best macintosh computer

ganonbanned · Post by **ganonbanned** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:36 pm

Im looking for a mac computer, prefferably one thats older, I can get for cheap, but isnt has nice features (in other words more than 5mb ram) but I dont know where to start or what to get. my schools have LC 575, I cant find any on ebay. Does anyone have any reccomendations?

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:41 pm

Go for a Power Mac G5 tower if you want one that can run OSX. I'm pretty sure you can get one for a few hundred bucks off eBay.

You could always get a CRT iMac, preferably one of the grey ones because it comes with a DVD drive. They run OS 9 natively, but can run older versions of OS X.

The charcoal G4 towers used to come equipped with DVD RW drives.

Basically any Power Mac newer than the 7500 can run OS X, but they need several patches and workarounds (not to mention a buttload of RAM)

If you want a beige Power Mac, the 7600/132 is pretty kickass. Some have A/V in/out cards built in.

If you want OS 9, get a G4 or an iMac. If you want to run OS X, get a new Mac or a fairly new model.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:55 pm

Well since I'm totally biased, you could always get a G4 Cube! (the coolest Mac ever) All the info you would ever need here!

But more seriously, I would recommend getting a G4 tower because any of them can have up to 2 gigs of RAM (1 gig on some), they all have two optical bays, and either 4 PCI slots, or 3 PCI slots and one AGP slot. As you get closer to the later models, you obviously get better features, but some are more important than others! One of those is large-drive capability. This allows the computer to address more than 128 GBs on a drive, so this might be important if you want larger HD's in there.

I personally would reccomend getting a "Mirror Drive Doors" PowerMac G4 (the nickname is important), because it has the ability to take up to 2 gigs of RAM, will have a fairly nice graphics card, has a faster bus speed than the older models (133 or 167 MHz rather than 100MHz), and it can keep up with the times with the available processor upgrades out there!

EDIT: looking at bic's post, he's right about needing RAM, but 512 MB can be enough for anything up to 10.3, and a little more for 10.4.

The Earl of Sandwich · Post by **The Earl of Sandwich** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:03 am

Well, if you want one of the best macs ever, I'd go for an SE/30 (Although I doubt that will fit your needs).
On a serious note, follow sgtpepper's advice. The silver G4 tower is old enough to be cheap, and still modern enough to work with most of the things you would need to do.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:17 am

Oh and since I'm such a nice guy (

), here are some good auctions!

This is a good, pretty standard configuration

This one is pretty decked out, so it might go out of your lower price range

This one is kinda in between because it has a faster processor than the other two, but doesn't have many upgrades like the other one(It does have 1.25 gigs of RAM though!)

gamemasterAS · Post by **gamemasterAS** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:23 am

All my macs are dated. I used to have 2 that where in black and white and had this sweet golf game. That golf game was just about the first video game I ever played heavily.

Post by **Black Six** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 7:42 am

Listen to sgtpepper, he knows what he's talking about. Only things I have to add is that most PowerMac G4s do NOT have two optical bays, and only the MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) and later do; so if that's something you want, you're somewhat limited. Obviously a PowerMac G5 would be nice, but I don't know where bicostp has seen them for a few hundred, I'm pretty sure even the oldest/slowest are still around $1000 on eBay. As far as running OS X, if you get one of the later G4s you can run OS X 10.4 as long as you have at least 1 GB of RAM or so. They should be able to handle 10.5 too, but rumor has it that by 10.6, it's going to be Intel only, so even if you have a G5 you'll be stuck. If you get a G4, you can upgrade to dual 1.8 GHz processors at a later point, which would keep you sufficiently fast for a while.

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:40 am

My 2 cents:

Macintosh Color Classic seems pretty cool. It's hard to find those though, so don't go with the normal Classic, those are slow as hell. If you can't find the Color Classic go with the SE/30.

joevennix · Post by **joevennix** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:41 am

An iMac can be bought for around $40 here, check craiglist for your area. iMacs are pretty good computers; I have a blue one on my dresser, and it never complains.

gamemasterAS · Post by **gamemasterAS** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 10:13 am

joevennix wrote:An iMac can be bought for around $40 here, check craiglist for your area. iMacs are pretty good computers; I have a blue one on my dresser, and it never complains.

I have a IMac ( white ) and now that I think of it they are very nice. I have never had mine been slow or had to re-boot ( I have had it for years ). And my brother always edits movies he makes and they look prety good on it.

walterwoodsiv · Post by **walterwoodsiv** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:23 pm

You should go with a PowerBook G4 15", 2GB Ram, Bluetooth, AirPort. That can be found for about $700. But if you insist on a desktop, then definitely get a PowerMac G5...but someone else has suggested this.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:00 am

Black Six wrote:Only things I have to add is that most PowerMac G4s do NOT have two optical bays, and only the MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) and later do

Woops sorry, must have slipped my mind

Uzumaki · Post by **Uzumaki** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:18 am

I have a PowerPC 9600/200. This beast is one of the last Macintosh to have more than 3 PCI slots. 4 front drive bays (3 if you need to keep a floppy disk drive for whatever reason) is more than enough for optical drives and it has 2 separate SCSI system. One internal only other has both internal (if you managed to need more than 7 drives internally) and external ports. Also it has onboard AV in/out so I could capture video in or pipe video out to TV.

Since it's a relic that predated USB and Firewire support, I have an USB/Firewire PCI card installed plus IDE for cheaper hard drives and that leaves 4 PCI slots free.

Won't work under OSX but OS 8.6 or 9.x is good enough for most people who don't need top of the line software.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:25 am

Gannonbanned, if you want a Mac an affordable Mac, Power Mac models are not the right thing to look at. I say this because the G3 and G4 models are not pushing as much power anymore, and the G5 Power Macs are still over $1500 new or refurbished. If you don't plan to do any really crazy addons, just pick up something like an iMac, the G5 models were very good and you can find Intel iMacs for a good price too. If that is still out of you leauge, Mac Mini's are what you have to fall back on. They're really nothing more then a laptop in a desktop's clothing, but they offer you what you need.

I personally would suggest getting something like a G5 or Intel. If not for the reason their the most powerful they can still run newer versions of the OS X. Lepard might run on a G5 (their 64bit), and you'll want to be able to run the newest and best versions of the OS.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:00 pm

Sparkfist wrote: Lepard might run on a G5 (their 64bit), and you'll want to be able to run the newest and best versions of the OS.

I don't know if I agree with your statement about the old PowerMacs being slow, because my Cube can run Leopard without a hitch, not to mention Tiger or Panther!