to eMac or not to eMac...

drustar

drustar

Gold Member
Somewhat of a corny subject but at least I sure hope it got your attention.

I am considering getting an eMac. Does anyone think it's a good buy or no?

Before I make a decision - I just want to hear people's opinion first.

(I thought of PowerBook first (expensive) but I recently purchased a car [if anyone is ever curious - a Honda Civic Si].)
 
I'm currently in the market for a new computer as well, and the eMac did cross my mind but here's my little +/- thing I drew up while trying to compair the eMac to the iMac (keep in mind, this is from my school's computer store and will probably differ from the Apple store):

$1199 eMac
+ positives +
less expensive
still a G4
17" screen
combo drive
- negatives -
kind of bulky
CRT monitor
doesn't look too 'cool'

$1299 iMac +
+ positives +
flat screen
G4
small(er)
cool-looking
- negatives -
$100 more
umm ...

So basically, I'm going for the iMac. I have been using them at the school's computer lab for about a month now and the adjustable flat-screen is just amazing. What your decision really boils down to is, do you really want the flat-screen or not?

Anyways that was my decision making process, just for fun I'll throw in my iBook weights:

$1399 iBook
+ positives +
portability!
combo-drive
light-weight & compact
- negatives -
G3, Altivec wha?
16 mb video ram, Quarts Extrem-wha?
20 gig harddrive
$100 more, ouch!

I wouldn't mind paying a bit more, but if I'm going to invest that must cheese on a computer, it better have the guts to run at a good speed for the next 2+ years.
 
I would say spend more money, and get a powerbook when you can afford it. That thing will last you so long especially with 10.2 coming out so soon.

Im not sure if the new powerbooks are on their way soon, ask around here, maybe the mac pros know.

As far as the Emac, I would get one definitely as well.[its a tough choice]

I think they are cool looking. I have an imac800 , and while its "smaller" the cables in the back still have to go somewhere, so any real estate you think you saved is kind of pointless. The flat screen is cool, but if you have people around your home a lot, it can get kind of worrysome because they tend to man-handle it. [A family member actually tried to rotate the screen from portait to landscape, I nearly had a heart-attack]

Im not too helpful am I?

[edit/update- I just had an epiphany, THAT IS WHAT THE NEW IMAC SHOULD HAVE, ABILITY TO ROTATE THE SCREEN FROM PORTRAIT TO LANDSCAPE AND HAVE THE IMAGE FLIP AUTOMATICALLY!]
 
gibbs- you just gave me some worries, buddy. In a month I'm moving in with 2 other guys in this new house and we're the type that .. well .. throw big parties. we are all putting our desks and computers in the living room, near the front door. naturally, they both have PCs and I'm going to have an iMac, now I wonder which computer is going to attract all the attention to the drunkards walking around the place.

bah, I guess I can just unplug and lock it in my room. :eek:
 
Also consider that iMac can only go to 1024*768 while eMac can go to 1280*960.

Workspace is a must for me. I'll be using my prospective mac machine for web design and multimedia work.
 
themacko,

The new iBooks with 16MB Radeons will support Quartz Extreme. 32MB is only recommended but AGP and 3D hardware accelerated Radeon architecture is required.

As for the new eMacs,

I think they're great. The 17" CRT is standard for todays monitors and in my opinion, and is a lot clearer when doing certain things like watching movies or playing Quake3. It also has a higher native resolution than the 15" LCD iMacs.

Other than the screens they are basically the same on the inside. The speakers are the same as well, just mounted inside the box on the eMac. The iMac comes with a SuperDrive though so that is an added bonus if you're into burning DVDs. I don't think people realize though how long it actually takes to burn an entire DVD. People, it takes a long time!

The PowerBook G4 DVI can be more powerful with certain applications because of the 1MB L3 cache. They are a lot more expensive though but owning one I can tell you that they are pretty sweet.

But back to the eMac, yes I think it is definitely an awesome buy!
 
I think it really depends on what you are going to use it for. If screen real estate is a must for you then you probably shouldn't buy any of them. I know that the eMac has a higher res. than the iMac but it runs at 72 Hz, which can be very tiresome for your eyes if you work in front of it for an extended period of time.

I have had the iMac and I found myself in lack of screen estate ALL the time. One thing I loved about it was the swivel screen, it's simply a stroke of genius by Apple. I think it's plenty fast and it runs OS X smoothly and Jaguar too when it's released.

Another thing you have to consider is how easy it is to upgrade. I don't know about the eMac, but the iMac is going to be hell to upgrade, and here I'm thinking about the graphics card only. You can always add a FW harddisk or something else to your mac, but as I see it it's always the graphics card which ages too fast. Look at Jaguar, a lot of the "older" mac's can run it, but they recommend a "newer" graphics card.

Just my thought's....oh btw, I would go for the iMac over the eMac. :)
 
Another thing you have to consider is how easy it is to upgrade. I don't know about the eMac, but the iMac is going to be hell to upgrade, and here I'm thinking about the graphics card only.
Click to expand...

Neither the eMac or iMac can upgrade it's graphics card. Actually, there isn't a graphics "card" in either of them. They both have the graphics chipset hardwired to the motherboard.

I would opt for the eMac for any design work. CRTs still display color more reliably than LCDs, plus the eMac has 1280x980 resolution, which is just enough (in my opinion) for design work. 1024x768 is just too cramped to run Photoshop and Dreamweaver or GoLive. Too many pallettes for that real estate.

Otherwise they match up pretty well, but the eMac is cheaper.
 
Originally posted by azosx
themacko,

The new iBooks with 16MB Radeons will support Quartz Extreme. 32MB is only recommended but AGP and 3D hardware accelerated Radeon architecture is required.
Click to expand...
Yeah I know QE will work on the iBooks, but not well compaired to the iMac or the eMac. Anyhoo, thanks for the correction.
 
get a dual 1.4 when they come out at m.w. it will last you years and years. and when its geting slow you just add ram and hard drives ect. expandablity is a must for the fast moving hardware sector of technology

the ibook the imac and the emac have meeger expandability.
 
I personally think the eMac is a great buy. It's a hellava deal for a G4 with great on screen resolution and I actually really like its design.

I went to see it at the Apple Store and it looks quite sleek and is not bulky at all.
 
I used my probability matrix software and did some calculations on what drustar should get-

Question- Which mac should Drustar get?
a)Emac
b)Imac
c)Powerbook
d)Powermac

Answer?

Drustar should get a g4 cube!
Click to expand...

DOH!!!
 
i have a school that buys a mac at the dorp of a hat (happy joy) so as soon as our sys admin heard the iMac DV/SE came out they bought 20 for our library when he heard there was a new iMac he got one (i got to see it before him :D ) and now that it is summer we also have an eMac. There all nice but it really comes down to what you want to do
1) Impress people and save room (new iMac)
2) be able to see stuff (eMac)
3) Walk from room to room and still be browsing the internet (iBook/Power book/ TiBook with a wireless network fun fun)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top