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Podolsky · Feb 16, 2003, 07:06 AM

Bought my 2 sons an eMac and now, after 6 months I am here to say it was a great purchase. They had an older gen iMac and the eMac was a great upgrade. I have no complaints for the eMac whatsoever. The hardware has been flawless, OSX runs great, not a single crash. And all the software runs fine. So, if you are looking for great value for a computer for kids or grown kids, I highly recommend the eMac.

slider · Feb 16, 2003, 10:26 AM

I have a friend who purchased this for her daughter, and she is completely thrilled with it. For $999 you really can't go wrong with what you get for it. I would like to see a better GPU and speed bump as well as 256MB of ram as default, but still, it's a great price range.

Anand · Feb 16, 2003, 12:10 PM

I agree with this also. When they first came out, we purchase a bunch for our lab and they have worked out great. In fact, of all the Macs in the building, they have been the most solid. One has an uptime of over 115 days.

My only regret is that we purchased machines with CD-Rom drives instead of CD R/W drives. Academia - we are cheap!

JNG · Feb 16, 2003, 08:47 PM

I will join in the eMac praising too (to help offset the people who will invariably come in and say it "never should have been made").

<-----Me

PHoynak · Feb 16, 2003, 10:22 PM

I agree, hopefully I can get one soon. For $799 you can get a refurbished unit, add the Apple Care and for about $950 you have a good machine with a 3 year "bumper to bumper" warranty.

zorn · Feb 16, 2003, 10:49 PM

I had my work buy me an eMac while I was working there part time. It was real nice cause I got a static IP and was able to host demos of the websites I was making them. The machince was great for web development, email and so forth.

I've since taking the job full time which also came with a new dual gig tower + 17" LCD. That said I think the eMacs are great. Our mareting department now uses it for Quark stuff.

Agent69 · Feb 16, 2003, 10:53 PM

Originally posted by PHoynak:
I agree, hopefully I can get one soon. For $799 you can get a refurbished unit, add the Apple Care and for about $950 you have a good machine with a 3 year "bumper to bumper" warranty.

Actually, they have refurbs for $699.99. That's the plain CD/no modem model.

Rodster · Feb 16, 2003, 11:50 PM

Originally posted by Agent69:
Actually, they have refurbs for $699.99. That's the plain CD/no modem model.

Actually I found one a Store Display model for $699 700mhz, modem, CDRW. I wonder if it was returned due to the raster shift problem. The sales person didn't have that info.

Agent69 · Feb 17, 2003, 08:30 AM

Originally posted by Rodster:
Actually I found one a Store Display model for $699 700mhz, modem, CDRW. I wonder if it was returned due to the raster shift problem. The sales person didn't have that info.

You know what's sad was that the whole problem with raster shifting was really just a simple cable. I've read stories where Apple replaced whole components and whole computers for what was really a pretty cheap fix, labor aside. And the eMac may always have a troubled reputation because of it.

Rodster · Feb 17, 2003, 12:10 PM

Originally posted by Agent69:
You know what's sad was that the whole problem with raster shifting was really just a simple cable. I've read stories where Apple replaced whole components and whole computers for what was really a pretty cheap fix, labor aside. And the eMac may always have a troubled reputation because of it.

I didn't know that, thanks for your insight. It's too bad because I think the eMac is a solid value. What's interesting I learned is that the eMac is actually a little smaller than my G3 iMacSE Snow. Smaller package and a 17" screen.

asmack · Feb 18, 2003, 01:56 AM

See this link for pictures of the raster shift...

slider · Feb 18, 2003, 08:58 AM

Originally posted by Agent69:
You know what's sad was that the whole problem with raster shifting was really just a simple cable. I've read stories where Apple replaced whole components and whole computers for what was really a pretty cheap fix, labor aside. And the eMac may always have a troubled reputation because of it.

Wow, that was useful information, did I just miss the thread on that or did it get absorbed through another thread? thanks.

Agent69 · Feb 18, 2003, 10:37 AM

Originally posted by slider:
Wow, that was useful information, did I just miss the thread on that or did it get absorbed through another thread? thanks.

According to Macfixit website the IVAD cable was to blame for this problem. I have read that it is a cheap item to replace but you have to open up the unit to do so, meaning that it's not an end user fix.

Podolsky · Feb 19, 2003, 04:20 PM

Well, it IS great to hear praise for the eMac and it was good to learn about the raster shift problem. Thanks for bringing that out.

I just configured the eMac for wireless printing (Epson 380wn) and it works very sweetly.