eMacs

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Tony123

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Is the new eMac worth it? I've heard some bad and some good on them...trying to determine whether I want to spend money on a Mac and switch from a PC or not... (I know I want to switch, but the costs are the issue...). I don't want to have a g3, that'd be a waste of money, so the eMac seems to be the lowest end and less expensive Mac on the market right now. All I really use a computer for is school, web design, and basic internet stuff. Therefore I don't need this peice of crap I am on right now.

Because I don't have a big budget for this (I am a junior in high school, I work for 50 cents above minimum wage at Washington Mutual Bank...) I have to go with the eMac if I want to switch.

I've got some offers on a used emac (about 1 month used, still has the box and all that...)....just wondering if I should buy it or is it not worth it?

If I don't buy this I will probably stay with Windows (unfortunately...) and buy myself my own computer anyways...

What should I do?
 
The eMac is great value for money, and very popular with existing Mac users around here.
It's specs are impressive and its price is excellent. The first release eMacs, made for the education market, left out modems, etc, in order to keep the cost down. Then Apple released them for general consumption after getting so many requests from the public for the model. About a month later they added in the bits that had been left out in the original spec, such as the modem.

Make sure the one you're looking to buy is one with the modem and audio-in, as it is annoying having to add these features later.
You should get all the system discs with it. And it should almost certainly still be under warranty.
 
I own a eMac. I own the second model with the Superdrive. IMO is a great machine. I was looking at a eMac and a iMac. But the iMacs cost more and the eMacs have that 17" screen. Coming from a owner of one, I don't think you be disappointed.
 
Don't be drawn into the "G3s are crap" cycle; they aren't.
If you have a look through the archives here, there a plenty of "I need a new mac, what should I get?" or "I am going to switch, what mac do I need?" type threads, and the G3 vs G4 topic is well talked over in these.
 
G3 is very up to date, my 800mhz ibook kicks the piss out of most PC desktops any day. Just because its a lower number (3 then 4) doesnt mean its bad. Think of it as an even more affordable G4. I owned a 700mhz eMac and deceided to go portable. I play a few games, listen to music, do internet stuff, and dont really use any processor exstensive apps like video or audio editing or anything like that. eMac had 640mb of memory and so does my ibook, so far I've notice no difference in performance and in fact the ibooks better because my eMac didnt have a dvd drive it was only cdrw. All in all G3 is a great processor. Maybe if money is an issue, look for a 700mhz G3 iMac, Ive used a 400mhz iMac for basic internet opperations (email, webbrowsing, ichat) and it ran great. I think it only had 128mbs of memory too. G3 is very quality, I went with that over a G4 powerbook at the time I bought this because moeny was the issue, it came down to that the ibook did what the powerbook could offer to me at a better price, meaning I didnt need the extra "speed". Thats my $.02


Oh yea, and macs just work better. I mean if you got a 700mhz P3 or something like that it would be terribly slow. Any mac you get (G3 or G4) you will be satisfied :D
 
I used to have a G3 500Mhz iBook (66Mhz System Bus) ... and it was SLOW as Hell, if you did "that" much on OS X. I say slow, because i sold it, and moved onto a G4 Cube (500Mhz) ... the Difference for me, was VERY VERY noticeable. I know they are two VERY different systems, but now that i have my cube running nicely, I can say that a 700MHz G4 eMac or greater, with 512MB RAM or greater will SUIT you down to the ground! :D
 
I'll chime in. My first Mac was an iBook 500 G3, I loved it. It worked just fine with OS 10.1, the only slowness I would experience was not the result of the G3 but rather the lack of Quartz Extreme (IE: only 16 mb of video ram).

I now have an eMac 700 with 640 mb of ram and it works perfectly. At times I do wish I opted to spend the extra $200 on the iMac but I can't complain. You'll be happy with whatever kind of Mac you get.
 
If it's a used one - even if only for a month - I'd try and use it for half an hour before buying it. Sure: You won't find out everything about the machine in that short time, but you'll see whether you like the screen, keyboard and mouse that comes with it.

As you can't replace the screen in an all-in-one machine, obviously, the screen is pretty important, as it's your one biggest interface with the computer. And that's basically the worst thing about the eMac (not that it's a particularly bad piece of CRT, but it's a CRT - not a TFT...).

However: You might be able to get a great 12" Combo iBook - and those simply rock. They're great little fellas - about as mobile as you can get with its feature set. (If you own a Mac, you'll want to take it with you wherever you go...)
 
Originally posted by fryke
However: You might be able to get a great 12" Combo iBook - and those simply rock. They're great little fellas - about as mobile as you can get with its feature set. (If you own a Mac, you'll want to take it with you wherever you go...)
Click to expand...

Yea I agree to that. My little 12" ibook is great. Does everything everywhere anytime. I like it better then the eMac I had because I can take it places (and watch DVDs too). I've notice nothin differenent in terms of performance. Any mac you get will be great.
 
See, I don't really want a laptop or need one though, only place I need a computer at is home so I don't really have the need for a laptop.

The eMac that I've been offered for $700 is a 700 MHZ, Combo Drive, 512 MB RAM, 32 MB video, 40 BG hard drive, tilt/swivel stand...

Sound like a good deal for one month old and for $700?
 
Yea, thats a good deal. I had a 700mhz eMac, cdrw, 640mb, 40gig. I bought it new for 1099 I think last July. I sold it in January for the book and it went for $890 something, they keep their value. eMac is a fabulous machine and If you can get that for $700 go with it. If I had $700 and was looking for another mac, I would jump all over that. Good luck :D
 
ANY G4 Mac rules! :p Seriously now, I think that eMacs and especially the Radeon 7500 models are awesome! Go for it! :D

CU, around here, perhaps? ;)
 
Might as well add one more switcher to the list I think ;) I think I will probably go for it, from the posts here and the posts at spymac.com I have been reassured that it would be a good buy...So yes, you probably will see me around...and probably with a few questions... ;) I am new to the whole Unix thing...
 
alas, i switched to the power cardboard g3 because i thought it would be fast but I had to replace it with the power crate g4.
 
Do huh?

In any case, Tony, if you haven't already, go for the eMac. You're getting a great deal on a wonderful machine. Even though it's the bottom-of-the-line, at least for desktops, it will run power applications beautifully if you ever decide to go into DTP or video editing, or whatever else you might want to try.

The major difference between the G3 and the G4 is Altivec, or the Velocity Engine, or whatever you want to call it. OS 9 doesn't do much with this, but OS X is better prepared to take advantage of Altivec, so you'll see better overall performance with a G4 than a G3.

Oh, and max out your RAM if you can.
 
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