First mac, looking for advice on cheap 2nd hand

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to_tough_to_die said:
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.

As much as I would love a G4 iMac, they have been recently going for £350-£450 (I'm in the UK) for a 15", 700MHz with 512mb/40GB. It does have a screen, but the actual machines aren't that upgradable.

I'm pretty sure that a G4 would be best for me, because a 400MHz one with basic 128mb ram and 20GB hdd would be fine (with an old crt temporarily) for when I first get it and just get to grips with OSX. Then I can upgrade as I earn more money. TAlso, there don't seem to be many digital audio ones, just graphites (and quicksilvers/mirror drive doors for £500+).
 
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Hmm, that does look good.
Shame I don't have a job yet, need to get some money in.

Also, I am in the UK, and I'm not sure whether they'd ship from the US (and it would probably cost a lot).

I'm not really in a position to buy at the moment (just gathering advice), so prices may fall in the next few months.
 
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An iMac G4 or PowerMac G4 would be even better. You could easily upgrade the G4 to be a speedy machine for not too much money. You could also go for a mini, but I personally don't like the first revisions of hardware and even then would only consider the Core Duo. Maybe a used PPC G4 mini?

Anyway, I'm sure you will have a blast when you get your Mac. Its a "Brave New World" ;) and us mac people are all "Blood Brothers"

And if the above sentence didn't make sense, I misinterpreted your user name :mac:
 
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Yeah, a PowerMac G4 looks to be the best, because minis can't be upgraded much as they use laptop components (HDD/Optical drive).

My laptop seems to be running slower every day (time for a reformat very soon- again!) and I can't wait to get a Mac.

(What you said did make sense, Iron Maiden are my favourite band. Going to see them 12 Dec!)
 
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ive used the g4 emac 1.2 ghz with 256 mb of ram they are pretty fast and are not too expencive
 
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Good suggestion, the eMac looks quite attractive now, considering the 'whole package'- £250 for a 750MHz G4, 40GB HDD, 256mb RAM, CD-ROM, OS 10.3 and a 17" screen.

I should be able to upgrade the HDD to 200GB, RAM to 1GB and optical drive to a DVDRW/Superdrive and it should be quite good? I suppose the GPU/CPU isn't upgradable though.

Hmm, seems like I have an alternative to the PowerMac G4 now.
 
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The eMac isn't a bad option at all; I used to use one when I worked at an AppleCentre and it was a pretty nice Mac all considered; that and the CRT was fairly decent at 1280x960.

The hard disk and optical drive are a big job to change though, my only warning really; since you will have the CRT to deal with and you have to be ever ever so careful, did I say be careful? You really have to be careful working next to the CRT -- I cannot say this enough! Those things carry very high voltages even when powered off. You may already know this though!

However, indeed -- the eMac is a good machine; and the Mac I am seriously considering getting my parents.

If you can wait though, it may pay off to get the 1.42GHz eMac; as it has a 64MB Radeon 9600 (not too miserable, but not amazing), most have superdrives and a decent sized hard disk in the first place. At least then you would have the top end eMac... Depends how long you wish to wait.

Vicky
 
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Yeah, I need to actually FIND a job and start saving (which would be at least 4 months). At least then I'd be able to get a better spec model.
 
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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 Dickinson is back), and Dio (who can not like Dio???!). Have you heard Bruce Dickinson'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!? :D
 
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Yeah I've heard Tyranny Of Souls, its an awesome album. Need to get some more Bruce Dickinson 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?
 
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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...
 
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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.
 

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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.
 
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to_tough_to_die said:
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?
 

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Kar98 said:
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.
 
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dtravis7 said:
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 :D

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

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Kar98 said:
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 :D

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

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