[kuykendc]

Hi there. My Mom purchased an eMachines computer several years ago. It's a real POS that I've been trying to get her to replace it with a Mac. Well, over the last couple of months she's gotten 3 viruses and is driving her Tech Support staff (that would be me) crazy. So, I've decided to make an executive decision and get her a Mac.
She just uses it for email, web surfing, and some light word processing. I want to make sure that it can run OSX since that's the only Apple OS I'm familiar with. I've been thinking that a G3 iMac would be perfect for her since her monitor really needs to be replaced also. I've read lots of conflicting info. on whether the G3 iMacs can run OSX and if so which one is the minimum processor speed you could use. I know that whatever I get needs to be able to take at least 512mb of memory. Basically, I'm looking for advice on which (if any) iMac would run OSX nicely, how much disk space I should plan for, etc...
Also, she has a printer but all it has is a parallel port... can the iMac use that or will she need a new USB one?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Kirk

[jasondudley]

I'm sure you can get a (practically) free printer with the iMac if you shop around. I would look at one of the DV models, definitely something with firewire. A 20 gb hard drive should be good enough.

[ib2yz4u2c]

I am speaking from first hand experience when I say this. Forget the G3 iMacs. I used a couple of them for the same thing your mom will use it for and they worked great, however, coming across a used one for something other than a ridiculously high price is near impossible. I am in graphic arts now and needed a faster processor so I sold off my two old iMacs (600 MHz G3 Dalmatian & 700 MHz G3 Snow) on eBay and bought a brand new eMac (1 GHz G4/Combo/40 GB/640 MB) direct from Apple. Trust me, for the refurbished price of $649 and brand new price of $799, you cant beat that deal with a stick! The average price for a used G3 iMac can easily go for a cool $500+, so the price between the old G3's and the new G4 eMacs are astonishingly close. Your mother would love the eMac's quickness and its beautiful 17" flat-screen monitor. Your best bet for the money would be the eMac. No doubt.

[Praxis]

Buy the cheapest new eMac you can get off Apple.com. You'll get a G4, you'll get the new iLife programs for photo and video editting, you'll get Panther, you'll get free shipping,
AND you can get a free printer w/rebat. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[kuykendc]

Thanks for the reply. Well, before I saw your post I received several emails from people saying that the G3 would work fine with OSX so I headed out to eBay and started looking around. I found the following deal out there that had just been posted and jumped on it... maybe you guys can let me know if I got taken /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
G3-500
768mb ram
20gb hard drive
OS X 10.3
Pro keyboard and mouse
firewire cable, phone cable, powercord and original software
Being sold by the original owner
Paid $449
Think that this will work okay for her? BTW... I looked for a refurb eMac at the Apple Store since that was my first inclination but they didn't have any out there and I was hoping to get this setup for her by the weekend.
Thanks again for the suggestions and advice!
BTW... sorry for putting this post in here... meant to put it in the desktop area.
Kirk

[contralj]

I own that same machine, and I can tell you that it works quite well with OS X. I swapped out the hard drive for a 120 GB drive and that made my life a lot easier.
I've got a dirty little secret too-- I do a little DV editing with it, and I've only got 256 MB of RAM! I know, I'm a wild child.
Suffice to say that for your mother's needs, the Mac you have purchased will be more than enough for years to come. And she'll be virus-free!

[Praxis]

I think 500 mhz is just enough.
I have a 500 mhz Pismo. It doesn't run too slow (though not too fast, either). I could probably attribute the slowness to the lack of RAM (I have 128 MB in it, the minimum requirement of Panther, and the recommended amount is at least 256 MB).
500 mhz with 700 megs of RAM should run fine for your mother! As long as she doesn't play any 3d games, she should be happy /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Praxis]

Oh yeah, I didn't mention:
I was recently in a Photoshop class, where they had a bunch of iMac G3 500 mhz (blue). They all ran Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Dreamweaver MX, and a bunch of professional programs. The G3 500s were excellent computers- and they were running JAGUAR! Panther is more efficient, and therefore, faster.
A friend of mine has a 266 mhz iBook...and Jaguar ran like crap. 500 is a good speed.

[whazzup]

Wow. I just put a 60 gig HD in my iMac G3 500 DV SE. It runs panther OK (not spectacular, but OK). Of course I only have 368 of RAM, so I could max it out a bit more. If I could get $500 for it, I would sell it in a heartbeat, and get a new 17" eMac.

[kms007]

I was in the same boat as you. I'd recommend getting an old Sawtooth G4 (Single 450, or Dual 450 model). Both are reasonably priced, and run OSX Panther very well. I had a Dual 450 that I gave to my parents some time back. They only use it for email and occassional web surfing.

[Praxis]

That's a good point. G4's have the "Velocity Engine" that Panther will take advantage of.
I've seen tests on the matter.
With OS 9, a 500 mhz G3 and 500 mhz G4 get almost the exact same performance.
On OS X, the 500 mhz G4 slams the G3.
Why? OS X is optimized to take advantage of the G4's velocity engine. Plus the G4's are a bit newer and usually have graphics cards big enough to use Quartz Extreme.

[MUGlover]

I agree that 500 MHz is just enough.
The first iceBooks (May 2001) had 500 MHz and the 20 GB hard drive, so I would say my son at college is using an LCD version of your iMac. (His RAM is the max 640 MB.)
All he regrets is the processor speed is not enough to use an iSight for iChat AV. Yet there are programs that attempt to work around this. I only mention it in case your mom wants something more than E-mail or message boards. Sounds like you found a good iMac.