Noob:Is this Quicksilver a deal?

Or should I look elsewhere?

You see, I'm a graphic design Major, graduating ina few months. The brunt of my work at the moment is high-res digital illustration and concept paintings in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter.

At school, I use macs for the Adobe and Macromedia Suites, and I love how they run them.

Now, my only computer at home is is a Dell Ispiron Laptop. 256RAM, 20G HDD. I got it in 2002. I cannor afford an expensive computer right now, but I'm looking for something that has more HDD space and won't freeze and take forever to "think" when I use Photoshop and Painter. I also do a bit of 3d work for my internship (I work for an MMORPG software company as concept and texture artist) but if I free up my PC of all the crap that's bogging it down now, I should be able to do the low end, 3d stuff I have to on it.

Here's where the Quicksilver comes in. My friend is trying to make a few extra bucks to pay some bills and has one sitting around her apartment not beign used. Here's the specs on it.

Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,5
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 800 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 2 MB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.4f1
Serial Number: 1332TKKSD
Sales Order Number: 01004575331332TK1234123412341234


ATA Bus:

WDC WD800BB-40BSA0:

Capacity: 74.53 GB
Model: WDC WD800BB-40BSA0
Revision: 12.08C12
Serial Number: WD-WMA6S1278717
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ATA
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
OS9 Drivers: Yes
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 74.53 GB
Available: 63.99 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s5
Mount Point: /


Built In Sound Card:

CODEC: Texas Instruments TAS3001C
Sample Rate: 44.1 KHz
Number of Inputs: 0
Number of Outputs: 3
Devices:
Output:
Type: Internal Speaker
Output:
Type: External Speaker
Output:
Type: Headphones
Power On Self-Test:

Last Run: 12/19/06 9:11 AM
Result: Passed

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-103:

Firmware Revision: 1.90
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: No
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No

NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with TwinView:

Chipset Model: GeForce2 TwinView
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 64 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0110
Revision ID: 0x00b2
ROM Revision: 1075
Displays:
HWP D5259A:
Resolution: 1024 x 768 @ 85 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Not Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
DIMM0/J21:

Size: 128 MB
Type: SDRAM
Speed: PC133-333
Status: OK
DIMM1/J22:

Size: 512 MB
Type: SDRAM
Speed: PC133-333
Status: OK
DIMM2/J23:

Size: 128 MB
Type: SDRAM
Speed: PC133-333
Status: OK

It's currently running OSX and comes with a monitor, mouuse and keyboard. She wants $150 for it. I told her I'd do $75 up front, then another $75 if I'm satisfied and decide to keep it.

Now, I don't know the first thing about Mac specs and want to know if this will be a nice cheap way to get my graphics work done for graduation so that I wo't have to awit 4 minutes or so for Illustrator or Photoshop to do menial tasks. Am I getting a deal with this? Should I try to talk her down? I know nothing about trying to upgrade these things either.

Any input is GREATLY appreciated! Just reading over your forums and all the info on mac's (aside from wha tI already know like, how smooth they run with no extra junk clogging up the background just to keep it alive) I've acquired here in the last few minutes alone have made me want to buy one lol.

Well, I think it's a pretty good deal at that price. No doubt it will do your work faster than your laptop, but it won't be blazing fast. I used a PowerMac G4 MDD (dual G4 867MHz) for a while and was fairly impressed using Adobe CS2 applications. Overall for that setup, it is definitely worth it, and if money is tight, it will be ideal for you. You will definitely be happy with it for certain. I say yes...

Go for it! Thats a GREAT deal.

thanks so mch guys ^^ I just need confirmation from Mac people that I'm not getting entirely ripped-off. I was a bit iffy on the price because I ran across This guy on Ebay but I'm figuring since this is a friend of mine, if I have any issues I have someone to complain to in person.

Any other opeinions/help/advice would be greatly appreciated! So $150 is good?

It seems that I will soon be re-inducted into the cult of the Mac. My first computer was an AppleII ^.- So this looks like it will get me by pretty well til I scrounge up enough to get a more powerful system?

How hard would it be to upgrade it to a larger HDD?

cakey said:

Go for it! Thats a GREAT deal.

Click to expand...

This is good to hear you say this, since you are also a G4 user

That is a very good deal. Quicksilvers still get pretty good prices on Ebay and for those Specs, $150 is a great deal. Go for it. Good machine to try out OSX and get used to it. You can upgrade the RAM to 1.5GB later if you need it.

SO do these specs mean it has 768RAM total in 3 seperate slots?

