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BigCanoe · Aug 10, 2003, 04:37 PM

Hi, what is the cheapest Mac I can get that will run OS X acceptably (subjective I know)?

Should I be looking for a G3 Powermac probably?

Thanks

Maflynn · Aug 10, 2003, 04:40 PM

Look for new or used, the cheapest would be an emac, for desktop and an iBook for portable.

Mike

stew · Aug 10, 2003, 05:15 PM

Try to get at least a blue-white G3. The beige G3s can make trouble with OS X.

Sharky K. · Aug 10, 2003, 05:17 PM

I would go for an eMac.

Cipher13 · Aug 10, 2003, 05:17 PM

A Sawtooth, or old gumdrop iMac no less than 600 MHz.

DBvader · Aug 10, 2003, 07:22 PM

the G3 users are going to go nuts, but i really dont reccomend getting one. OS X just doesnt seem to run right on G3s (the ui is very slow and unresponsive). Ive tried it on a 800 mHz iBook and it goes very slow. Look into an emac, they are a great deal.

natan · Aug 10, 2003, 07:30 PM

Originally posted by DBvader:
the G3 users are going to go nuts, but i really dont reccomend getting one. OS X just doesnt seem to run right on G3s (the ui is very slow and unresponsive). Ive tried it on a 800 mHz iBook and it goes very slow. Look into an emac, they are a great deal.

Did you try an iBook/800/640 running a Panther beta?

DBvader · Aug 10, 2003, 07:44 PM

no, but i have seen your computer running jaguar and its not pretty.

wataru · Aug 10, 2003, 10:04 PM

Originally posted by DBvader:
OS X just doesnt seem to run right on G3s (the ui is very slow and unresponsive). Ive tried it on a 800 mHz iBook and it goes very slow.

This is completely untrue. I have an 800MHz iBook, and it runs great. I suspect there was something wrong with whatever you were using, perhaps a fubared installation, a full hard disk, or not enough RAM.

As far as I know, there is nothing in the interface that depends on AltiVec. Without AltiVec, G4s have very little advantage over G3s.

As we speak I'm running 10.2 on a 300MHz beige G3. It's not something I'd want to do real work on, but for word processing and internet uses it is acceptable.

blackbird_1.0 · Aug 10, 2003, 11:05 PM

performance is relative, you can have 2 of the same model and one could run jaquar/panther slower/faster than the other...

I have an ibook 500 and jaq runs fine, just mae sure u get RAM...

get an emac or the newest ibook

Don Pickett · Aug 10, 2003, 11:10 PM

Blue & White G3s and the last of the black-bodied Powerbooks (officially Powerbook G3 (Firewire), unofficially "Pismo") run OS X just fine. Stuff them full of RAM for a much better user experience. You should be able to find these on eBay or used for cheap.

DaGuy · Aug 10, 2003, 11:17 PM

Besides my iMac 17'' I also own an iMac 233MHZ Rev B -remember bondi blue?. I stuck 196 MB of ram into it and it runs Jaguar nicely. Since preliminary reports are that Panther runs even faster than Jaguar on these older machines, I look forward to installing Panther on that old gizzard -what a cool and reliable little box it has been, and it's still rocking ahead into the future!

subego · Aug 10, 2003, 11:21 PM

Originally posted by wataru:
As we speak I'm running 10.2 on a 300MHz beige G3. It's not something I'd want to do real work on, but for word processing and internet uses it is acceptable.

Seconded. I was going to say the same for my 400MHz iMacDV. Just max out the memory and you have a fine little internet box.

These seem to be running about $400 on eBay. Sheesh, I was expecting half that.

sniffer · Aug 11, 2003, 09:51 AM

Things have really changed since 10.0-10.1. I am quite pleasant with the progress with os ten speed wise on my old iBook. Panther does indeed look promising for the oldies. For the best experience I recommend getting one of the oldies with prevalent os x supported specs, like i.e. an iMac with at least ATI rage 128 pro card. Spend your money on ram and don't worry so much about the rest.

BigCanoe · Aug 11, 2003, 01:41 PM

Thanks for the great advice. Do the older machines have DVI output?

Arkham_c · Aug 11, 2003, 02:21 PM

I have OSX running as a server on a B&W G3/350 with 384MB of RAM. It runs great. Don't listen to the nay-sayers, you can get by with one of these and buy it for about $200.

This machine serves apache, named (DNS), EIMS (mail), PHP, MySQL, and more for multiple domains, and I surf on it as well when I am in my home office.

If you have $800 to spend the by all means get an eMac. But don't think you have to spend that much to get a usable computer with OSX on it.

BigCanoe · Aug 11, 2003, 02:55 PM

Sounds great, where can I buy one? I have looked on Ebay, where else is there that sells low end Macs?

I already have a nice 17" LCD monitor with DVI and VGA inputs that I want to share between my Mac and PC, so an Emac would not be ideal for me.

ckohler · 03:07 PM

I'm not sure on the DVI question but here is a website that has specs on almost every Mac.

http://www.apple-history.com

Cipher13 · Aug 12, 2003, 09:31 AM

Originally posted by BigCanoe:
Thanks for the great advice. Do the older machines have DVI output?

My Sawtooth has DVI and VGA.

JKT · Aug 12, 2003, 10:17 AM

Perhaps something to consider is whether or not you want to experience Quartz Extreme effects or not - if so you'll need something better than an 8MB Rage type video card that the older generation iMacs have. Also, do you use the iApps much? Jag runs fine on my 400MHz iMac, but I would go for something better if you plan on using e.g. iMovie or iPhoto to any extent.