Posted on 11/14/2008 5:48:59 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
My daughter's PC died last night probably due to a systems upgrade sent by Microsoft. I strongly suspect this upgrade as the culprit as my desktop had the same symptoms after the same upgrade. The cost to fix was about 300. I'm not willing to put that into repairs for hers because she was already having massive other problems.
So, based on everything I've read (largely here) I'm looking for a used Mac.
Is there anyone who would be willing to just look over a couple or three postings that I've found on Craigslist and another site that sells refurbished Macs and give a thumbs up or thumbs down based on value vs. asking price?
I'm not asking for a guarantee, just a general nudge in the right direction and after that it's 'you get what you get.'
good story and a great choice...
I know exactly which model she should get.
Look for the 12” iBook 1.33ghz G4 model. DO NOT GET an iBook G3 model.
This has almost all of the features that the “Intel” macs have...
2.0 bluetooh. Sudden Motion Sensor. Airport extreme built in. It has 512mb of ram built in and you can upgrade it to a total of 1.5gigs of ram. This is the best, last revision iBook ever made.
It is a great computer. You should be able to find one for under 400 dollars.
ALso you can upgrade the hard drive and even the cd/dvd drive to a dual cd and dvd burner. I’ve done this many times. Makes a great machine even greater.
G4 at 1ghz CPU is not a great choice now.
You want an Intel Core Duo chip at a minimum in any machine.
That’s it.
Asus and Acer both sell “web-books” which are notebooks but sub-notebook in size (somewhat undersized keyboards for my hands), and at least the Asus ships with Linux, is sold new for under $400, presumably has a warranty, and if the keyboard size bugs her, springing for a smallish (but still standard key-size) USB keyboard would keep the budget under $500. IMHO, a two-button wheel optical mouse (either USB, or PS/2 if the machine supports it) would be a priority, I don’t care for those scratchpad things. Maybe your daughter is used to those though.
Who are these people who keep advising to get a machine with the previous generation processors.
DO NOT GET A G4 CPU. Get an INTEL CORE DUO as your minimum in any machine. And 2GB of RAM should be your goal as well.
Why someone would even bring up a G3 is equally baffling.
Gee why don’t we suggest a Ford Pinto over an AMC Pacer.
For heaven’s sake!!!
Thanks from me as well.
G4 at 1.33ghz is a great choice with maxed ram now running Tiger. Two revisions newer than the G4 iBook 1 ghz which only had USB 1.0.
Forgot to mention that the last revision G4 iBook 12” 1.33ghz (this is a twelve inch screen) has USB 2.0 on it. Also has scrolling trackpad, sudden motion sensor, firewire 400 etc.
Good little machine. I’m fixing one up for my best friend now. It comes with Tiger. Craigslist is fine if you do it safe.
If they can find an early MacBook, that would work, but considering i just sold my perfectly fine Powerbook 12” G4 1.5ghz with only 1.25gbs of ram maximum allowed, that was running Leopard PERFECTLY, and considering the OP’s budget, a G4 should work perfectly.
The iBook G3’s were junk but a well kept, last revision iBook is still a fast machine and runs Tiger no problem. They shipped with Tiger, as you may know.
My late father’s eMac went into service early 2003 (Feb or March), and the only “repair” it has needed was due to a power failure in the summer of 2007 (flaked the b-tree on the hard drive, restored it and the files using an external drive and software recommended by the local Apple Store genius). Have you had any trouble with the CD/DVD drive? Maybe mine was a media problem, but I had a couple bad burns.
Ever try Linux Mint. For a newbie there’s a lot less mucking around with codecs, flash etc. The current release is based on Hardy.
I gave away my trusty 15” powerbook 1.25 with the G4 to a marine who served for two tours in Iraq.
But I wouldn’t go out and buy one now. And I wouldn’t advise someone to do so. It’s just not the way to go. You don’t get a previous generation processor for the future.
I also had Leopard running fine. But with the new OS coming it will probably no longer be the case.
The G4 has reached its lifespan use. It’ll continue for a spell but buying one now is just illogical IMHO.
I just replace the powerbook last month with the last Macbook Pro Al type. It’s like the other one in appearance but under the hood with lots of details much different.
