[Rodster]

Hi everyone I'm new to this forum. I'm awaiting some insurance money ($2,500), my Imac G3 700 Snow was ruined in a flood with other items. I still like the idea of a self contained unit. So that narrows things down to an iMac or eMac.

I've been reading that both machines suffer from display problems. The LCD fades over time and the eMac has raster problems. Has Apple resolved both of these issues?

The primary use for my computer is Quickbooks 5.0 and iTunes. I won't be using my new computer to play games. I have a Windows based System for that.

What would you recommend I get? Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Superchicken]

2500 for a snow iMac?! Dude... I should start praying for a flood
nah uhh I'd say go with the iMac 17 inch 1Ghz if you want major speed and like OS X.

All deppends on what you wanna do... you bought the 700Mhz iMac when it was out so that says to me that you at least like tobe able to have the fastest, so I'd say which ever you like. As far as the back light problem... it's not a real problem, it "fades" but from what I hear it's incredibly gradual, it'll probably still be good even past the day that you decide you want a new computer. The colours will become less saturated and junk but you won't notice it unless you put it right next to a newer monitor... the same thing happens with CRTs my iMaac's monitor I find If I want the best colours it has to startup cold and run for a while.

As for the eMac my main reason for suggesting you not get one is... they're pretty bulky and not near as wowing as the iMac is.

if you like people being impressed by your computer buy an iMac.

That said... you know you could stil get a new snow iMac right? Like an old CRT one they're runing for 800 I think.
Or heck if you've got that much cash you could even consider a laptop that'd be cool eh? The 12 inch moddel is incredibly spiffy.... yeah uhh... have fun with whatever new Mac you get.

[Rodster]

Originally posted by Superchic[k]en:
2500 for a snow iMac?! Dude... I should start praying for a flood

All deppends on what you wanna do... you bought the 700Mhz iMac when it was out so that says to me that you at least like tobe able to have the fastest, so I'd say which ever you like.

As for the eMac my main reason for suggesting you not get one is... they're pretty bulky and not near as wowing as the iMac is.

if you like people being impressed by your computer buy an iMac.

That said... you know you could stil get a new snow iMac right? Like an old CRT one they're runing for 800 I think.
Or heck if you've got that much cash you could even consider a laptop that'd be cool eh? The 12 inch moddel is incredibly spiffy.... yeah uhh... have fun with whatever new Mac you get.

Thanks for the quick response iChristian. Yeah OSX rocks and I miss it. I've been a Windows user for close to 15 years. OSX is what made me by an Apple Computer in the first place. Hehe I'm not expecting $2,500 for just my iMac, there was a lot to the insurance claim. Apple Soundsticks, Apple Care (serial number specific), Printer, AMD Motherboard, and Playstation2.

I'm self employed and am tired of Microsoft problems, lock ups random error messages and the wonderful Windows Product Activation. My accountant wants me to get Quickbooks. So I decided instead of buying the Windows version I want to get Quickbooks 5.0 for the Mac.

I don't mind the size and bulk of an eMac, I'm one of the few who actually likes the look of the machine. My main concern was the so called raster problems. I hope Apple rectified the problem. LCD screens worry me in that they appear fragile and require care.

Like you mentioned I thought about the $799 G3 600mhz Snow. My concern is it won't run Jaguar very well or will it?

Thanks again.

[slider]

Well, for what you're doing the eMac will be fine, but I would still go with the iMac. I wouldn't go with the snow imac, it is still a nice machine, but think about this an imac for $799, an eMac for $999, I mean really, there are really few reasons one would buy an imac and I can't think of any. Of coarse I still like the iMac better. Don't know what to tell you about the raster shift problem, if it goes then Apple with fix in within a year. Not everyone is experiencing these problems though. I would think that this might have been a manufactering problem which Apple has resolved by now (nothing to support that, but a belief in Apples intention to make quality products).

**Note use of imac and iMac.

[Agent69]

My opinion:

I would go with the 800Mhz eMac before the 800Mhz iMac. They cost the same and with the eMac, you get a superdrive, a better screen, and higher resolution. You don't have to take the unit apart to max the RAM and the raster-shift problem has been fixed.

But if you have the moola, the new 17" iMac is probably the best deal.

[Rodster]

Thank Slider and Agent69, I'm now leaning on the 800mhz eMac. My main concern is the care that an LCD screen requires. I also prefer the look of a Glass Tube.

My final decision will rest on whether the eMac comes preloaded with Jag. Apple's website doesn't mention Jag as part of the eMac's software suite.

