Buying powermac g3

I found a powermac g3 on craigslist for $50 with tower, monitor, keyboard and mouse. He didn't give the specs, but even without that would this be a deal?

derekblock said:

I found a powermac g3 on craigslist for $50 with tower, monitor, keyboard and mouse. He didn't give the specs, but even without that would this be a deal?

Click to expand...

$50 is a bit high if it's a beige model or doesn't include monitor/keyboard/mouse. It also depends what kind of monitor - probably a crummy old CRT that will cost you at least that much just to dispose of it when you get sick of using it.

If it's a blue G3 and includes a fully working 17" blue and white Apple monitor, then it might be an okay deal. FYI, my brother just sold a 733 MHz Quicksilver G4 for $100 (computer/kb/mouse only), so an older G3 is worth significantly less than that.

I would advise against buying a G3 unless you don't mind living in the stone age. All the good software requires at least Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" which doesn't run all that well on a G3 system.

The tower b/w G3 Pwr Mac is a great machine - but it's old. There are all sorts of things you can do with it, but don't expect rocket performance. I paid US$125 for mine when I bought it 2-hand some years ago, and I don't regret it one bit. I still use it for OS 9 stuff, because (as my specs show) it has dual drives. Great to work on with its drop-down motherboard. I think US$50 is a reasonable asking price, considering the peripherals that come with it.