The "colourful" iMacs came in many different versions, and the 400 Mhz plus ones were and in some cases are still versatile machines. The 233 Mhz blueberry type would not be very useful now, but the 400 Mhz and above might still be good for basic purposes in that internet cafe. Some are still kind of rare, like the "flower power" and dalmation type iMacs, and the higher speed "Snow" and "Graphite" 500 to 700 Mhz ones still kick ass (if you ramp up the RAM to 1GB and install Tiger).
The all in one iMacs were convection cooled, and might be fine with humidity, but how good would any computer be where it is particularly dusty?
And they are all very heavy computers. How could you feasibly and reasonably transport 20 of them overseas?
Shipping 20 CRT iMacs to Africa will cost you over $1000, maybe $2,000.
Make sure they are packed with lots of protection
Like any CRT iMac, the Ram, Hard drive and opticak drive are replacable.
If the screen, or other hardware goes then its not an easy fix.
Ive been through this before with people wanting to send computers to South America, central America, Africa etc. even sending a low end computer down is very, very expesnive and problematic.
and things like old laser printers can be gotten via free donations, but again very expensive to ship and what happens when its time to buy replacement toner cartridges?
You would also need routers, switches, power cables, powerbars, keyboards, mice . software installer CDs, extra RAM and hard disks for sure.
Also think about whether these will be running OSX or OS9, Im asuming X, so 256MB on a iMac 400 is a little skimpy, but I guess it would work ok with 10.3.9.
This is quite an undertaking indeed.
I used to manage a mac lab for school composed of various G3 macs. Given the age of the machines you will probably have to replace the pram batteries otherwise the clock won't work and this can screw the system up. The batteries are about $10 each and t put them in takes about 30 minutes per computer.
I used to manage a mac lab for school composed of various G3 macs. Given the age of the machines you will probably have to replace the pram batteries otherwise the clock won't work and this can screw the system up. The batteries are about $10 each and t put them in takes about 30 minutes per computer.
Good point.
I find old computers to be pretty unpredictable on how long a battery lasts, they can last 4 years or 12 years.
Ive had 15 year old computers with working batteries.
I dont remember what they take but you might be able to scavange other computers for them if you have access to scrapped machines
teknikz, if you are successful with this, please post a followup down the line. Will be interesting to see how it develops. Much as I'm a Mac addict, my first inclination would be to go el-cheapo but more recent on the hardware side, not go with Macs, and use locally-available hardware for a full-Linux setup (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu).
But who am I to get in the way of someone who wants to spread the word of Mac? :p
teknikz, if you are successful with this, please post a followup down the line. Will be interesting to see how it develops. Much as I'm a Mac addict, my first inclination would be to go el-cheapo but more recent on the hardware side, not go with Macs, and use locally-available hardware for a full-Linux setup (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu).
But who am I to get in the way of someone who wants to spread the word of Mac? :p
Good luck.
M
I thought about sending Linux dells. But the shipping for a machine & crt are prohibitive
Shipping will be an issue. They are heavy, and bulky compared to LCD screens.
Heat can be an issue, some of those models have no fan, and rely on convective cooling. They're not really designed for use in ambient temps over 90 F. One thing that will happen is that the analog board will blow out, killing the video.
You can get the earlier models cheaply, the slot load models (350 MHz +) have more standard RAM DIMMs and can go to 1 Gb RAM. The Firewire (DV) models would be preferable, as the USB On these is 1.1 and is dog slow for backing up or restoring. In any educational setting, you definitely want to send an external hard drive with a bootable clone of the drive, which can be used to restore the OS and apps.
If you do look at Intel based PC's, there is an abundace of used Small Form Factor P2 and P3 machines from Dell and Compaq available that have come off of corporate leases. They are a bit larger than a Mini but way smaller than even a minitower PC.
For sale:
Linear Mode
