Mac people, convince me to switch!

[PTCvette]

Ok, so here's the deal... I have the chance to buy a mac (yeah I know) for what I think is a good price (asking $300, think I can maybe get it for $250). I don't know terribly much about them, so here's what it's running:

Powermac G4 400mhz
768 MB of RAM!
New 7200RPM 40GB Hitachi HD
Apple PRO keyboard and mouse, both in very good condition
TDK 40X CDRW drive


I have seen a few pics and it looks like it is in great shape. I understand that these things will run OSx pretty well. The main reason I am thinking about getting it is for multimedia stuff.... Photoshop and video stuff mostly. I would keep the regular old PC for my main day to day rig for now.

Questions -

1: Is this sucker stroung enough to run, say, Panther with PS Elements 2?
2: Can't you get a daughtercard to make it a dual? Or do I need a specific mobo in there?
3: I can upgrade it and throw a DVD burner that i have laying around in there, right?

I think that's it... Seems to me like it's a heck of a deal, but I just wanted to know what the resident mac guys think about it.

Oh yeah, he said it looks just like this one HERE

Thanks for your input!
Jeff

 

[UnatcoAgent]

:thumbsdown:

 

[vi edit]

Spend $200 more and get a mini-mac.

 

[Cobalt]

400mhz? I don't think so..

 

[codeyf]

Originally posted by: Sabot
:thumbsdown:

On a side note, I was able to get a G4 Dual 1ghz machine we had in storage at work just to familiarize myself with. It's "neat". But that's about all I can say about it so far.

 

[jagec]

For $250? Not bad! Go for it, it should run OS X fine (heck, I ran OS X on a G3-233 with 160MB RAM)

Honestly though, the rig in your sig WILL be much better at photoshop and video.

 

[EyeMWing]

Waste of money.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Spend $200 more and get a mini-mac.

That's actually a good suggestion. The only loss would be some ram but that's cheap enough.

At any rate, that system will handle Panther and PS Elements just fine. The dvd-burner may or may not work. I think now Apple is pretty good about being compatible with ATAPI devices so my guess is it'll work fine. It will just take FOREVER to encode movies and what not.

 

[Baked]

You're buying a POS. /thread

G4 400MHz = PII

 

[jst0ney]

I would spend more money and get the mac mini. The one you have listed will run OSX but very slow and if this is your first plunge into the mac world you don't want it to be a frustrating one. No matter which mac you get it will not be faster than your pc. Mac's lack the zippyness that pc's can have. So know that going into it and you should be fine.

 

[jst0ney]

Oh yeah and to answer your 3 ?'s. Yes, I think so, and Yes

 

[dartworth]

does it have PCI or AGP graphics?

 

[dartworth]

That will run OSX fine...however

For $200-300 you can throw in a new CPU and get it up to 1-1.4GHz.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: dartworth
That will run OSX fine...however

For $200-300 you can throw in a new CPU and get it up to 1-1.4GHz.

For $200 he can just upgrade the whole thing to a mini-mac and not have to worry about it.

 

[dartworth]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: dartworth
That will run OSX fine...however

For $200-300 you can throw in a new CPU and get it up to 1-1.4GHz.

For $200 he can just upgrade the whole thing to a mini-mac and not have to worry about it.

yes...but the mini-mac does not allow room for expansion...

 

[PTCvette]

Well the thing about the mini is it's 2x as much as what this guys wants for his G4, and I would be stuck with what's in the mini... Granted it's a little faster, but I would be stuck with that junky ATI 9200 and everything else. Plus no firewire800, or gigabit ethernet... Not that I really need them now, but it would be nice to have the option to upgrade down the road. I plan on using whatever I get for multimedia, but I am sure that once I start screwing with it, I will use it more and more for daily stuff like surfing and whatnot.

I could get the G4, get used to it, upgrade it if I wanted to, or sell it to fund a newer rig... But for half the price of a mini, I didn't think it was a bad deal. If I got the G4 I have 1GB of RAM, a 120GB HD, a GF4 ti4600, and a DVD+/- RW waiting to drop in it. I have a friend that had a G4 450 for a while and he said it handled OSx well enough stock, so I would think all these upgrades might help it out.

Thanks to the people that didn't crap in here, and keep the suggersions coming! At this point in time it would be alot easier for me to spend $250 and upgrade this sucker a little at a time than it would be for me to talk the wife into letting me drop $500 on the mini, but the mini is sooooo sweet!

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Waste of money.

Just like everything you sell?

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: dartworth
That will run OSX fine...however

For $200-300 you can throw in a new CPU and get it up to 1-1.4GHz.

For $200 he can just upgrade the whole thing to a mini-mac and not have to worry about it.

yes...but the mini-mac does not allow room for expansion...

You can upgrade the ram, you can get it with much bigger than 40 gig and the video is way better than what he would get with the current system. What more do you really need to expand?

 

[PTCvette]

Originally posted by: dartworth
does it have PCI or AGP graphics?

Don't know if it's PCI or AGP. I hope AGP, because I have that GF4 waiting to go in if I get this system! I need to ask about that.

I was also thinking about the upgrade deal... Then for about the price of a mini I have a real freaking computer that I can upgrade when I want!

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Waste of money.

 

[dartworth]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: dartworth
That will run OSX fine...however

For $200-300 you can throw in a new CPU and get it up to 1-1.4GHz.

For $200 he can just upgrade the whole thing to a mini-mac and not have to worry about it.

yes...but the mini-mac does not allow room for expansion...

You can upgrade the ram, you can get it with much bigger than 40 gig and the video is way better than what he would get with the current system. What more do you really need to expand?

With a tower you can add multiple hard drives, PCI cards, better video card,and have more firewire ports, more usb ports...

a tower is a better deal than the mini...for a power user anyways.


OP...you want to check which version the G4 is. It's either a "Yikes" or "Sawtooth".

The sawtooth has the agp port.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

250 is very good. I have a G4 400mhz with AGP graphics and OS 10.3 and it runs great. It also has 2 HD's and 768mb RAM. I wont go into further detail otherwise people would think I am just showing off. I would say get it! Thats a good price. You can also upgrade it to dual processors, however, keep in mind that if it is a PCI graphics G4, it is not capable of running dual CPU's. Mine can. Also, Dual 1.7GHz G4's are now available through the company Giga designs.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Waste of money.

 

[dartworth]

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/accelerators/


btw...OS X is awesome.

 

[PTCvette]

Very cool! Thanks dartworth and Thin Lizzy. That's the kind of info I'm looking for! Have a :beer: on me!

I have emailed the guy that is selling the mac to see if he knows whether it is AGP or PCI. If it's PCI, I might reconsider and keep looking, but if it's AGP, I think I might get on it!

Jeff