08-01-2007, 11:02 AM

Hi all hope you guys can help me out with this!
I currently have a great G5 with 300GB and 1.5 RAM. But that computer is more of my family's computer than my own... my parents and my brother use it.
So I'm looking to get an older cheaper Mac just to have in my room to do some photoshop/illustrator stuff, web browsing. I have an old Dell in my room but it is falling apart on me (it's very old and it's PC so what else would you expect?)

So recently a friend of mine a work told me a friend of his is selling his old Mac G4. Here is his email...I know some computer stuff, but I know very little about video cards and things of that nature... I know for Adobe CS3 you need at least 1 gig of RAM, so I plan to upgrade that.

I'ts a Power Mac G4 (2.9)(AGP graphics) with 256 mb of ram and runs Mac OS X version 10.4.6. The graphics card is a 16mb ATY-Rage Pro 128 Pro. It has a 30gb hardrive with a zip drive and a CD burner. It already has Microsoft office 2004 and Adobe CS and CS2 versions of Image Ready, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional along with a bunch of other adobe software. I dont have a monitor to sell but i will throw in a keyboard and mouse.

**Is this a good computer that will run well?
How much do you guys think it is worth?
Thank you all in advance for your feedback!

08-01-2007, 11:27 AM

Hmm...

Well you could add some RAM to that machine and have a fairly decent web browsing machine... but for Photoshop / Illustrator stuff? The processor in there is fairly slow (350 - 500 Mhz according to Mactracker), so I'm not sure how much joy you'd have with the Adobe apps.

Plus according to the photoshop website you also need:

64MB of video RAM

.. so you might be looking at another required upgrade.

I wouldn't pay more than $100 for it, as it'll need further investments to make it useable.

If you already have a monitor, I'd look at getting a refurbished intel Mac instead. The intel core duo Mac mini can be had for $519,- in the Apple online store refurbished section and will last you a good deal longer than the old G4.

08-01-2007, 11:51 AM

thank you for your feedback!
I want to buy it, but I think you make a great point...why not spend an extra couple of hundred dollars to get a computer that can actually do everything I need it to do for me?
Any other members with opinions, please feel free to post !

08-02-2007, 06:09 AM

I'm not mr wiseguy with everything on computers and not at all yet in the Apple world,

But I can tell that PC will just do fine with some iTunes and FireFox running smoothly, and having a nice chat online, but that's all,

It sounds pretty crappy to me,
try to find a better one?

08-02-2007, 10:05 PM

Used computer values........

mac2sell.net

I found this very useful while I was looking. I just bought a Power Mac Dual 2.7 with 2 GB. I love it. The prices on mac2sell are very in line with what used compuers are selling for on ebay.

If you don't mind buying used my advice to you is shop around!!! It is a buyers market because computers lose their value quickly. There are some GREAT deals to be had if you are patient.

08-03-2007, 05:50 AM

Dude that site is pretty great to watch on!

Thanks for the link mate!