(My) Best deal of the year..

So, after scouring Kijiji (local FST site), I came across a G4 PowerMac (labeled as a G3) for sale for $25...

I instantly thought "something's wrong, or there's a catch."

Was I ever wrong.

I bought a G4 733mhz Quicksilver (up'd to 1.5gb ram/super-drive), in mint condition with an Apple Pro Keyboard for $25 CDN!!!

I know that these don't typically go for much (Mac2Sell quotes $60 CDN), but most people around here sell a similar system for about $450.
'
Anyways, just wanted to share.. It's so nice to have a Mac again..

<3 Firewire being a standard

Nice!

Holy cow! What was the person that sold it to you like?

Good find. Too bad they had no idea what they even had. Oh well at least you benefited from it. >_>""

Audio.Trench said:

I bought a G4 733mhz Quicksilver (up'd to 1.5gb ram/super-drive), in mint condition with an Apple Pro Keyboard for $25 CDN!!!

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I must have missed this thread...so I'm a little late.

Nice find!!! The downside of buying older Mac's is if they don't come with a "useable" amount of ram (cause some sellers remove the ram & sell it separately)...it can sometimes cost more to upgrade the ram then the whole darn computer cost!!!

Congrats again...$25 CDN converts to $24.38 US...whoo hoo!

- Nick

Good deal for sure in Canada. I have that same Quicksilver 733 Mhz G4 and maxxed out the RAM. Works quite nice for such an old machine. What OSX is installed on it?

That is no G3 for sure! Grin

Hehe.. It's got 10.4.11..

I'm actually going to put the money into this machine to up it to a dual 1.6ghz and a 9800 Pro 128mb.

It will only cost me about $500, and I have the extra disposable income to do so. I've always wanted to upgrade a G4, and when I saw this, I jumped on it.

I think it'll be a good investment for my studio, because it's running Ableton Live 8 quite well for only being a 733.

I know there's a lot of "hate" for upgrading a 9-year old machine, but it'll scream for sure (after reading detailed reviews about both the cpu and the Radeon).

Plus, I could flip it for a profit and put towards a newer Mac down the road.

@ Michael.. To be honest.. she was a bit.. loopy.. I guess I could say.. She had lots of computer hardware she was trying to get rid of, and her place looked like one off that show Hoarders... No joke.. She had it advertised as a G3 Powermac, but it's clearly not. She even said she paid $410 for it a few months ago, intent on giving it to a friend of hers, but they already had a computer, so she kept it for Skype.. When I went to pick it up, she was like "Are you sure you don't mind giving me $25 for it? I mean I'm practically giving it away.." .. No joke..

@ Crimson.. I think she kind of knew what she had, but just wanted to get rid of it.. Like I mentioned to Michael, she told me how much she paid for it and everything.. She seemed like a nice, older lady on the phone, and I felt kinda bad at first, but after she said all that, I was like SOLD! haha..

Audio.Trench said:

I'm actually going to put the money into this machine to up it to a dual 1.6ghz and a 9800 Pro 128mb.

It will only cost me about $500, and I have the extra disposable income to do so. I've always wanted to upgrade a G4, and when I saw this, I jumped on it.

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Please don't take this the wrong way...but if you spend $500 upgrading this G4 you're...insert appropriate adjective!!!

For $250 US you can get a dual 1.8-2.0ghz Powermac G5 on e-Bay (maybe a little different in Canada)...and this G5...with all of it's hardware improvements over the previous Powermac G4's...the G5 would be MUCH faster!

But if upgrading a Powermac G4 has always been a life-long dream...then I certainly don't want to be the one to say otherwise!

- Nick

I'm going to agree with Nick on this one. You're better off buying a better machine and upgrading that. If you do have $500 and don't feel like sending me any, start perusing the listing on eBay or even CL/Kijiji to find yourself a better machine.

Sorry, $300 (including tax/shipping).. My bad.

