G4 Prices

L

lnoelstorr

Registered
Point me in the right direction if this has been covered already, however:

What the heck is up with the G4 prices.

The top end G4 costs more than the top end G5. Surely that's a bit of a backwards pricing policy - why would anyone go for a G4 if they cost more.

Or am I missing something?


I really need a desktop mac, but can't really afford a G5 now - I thought I'd be able to pick up a cheap G4 for now.

Oh well - I guess there's always eBay.
 
The top-end G4 is a dual-processor, which brings the price up a bit. If you look closely, you'll also see that the top-end G4 is loaded with ram (2GB) and hard drive space (2 x 160GB drives). Now, those components should seem inexpensive, but we all know how Apple is with hard drive and RAM upgrade prices.

If you custom-build the top-end G4 and knock the ram down to 256 or 512MB and take away that second hard drive, the price drops ~$1000.
 
Interesting... my dad got a dual 867 Mhz MDD tower for about $900 recently, though it was a lemon, so he traded it for a dual 1.25 Ghz with a printer and scanner.

I wonder what happened to the other G4's, the ones that don't run at 1.25 Ghz?
 
Originally posted by ElDiabloConCaca
The top-end G4 is a dual-processor, which brings the price up a bit.
Click to expand...

The top end G5 is also dual-processor, and they're faster more powerful processors, yet it's still cheaper than the dual G4.

What is up with that? Surely they're not going to sell any!
 
i think that fact that they boot in OS 9
is another reason the prices are a bit inflated, since Apple is always pushing for the switch to OS X
 
Originally posted by lnoelstorr
The top end G5 is also dual-processor, and they're faster more powerful processors, yet it's still cheaper than the dual G4.

What is up with that? Surely they're not going to sell any!
Click to expand...

But they're NOT comparable machines -- the top-end G4 has four times the amount of RAM in it and roughly twice the hard drive space. If you custom-configure the dual G4 and knock the RAM down to 512 and take out that extra hard drive, the price of the G4 is about $700 - $800 cheaper.
 
Originally posted by ElDiabloConCaca
But they're NOT comparable machines -- the top-end G4 has four times the amount of RAM in it and roughly twice the hard drive space.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's a better explanation, and was the something I was missing - cheers!

This then leads to the question - why does the top end G4 come with this and the top end G5 doesn't? - My guess would be to fool mugs like me into thinking the G5 is cheaper.
 
Well, if you look at the Apple Store on the G4 page, you'll see that there's really only ONE G4 model available, and that's the single-processor 1.25GHz model all the way on the left hand side for $1299. The other two models have the "Custom Built" logo beside the price, meaning that they're not really G4 models, simply modified G4 models. Apparently, the "Custom Built" options include adding another processor, upping the RAM and hard drive space, and your choice of a Combo- or Super-drive.

You can't compare the G4s to the G5s at the Apple Store since the G4s are pretty much discontinued in a way because of the intoduction of the G5. Apple is still offering G4s, but they are offererd with only ONE processor option (with the option to add a second) and allowing you, the customer, to customize the drives, RAM and video options. Just because there's 3 G4s pictured there doesn't mean there are 3 different kinds of G4s to choose from, whereas there ARE three different G5s to choose from.

I personally think that the G4s are a steal now. Starting at $1299 for a 1.25GHz? DAMN! That's good in my book.
 
What happened to my last post? I swear I posted in here again yesterday.

I said that the dual G5 goes up to $4174 when you configure it with 2 GB of RAM ($1050) and a 250 GB hard drive ($125).
 
Whoa, just noticed that Apple took away the option to add another processor to the cheapest model. You now have to choose the model on the far right and bump features DOWN to get a cheap dual-G4 instead of selecting the cheapest one and adding another processor to it... wonder why they did that?
 
When could add a second processor? I thought that was one of the things you couldn't change.
 
For a while, you could go to the Apple Store page for G4s, choose the $1299 model and the first customize option was the number of processors -- you had the standard 1 processor, and the second option was to add a second processor for, I believe, $250.

That option is no longer there -- you must choose the model that has 2 processors and downgrade the rest of the customizable options to get a cheap dual-G4 machine now.

This was probably an option on the G4s because single- and dual-processor machines used the same motherboard -- dual processor machines still only had once processor socket on the motherboard, but the processor card that fit in there had two processors on it.
 
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