New to Mac, advice needed

Hi all I am new to the Mac World, I have been running, taking to bits and moddlng PC's since the days of Win 3.1 however never touched a Mac until now. I am in to my cycling and snorkelling, not made the move to diving yet, but I wanted a mac to make great final quality edited video. Also my brother in law has a band and I have been doing some work with Garage Band on the iphone and thought it was about time to get the big boy version or equivalent.

Without jumping in feet first and parting with a great deal of cash I decided to see what ebay had to offer, originally I thought I was after a G5 Powermac and was watching these for a while, however a friend of mine who is in office clearance and liquidation stock has asked me if I want 10 G3's and 10 G4's for practically no cash, most reportedly working running 10.4. at present this is all above my head but in time hopefully I will be able to do something with these items,

I have no idea on the specs at present, however tomorrow I will be picking them up and booting them one by one to see what I actually have. in the members of this forums opinion, is a G4 somewhere worth starting from and building an understanding of MAC systems, or is it better to just re-sell the items on ebay for working units and spare individual parts?

I went ahead and started a new thread for you, since you're looking for some detailed advice and the "New Members" thread is more about introducing yourself.

As to your question - I would honestly not bother with any Mac that runs a PowerPC processor (G3, G4, G5, etc). This is for several reasons, the biggest being that OS X development for PowerPC Macs ended with 10.5 (Leopard), which is now quite old (2007). No new security or software updates have been available for some time and retail copies of the OS are hard to come by and very expensive.

If you want to dip your toe into the Mac world on the cheap, you're best to look for an early Intel model (something like a Core 2 Duo iMac or Mac Mini). The effort and expense you will go to in order to get those systems in any kind of usable state (particularly for editing video) will simply not justify the result.

cheers cwa,

I was afraid of hearing this kind of news, to be honest though I am £4 in to each of these machines so I'm hoping to try and at least recoup that, my wife will go crazy over the space required however I will soon off load these asap.

really beginner question, is their much difference in what I can achieve with 10.4 to the current release, I mean usability making my way round the bones of the user interface?
I am convincing myself to part with some hard earned cash in the summer and just by myself a new shiny MacBook.

Worst case I have seen a coffee table fashioned out of two G3's on ebay and was very impressed, this may be the future of some of my units...

SamMac said:

really beginner question, is their much difference in what I can achieve with 10.4 to the current release, I mean usability making my way round the bones of the user interface?

Click to expand...

I'd say there's a world of difference between Tiger (10.4) and the current release, Mountain Lion (10.8). Granted, it's not so radically different that you wouldn't have any idea where to start if you made the jump; a lot of the core design is still the same (desktop UI, menu bar on top, dock on the bottom, etc.). Enough has changed though that I would say it is very significant.

Apart from the vast number of changes in the OS itself, the issues are also with a lot of Apps requiring 10.6 (Snow Leopard) onward for operation.

Say you buy a new iPod/iPhone or whatever, that requires iTunes 11 which requires 10.6 at a minimum and 10.5 is the last version of OS X that supported a PowerPC-based Mac..

Situations like these pile up very quickly. If you were to take a machine/OS from that particular era, as long as you stick with other peripherals from that era itself, you'll be fine. Try to use stuff from this era with that old machine you're in for a world of annoyance..

SamMac said:

really beginner question, is their much difference in what I can achieve with 10.4 to the current release, I mean usability making my way round the bones of the user interface?
I am convincing myself to part with some hard earned cash in the summer and just by myself a new shiny MacBook.

Click to expand...

There are some significant UI differences between 10.4 and 10.8, though it's nothing earth-shattering (think of it like going from Windows XP to Win7). The big difference is the software support. Most recent software, including the big names like Final Cut Pro, Adobe CS, etc, are going to require an Intel processor and at least 10.6, if not 10.7.

So, let's say that you can get a G4 iMac up to 2GB of RAM and a decent (500GB) HDD installed and that your cash outlay is minimal (let's say $100). You're now locked into a world where you can't buy any off-the-shelf software at retail. You can't download anything from the Mac App Store (because it doesn't exist in versions older than 10.6). You're pretty much limited to whatever old, used software packages you can find on eBay or scrounge up in the public domain.

This is why I say I wouldn't throw good money after bad on a PPC-equipped Mac.

An older Intel Mac will likely run 10.6 (Snow Leopard), which IMO, is the best release of OS X ever. It will also run Windows natively or via fast virtualization, and software is readily available. For the $300 or so you'll spend on a good, used Intel Mac Mini, you'll gain a world of additional capability in terms of software compatibility, and you'll be able to get a real feel for what a modern Mac is like.

Worst case I have seen a coffee table fashioned out of two G3's on ebay and was very impressed, this may be the future of some of my units...

Click to expand...

They make excellent doorstops as well.

Don't forget boat anchors!

Hi,

is a G4 somewhere worth starting from and building an understanding of MAC systems, or is it better to just re-sell the items on ebay for working units and spare individual parts?

Click to expand...

Defiantly the later, but truth be told not sure if you will recoup your outlay.

I am convincing myself to part with some hard earned cash in the summer and just by myself a new shiny MacBook.

Click to expand...

Keep checking here you can get some really good refurbished deals from Apple.
Refurbished Mac - Buy Refurbished Mac Products - Apple Store (UK)