First mac, looking for advice on cheap 2nd hand

[claudius753]

The longer you wait, the lower the prices will go as new macs start arriving.

I'm psyched to find another Mac/Metal person. I just saw your location...a true IM fan indeed! Personally, I am a MAJOR Judas Priest fan, my favorite (favourite in 'brit' ) band. I saw them on the Retribution 2005 tour. Sadly, I missed Ozzfest 2004 with Priest and this past year with IM. My friends got to see a tour with Mötorhead, Iron Maiden, and Dio (Ronnie James Dio is the most awesome 68+ year old ever) a few years ago. I would love to see a tour with Judas Priest (newly reunited with Rob Halford), Iron Maiden (I love that Bruce ****inson is back), and Dio (who can not like Dio???!). Have you heard Bruce ****inson's new solo album, 'Tyranny of Souls'? I have to say it is a lot better than IM's Dance of Death (one of the weakest IM albums IMHO).

So anyway, relating to Mac's....umm well, macs rule!?

[wicker_man]

Yeah I've heard Tyranny Of Souls, its an awesome album. Need to get some more Bruce ****inson albums. I quite liked Dance Of Death, although BNW was my favourite. The weakest were the Blaze Bailey ones. I like all metal (about 70% of the music on my iPod is metal- 3 Inches Of Blood, Trivium, Slayer, Pantera, Motorhead, Manowar, Fear Factory, DragonForce etc).

Anyway, I'm gonna keep an eye on what Macs go for what prices on eBay, see what I like while I look for a job.

Just saw a VERY nice 17" widescreen iMac G4 1GHz, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Superdrive, iSight and OSX 10.4.5 for £525 Buy It Now on eBay. Hopefully should be £250-300ish in 4-6 months?

[claudius753]

3 Inches of Blood - now this is just crazy! Someone else who has actually heard them. Have you been to any shows? Cam Pipes is awesome, they sound great live (saw them open for Metal Church in Baltimore about 2 years ago). I need to get an iPod, I still don't have one.

Yes, I should think that the G4 and G5 macs will be getting cheaper as the rest of the Mac line switches to intel in the next few months. No way to really tell what they will be going for though...

[wicker_man]

I haven't seen 3IOB (missed out on the Roadrunner Road Rage tour). Seen Maiden 2 times (Brave New World in 2000 and Dance Of Death in 2003).

I really wanted to go to the Unholy Alliance tour 2006 (starting on 06/06/06) with Slayer, Lamb Of God, Mastodon, Children Of Bodom and Thine Eyes Bleed- awesome lineup, but unfortunately it's only in the US (and I am in the UK).

I'm still quite tempted just to pick up a G3 iMac (£50-60 for a 233MHz) in the next few weeks, but if its going to be too underpowered even for music and web browsing, I'm not sure if it's really worth it (especially by adding more RAM/HDD) and even then OSX might not run smoothly.

[dtravis7]

The 233 iMacs are the very first iMacs. They are not that fast with OSX and a lot of times need a firmware upgrade to even install OSX. If you are broke and want to get an iMac to save $$$ try for at least a 350 Mhz iMac with the Slot load CD or DVD drive. It's a better machine and will work a bit better with OSX.

[Kar98]

I would recommend an iMac G4 for your needs. They can be had for fair prices (I've seen them going for as low as $325 US), and are great machines. I personally think that it'll be a much better investment than an iMac G3.

Stupid question probably: most of the machines I see for sale on ebay or craigslist seem to have fairly small harddrives. Can I upgrade those with regular IDE harddrives in the same way as with Wintel PCs?

[dtravis7]

Stupid question probably: most of the machines I see for sale on ebay or craigslist seem to have fairly small harddrives. Can I upgrade those with regular IDE harddrives in the same way as with Wintel PCs?

Yes and no. The older G3 and even the early G4's will take 128GB Max without a PCI HDD Controler card. 128GB is plenty for most uses, but just a warning, on say the iMacs that have no PCI slots, you are stuck with 128Gigs Max. Again, plenty of room but wanted to be sure you knew that.

Otherwise they take standard PC hard drives, just be sure what size drive like 3.5" or 2.5" is in the Mac you want to upgrade.

[Kar98]

Yes and no. The older G3 and even the early G4's will take 128GB Max without a PCI HDD Controler card. 128GB is plenty for most uses, but just a warning, on say the iMacs that have no PCI slots, you are stuck with 128Gigs Max. Again, plenty of room but wanted to be sure you knew that.

Otherwise they take standard PC hard drives, just be sure what size drive like 3.5" or 2.5" is in the Mac you want to upgrade.

Glad to hear that, and 128GB is still plenty for me. The 80GB that crashed on me last Sunday was only half full anyway, after 5 years of use

Thanks for replying, and I'll probably be back with more stupid questions: My (hopefully 1.5Ghz) G4 Mac Mini will be delivered tomorrow...

[dtravis7]

Glad to hear that, and 128GB is still plenty for me. The 80GB that crashed on me last Sunday was only half full anyway, after 5 years of use

Thanks for replying, and I'll probably be back with more stupid questions: My (hopefully 1.5Ghz) G4 Mac Mini will be delivered tomorrow...

Very cool.

[Kar98]

Waah, bummer. I thought for sure I'd be getting one of the stealth-upgraded ones. Guess not, oh well

[wicker_man]

I decided I couldn't wait, and decided to get an iMac G3.

Somebody was selling it for £10- A Grape iMac G3 (DV I think) 400MHz, 64MB RAM, 10GB HDD, slot load DVD drive, 2 firewire ports, original keyboard and round mouse. It's running OS 9.0.3.

Plan to upgrade the RAM, HDD and install OS X Panther on it and enjoy

[lil]

Well for £10, you got a bargain so I cannot argue with that :flower:

Considering you didn't pay anything really for it, it was worthwhile doing so! Plus uber cool colour :flower:

I may get get my folks an iMac G3 or eMac for when they move house, something nice and easy for them to get online with and type letters etc.

Vicky

[Triumph-Nut]

[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=5][SIZE=6]I find these ten-year-old posts interesting. Since I've been opening up and souping up my Macs since 1986, Meinself would*recommend, you look for a good used mid 2012 Apple PRO Tower. It will handle nearly anything you throw at it. And, it is internally accessable. You can install different PCI boards, etc. The Current Pro Towers, are IMNSHO, "Plastic Waste Baskets." After trying three different Lap Tops, this ole curmudgeon finds everything since the G3 Pismo to be too fragile and maddening to acess the workings. Even changing a hard drive is an exacting chore for my glove size X-large hands.
Was scared off of the G-7s by all of the posts of persons with major problems.
HOWEVER, the Newer iMacs use very little computer desk real-estate. BUT, I'd Keep the Extended warrranty for at least 3 years. Trying to open one of them up to repair, could result in a Basket Case. Made my Souped up Quicksilver G4's last eight years. Still using one purposely off line for my financial info.