I found a guy who has a dual 1.6ghz for $175, and the Radeon can be had off eBay for about $90, so realistically, it's not that much cash to put into it.

Judging from the way Ableton 8 runs now, those 2 pieces of hardware will serve my needs until I evolve and need more power.

To be honest, in Canada, prices for used G4/G5 systems are quite steep. This is why I'm going this route. My audio work is all I'm using this machine for. I still have a Dell Studio 15 laptop that's loaded as well. (2.16ghz c2d/4gb ram)

One thing a lot of people will not understand is people like you and I love to upgrade certain older machines. I know parts are not cheap, but if it's what you want to really do, go for it. Just do not expect a lot in return if you sell it.

I did that with a G4 DA maybe 3 years ago and don't regret it. Mine is a single 1.8Ghz and it's not bad with 10.5.8. I did not do the upgrade to make it my main machine, just for the fun of it as like you said, Upgrading is rare with Apple hardware. You can't do much that way with the G5 machines. No CPU upgrades really.

Just don't spend too much. I think where the others are coming from is for $500 you can get a newish Mini that will totally blow down even a G5 in most things.

Have fun and keep us posted.

Audio.Trench said:

Sorry, $300 (including tax/shipping).. My bad.

I found a guy who has a dual 1.6ghz for $175, and the Radeon can be had off eBay for about $90, so realistically, it's not that much cash to put into it.

Judging from the way Ableton 8 runs now, those 2 pieces of hardware will serve my needs until I evolve and need more power.

To be honest, in Canada, prices for used G4/G5 systems are quite steep. This is why I'm going this route. My audio work is all I'm using this machine for. I still have a Dell Studio 15 laptop that's loaded as well. (2.16ghz c2d/4gb ram)

Click to expand...

$300 is better...and if Powermac G5's are selling for a lot more than what I can get one in the US...then maybe it's not as "xxxxx" to spend $300 to upgrade it.

But I still think that if you watch your favorite used Mac websites carefully...eventually you will be able to get something VERY nice for $300 CDN...just like the deal you came across for this Powermac G4 for $25 CDN.

Have fun,

- Nick

dtravis7 said:

Just don't spend too much. I think where the others are coming from is for $500 you can get a newish Mini that will totally blow down even a G5 in most things.

Have fun and keep us posted.

Click to expand...

Exactly where I'm coming from!

I'm certainly not against upgrading older computers...but don't spend so much $$$ that with the same $$$ you could buy a better & faster used computer then what you end up with after upgrading the original used computer (Powermac G4 in this case).

- Nick

Here is the insides of my PowerMac G4 Digital Audio. 1.8Ghz G4 (Giga Designs), 1.5GB PC-133 RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, 5-Port USB 2.0 card, 2x120 GB IDE Hard Drives. Only thing missing in this pic is the new Sparkle 350 Watt power supply and the Airport card I popped in later.

Also at the time of the pic I had not upgraded the top hard drive. Just to the right of the machine in the first pic is the Apple 22" Cinema Display.


Click for full size - Uploaded with Skitch


Click for full size - Uploaded with Skitch

One last pic of the Digital Audio and my $39 Quicksilver 733Mhz G4!


Click for full size - Uploaded with Skitch

dtravis7 said:

Here is the insides of my PowerMac G4 Digital Audio.

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Thanks for the photos! I always thought that those G4 upgrades were interesting looking with the dual horizontal cooling fans.

I assume you kept the original G4 processor...just in case that 1.8ghz G4 cpu "crapped out". Of course let's hope not!

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Thanks for the photos! I always thought that those G4 upgrades were interesting looking with the dual horizontal cooling fans.

I assume you kept the original G4 processor...just in case that 1.8ghz G4 cpu "crapped out". Of course let's hope not!

- Nick

Click to expand...

Of course. It was a 667Mhz G4. I got a 533Ghz G4 DA for a friend a long time ago who wanted to mess with OSX and put in the 667 into the DA. He never picked it up so they they both are here. I left in the 667 and put the 533 in storage.