If not I might as well by the 17" iMac which does have the latest OS.

[Agent69]

Originally posted by Rodster:
Thank Slider and Agent69, I'm now leaning on the 800mhz eMac. My main concern is the care that an LCD screen requires. I also prefer the look of a Glass Tube.

My final decision will rest on whether the eMac comes preloaded with Jag. Apple's website doesn't mention Jag as part of the eMac's software suite.

If not I might as well by the 17" iMac which does have the latest OS.

This page says it comes with MacOS X 10.2 and MacOS 9:

http://www.apple.com/emac/specs.html

[Superchicken]

Have you seen an eMac face to face? I like the look and I suggested a friend buy it and he likes it too, and I mean it's cool and all but it's kinda like the price is sooo close to the LCD iMac and that thing is just freakishly cool!
Yeah the raster shift problem has been delt with as I understand, if you honestly preffer the look of the eMac go for it, honestly I would go with the one you really like the look of the most. Their features are pretty much the same, although the 17 inch iMac has a faster DVD burner, faster RAM, (not just DDR it's ) faster, bigger hard drive, 1Ghz processor, a graphics card with twice the memory.
Right now we're not really sure where apple's going with OS X's Quartz Extream capabilities. It seems like over the next years OS X is gona get more graphics heavey over time so as that goes the 17 inch iMac would be the best option. And it will run Jaguar the fastest. And if you're gona dabble in iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD then this will be a fairly big consideration.

If the 17 inch iMac does not hit your fancy as far as price or features then Pick either an eMac or an iMac based on preff it's all if you like LCDs or CRTs then they're pretty much the same machine with different monitors.

Oh and by the way the eMac's screen does give you mroe screen real estate than a 15 inch iMac does so if you like having tons of screen space the eMac's good for that reason too.

All of these machines should run Jaguar faster than your 700 did because they have Quartz Extream capable graphics cards.

So yeah at this point it comes down to what you want
Oh and LCDs from what I understand esspecially on iMacs arn't hard to take care of just make sure no one takes a base ball bat too it and it'll be fine, it's hovering in the air most of the time anyway.

[Rodster]

Thanks for the reply SuperChicken. I have seen the eMac in person as well as the iMac. Both are very cool looking computers, but I'm still drawn to the 17" CRT screen and the eMac Stand.

I'm glad to hear the Raster problem has been fixed and that according to Agent69 the eMac comes with Jag. The primary useage of my Mac will be Quickbooks 5.0, Appleworks, Quicken, Sherlock3 and iTunes.

I hope 128meg of RAM will be enough for Jag if not I'll order some memory from Crucial.

[docholiday]

IMHO if the money permits it, go for the high-end iMac. It is a beautiful machine, has a 17" LCD, loads of features like the 4 speed Superdrive, AE, Bluetooth, GeForce 4 etc.

It's a machine that two years down the road you still will be using.

[docholiday]

EDIT: oops, double post... cable connection messed up

[Agent69]

Originally posted by Rodster:
Thanks for the reply SuperChicken. I have seen the eMac in person as well as the iMac. Both are very cool looking computers, but I'm still drawn to the 17" CRT screen and the eMac Stand.

I'm glad to hear the Raster problem has been fixed and that according to Agent69 the eMac comes with Jag. The primary useage of my Mac will be Quickbooks 5.0, Appleworks, Quicken, Sherlock3 and iTunes.

I hope 128meg of RAM will be enough for Jag if not I'll order some memory from Crucial.

Whatever you decide to get, I would have at least 512MB of RAM. If I recall correctly, it will cost you about $160.00 for 1GB of RAM, which is really cheap.

[Rodster]

Whatever you decide to get, I would have at least 512MB of RAM. If I recall correctly, it will cost you about $160.00 for 1GB of RAM, which is really cheap. (Agent69)
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Thanks for the tip Agent69. I saw the price of eMac memory at Crucials website and it will cost just that...$160. Another question, based on the Apps I plan on running how much of a performance gain am I going to see between a 700mhz and 800mhz eMac?

Thanks Agent69 for the reply.

[Agent69]

I can't say as I did not play with the 700Mhz model at CompUSA. Can anyone else here speak about the performance difference between the 700Mhz and 800Mhz models?

[pliny]

Originally posted by Rodster:
Hi everyone I'm new to this forum. I'm awaiting some insurance money ($2,500), my Imac G3 700 Snow was ruined in a flood with other items. I still like the idea of a self contained unit. So that narrows things down to an iMac or eMac.

