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186
 
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Finally after years of hearing about how good they are and how much better than PC they are i'm deciding to take the plunge and get myself a mac. Trouble is with a young PC and laptop to support as well as the usual bills that come in money is a bit thin on the ground at the moment so I'm thinking of going for a G4, and my question is are they still usable to get a feel for mac before going out and buying a new one?
All help is appreciated cover, thanks.
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286
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Yes, a G4 is an ideal route into the Mac experience. All G4 machines will run OS X 10.4 happily and those with 867MHz processors or faster will install/run the new OS X 10.5 'Leopard' as well. The cheapest way would probably be to buy a G4 iMac or Mac Mini. The Mini is probably the cheapest but you would need a USB key board & mouse plus a monitor. The iMac is the easier way as its built in screen and included mouse/keyboard means these should be included in a 2nd hand purchase. Although they look nice I would avoid the G4 laptops as they still retain a high 2nd hand price and run quite warm. IMHO go for the 1.5GHz Mac Mini (late 2005 model) or the 17" iMac with 1.25GHz processor( Sept 2003 model, the last of the iMacs with the screen on the cantilever arm. You might even find the early flat panel G5 from 2004 might just fit your budget too.
If you want further info on the available models, go to www.mactracker.ca and download the Windows version of Mactracker. This gives the history and lowdown on all things Apple have made since the first machines 30 years ago.
This has just given me a thought. How about MM doing a feature on getting into the Mac scene the cheap way? There are plenty of useable machines with plenty of life that newbies could use as a taster OS X......?
Over to you Mr Osborne......
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186
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Thanks for the info, and i agree it would be good to see an article like this in Micro Mart, maybe as an extra part to the recent "second hand guide" series?
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186
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| thats a great idea, in the article i think the Apple machines didnt feature much, but thats understandable. On the topic of G4's, theyre a fantastic machine to start with pretty easy to upgrade also, about this time last year i bought a G4 333MHZ (Yikes! edition) stuck 1GB of RAM and popped a new HDD and a Geforce 2 card (PCI) and it served me aswell as a good introduction to OSX what was most suprising was the fact it ran CS2 better than my P4 rig :S , because the machine was so cheap off ebay and the upgrades didnt cost too much either, it allowed me to try OSX without going out and wasting 1K plus on machine thar i couldnt get along with. Im still using it today, running OSX 10.4 server, acting as a hardware firewall, print, file, and iTunes server. Annoyingly PPC MacMini's still hold theyre value, but yeah give a G4 try, i wouldnt recommend the model I bought, maybe go for a 800+ CPU running tiger.
iMac 24" 2.4GHZ Core 2 Duo - 2GB RAM ATI Radeon HD2600 - OSX 10.5.5
MacBook Pro 17" 2.4GHZ Core 2 Duo - 4GB RAM Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT - OSX 10.5.5
MacMini / 20" Apple Display - 1.6GHZ Core Duo - 1GB RAM Intel GMA OSX 10.5.5 Server
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Pentium
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wheres the best place to get 2nd hand macs?
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Pentium
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| Won't say it is the best but some fairprices here, try apple shop http://www.2ndchancepc.co.uk/bargains.html
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186
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its a bit cliche' but ebay is the best, look for people who want to make quick sell, 2nd chance pc are pricey for your buying....
iMac 24" 2.4GHZ Core 2 Duo - 2GB RAM ATI Radeon HD2600 - OSX 10.5.5
MacBook Pro 17" 2.4GHZ Core 2 Duo - 4GB RAM Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT - OSX 10.5.5
MacMini / 20" Apple Display - 1.6GHZ Core Duo - 1GB RAM Intel GMA OSX 10.5.5 Server
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286
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BigAlbie (04/11/2007)
Over to you Mr Osborne......
Cheers, that would make a great Mac Mart!
There's an excellent website about pricing second hand Macs. It lets you to select a model of Mac, then add on extras such as more RAM or an integrated Zip Drive, before telling you roughly how much the machine is worth second hand. I can't find it at the moment, but I'm sure I bookmarked it at home - I'll take a look when I get there.
And yes, the G4 is an excellent introduction to the Mac. You could get a decent tower system for not very much nowadays (but remember, Macs hold their value better than PCs). Personally I'd make sure it had a 1GB or faster processor.
Edited to add: And remember, Macs which use a PowerPC processor (such as the G4 and G5) can't run PC operating systems alongside Mac OS. You need an Intel-based Mac for that.
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286
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Found it - that website is found at http://www.mac2sell.net
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