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discotronic · Mar 12, 2004, 03:51 PM

I have been keeping an eye on the prices of a refurb eMac on Apple's website. My better half's little brother has a iMac DV 500 and has been considering the upgrade. He wouldn't use it for more than basic stuff like surfing the net, writing papers and an occasional game. I saw that Apple had a eMac 700 for $499 just a few days ago. They also had a 1GHz with combo for $649. It seems as if the eMac (as far as refurbs go) are the best selling computer that Apple has. It is amazing how low they are selling for.

I guess my question is this. Would it be worth the upgrade right now or would he be better off waiting until the next update? Also, with prices like that, do you think that he would get a good deal when selling his iMac? I'm thinking eBay. Some people are willing to pay a crazy amount.

He isn't in a big hurry to upgrade but the prices are good. It looks as if the eMac is due an update in the next couple months since they haven't been given a real update for some time.

Thanks for any input everyone.

ChasingApple · Mar 12, 2004, 05:49 PM

Exactly what is that DV 500 slow at when it comes to surfing / email / school etc?

Lateralus · Mar 12, 2004, 06:08 PM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
Exactly what is that DV 500 slow at when it comes to surfing / email / school etc?

OS X itself.

discotronic · Mar 12, 2004, 06:23 PM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
Exactly what is that DV 500 slow at when it comes to surfing / email / school etc?

It is slow with none of the above. You left out the part where I mentioned the occasional game. Have you ever tried to play Jedi Knight II or Return to Castle Wolfenstein on that model iMac? Doesn't work very well. With the low video ram and G3 processor, new games are mostly out of the question. Even a G4 700 would be a huge improvement.

ChasingApple · Mar 12, 2004, 09:22 PM

I see, well so what your saying is you want to buy another mac for gaming? OS X I have seen on a bondi blue iMac (233mhz) with 512MB of ram and it was fast. So other then gaming I would say just keep it, most of us dont buy macs for games

diehlr · Mar 13, 2004, 03:15 PM

Bondi iMac, fast? Hmm... I guess that is subjective. Video playback or anything besides running standard applications is near impossible on a Bondi because of the wimpy onboard video. Also, iChat even just with audio chat causes the entire machine to bog down to a crawl. Also, scrolling webpages in Safari is quite choppy. And finally, pulldown menus hesitate in appearing as they require alpha blending which is forced onto the CPU since the graphics card doesn't offer acceleration under OSX. So, I wouldn't exactly call it 'fast'. In fact, I'd say it's barely adequate.

discotronic · Mar 16, 2004, 10:11 AM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
I see, well so what your saying is you want to buy another mac for gaming? OS X I have seen on a bondi blue iMac (233mhz) with 512MB of ram and it was fast. So other then gaming I would say just keep it, most of us dont buy macs for games

Most of who? I would say that most people who own a Mac like to have a good game every now and then. I bought my Mac to do whatever I want. Sometimes that includes playing a game.

If you would read the post you would see that it is someone else that want to upgrade their Mac. That same person also would like to play the occasional game. My question was concerning the price of the system more than a question about game performance.

ChasingApple · Mar 18, 2004, 07:27 PM

Originally posted by diehlr:
Bondi iMac, fast? Hmm... I guess that is subjective. Video playback or anything besides running standard applications is near impossible on a Bondi because of the wimpy onboard video. Also, iChat even just with audio chat causes the entire machine to bog down to a crawl. Also, scrolling webpages in Safari is quite choppy. And finally, pulldown menus hesitate in appearing as they require alpha blending which is forced onto the CPU since the graphics card doesn't offer acceleration under OSX. So, I wouldn't exactly call it 'fast'. In fact, I'd say it's barely adequate.

When I owned my Bondi is was very fast, that was when it came out running the OS it came with, I made no such comment about it running OSX. At the time when the Bondi was a new machine, it was very fast and played the current games very well! Yes it is way behind the times for todays apps, but if you just want to surf, email, IM, etc....then install its default OS 8 and if you want to game on it your going to have to play non 3D hardcore games.

discotronic · Mar 18, 2004, 07:45 PM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
OS X I have seen on a bondi blue iMac (233mhz) with 512MB of ram and it was fast.

Actually you did say OS X on a bondi blue.

ChasingApple · Mar 18, 2004, 08:50 PM

Originally posted by discotronic:
Actually you did say OS X on a bondi blue.

Err, ok im not conversing clearly, I was trying to say 2 different things and they got jumbled together, 1) A Bondi is well capable of being used in todays world for limited things, like Surfing, Email, IM, etc...2) I have seen OS X on a bondi as well with over 512MB of ram and it ran very well considering. It is an old computer, G3 233mhz is not going to be a powerhouse, but it is capable of being useful.

I have a G3 400mhz Pismo sitting here and it is still a great computer. Macs dont lose thier ability to function like PC's do, and I applaud Apple for that

discotronic · Mar 18, 2004, 09:46 PM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
G3 233mhz is not going to be a powerhouse, but it is capable of being useful.

I have a G3 400mhz Pismo sitting here and it is still a great computer. Macs dont lose thier ability to function like PC's do, and I applaud Apple for that

I'm in full agreement with you. Until recently I had a 300MHz Blueberry iBook and it is still a very usable computer. My best friend owns it now and does everything he needs to do with it. I upgraded it with a 30GB hard drive and 576MB RAM. It may not be as fast as my iBook 900 or iMac 1.25GHz but it does what it does and is very stable. It is in near perfect condition and I guarantee that I can pull at least $400 out of it. How many people can say that about their PC that was made in 1999?

