided on this yet, since I think I'd still want a laptop around when I want to get away from my desk.

Anyway, looking at used Mac prices, anything usebale for a daily machine is unaffordable. I'm looking for at least a 1.2 GHz G4, so my options are PowerMac G4, iMac G4 and an eMac. The iMac is out, because the prices for them are insane. A PM G4 was my next option, but then I realized I'd have to buy a monitor and an adapter for it, because the monitor I use for my mini, I would like to use for one my older PC's instead.

So that leaves me with the eMac. From what I've seen, they give you a lot of power for the price they're going for. Shipping will be a killer, but it's still cheaper then a PM or an iMac.

I want know people's experiences with them and how they preform, and any flaws or defects I should be wary of.

Again, I'm not completely decided on this yet, just asking around to see if it's a good idea.

Thanks.

 

[Sirobin]

I had the one in my sig, until I got my Powerbook, and gave it to my parents. They still use it and it works fine, but it's definitely showing it's age. It still runs fine, just everything is pretty slow. I'd say as long as you only want it for internet/iTunes, and maybe occasionally something a bit more intensive (my parent's has Ps CS3 on it, and it runs okay...) it should work fine. However, I would strongly suggest trying to get a newer computer. G4s are horribly outdated. If you can afford it, just buy another Intel Mac Mini.

 

[PurrBall]

I got my iMac G4 dirt cheap, I would look a little further I found mine at the MIT Flea in Cambridge, Mass.

 

[DavieBoy]

I know that there are capacitor issues with a large amount of 1.25Ghz eMacs. I would really try to get anything intel. If you buy a PowerPC it will be older then you will spend time dealing with power supplies dying and things like that.

I recommend that you keep checking your areas craigslist and pounce when you find something.

 

[smartalic34]

my parents have an almost 6 year old 800MHz eMac that still runs great. with leopard installed (I know, unsupported) it really runs safari and itunes well. wouldnt push it more than that, but with 1 GB RAM its fine by all means. eMacs are solid, but not very fast if you really want one.

 

[bozz2006]

I'd also recommend saving up until you can afford something intel. maybe a 1.6GHz mini. you can get one for about $400-500 on ebay.

And I know this isn't constructive, but I am so curious about this RAM accident that left you without optical drive, hard drive, sound, airport, and bluetooth. that must have been one hell of an accident.

 

[robotartfashion]

I'd also recommend saving up until you can afford something intel. maybe a 1.6GHz mini. you can get one for about $400-500 on ebay.

And I know this isn't constructive, but I am so curious about this RAM accident that left you without optical drive, hard drive, sound, airport, and bluetooth. that must have been one hell of an accident.

if you're going to pay 400-500 you might as well pick up the 1.83 current iteration mac mini as a refurb from Apple for $499.00

just a thought


p.s. i'm also interested in hearing about this accident, did you open the case with a sledgehammer? or was it a machete?

 

[SkyBell]

I'd also recommend saving up until you can afford something intel. maybe a 1.6GHz mini. you can get one for about $400-500 on ebay.

And I know this isn't constructive, but I am so curious about this RAM accident that left you without optical drive, hard drive, sound, airport, and bluetooth. that must have been one hell of an accident.

My budget is pretty limited, under $200.

p.s. i'm also interested in hearing about this accident, did you open the case with a sledgehammer? or was it a machete?

Chef's knife. (Yeah, I know.) Broke a transistor off the board. I figured it was useless so I threw away the module that contained the bluetooth, sound card and airport. I still have the superdrive and the hard drive, but I have no way of attaching them without the thing I threw away.

But it's good to hear some positive things. As for speed, don't worry, I'm used to my 1.33 GHz iBook. Internet, iTunes, MSN and iChat are really all it would be used for. Maybe a few older Mac games, at the most.

 

[ihabime]

I still use my 1ghz eMac daily for internet browsing, email, IM, itunes and other simple tasks, but i gave up on using it for anything more complex a couple of years ago photoshop 7 was doable but painful and iphoto or flash video tends to bring it to a crawl. It's been a great machine since day 1 and i'll be sad to see it go.

Given your budget an eMac probably is the best choice, but make sure you get at least a 1.25 ghz or 1.42 ghz, the 1 ghz is limited to 1 gig of ram. Also try to get one locally, they're pretty big beasts and shipping will add quite a bit to the cost.

 

[SkyBell]

I still use my 1ghz eMac daily for internet browsing, email, IM, itunes and other simple tasks, but i gave up on using it for anything more complex a couple of years ago photoshop 7 was doable but painful and iphoto or flash video tends to bring it to a crawl. It's been a great machine since day 1 and i'll be sad to see it go.

