Mac Clone-Is it worth the price

[ladywhiz]

Hello
I'm hoping that I'm posting in the correct place here... newbie I am lol.
Just wondering if anyone can tell me if this is a good deal on a Mac clone. A friend has a PowerComputing Powerbase 180 with OS 9.1 on it. He's asking $300 for it. Everything works great on it as my husband was playing around on it. Is this a good deal? It seems pretty reasonable. Thought I'd ask some people who know better as I'm relatively new to Mac-world, lol.
Thanks in advance. I'd really appreciate any input.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Welcome to Mac-Forums, ladywhiz!

My first ever computer was a PowerComputing PowerCenter 150 (desktop model). It was, for its time, a real speed demon.

Remembering that this computer is almost eleven years old I really don't know what a fair price for it would be.

As the specs say on that link I posted right above, the processor is a PowerPC 603e and that is quite old. It would greatly depend on what you intend using it for.

One place you might be able to ask is PowerWatch Refugees.

I hope this helps you a little.

 

[D3v1L80Y]

......Mac clone. .....He's asking $300 for it.

HOLY MOLY!!!!!
That is insane. There is no way on this great, green earth where that machine is worth $300.
It isn't even worth $100.

1.) It isn't even an Apple, its a clone.
2.) It is over a decade old.
3.) It cannot run OS X.
4.) It has a very small (1 or 2 GB) hard drive.
5.) There really isn't much that you could do with it.

I wouldn't even pay $25 for that machine.
I would strongly suggest against paying anything near what they are asking for. I sounds to me like they are trying to use your lack of Apple knowledge to take advantage of you.

 

[dtravis7]

What DB said! Agreed 100%.

There might be a way to upgrade it, but it would cost more than a good used G3 or even G4 PowerMac to do it and even then the bus would be SLOW and RAM and HDD support limited. For $300 go with a nice used G4 tower on Ebay. It will run OSX Tiger and well and all the modern applications. OS9 is SO OLD, there are not any even up to date Web Browsers around for it.

If I wanted a Mac Clone, I would give maybe $15-20 for that machine.

Just checked my Mac collection, I have one of those. Got it for the fun of it at a Thrift store for $15 3 years ago.

 

[mikeyman]

*** is that
40mhz processor
a psp has a faster clocking speed than that
$300 is a joke
go 2 a car boot sale, there probs going for $10

 

[dtravis7]

180Mhz CPU. The 40Mhz is the Bus.

 

[Cassifire]

there are not any even up to date Web Browsers around for it.

Well, there IS iCab...

But I assume you meant GOOD browsers?

 

[MacHeadCase]

How fast was the clocking speed of a PSP eleven years ago, mikey?

Anyway according to Low End Mac you could get G3 or G4 daughter cards for it but this would be way too expensive a venture, I find.

You'd be better off looking for an old Mac like dtravis says.

 

[dtravis7]

Well, there IS iCab...

But I assume you meant GOOD browsers?

:spook:

Good one Cassifire!!

iCab is alright but with all the strange pages on the net these days, it's not quite up to stuff for me anyway.

 

[ladywhiz]

Thanks for the welcome!
Wow, I greatly appreciate all of your responses. I'm a bit surprised to say the least.
From what I have researched, it seemed to be one of the better Mac clones in it's time. I have had little luck finding out much about it as there do not seem to be that many of them around.
Whew, thank you all so much....I'd have hated to have gotten stung and paid $300 for it.
Darn, I guess I'm going to have to give in and buy the real thing for the hubby then eh? Was sort of hoping that if it walks and talks like a Mac then it's almost as good as the real thing.(I know I know....virtual slap coming my way hahaha)

 

[mac57]

I suspect that the only one who should really be interested in such a machine would be a vintage Mac collector. These clones may be valuable some time in the future as a collectors item... they only existed for a limited window in time.

 

[Thorin]

DON'T DO IT! How about an iMac for $80. Sound better?

http://www.shrevesystems.com/systems.html

 

[Ninjab3ar]

My opinion:

If it can't run OS X, it's a waste of money.