It has the Intel 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo and I bumped it from 2 to 4 GB of RAM.
It’s night and day. A great machine born of the 2003 breeding. I will go and see the new notebooks this weekend, but I got this one “new” as a refurb from Apple. It was like new out of the box.
No kidding. A Gremlin makes them both look pathetic.
May I ask what the software was that the Apple guy recommended for your bad hard drive? I have one with the same problem but got a quote from a recovery company for over $2,000 to recover the files. I’ve done without them up until now, but would still love to get them back.
Great info here...ping to me!
I was thinking of her budget and the fact I have about ten different friends happy on G4s.
I did get the new al mbook. Faster yes, but man, those 12” macs were small and GREAT. This is too big for a lappie.
Uh-oh... I’m just glad we don’t have earthquakes around here, because I’d be buried in household debris... not a great housekeeper... [blush]
Wow, found it right away (self-high-five)
The one in particular I used was an earlier version, obviously, and the box looked like the PC version shown. However, that’s a good sign, it means they’re updating the product and supporting it (and customers). The software ran about $100 last year. I booted off the CD, and had the drive attached, and 36 hours to kill. :’) Actually, I’m not sure how long it did take, but literally every file was restored from the original drive ONTO THE EXTERNAL DRIVE (which is required, I used a USB Simpletech drive, running under OS X it used USB 2.0 speed).
A week or so later I ran the software again, and tried a second method, since there was plenty of room on the Simpletech (the eMac drive is under 40 GB in size), just to be really certain I got all the data in a comprehensible way. The second method is for really destroyed drives I think, when the data just absolutely must be restored and you’re willing to figure out the actual filenames as you go.
That said, the first method restored every single file, I’ve never found a corrupt file in the copies on the Simpletech. It was miraculous, and super-simple to use. I’m glad the genius (who was younger than the shirt I had on that day, or some such hyperbole) recommended it.
After I was satisfied both with the results and with the level of geeking around I got to do (actually, pretend to do, the software did all the work, unattended), I reformatted the eMac drive, reinstalled the OS, and copied the restored files back onto it from the Simpletech.
If you’ve got your nuked drive, you can restore the data to a different drive, perhaps using an external case. I’m not sure about this product, I’ve heard of mixed results, you probably should check for reviews of it online (this one claims to be the “2008 version”):
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/
One problem - the G4 variants will be left out of 10.6, and there’s going to be a lot of under-the-hood improvements in 10.6 that make it faster.
Wow. Thanks for the info! And I see they have a combo deal. I may have to try this product. It’s way cheaper than $2,000!
My old drive has been just sitting there for two years (I was going to have it cryogenically frozen until they could find a cure). I’m a graphic artist and I had several years worth of work on that 250 Gig drive. In the meantime, I’ve had to recreate a number of jobs from scratch when necessary ever since. Ouch!
Backup, backup, backup.
Good lord, NO - Linux is NOT "just like a Mac".
If you're a Unix/Linux geek like me, yeah, under the surface the Mac's BSD is pretty much like Linux in many respects. But does this person sound like they want to learn "bash" and live at the commandline? I don't think so.
I've got four Macs, three Linux boxes, and a couple of Win-PCs. One Linux box started life that way (in 2001) -- the others are recycled Win-PCs. That is, I have done exactly what you suggest, and speak from experience.
Linux has nowhere near the commercial application support that Mac does, which in turn is substantially less than that of Windows.
Linux is free. Macs cost significant money, even as refurbs. I know.
So with that as background, let me respectfully but sincerely disagree. Linux is "not just like a Mac". If it was, I wouldn't be shelling out the money for my Macs. You get a tremendous amount of value and functionality for the money you spend on a Mac, that is not available from either Linux or Windows.
That said, if SoftballMominVA wants to experiment for a couple months with Linux on a Win-PC, hey, more power to her. Just be prepared for her daughter to grow frustrated and tired of the constant incompatibility with the rest of her friends' computers.
A refurb'ed Mac is a terrific idea.
I think like the jump from OS9 to OSX, the Intel changeover was a dramatic line in the evolution of the Mac, and I wouldn't buy a g4 for that reason.
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