How much for this Mac?

[Steve]

I want to buy my mother's old Mac so I can mess around with it and learn OS X. How much would you say it's worth?

PowerMac G4 400Mhz
384MB SDRAM
PCI Graphics (32-bit/66MHz PCI slot for video card, no AGP slot)
3 64-bit/33MHz PCI slots
17" Apple trinitron-style flatscreen monitor
40GB Maxtor HDD
Mouse & Keyboard
Not sure if optical drive is CD- or DVD-ROM
Might be able to get a USB Zip 100 drive too, if I can find it.

What do you think?

 

[Steve]

bump?

 

[DaveSimmons]

You could search for similar macs on eBay, see what they sell for.

 

[Dennis Travis]

Since it has a PCI Video Slot and no AGP it's the older Yikes! G4. They came with 350 or 400 Mhz G4 CPU and had no AGP at all. Also the motherboard is nothing more than a G3 board with a G4 CPU. Since it's a Yikes based G4 I would say $300-$350 tops. If it was the AGP 400Mhz G4 $400-$450 on Ebay with that configuration.

Hope this helps.

Also I have seen some people with the Yikes based 350Mhz have problems installing Panther but Jaguar would install fine.

 

[wchou]

Free
:thumbsup:

 

[halfadder]

That's an OK machine to learn OS X. Too bad it's only 400 MHz, but it will run 10.3.x pretty well. Don't even bother with 10.2.x or older, they're slower and more ugly (pinstripes, ugh!). Plus 10.3 has a nicer newer version of the Safari web browser (but FireFox/Netscape 7.2/Mozilla is also a good choice).

Don't pay too much for it. As Dennis pointed out, it's a "Yikes!" model based on the G3 motherboard.

Even though it's your mom, don't pay too much. Used Apple prices have a VERY HIGH resale value, far more than what most of us PC users would be willing to pay for old hardware!

 

[Steve]

Yeah, it is the Yikes model and it currently has 10.2 on it, but man it is slow I was in Fry's the other night and saw a CPU upgrade card (up to 1.4GHz) for like $170, normal price $500. Might have to jump on that.

Right now I'm hovering around $250-$300 for it.

 

[halfadder]

10.3 is significantly faster than 10.2.

I've used 10.3.5 on a 500 MHz G3 and a 500 MHz G4. Both systems had Rage 128 graphics. Performance was pretty good on both, though the G4 was a little bit better. My only real complaint was the application launch time. For example, FireFox 1.0 took about 7 seconds to launch in both cases. (on my 1.25 GHz G4 PowerBook, it takes about 2 seconds) Actual run-time performance was good, though. More than enough for learning the ins and outs of Mac OS X and UNIX.

384 MB should be plenty of RAM unless you plan on running two or three "big" apps at the same time. I would suggest giving 10.3 a try and maybe a faster hard drive if needed.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

My Powermac G4 400 is actually very fast, and its running both OS 9.1 and 10.1. 10.1 isnt supposed to be that great, but it runs smooth on my G4. It also has an AGP slot with an ATI Rage 128 Pro.

I agree with halfadder. Do not pay too much for it. It does not have an AGP slot. Also, if you are ever going to be looking into Dual processing with that G4, its not supported. The PCI G4 is not supported for dual processing. I am going to purchase Dual processors for my G4, since mine is supported.

 

[Steve]

Part of buying this Mac from my mom is so she can buy a PowerBook or iBook. My sister and my dad will go in on that too. My sister knows somebody who's selling this (price unnamed) but I'd like to know what you think of this machine:

400MHz PowerBook G3 14" screen
Firewire
320MB RAM
6GB HDD
OS X 10.3
new battery, original power supply

I think she'd be worse off. Her big frustration is her current machine's slowness (owing to what is said above re: OS version) and I'm not sure this is such a great deal. What do you think?

 

[w00t]

its priceless since its a mac.

 

[Dennis Travis]

With those specs it will be maybe even slower since it's a Laptop and a G3, than her current Desktop. Slower drives and such. I would not turn it down as I would give anything for a Powerbook that would run OSX for the few things I do on a Laptop it would be fine for me but for her only system it will be a bit slow even for general stuff like Internet surfing and Applications. Remember it's a G3 CPU also. I would go for at least a G4 Powerbook but the price will be higher of course.

 

[hopejr]

That would be one of the black powerbooks with removable drives, etc. I know someone with one of those.
I think that they're a bit old. A Ti Powerbook G4 would be better, but more expensive, and since your not being offered one of those, (forgot what I was going to say )