I've been reading that both machines suffer from display problems. The LCD fades over time and the eMac has raster problems. Has Apple resolved both of these issues?

The primary use for my computer is Quickbooks 5.0 and iTunes. I won't be using my new computer to play games. I have a Windows based System for that.

What would you recommend I get? Any ideas would be appreciated.

I've looked at the eMac and the iMacs and have to say that I thought the resolution and quality of the eMac CRT was superior to the iMac--this is the 800 mhz eMac vs. the 800 mhz iMac I'm talking about.

Until the roll out of the 1ghz iMac I prolly would have gone for the eMac. But now the 17" iMac offers

1 ghz v. 800 ghz
4x Superdrive v. 2x
DDR266 SDRAM v. SDRAM (faster RAM)
133 mhz bus v 100 mhz bus
17" @ 1440x900 v. 17" @1280x960
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX (64 mg video mem) v. NVIDIA GeForce2 MX (32 meg video mem)
Apple Pro Speakers v. Built in speakers

etc. etc.

Well the difference in price is $500 approx, but you can see some of the space between the two.

When I used the eMac and Imac the difference in speed and start up times for apps wasn't apparent to me since the systems were specced pretty identically at the time. The iMac top of the line v. the eMac top of the line is now quite different and so the iMac would offer better performance.

I probably would take the 17" iMac now even though I still think the quality of the eMac image is better than the iMac LCD--well at least in the Apple store it looks better. I'd worry a bit about dead pixels too--the entire "acceptable" dead pixel threshold is much too high for me. My number of acceptable dead pixels is zero.

[Rodster]

Thanks Pliny for the response you make a good case for the 17" iMac. I'm now kinda leaning on the 700mhz eMac. I don't see myself running CPU intensive apps. I just need it to run Quickbooks5 and 10.2 well.

If the performance difference between a 700mhz and 800mhz is minimal I might as well get the least expensive model for now.

[scottiB]

Rodster, had you been using QB 5.0 on you snow iMac or have you still to purchase it? Only reason I mention it is that if you purchase a PowerBook, you get QB free. A 12" PBook is $1799, less $300 cost of QB. I know it's more than an eMac, but a laptop is a very handy thing--considering you already have a desktop Wintel.

If you do buy an eMac, make sure you buy the tilt/swivel stand. It's really worth it.

Good luck and welcome.

[Rodster]

Thanks for the heads up Scottib. No I haven't purchased anything yet. I'm still waiting for my insurance payment. I was planning on buying Quickbooks5 along with the eMac as well as the stand.

My thinking is to buy a 700 or 800mhz eMac, with stock memory. Then I'll order a gig of memory from Crucial.

Man I miss OSX

[Agent69]

Rodster,

I just went and checked out the 700Mhz eMac at CompUSA. The performance was better than I expected, especially considering that the unit had only 128MB of RAM. Indeed, I even find myself considering the purchase of one.

But if you have the money, I really do think that the new 17" iMac is the best deal. The screen on the 17" iMac is awesome.

[Rodster]

Originally posted by Agent69:
Rodster,

I just went and checked out the 700Mhz eMac at CompUSA. The performance was better than I expected, especially considering that the unit had only 128MB of RAM. Indeed, I even find myself considering the purchase of one.

But if you have the money, I really do think that the new 17" iMac is the best deal. The screen on the 17" iMac is awesome.

Great timing Agent69, I just recieved my insurance check $2,543, woo hoo! I went to Fry's Electronics the other day and played with the eMac (700/800mhz) and the iMac 15 and 17" models. I keep going back to the eMac for sheer value. For a 1,000 dollars it should take care of my computer needs for a couple of years. The only negative on the eMac 700mhz unit that I saw was running on 10.1, the 800mhz model was running on 10.2.3, so I'm not sure if the eMac 700 is preinstalled with Jag.

I just notified the company who damaged my iMac and awaiting for a reply if they want their damaged iMac. If not I might take it to an Apple shop and see if they'll give me something towards a trade. If so I might get the 17" iMac.

But I don't have an idea of what the value might be in it's current condition.

p.s. you have great taste in women

[Agent69]

I think a lot of places still have older units in stock. For example, Smalldog lists the eMac as having Mac OS X 10.1 and a V.90 modem while Apple's website lists it as having Mac OS X 10.2 and a V.92 modem.

If I do get an eMac, I will probably get it through Apple to ensure that it has Jaguar on it. (I really don't care if Jaguar is preinstalled because the first thing I do with a new computer is slick the hard drive and do a clean install.)

Good Luck.