Busted iMac fix or eBay?

[hayduke]

My sister has a 1st gen (possibly 2nd) 17" iMac with a busted logic board. She can get it fixed for ~$400-$600. Fix or eBay-it?

 

[wakerider017]

My sister has a 1st gen (possibly 2nd) 17" iMac with a busted logic board. She can get it fixed for ~$400-$600. Fix or eBay-it?

eBay for sure!

You can get a new 20" iMac for pretty cheap now. (especially if you have a student discount.)

 

[killerrobot]

I said fix it, just to even things out on the poll plus some people get really attached to their macs and may never want to get rid of it.
But, in all honesty, 400-600 is way more than what that computer would even sell for if it were working on ebay.

 

[yippy]

First Gen as in G5 or as Intel?

Either way, selling it and sinking the $400-600 you would have spent to fix it on a new machine instead could get you a lot. Apple sometimes has iMac refurbs for around $1000 and chances are they will be a bit of an upgrade.

 

[RGunner]

if you do decide to sell

and I would vote that direction, heck there are $800 iMacs on the Refurb site in the mornings...

keep me in mind, I need a 17" iMac G4 LCD for a project (badly...)

Rob

 

[hayduke]

I'm leaning toward selling it. It feels wasteful, but I guess if someone is buying it then they are putting it to good use. AFAIK it is a 1st or 2nd gen G5 (not Intel, not G4).

 

[gravyboat]

Hi hayduke,

I'm in a similar boat. When I looked into selling mine on eBay a couple of months ago there was very little action on the iMacs with logic board issues. A quick check today showed a couple of iMacs being sold for parts but again, little interest (so far, anyway).

Just wondering if you've been following the auctions and what sort of price you think you can get. I think I'm out of luck with mine because I'm actually in worse shape than you. Not only are the capacitors shot but the logic board itself is damaged and therefore unrecyclable. At the places I've been to, the $450 repair is for capacitor replacement, and contingent upon being able to recycle your board. For a repair with a new board, the price is around $950.

Whichever way you go, I hope things go well.

 

[hayduke]

I haven't followed the auctions at all, but I probably should. It is my sister's machine, so basically I just need to give her some good advice. I'm not sure that fixing it is worth it. If it was an Intel iMac I might feel otherwise, but the G5 won't be supported forever.

 

[gravyboat]

I know what you mean- it's hard to justify the repair cost, especially when you only get a 6 month warranty-- that's at the two places I went to in person, the best-known being: http://www.dttservice.com/imac/imacg5.html

I'm just so bummed sitting on a 2 year old iMac that's basically a doorstop. What a waste of a beautiful machine.

Good luck with whatever you do.

 

[gravyboat]

hayduke,


This auction might be worth following. Maybe I'll put mine up for sale too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-iMac-G5-1...ryZ86702QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[CRAZYBUBBA]

For the record the first gen imacs were G3 crts, the second here lcd g4s, 3rd were g5, and 4th were the white intel and 5 are the alu imacs.

 

[hayduke]

For the record the first gen imacs were G3 crts, the second here lcd g4s, 3rd were g5, and 4th were the white intel and 5 are the alu imacs.

I guess I don't know what to call the sub-generations then. It is a 17" G5, which was the first-gen of the G5s. For those that want to know more about the iMac family tree there is always this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac#Timeline_of_iMac_models

Thanks for the other tips.