Is $185 a good price on this PM?

[ibook30]

Is $185 a good price on this PM?

Power Mac G4 533MHz with 640 MB RAM and Unknown Amount VRAM on a One Hard Drive 40.0 GB IDE HD, CD-RW Drive, 3.5'' Floppy Drive Not Included and Sound Card Included, No Modem Included, USB Ports Included, Gigabit Ethernet Adapter in a Mini-Tower Case. SLIGHT SCUFFS ON SIDES OF CASE

It's an old one from my office - good deal or bad?

 

[vniow]

good deal

**** yeah.

 

[ibook30]

**** yeah.

I assume no optical drive, and no OSX- so to get it up to speed , a couple hundred bucks. Maybe I end up spending $500-$600 total, for a 533 Mhz machine. I haven't worked with less than a 1 Ghz machine - so am uncertain if it will be adequate for -

photoshop
safari
mail
office apps

any guidance is appreciated !

 

[ibook30]

Well - I went ahead and ordered it. I also found this for $100, PM me if you are interested!

Power Mac G3 333MHz with 160 MB RAM and Unknown Amount VRAM on a One Hard Drive 6.0 GB IDE HD, CD-ROM Drive, 3.5'' Floppy Drive Not Included and Sound Card Included, Modem of Unknown Speed Included, USB Ports Included, 10/100BaseT Ethernet Network Adapter in a Desktop Case. SOME SCRATCHES ON CASE,CASE COLOR IS Green

 

[JDOG_]

Totally do it. You could even make it a cheap server in the future and still be getting a great deal. That and its cheaper than an iPod nano

 

[Makosuke]

I assume no optical drive, and no OSX-

Thought the description said outright that it has a CD-RW; maybe you meant no DVD drive, which is certainly handy for installing Tiger.

And yes--spend $70 on Tiger and $50 on a DVD-RW drive if necessary (640MB RAM is pretty good, so you're fine there), and it'll be a very nice computer for about $300 total, if not terribly speedy on things like Photoshop. Toss in a copy of iLife and a bigger hard drive (it can't use more than 120GB, which can be had for $80 or less) if you're so inclined, and it'll still barely break $400.

Nice buy!

 

[Daedalus256]

I saw a G4 on Craigslist the other day with those exact specs and such for $185 and thought it was a nice deal. Good luck with it!

Makes me want Saturday to get here so I can get my Sawtooth

 

[dmw007]

Is $185 a good price on this PM?

Power Mac G4 533MHz with 640 MB RAM and Unknown Amount VRAM on a One Hard Drive 40.0 GB IDE HD, CD-RW Drive, 3.5'' Floppy Drive Not Included and Sound Card Included, No Modem Included, USB Ports Included, Gigabit Ethernet Adapter in a Mini-Tower Case. SLIGHT SCUFFS ON SIDES OF CASE

It's an old one from my office - good deal or bad?

Very good deal!

 

[dmw007]

I assume no optical drive, and no OSX- so to get it up to speed , a couple hundred bucks. Maybe I end up spending $500-$600 total, for a 533 Mhz machine. I haven't worked with less than a 1 Ghz machine - so am uncertain if it will be adequate for -

photoshop
safari
mail
office apps

any guidance is appreciated !

For safari, mail, and office apps, the 533MHz PowerPC G4 w/640MB will be fast enough.

For Photoshop, you might want to consider buying a new CPU/Accelorator Card. A 533MHz G4 will work, but slowly.

Just my $0.02

 

[ibook30]

For safari, mail, and office apps, the 533MHz PowerPC G4 w/640MB will be fast enough.

For Photoshop, you might want to consider buying a new CPU/Accelorator Card. A 533MHz G4 will work, but slowly.

Just my $0.02

Very helpful advice!
It's coming in ten days,,Thanks to one and all ! There are a couple of $100 G3's out there if anyone is interested !

 

[p0intblank]

I'd buy any desktop Mac for $185! I would pimp it out.

 

[PowerMike G5]

Yes, it is indeed a good deal.

 

[ibook30]

Back for more feedback!

First of all - let me thank everyone who offered insight and advice. It was helpful. I got the machine today and it is beautiful!

One catch-

The specs said no floppy, but (as was pointed out to me on this thread) it listed an optical drive (CD-R/W). It has no optical drive, rather a zip drive. I can't use that! I have some old zip disks, but have nevver liked them much. Here's the question-

If I resell ( for a small profit ) do you think I cold get say $275 (and buyer pays shipping) ? ( I'm not terribly greedy, with shipping it cost me 225)

or ....

Could this machine handle an external CD / DVD drive (RW)?

or...

just send it back ! Any feedback is appreciated!

 

[aquajet]

I just sold a sawtooth 450mhz for over $200, so yeah that's a great deal!!!

 

[dsharits]

First of all - let me thank everyone who offered insight and advice. It was helpful. I got the machine today and it is beautiful!

One catch-

The specs said no floppy, but (as was pointed out to me on this thread) it listed an optical drive (CD-R/W). It has no optical drive, rather a zip drive. I can't use that! I have some old zip disks, but have nevver liked them much. Here's the question-

If I resell ( for a small profit ) do you think I cold get say $275 (and buyer pays shipping) ? ( I'm not terribly greedy, with shipping it cost me 225)

or ....

Could this machine handle an external CD / DVD drive (RW)?

or...

just send it back ! Any feedback is appreciated!

Just buy a DVD/RW drive for it. You can get the Pioneer DVR-109 for around $40, which is the drive that I have in my MDD.

 

[ITASOR]

Yeah, just put a optical drive in it! You can get a nice DVD/CR-RW (Combo, if you don't need to burn DVD's for like $15).

 

[ibook30]

OK - Done deal. ITASOR and dsharits have convinced me ( I'm easily swayed ) - I'll pick up an external drive tomorrow. The opinions do make a difference - I was genuinely weighing my options.

Since I'm writing- my next adventure is to find a cable to connect it my ibook and see what it looks like. I'm running Panther - and will be experimenting with the PowerMac - It's completely wiped clean, no OS - I'm sure I'll find out through experiments, but am wondering:

Will I have to format the drive?
Can I load Panther on it from my ibook (and is that ethical/legal)?

If you have played these games - let me know your thoughts - but I am quite content with the free advice I have recieved already - and thank one and all!

EDIT- I'm sobering up and realizing how off topic I'm leading this thread. My apologies Mods -

 

[spinne1]

The Pioneer DVR-109 that is being recommended to you is not an external drive, but an internal one. It is easy to hook up and run, but you must have a computer case that has an opening for the DVD tray to come out, or else you either have to buy a new piece of plastic for that part that does have the opening, or take the plastic piece off and have your computer function but look a little ugly.

Next, while your computer is an okay deal, getting it up to speed may cost enough that it is not such a good deal after all. If you have to spend $100 to beef up the ram, $70-100 for a bigger hard drive, $50 for a DVD burner drive (including shipping), and possibly $25-80 on a new keyboard and mouse (assuming you don't like the ones with it), and again possibly $50-$300 for a processor upgrade card, then it wasn't such a good deal. As for normal use, it will feel fine. As for Photoshop, some filters will seem sluggish, but most tasks will feel normal. Surfing is a little slower than on a new PC, but still doable. Mail is speedy and fine. Office is fine.