[macnub14]

Hey im new to mac and i might be buying one its a imac 20 inch g5 with a 2.1 powerpc prossessor and has 1.5 gb of ram and a 250 gb hd and a ATI Radeon X6000 XT graphics how much should i pay for it and also how long would it be before i need a new one/ upgrade because its will be to crappy to preforme and how will it run, slow, fast please help sorry for all the questions im new. i hope this is the right section to post this lol

 

[chas_m]

Hey im new to mac and i might be buying one its a imac 20 inch g5 with a 2.1 powerpc prossessor and has 1.5 gb of ram and a 250 gb hd and a ATI Radeon X6000 XT graphics how much should i pay for it and also how long would it be before i need a new one/ upgrade because its will be to crappy to preforme and how will it run, slow, fast please help sorry for all the questions im new. i hope this is the right section to post this lol

It's the right section, though you'll get more responses if you'll use some punctuation and paragraph breaks next time.

The iMac model you're talking about is old: at least three, could be almost four years old now. It's by no means a bad machine, quite the contrary -- but if you're hoping to do all the "latest and greatest" on it, I think you'll find yourself needing a new one fairly soon. It does have USB2 and FW400, which is really nice, and an iSight which is very useful.

I think you'll find it speedy enough (I'd give it more RAM if I were you) for most apps/internet these days, and for some time to come yet, but don't plan on hanging on to it for more than a couple-three years, and if you're a gamer or "bleeding edge" type then you can change that down a year or two.

I don't have handy the URLs for the sites that tell you how much a particular model Mac are "worth" these days, but maybe someone will chime in with that information. Don't overpay for a machine that old, but OTOH if it's a sweet deal it's as good a "starter mac" as anything.

 

[hdh607]

Here are some sites for Mac pricing:

mac2Sell.net

everymac.com

mac2sell prices seem a bit low, everymac prices seem high. I look a both and then a good look at classifieds to get a good idea. There is a price check area here on this website in the classifieds section too.

 

[mkolesa]

~

unless you were getting the computer for almost nothing i personally wouldn't spend money on a power pc based mac. apple switched to intel processors over three years ago and you will find less and less support for the older models... just my 2¢!

 

[fyrefly]

Also there's much speculation that Apple's new OS "Snow Leopard" will not run on PowerPC Hardware at all. So you'll start missing out by having a PPC machine in about a month.

 

[eMacMan]

Also there's much speculation that Apple's new OS "Snow Leopard" will not run on PowerPC Hardware at all. So you'll start missing out by having a PPC machine in about a month.

This is not nearly the deal some people would like you to believe. that old Software will keep on working just fine. I run about 85% of the time in Panther (10.3.8) and about 15% in Tiger (10.4.11)

Truth is I much prefer Panther. I have streamlined Tiger by turning off Spotlight but really do not like having to do searches with EZ-Find or in Terminal hence the preference for Panther.

So unless you have to have the latest version of iLife or iWork do not worry about getting a system or 2 behind.

 

[chas_m]

Also there's much speculation that Apple's new OS "Snow Leopard" will not run on PowerPC Hardware at all. So you'll start missing out by having a PPC machine in about a month.

There's no "speculation" on this. The *purpose* of Snow Leoard (and the entire raison d'etre it's even called that) is that it's an Intel-optimised version of Leopard (with an assortment of updates and tweaks, some of which will come to PPC Leopard users like Quicktime X).

This is not nearly the deal some people would like you to believe. that old Software will keep on working just fine.

This is also very true.

So unless you have to have the latest version of iLife or iWork do not worry about getting a system or 2 behind.

There's a lot more to the next OS release than just "the latest iLife or iWork." You can expect most major developers to announce that they are dropping PPC support in the next version of their software, starting with MS and Adobe who have been chomping at the bit to do precisely this for years.

I'm not knocking PPC here, just pointing at the writing on the wall. Buying a PPC machine today is like buying a Playstation 2: works great with what it works with, sucks if you want it to keep up with the times for more than a couple of years.

 

[G4Ever]

Yeah, the G5 from a few years back are slower. If this fits your needs
its a good price point. I would suggest the new imac, if your budget
allows for the upgrade its well worth the investment. The 20" intel
dual processor, will amaze you.

'Once you try Mac, you'll never look back'