Given your budget an eMac probably is the best choice, but make sure you get at least a 1.25 ghz or 1.42 ghz, the 1 ghz is limited to 1 gig of ram. Also try to get one locally, they're pretty big beasts and shipping will add quite a bit to the cost.

Yeah, I'll make sure it's at least 1.25 GHz. I don't think I could handle the speed drop from 1.3 to 1.

I've decided that if I do this, I'll sell my iBook to cover the machine itself, and a few upgrades, plus an AirPort card for my clamshell iBook G3 for when I need a laptop.

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences with me! I think I'm going to go through with this now.

 

[ADent]

How about selling what's left of your mini and getting an MSI Wind and installing MacOSX?

Or you can hook up an external firewire drive to the mini - and it would be probably faster than the stock drive. Then sell the drive parts from the mini.

Our old 800MHz eMac keeps on running, but the later 1.25+ models have the capacitor issues.

 

[Pixellated]

How about selling what's left of your mini and getting an MSI Wind and installing MacOSX?

Or you can hook up an external firewire drive to the mini - and it would be probably faster than the stock drive. Then sell the drive parts from the mini.

Our old 800MHz eMac keeps on running, but the later 1.25+ models have the capacitor issues.

+1 on the netbook.

 

[Xodica]

I got one in the mail today!

800Mhz PPC G4, 640MB RAM, 32GB HDD, CD Drive (No DVD which is annoying)

 

[jemeinc]

I have an eMac 1.42 GHZ that runs leopard fine.. It's the computer in my warehouse office and it's used daily by many people- all day long..I've had several apple comp over the years- both laptops & desktops.. Including AppleIIe, G3, G4, G5 and the current intels.. This eMac is the ONLY apple computer I've ever owned that has NEVER had any type of hardware issues that required it to be shipped off for repairs.. The thing is a tank- the only time it gets turned off is for software updates or installations..

While I understand that as far as technology goes this thing is a dinosaur- can't argue that point, but I will tell you that it's still a serviceable computer for many tasks.. I run Quickbooks pro, MS Office, obviously the internet & email & occasionally edit video with it with no trouble.. I like the computer & don't plan on replacing it any time soon.. Some say it's ugly, & it's definitely big & bulky, but for what I do it has definitely served me very well..

 

[SkyBell]

How about selling what's left of your mini and getting an MSI Wind and installing MacOSX?

That would be ideal, but I neither the knowledge nor the funds to do so. (The mini isn't in sell-able condition.)

Or you can hook up an external firewire drive to the mini - and it would be probably faster than the stock drive. Then sell the drive parts from the mini.

That's how it is running right now, and it works decently. But without a sound card, airport card or optical drive, it's nearly useless to me.

Our old 800MHz eMac keeps on running, but the later 1.25+ models have the capacitor issues.

Hmm, I've heard about this issue before but I don't know much about it. What is the issue, and how prevalent is it?

 

[bozz2006]

cassie, my grandpa used to have a saying; he'd say "I can't afford to buy cheap stuff". meaning, spending more money on something of high quality is costs less in the long run than buying cheap stuff over and over and over. If it were me, I'd put away $20 a week until I had enough to buy a used intel mini on ebay. you can get a 1.66 mini, still very very usable, for around $300-400.

 

[11800506]

Are you sure your Mini isn't repairable in any way? The eMacs are fine machines but since getting my Macbook Pro I haven't really used mine very much. It's pretty speedy and runs Leopard well enough but it really shows its age when you try to multitask and its fan is pretty loud.

I think a better thing to do would be to continue saving until you have enough money for an Intel Mac mini which will be much faster than the eMac. Surely you can last on your iBook for a little longer until you get enough money to buy an Intel machine and I think that would be a better course of action.

 

[macJC50640]

Actually, I still use my outdated snow iBook G3 daily for basic schoolwork. Surprisingly, it runs prett good with only 128mb RAM. I wouldn't try photoshop, though. Also, when I asked MacRumors if the iBook was a good deal before I bought it I think Cassie repied. I recognise the distinctive purple text.

G4s can run Leopard. It would be okay for a little while. Still, try to go Intel. Wait for the next revision of Mini so the previous models will see a price frop in refurb store.

 

[macJC50640]

Are you sure your Mini isn't repairable in any way? The eMacs are fine machines but since getting my Macbook Pro I haven't really used mine very much. It's pretty speedy and runs Leopard well enough but it really shows its age when you try to multitask and its fan is pretty loud.

