Help please---Best MAC for home use? (LOW PRICED)

Will_Richo

Will_Richo

Green & Growing
Hi, Hope i have posted this in the correct section.
I am looking to purchase another MAC. I have just got a G4-Powerbook titanium earlier this year for my wife to use (Got it of a friend for £500.00, think i got a good deal?) I have put Panther on it, and installed an airport card. Works great (apart from some minor issues recently, now sorted thanks to support on here) I have a Wireless lan in the house as i use my Samsung x10 laptop with XP-Pro. I have really enjoyed setting up the Powerbook for the wife and have found myself using it more than her when i am at home. The ease of the OS and the quality of the screen are just amazing. I am keen to learn more about Mac's. So I am going to purchase another system for the house for me to use, and the kids as they get older (eldest is 3) I have seen the imac's and like the look of them, the footprint is excellent. I will mainly be using it to do word, mail, and surf. Also Ipod and Digi camcorder stuff when i get round to it. (possibly) What is the best spec to look for and any idea's of price (£sterling) to pay. Also things to look out for pitfalls etc? Or am i too look at a more recent model? Just some general pointers would really be appreciated. I use some excel formulas on my x10 that gets updates daily via e-mail files, other wise i would be letting the wife have my x10 and i would use the Powerbook.

My budget is £500. Mmmmmm. ::ha::

Look forward to your support/suggestions.

Thanks
 
While I do not know the price for your location... get the flat panel iMac. The 17 inch screen is good on the eyes and plenty of space for more than one window open to work with.
Make sure you get the Airport card -so you can stay wireless
And 512 MB Ram.
And SuperDrive - to burn and read CDs & DVDs - (for backups & future picture/movie burns)

:)
 
in the uk a brand new emac is £550. an imac is £999 and up. emacs have pretty much the same guts as an imac spec for spec. the crt will be better around the kids also. worst that could happen is finger prints then. an imac is twice the money and the lcd could easily be harmed by kids.

emac is a a perfect family system all round.
 
Don't buy a flat-panel iMac now. New, faster, redesigned iMacs are to be announced within days, and the current ones haven't been discounted yet. Purchasing an iMac now for full price is like ramming your head into a brick wall for no reason -- I don't know why that was suggested to you. You wouldn't buy a 2003 car for the same price as a 2004, would you?

The eMac is a wonderful all-in-one machine, and costs quite a bit less than the iMac. Get a SuperDrive if it fits the budget -- you may not see a need to burn DVDs now, but once you burn your first DVD, you'll be hooked. Get as much RAM as possible, as you can never have too much RAM and more RAM will mean a perceived increase in speed. Also, get the fastest machine you can get for your price -- the processor in the eMac is not upgradeable (as of now, and may never be). The RAM and hard drive can be upgraded, but once you purchase an eMac at "X" speed, you'll be stuck at "X" speed.

Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions!
 
IMHO the flat-panel iMac is an incredible machine, better than the eMac simply because of the design. I love my iMac.

Having said that, I'd wait before buying as ElDiabloConCaca said. Check out the new G5 iMac first. It's sure to be MUCH faster.

And, of course, the eMac is a nice, low cost machine. But wait for the G5 iMac.

Doug
 
Since you are in the UK, its worth keeping an eye on the refurbs offered by Cancom (see http://www.cancomuk.com/products/refurb.lasso). They only come with a 3 moth warranty but they are fully checked out machines, and its probably still going to be more reliable than buying a second hand machine. A number of my friends have bought these and have had no problems.

They offered:
Apple eMac G4/1.25GHz 17" CRT 256Mb/40Gb/32xCombo/Enet/Radeon 9200/56k [Refurb]
£469.99 (£552.24 inc vat)

They do offer refurb iMacs, but they are more expensive (648.99 /£762.56 inc vat) and only seem to be 700mhz G4s.

Alternatively they offer an 800mhz iBook G4 for 500 plus Vat which would gibe you a lovely apple lcd screen that you wouldn't get on the eMac and pay more for in the Imac. This one is an apple refurb as well not a cancom one, so you get a full 12 month warranty and can even buy applecare for it later if you wish.
 
Go for an eMac if you are going to do the basics: iPhoto, iTunes, email, internet, office apps, iMovie. This machine will fit all of your needs. Just make sure to max out the RAM...
 
many of you have good ideas but as will richo said "My budget is £500. Mmmmmm". an emac is only £50 over budget. current imacs are £450 over budget. any imac G4 or G5 is going to be much more than £500.

will, get an emac. it will do all you and your family need for 4-5 years easily if you max the ram. there are now 1GB sticks that work in the 1.25 ddr emacs so you could go to 2GB.
 
Find a second hand G4 tower and a low cost 17" flat screen. That's all you need and it should fit your budget.
 
Well, if you aren't too particular about things, Ebay is a good source of cheap macs. My iBook cost me £390 and I'm very happy with it (for now at least). I'm sure you can get some good deals on emacs and imacs as well.
 
I'd say WOW!! £500 for a G4 PBook? Thats amazing.

I'd recommend the eMac as a cheaper alternative, but more preferably the iMac.
Hey mate, now that the G5 has been unveiled, UK Dealers may knock down the price of the imac g4....

Also, what dealer you going to buy it from? Im buying an ibook soon
 
Honestly, I'd say head down to a second-hand retailer and get an iMac DV+ Sage (the dark-green one with a non-flat CRT, front-loading CD/DVD player, no CD-R though).

As you can see from my signature I use an iMac TFT as my primary workhorse but I also have an old iBook Special Edition (graphite) which is only 366 MHz with lots of RAM. That machine does it just fine for me for everything from word processing to EVEN Photoshop, though it's a little slow it's by no means crawling for most operations.

The iMac DV Sage has FireWire and USB, so it will accept an iPod and a digital camera.

The point : when I sold my iMac DV+ Sage when the iMac TFT came out, I sold it for 500 $ Canadian. You should be able to find one for a STEAL now somewhere.

I'm always one to recommend buying second-hand, cars, computers, whatever, if well inspected they will get you much more bang for your buck, depreciate more slowly and if your kids spill grape juice on the keyboard it's not as bad...

EDIT I just got an iMac DV Graphite for 480 $ Canadian (to use as a server in-house) second hand, it has an upgraded hard disk and maxed out RAM, DVD player, firewire and USB. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43099
 
Check here for good deals on all sorts of new/used/refurbished Mac models:

http://www.lowendmac.com

Look under the headings "This week's best _____ deals" where "_____" is the name of a Mac model (iBook, iMac, PowerBook, PowerMac, etc.).

Sometimes you'll find excellent deals, like a B&W G3/300MHz for $199. Plop in a G4/500MHz upgrade for $150, and you've got a decent Macintosh for $350.
 
Many Thanks for all the replies. I have lots to go over. I really appreciate it. I have decided to sell my g4 powerbook and buy an i mac. I will be putting it on e-bay and on here. If any-one is interested drop me a line.

Huge Thanks again.

Will :D
 
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