Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Why are people still buying powerpc's and macbooks?

I use my PM G5 dual core as my main rig whenever I am home. If not for equipments at work that uses winXP, I might be bringing my powerbook at work on the field.

Why are still buying them? I guess, they have that appeal.
 
InuNacho said:
I fall into a Macbook and PowerPC category so I'll try to answer this the best I can.

Everybody I know that doesn't game or do anything remotely processor heavy like audio or video tends to keep their machines for a VERY long time. I know people that are still using generic Dell P4 towers. These are the people that don't need much, know they don't need much, and are more likely to just buy an older Mac and be happy with it.
Click to expand...

That pretty much tells it.

What does bother me though is the people that try to upsell the pre-MDD G4s to people and claim them to be ultra amazing super-deluxe machines.
Click to expand...

"Ultra amazing super-deluxe machines" they're not, but they did continue to be upgradable long after their best before date.
I used a Sawtooth up until a couple of years ago, 1Ghz Sonnet G4, Pioneer SD, 1.5 g Ram, as many as three HDDs at a time with as many OS's. Do that with a Mini. Or even an iMac.
(before someone states the obvious, yes a Mac Pro can do that expandabilty thing too. At five to six times the price)

I'm getting heavy use out of a 1.67 G4 Powerbook even now with a Macbook on tap.

I don't know if there is some magic involved, but when the white iBooks came out(have one of these too) they looked stunning. The white Macbooks, not so much, even though there's a superficial resemblance. Plus the obvious performance boost as well.
 
InuNacho said:
I fall into a Macbook and PowerPC category so I'll try to answer this the best I can.

Everybody I know that doesn't game or do anything remotely processor heavy like audio or video tends to keep their machines for a VERY long time. I know people that are still using generic Dell P4 towers. These are the people that don't need much, know they don't need much, and are more likely to just buy an older Mac and be happy with it.

Although my needs have grown exponentially since I got my Macbook in early 08 I can understand why theres still a market for them. Lets face it, they are pretty attractive especially my the black ones like mine.
Click to expand...

I'm too in that category,before the macbook I had a g3 ibook 12' 800MHz, this in 2012, god the machine was stunning!
I bought a macbook because appart some 3D moddelling of my course I don't need anything fancy.
Years later I received my powermac for free, then guess what...I fell in love with it and upgraded it.
Even the powermac being slower than the macbook, it is a full tower machine, with lots of options, lots of option in terms of software (from os 9 to 10.5, linux,morphos,etc..),beautiful and silent!
What do you want more for the price of generic pentium 4 box?
 
jodelli said:
(before someone states the obvious, yes a Mac Pro can do that expandabilty thing too. At five to six times the price)

I don't know if there is some magic involved, but when the white iBooks came out(have one of these too) they looked stunning. The white Macbooks, not so much, even though there's a superficial resemblance.
Click to expand...

Actually the first gen Mac Pros can be had for $600 and offer just as much expandability as our old G4s. You can transform a base quad Pro into an 8 core for less than $300 and it'll out perform almost all the current Macs except for maybe the high end iMac.
With those prices in mind I'm having trouble deciding between one of those and a i7 Mini.

I do agree that the white iBooks look very nice, moreso with the G4s than the white G3s. The white Macbooks until the plastic unibody ones didn't quite seem the same.
 
InuNacho said:
Actually the first gen Mac Pros can be had for $600 and offer just as much expandability as our old G4s. You can transform a base quad Pro into an 8 core for less than $300 and it'll out perform almost all the current Macs except for maybe the high end iMac.
With those prices in mind I'm having trouble deciding between one of those and a i7 Mini.

I do agree that the white iBooks look very nice, moreso with the G4s than the white G3s. The white Macbooks until the plastic unibody ones didn't quite seem the same.
Click to expand...

If you can get me a MP 1,1 for $600 give me your PayPal address and it'll be sold I still can't find one for under 1k. I think this'll change Mountain Lion drops support for "old Mac's."

Here G5 quads go for $600
 
GermanyChris said:
If you can get me a MP 1,1 for $600 give me your PayPal address and it'll be sold I still can't find one for under 1k. I think this'll change Mountain Lion drops support for "old Mac's."

Here G5 quads go for $600
Click to expand...

Wow, how I envy you. Here, G5 quads still sell for around $1k.

Then again, Apple products here have always been at least $100 more expensive compared to US prices.
 
kylera said:
Wow, how I envy you. Here, G5 quads still sell for around $1k.

Then again, Apple products here have always been at least $100 more expensive compared to US prices.
Click to expand...
I mean, I got a Dual 1.8gzh G5 with 8gb of ram for 50 bucks....new install of OSX 10.4 and all that, I guess I was lucky?
 