Also, I bet OSX running on a 233MHz iMac runs better than XP on a 233MHz PC. I don't have proof of this directly but I would bet a couple bucks at least

diehlr · Mar 18, 2004, 10:52 PM

Originally posted by discotronic:
I'm in full agreement with you. Until recently I had a 300MHz Blueberry iBook and it is still a very usable computer. My best friend owns it now and does everything he needs to do with it. I upgraded it with a 30GB hard drive and 576MB RAM. It may not be as fast as my iBook 900 or iMac 1.25GHz but it does what it does and is very stable. It is in near perfect condition and I guarantee that I can pull at least $400 out of it. How many people can say that about their PC that was made in 1999?

Also, I bet OSX running on a 233MHz iMac runs better than XP on a 233MHz PC. I don't have proof of this directly but I would bet a couple bucks at least

I have a Celeron 466 here (approximately same era, maybe 6 months or so newer) running Windows 2000 and it runs quite nicely for general Internet / Office use. It's no speed demon either, but it is perfectly capable of playing mp3s or movies (using ffmpeg's codecs) too. So, while I agree with you that an old Mac is perfectly usable, I disagree with you that older PCs aren't usable as well.

ChasingApple · Mar 18, 2004, 11:01 PM

Originally posted by diehlr:
I disagree with you that older PCs aren't usable as well.

Well, ok...lets look at this. I also have a few older systems around. I am also willing to bet (because I tried it) that it would be slow as hell running Windows XP. Now a Celeron 400+ Mhz chip is going to do better of course, but bust out a P1 233Mhz with MMX and Windows XP, get prepared to laugh your ass off at how slow it is. But a G3 233Mhz and OSX is great. I tried to load up a game of counter-strike on that old 233 P1 and it took 15 Minutes to do so, lol, yet playing Quake 2 (same engine as the half-life engine powering counter-strike) whipped it around quite well.

Im just saying, Macs last longer and perform better over time.

Eug Wanker · Mar 18, 2004, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
Exactly what is that DV 500 slow at when it comes to surfing / email / school etc?

All of the above.

ChasingApple · Mar 18, 2004, 11:29 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
All of the above.

Yeah ok man. Send it to me

discotronic · Mar 19, 2004, 09:13 AM

Originally posted by diehlr:
I disagree with you that older PCs aren't usable as well.

Where did I say that older PCs aren't usable? I don't think I said anything like that.

I have a P1 200MHz MMX running Win98 like a dream. I'm getting it ready for a friend who needs something just for typing up papers and surfing the net. I know how usable that older systems still are. Please, before you disagree with me at least disagree with something that I have said

diehlr · Mar 19, 2004, 05:55 PM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
bust out a P1 233Mhz with MMX and Windows XP, get prepared to laugh your ass off at how slow it is. But a G3 233Mhz and OSX is great.

*Groan* A Pentium 233 running Windows XP would not be ideal, but it wouldn't be any worse off than a G3 running OSX, given both machines have adequate RAM. I think you need to do a side by side comparison here and see for yourself. You might be very surprised.

ChasingApple · Mar 19, 2004, 06:54 PM

Originally posted by diehlr:
*Groan* A Pentium 233 running Windows XP would not be ideal, but it wouldn't be any worse off than a G3 running OSX, given both machines have adequate RAM. I think you need to do a side by side comparison here and see for yourself. You might be very surprised.

Already have

both with 512MB of memory

mikerally · Mar 21, 2004, 02:19 PM

I work in a office where we have iMac DV 400s and eMac 800s side by side, both running Panther, both with 256MB of RAM.

I can tell you now, as far as running Mac OS X is concerned, the eMac runs circles around the iMac. Even simple things like starting up, pulling down menus, and opening windows, feel dramatically faster on the eMac - let alone web browsing.

Also most games for the Mac now require a 1Ghz G4, so an eMac would be ideal.

I think at a refurb price, the eMac is worth it, the ideal step up - where I work we are migrating from iMac DVs (bought in October 99) to 1Ghz eMacs - and the step up is substancial.

johnnyhotsauce · Mar 23, 2004, 09:57 PM

If you can get your hands on one of the e-mac 700 g4's, go for it. I grabbed one around x-mas time for $499 and so far I'm loving this thing. Upgrade the memory though, the 128mb that comes with it makes the machine slow as hell, I jacked the RAM to 1 gig with chips I had lying around the house from my old anitique PC and it made a world of difference. It's definately worth the $499 and runs panther with no problem.

discotronic · Mar 23, 2004, 11:43 PM

Originally posted by johnnyhotsauce:
If you can get your hands on one of the e-mac 700 g4's, go for it. I grabbed one around x-mas time for $499 and so far I'm loving this thing. Upgrade the memory though, the 128mb that comes with it makes the machine slow as hell, I jacked the RAM to 1 gig with chips I had lying around the house from my old anitique PC and it made a world of difference. It's definately worth the $499 and runs panther with no problem.

I've been keeping an eye out but Apple hasn't put any up for awhile. I think $499 is a sweet price for an eMac. I don't think a person could go wrong. Thanks for the advice.