I think a better thing to do would be to continue saving until you have enough money for an Intel Mac mini which will be much faster than the eMac. Surely you can last on your iBook for a little longer until you get enough money to buy an Intel machine and I think that would be a better course of action.

Whats with your Vista wallpaper avatar?
Don't mean to copy the whole post, but I wanted to direct it to you.

 

[5280m]

Used one until I got my Unibody MB in November. It ran leopard pretty slow.

 

[dglas]

I have a 1.25 ghz emac with 2 GB of ram installed. I have no problem running apps like photoshop CS3. A great computer. I am moving up to PS CS4 so will also move up to the 3.06 ghz 24" imac. As soon as I receive the imac I will be selling the emac. Not sure of the value at this time but suspect it will sell for at least $250. Running 10.4.11.

 

[ADent]

(The mini isn't in sell-able condition.)

What it is stolen? The parts for a mini get a pretty decent price. The hard drive and optical are worth a few bucks by themselves. The machine whole as it is worth a fair bit of money. I would love to have a mini as a NAS and application server and TimeMachine server (which needs no internal drives or sound or wireless) - but they are WAY too expensive. A non booting G4 w/o drive just sold for $125.

That's how it is running right now, and it works decently. But without a sound card, airport card or optical drive, it's nearly useless to me.

That can all be fixed relatively cheaply with USB devices.

 

[SkyBell]

What it is stolen? The parts for a mini get a pretty decent price. The hard drive and optical are worth a few bucks by themselves. The machine whole as it is worth a fair bit of money. I would love to have a mini as a NAS and application server and TimeMachine server (which needs no internal drives or sound or wireless) - but they are WAY too expensive. A non booting G4 w/o drive just sold for $125.

That can all be fixed relatively cheaply with USB devices.

I could sell the HDD and the optical drive - not sure how much that would cover though.

The problem with the mini itself, is during the opening of the case, I shoved a transistor (I think that's what it is.) out of place, and it wouldn't boot. Now, I am able to get it too boot and run using a FW hard drive, but to get it to turn on, you need to press down on the transistor with a fair amount of force until you see the gray apple. Not ideal. And besides that, it no longer has a fan, which means the case is off and I have to run a little 6" box fan to keep it from overheating. It's time for it to go.

A new logic board for it is almost as much as a new mini itself, so I wouldn't bother fixing it. And I can't afford to anyway.

 

[djc6]

The problem with the mini itself, is during the opening of the case, I shoved a transistor (I think that's what it is.) out of place, and it wouldn't boot. Now, I am able to get it too boot and run using a FW hard drive, but to get it to turn on, you need to press down on the transistor with a fair amount of force until you see the gray apple.

Have you tried taking it to a TV repair shop or something similar? Its possible you only need a little soldering, or replacing whatever component you damaged. I've had a local shop replace blown capacitors on Dell GX270 motherboards and power supplies, a DSL modem, replace ICs on a couple broken LCDs, etc.

 

[illegallydead]

Whats with your Vista wallpaper avatar?
Don't mean to copy the whole post, but I wanted to direct it to you.

I regularly use Vista wallpapers on my MacBook. You don't have to be THAT microsoft-haterific...
Most of the pictures that come with it are very good, and I wish I was half the photographer some of those folks are. The buyer doesn't define the artist, bro...

Have you tried taking it to a TV repair shop or something similar? Its possible you only need a little soldering, or replacing whatever component you damaged. I've had a local shop replace blown capacitors on Dell GX270 motherboards and power supplies, a DSL modem, replace ICs on a couple broken LCDs, etc.

+1 to that.

Overall, OP, you seem to be of the cheap mindset, just not the super resourceful cheap variety (at least with computers). It does sound like you just broke a small part, and that could very well be replaceable, either by the aforementioned TV repair shop, a resourceful friend, or by a Mac repair shop (most expensive option). Try to get it fixed before you downgrade to an eMac. You will thank yourself later. Oh, and electronics repair 101: don't throw anything away. Those cards you tossed were still worth something. Craigslist, garage sales, and school computer sales (colleges, ideally) are the way to go though if you do get something new.

And have you considered a PC, man? They are MUCH cheaper for getting some decent hardware. I know you may like Macs, but don't force yourself into something that will be too slow for you just because you like OSX... XP, Vista, and eventually Win7 are all decent OS's by now. Something like a netbook or budget tower will blow the socks off of ANY eMac you get...