Sorry, I'm a total dummy on Macs ^^;

Well, I know how to use them for the most part I have to use OSX at school for graphics work, I've just never had ot buy one for myself >.>

Patches said:

SO do these specs mean it has 768RAM total in 3 seperate slots?

Sorry, I'm a total dummy on Macs ^^;

Well, I know how to use them for the most part I have to use OSX at school for graphics work, I've just never had ot buy one for myself >.>

Click to expand...

Yes you are correct. The motherboard has 3 PC133 slots. In that machines case, there is one 512MB, and 2-128MB PC133 sticks installed. Later you can take out the two 128 sticks and install another 512 and give yourself a Gig.

Again though, very good deal. I paid way more for my 667mhz single CPU Digital Audio.

The hard drive isn't too hard to upgrade; it's just a standard ATA IDE hard drive (not SATA). Just make sure to get a Seagate brand hard drive...

CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 800 MHz

Click to expand...

Does this mean I have two CPU's each at 800MHz? Is this like an older version of a "duel core" if so? What exactly does this mean?

I'm trying ot know all I can about this thing ^^;

I'm sorry to be such a bother with my first post!

Well, it isn't dual core; it's dual processor so there are two separate processors, but they are on the same processor cartridge thingie that plugs into the motherboard.

well, i got the computer. Hooked it up and everything, and turned it on.


Then it turned back off the moment I let go of the button.

Well, it didn't really turn on, the light just came on a faded away. No whirring, nothing. Opened it up, everything looks hooked up just fine. Then tried resetting everythihng, still did the same thing.

Figuring it's the power source since the computer worked fine earlier in the day because she sent me the specs from the "about this mac" info. All of that lined up with what's inside it and since she knows nothing about computers, and she's a good friend, I'm going to assume she did in fact turn it on earlier today.

Since I don't have the $$ to buy a new power supply one to find out if that's actually the problem. I'm giving it back to my friend after the holidays and getting my money back.


Back to the old crappy lappy Dell.

wait! Just had to reset the PMU something or other, it was easy and it worked ^____^

So yeah, I'll go play with my "new" shiny mac now!

Patches said:

wait! Just had to reset the PMU something or other, it was easy and it worked ^____^

So yeah, I'll go play with my "new" shiny mac now!

Click to expand...

Congrats! My old roommate (graphic design major) has the very same comp and still works great to this day.

Well, it didn't work after I moved it to my desk, opened it up hit the PMU button again and it boots up like a champ now.

Gonne unplug it again overnight to see what it does int he morning just in case though ^.-

Does anyone know if this is a commom problem? Is it because I'm moving it? lol. Should I still give her all the $75 in the end or try to talk her down? IS the full $150 still good. (photoshop only takes like, 15-20 seconds to open now! YAY!)

With the way it just startes photoshop, I kinda wanna lean toward giveing her the money and running before she realizes what she lost lol.

Not a common problem, I'd check in the morning. Let us know. I'm fairly certain it isn't from moving.

deus_ex_machina said:

Not a common problem, I'd check in the morning. Let us know. I'm fairly certain it isn't from moving.

Click to expand...

eep! Should I be scared? >.> I have no more cash to put into this T.T

Still gonna play with it for the night lol.

Got to find a mousepad....

What was funny, when we decided to open it up to reseat some stuff to see if we could get it to work, the two guys doing it for me(hardcore Windows people), were commenting on how sexy it was that the computer just flipped open lol. "I didn't have to unscrew the side?!"

If after turning it off for a while and then plugging it back in and you have to reset the PMU, I am wondering if the Battery is dying? Check to see if the Time and Date gets messed up when you unplug it for a while. If so it's the battery. You can find them on Ebay or Radio Shack. They are cheaper on Ebay.

Sweet, when I plugged it back in this morning after being unplugged all night, it started up juuust fine. No problems at all.

'cept FireFox started up automatically. I need to find where the whole "startup" stuff is. lol

Patches said:

Sweet, when I plugged it back in this morning after being unplugged all night, it started up juuust fine. No problems at all.

'cept FireFox started up automatically. I need to find where the whole "startup" stuff is. lol

Click to expand...

System Preferences>Accounts>Startup Items.

okay, so where do I go to change the use names of everything. It's still set to my friend's name. I've tried doig it under "accounts" but I can't change my "short name" and when I go to change the name of my little house thingie (home?), when I reset, it changes it back to her name and takes all my stuff I saved in there and puts it in a seperate folder >.>

<--totally clueless