I hope the pics I posted inspire Audio.Trench as he really seems into modding that Quicksilver.

Looking at these G4s makes me wish I hadn't given mine away. The G4 was my first Mac too!

vansmith said:

Looking at these G4s makes me wish I hadn't given mine away. The G4 was my first Mac too!

Click to expand...

Like your first girlfriend & your first kiss!

- Nick

dtravis7 said:

Of course. It was a 667Mhz G4. I got a 533Ghz G4 DA for a friend a long time ago who wanted to mess with OSX and put in the 667 into the DA. He never picked it up so they they both are here. I left in the 667 and put the 533 in storage.

I hope the pics I posted inspire Audio.Trench as he really seems into modding that Quicksilver.

Click to expand...

Like you said, you're like me in regards to modding old hardware.. I'm a sucker for old "crap" stuff.. Computers, music, and otherwise.. I have no idea what draws me to it.. Maybe it's because I still see potential in it? I have no idea..

The pics are definitely cool, and people like you make me more confident in my decision. People drink too much hatorade when they come across the topic of upgrading a G4 (or similar). And I totally dig what they say, and I'm not getting defensive or anything.

I'm a tinker-er.. It's in my blood.

The only other upgrades I'll be doing is a USB 2.0 card. The 1.1 that's in it is slow when trying to pull files off my USB hard drive. Plus I need more ports anyways. This will probably be the first thing I do, as I can get 4-port 2.0 cards for $11.

Here's a pic of my setup.. I actually came home from work yesterday, and my amazingly-awesome girl, surprised me by setup my Mac, with my interface, and everything else (the HP monitor is running 1440x900, and even the desk. There used to be a budgie cage where my setup is).. I <3 her face!

Audio.Trench said:

Like you said, you're like me in regards to modding old hardware.. I'm a sucker for old "crap" stuff.. Computers, music, and otherwise.. I have no idea what draws me to it.. Maybe it's because I still see potential in it? I have no idea..

The pics are definitely cool, and people like you make me more confident in my decision. People drink too much hatorade when they come across the topic of upgrading a G4 (or similar). And I totally dig what they say, and I'm not getting defensive or anything.

Click to expand...

Believe me...if you knew how many old Mac's I own you would know that I like old Mac's as well...and I like to upgrade them & keep them running just like they were when new.

But I draw the line on how much money to invest in them when the money invested in upgrades GREATLY exceeds the value of the computer. This 733mhz Powermac G4 was purchased for $25 CDN. If you go to Mac2sell.com...you'll see that it's used value is actually $30 US...and at the current exchange rate...that's about $30 CDN. So you really just got it for a little bit less than it's actual value.

Investing $300 CDN into a computer that's worth $30 is 10 TIMES the value of the computer!!! I mentioned earlier that you would be better off purchasing a dual processor Powermac G5 with that $300 bucks (actually it was $500 earlier).

Here's a Canadian e-Bay auction for a dual processor 2.5ghz Powermac G5 with 4.5 gigs of ram (from a seller in the US).

Apple Power Macintosh G5 2.5 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 160 GB on eBay.ca (item 320605738100 end time 26-Oct-10 15:50:13 EDT)

The current high bid on it is about $127 US dollars with less than 2 days remaining. Yes the price will go up before the auction is over.

I've seen many many 1.8 to 2.0 ghz dual processor Powermac G5's sell for around $250 US...so this 2.5ghz Powermac G5 may go higher than that. You will also notice that there was one question in this auction for how much shipping would be to Toronto (your area)...shipping is $85 dollars.

If it was me...I would MUCH rather spend $250-$300 + $85 shipping on a dual processor G5...than spend $300 on a 733mhz Powermac G4.

Like I said...if you knew how many old Mac's I own...you would know that I like old Mac's as much as any other fan of old Mac's. But spending 10 times the value of an old Mac to upgrade it...when you can purchase a newer & much faster Mac for about the same money...seems a better/wiser use of the money.

Just something to consider,

- Nick