The later PowerPC Macs (Dual G4s, and all G5s) are still good enough for web browsing, office, iTunes, etc. Maybe not the latest versions of this software, but most people have no need to upgrade to the latest versions of software constantly.

My family still uses an iMac G5 on a regular basis and it serves it's purpose.
 
PowerPC's have gotten so cheap, and have decent support (At least many of the models) as well for parts. You can still go and replace your old battery or upgrade your RAM, and they're great computers. I ran Leopard on a 12" G4 iBook before it got water damage, and am typing this on a borrowed iBook. There was some great designs from then, especially the colored G3 products. And the G4 cube is so cool. In fact there is one displayed in an art museum at... um... I forgot.
 
"I fall into a Macbook and PowerPC category"

Yep, this is me! But I use Macs 4 music so I still need to run PowerPC apps, Rosetta etc...One thing I haven't seen on here though is that PPC G5's particularly the last generations are def NOT slow! I run Apple Logic, regularly run iDVD and the CODEC runs happily on my G5 as it does on my MacBook Pro DC 2.4Ghz 2008. In fact the G5 DC 2.3 is quicker on this!
That brings me to another thing....I can't run a latest MB Pro 15"....it doesn't have FW 400, 800 & ExpressCard34...I NEED all three to run my stuff!!! Apple's latest is not fit for purpose....and my apps are No.1 priority!!!
 
For me, it's the nostalgia of it all. During my last years in school the Power Mac G4 was the new hot choice for us that studied all things media related. And we had exactly the G4 and the G3 in my signature.

I can't really explain why I also want the cube and the iMac G4, because we didn't have those. I guess it's that strange quality most Apple products seems to have - that you... you just want it. You need to own it.
 
GermanyChris said:
If you can get me a MP 1,1 for $600 give me your PayPal address and it'll be sold I still can't find one for under 1k. I think this'll change Mountain Lion drops support for "old Mac's."

Here G5 quads go for $600
Click to expand...

Locally, most of the 1,1 machines I've seen on eBay or Craigslist, go for around $700.
 
The Orchard

..a local used mac reseller here in Phoenix, AZ has quad core Xeon Mac Pros for 999. I am seriously tempted, but can't really justify it.
 
2 syllables..........

Ser Ver.

I think the best is a QS >833 (to run 10.5 without any modding)
with a SATA RAID card. If no optical, I think you can squeeze 8 drives in there.
Gigabit built in, not as power hungry as a >G5, cheap wireless (although slow)
I even plan on using an iRAM for the OS.

Speaking of modding..........you can easily take off all the carbonate, soak them in 90% Isopropyl to remove the paint, and then paint the inside how you seem fit. You have not seen a load G4 until you have seen one with a canary yellow side panel!!!!!!!!!
You can replace fans easy and even use a ATX PSU.

MDD would not be bad, either, except they are louder more hungry and have less space.
 
G4s

I love my G4 PowerMacs because I have the flexibility to do whatever I want with them at a low cost and still enjoy a Mac. Try these days to have a flexible Mac, unless you want to get a Mac Pro and pay thousands what else you have out there?
 
adddictedtomac said:
I love my G4 PowerMacs because I have the flexibility to do whatever I want with them at a low cost and still enjoy a Mac. Try these days to have a flexible Mac, unless you want to get a Mac Pro and pay thousands what else you have out there?
Click to expand...

You don't, but somehow you don't need the flexibility (now...in a few years you will "cry" for it) because the system runs everything fine.
In a G4 the flexibility is important because of the upgrades to mantain it running fine through the years.
 
GermanyChris said:
If some one runs across one for that price, please let me know.
Click to expand...

Shipping something like that from the States to Germany would effectivly put the price in the $1,000+ range. I shipped a 15 pound 24x6x12 inch box from Cali to I believe Berlin (a bit fuzzy) and the shipping came close to $80 without insurance. Just imagine how much a 50 pound slab of aluminum would cost!
 
InuNacho said:
Shipping something like that from the States to Germany would effectivly put the price in the $1,000+ range. I shipped a 15 pound 24x6x12 inch box from Cali to I believe Berlin (a bit fuzzy) and the shipping came close to $80 without insurance. Just imagine how much a 50 pound slab of aluminum would cost!
Click to expand...

Na..I'm an APO so it would be no different than shipping in the US, probably $80
 
That's all very expensive!

MacBooks (not Mac Pro's) are rather cheap!

Most MacBooks 1,1-2,1 go for 200-300 euro's. But I've bought and see many MacBook 2006 models going for less than 200 euro's.

I myself have a fixed up (new topcase/screen bezel) MacBook 1,1 1.83 CD 2GB /60GB VERTEX 3 lying around which I want to sell for around 325, and than I am being expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back