Will a USB 2.0 eMac be suitable for general usage (and other questions)?

[GuyLewis]

I use old computer hardware fairly regularly (I'm skint) and I recently decided to buy an eMac from eBay for £35. It's the USB 2.0 edition downclocked to 1GHz for the education market.

I was wondering several things:
* Will it be useful as a general purpose desktop (nothing hardware intensive like gaming or videos, just general web browsing and the occasional bit of coursework)?
* Is there a way of getting back that .25 of a GHz without messing around with resistors and soldering irons? If not, how difficult is the soldering?
* It comes with 512 MB of RAM and I plan to upgrade it to the full 2 GB. Can I use PC3200 RAM or am I stuck with PC2700? I had a look on Google but I found differing opinions.
* Will Quartz Extreme work? If not, how screwed am I? Again, Google offered no general consensus.

Sorry if I sound like an idiot! I've never used a PowerPC Mac before so I'm not too sure what to expect, although for 35 quid I'm not really fussed even if I've just bought myself a very stylish new paperweight!

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[wrinkster22]

it will be fine for word processing, iTunes, mail, internet, etc.

 

[ThunderSnake]

I use old computer hardware fairly regularly (I'm skint) and I recently decided to buy an eMac from eBay for £35. It's the USB 2.0 edition downclocked to 1GHz for the education market.

I was wondering several things:
* Will it be useful as a general purpose desktop (nothing hardware intensive like gaming or videos, just general web browsing and the occasional bit of coursework)?

Yes.

If not, how difficult is the soldering?

Not as difficult as you might think. You'd be surprised at the precision work that you can do under a good quality magnifying glass. Hone you skills on a PC before putting the iron to any Mac.

Can I use PC3200 RAM or am I stuck with PC2700?

Yes, PC3200 will work, but run at 2700 speed.

Will Quartz Extreme work?

Yes

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

It'll be fine, I've got a 1GHz model with 1GB of memory and use it for those exact purposes.

 

[GuyLewis]

Thanks for all the help guys! I'm definitely looking forward to receiving this