Was I ripped off?

Well, two days ago I bought my frist Mac. I use them at my school for Graphic design classes and I just fell in love.

I paid $152 for it on an auction site. It's a G4 (processor upgraded to G5) half-sphere 15in iMac. You can see the exact auction here. It might ask for your Yahoo! id. Or, Yahoo might hate me.

Anyway, did I get a good deal?

(Buy the way, it will be used for Adobe Creative Suite CS2 and music mostly.)

i didnt see a G5 upgrade, but for $152, that is still a good deal. the CompUsa where i go all the time has one that was a display model for $800

It says that it sold for $375 not $152.

That was the buy it now price by the looks of it.

Not aware of any G5 upgrades for the G4 iMacs, or any Mac at all in fact. That said, seems a very fair price for that, well done. :flower:

Vicky

For what you are getting it's not a Rip off at all. I have never seen an iMac with those specs for that price. Not even close.

But, Don't believe it's a G5. I have never seen a G5 upgrade for a G4 iMac. Never. If there is please show me a URL. The fact he lied bothers me, but when you get it, it's all there as pictured, you stole it. I would just ignor the G5 part. Notice he never gives G5 specs but G4 800.

Cool. Good for you man. I'll give you $200 for it. lol

Just make sure it all checks out when you get it. Never can be too careful. That computer's probably worth around 650-900 bucks if it's what he says it is. Also, if you want to run Photoshop, I'd recommend getting as much RAM as you can cram in that thing (up to 1 GB, last I heard). I would upgrade to the newest OS (10.4 Tiger) as well, if I were you.

At the moment, I can't afford more ram or 10.4. Woe is me. neye:

It has 10.2.8. Can I still run CS2 on Panther? I REALLY can't afford to upgrade.

10.2.8 is Jaguar. You can get Panther for very cheep on Ebay. with 512 Megs RAM you can run CS2 but it will for sure help if you can upgrade to 1 Gig ASAP. Jaguar is getting old and some newer things will not even run on it. Try to get Panther ASAP.

Can I use a new install disc or do I need to get an upgrade disk?

I can run Photoshop CS on my PC at 265 RAM, why wouldn't 512 be ok?

Sure you can run it in 512 but if you do a lot with Photoshop you will run out of memory. I also run Photoshop both on the Mac and PC. The more RAM you give it the better when working with large images.

Panther will upgrade your Jaguar install. I own the Boxed Panther which is the full install and it installed right over Jaguar and kept my settings. Sometimes it's better to do a NEW install, but it will work.

let us know what the computer is like when you get it.. and how the "g5" upgrade works if it is indeed real, that is the only part i am doubting about the auction.

Hmmm. Now I'm sad. I hate being poor.

popculture said:

Hmmm. Now I'm sad. I hate being poor.

Click to expand...

I am basically in the same position you are. I have found some real good deals on older Macs which helped a lot then was able to grab a new Mini. First NEW Mac I could afford.

That iMac G4/800 will get the job done till someday you can get a newer mac. It's not a bad machine at all.

I really love the look of it. The G5's are too boxy for me. I think the G4's are very stylish.

You did very very well to get that at that price.

And hon, I emphathise with the 'poor' thing, I got my new PowerBook G4 a couple of months ago, I had finished Uni/college and had just started working, it was my first ever new Mac in using and owning them since 1995. These things have to be worked for and they are all the more sweeter when they do come!

Up until August, I was getting by on a IIfx (it's 15 years old...), a 7200/90MHz and an iMac G3 with Panther. I have since sold the iMac and the 7200 is now dismantled, but they all served me proud, the IIfx is staying as it was my 2nd Mac and it got me where I am today computer wise. I recently got an 8500/120 for £5 (about $8 USD), and it turned out to be a G3 333MHz (it was upgraded!)

So you really don't have to have the latest and greatest to become the greatest hehe :flower:

Just think, a few months ago I was using Photoshop 5, Painter 6 and Word 5.1. I still use Word 5.1 as it is best word processor out there IMO without all the bloat. Thankfully since graduating, I did well jobs wise, and now own Painter IX, Photoshop 7 (not the latest but still excellent), and it feels good, but I'll never forget my roots as they shaped my Mac knowledge and experience, and I didn't come out bad at all :flower:

When you graduate, you might find yourself landing an uber-cool job not because of the Mac you used but because of the extraordinary work that it will now allow you to do. You go hit the big time!

Vicky :flower:

dtravis7 said:

I am basically in the same position you are. I have found some real good deals on older Macs which helped a lot then was able to grab a new Mini. First NEW Mac I could afford.

That iMac G3/800 will get the job done till someday you can get a newer mac. It's not a bad machine at all.

Click to expand...

It certainly sounds a good deal - but I am confused. Is the machine a G3/800 as mentioned in the quote, or a G4/800 as mentioned or a G5????

I have no Yahoo ID......

If you have already received the item and it works, I would say it is a great deal, but at that price I would think something was up. I would expect that to go for at least $500 on ebay.