Greatest Tip Shop score EVER!!!!!!!!! Sage iMac DV+!!!

[LCGuy]

I'm almost in total disbelief right now.

Went to the tip shop today. We haven't been going as frequently since its been kinda lame over the past few months. So we went there today, and I made my way up to the covered area (where they have the books/furniture/electrical items), where I saw, sitting on the bench next to the cash register, one of the most beautiful pieces of "garbage" I have ever seen.

A Sage iMac DV+.

After getting over the initial shock, I just said, "Uh...thats....NOT for sale, is it?"

"Yeah, it is."

"How much do you want for it?"

"5 bucks?"

"I'm buying that. I'll take a look around, but I"m buying that."

Had a look around and didn't see much apart from the usual CRT monitors and inkjet printers, went back and bought the iMac, and loaded it into the back seat of the Holden. Mum gave me the usual, "it probably doesn't work", but meh as I said to her, I knew that I'd still get at least $5 of parts out of the thing. So we bring it back home. And I plug it in. And turn it on.

And I hear the boot chime, which sounds beautiful on those inbuilt Harman/Kardon speakers. I then see a grey screen. And Panther starts booting up.

The machine is pretty much stock, apart from having a wonderful 512MB of RAM, 256MB modules. Even better! No AirPort card, but I don't really care. It also came with a very dirty and wet Pro Keyboard...haven't tested that, since its wet, but I don't really care, I was mostly interested in the iMac! I dunno....I'm just in shock right now, this is by far the best machine I've ever seen at the tip shop. The only other Mac I've ever seen there was a PB520c with no power adapter or anything (which I still grabbed, just for the 2.5" SCSI HDD), 2 years ago. All the PCs I've ever seen there have been Socket 7 era machines, apart from a couple of P3-era machines that I got some parts off one day. I dunno...I know you guys over in the US (and probably Canada) are just tripping over old G3/G4 era machines at your thrift shops and tip shops, and even in the capital cities here in Australia they're fairly common. But in country areas like where I am, something like this is simply unheard of. I dunno...I guess I'm still kinda in shock, I have been since I first saw the machine. Anyway, here's a pic, just to prove that the machine is indeed real, and in my possession:

 

[Byrd]

Top score LCGuy - and in your home town! Must have put a rather large smile on your face when it fired up without issue. What speed is it?

JB

 

[LCGuy]

Heck, it put a huge smile on my face when I first saw it! It was actually set up on the guy's desk, next to his telly - I assumed that like the telly, it was set up for him to use, and wasn't for sale. Its a 450 Mhz model...that, along with the 512MB of RAM and a Rage 128 is quite a nice upgrade from my iMac G3/333 with 256MB and a Rage Pro

 

[Quadraman]

Does that wallpaper come with OS X?

 

[aftermac]

Very nice! I saw one at a thrift store the other day for $50. $5 is definitly a good deal!

 

[MacJunky]

quadraman, yes it does.

 

[olePigeon]

Sage iMac was my favorite iMac. I loved the color.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

8-o That's amazing!

BTW, what the heck is a "Tip Shop" anyway? :?:

Goodwill has stopped accepting computers in NC, which is bad enough, but when I stopped at one in NJ, on the way north in January, it was far worse. They'll accept them but they won't sell them . . .

. . . they're ALL SENT TO RECYCLING!

 

[LCGuy]

jt: a "tip shop" is a shop at the garbage tip (or dump) where they sell stuff that they think is saleable. Things like electrical items, books, CDs/DVDs/videos/cassettes, furniture, car parts, anything that might be saleable. Mine hardly has anything decent, its always a major event there when a crummy Socket 7 era PC turns up...an iMac is just unheard of.

We don't have Goodwill here, but I've heard of their policies...I'm lucky that the tip shops and thrift stores here in Australia still sell electrical items...but hardly anything good ever turns up at the regional ones.

 

[Scott Baret]

I was going to guess that a "tip shop" was like a thrift store, but this sounds a bit different. Are they actually owned by the garbage companies?

As far as Goodwill, if you want some good computer stuff, Apple and non-Apple, come to the Goodwill Computer Works store in Pittsburgh. They have plenty of iMacs, eMacs, G3s, G4s, and even a Cube with a cinema display (although they wanted something like $325 for the entire system). It's also a pretty reliable place to get 800K disks--they often have shrinkwrapped boxes. They do accept computers at this store, and they always have a rack of vintage equipment. I got a Disk II drive there once and have seen stuff as far back as about 1980 (most of it non-Apple). They can sell you a compact Mac, but they unfortunately want a lot of money for them. They also have software (including some Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft titles), peripherals (including Apple keyboards, mice, and monitors), and sometimes a random vintage computer--there was a platinum IIe there last summer in excellent condition. Also, if you're into building your own computer, there are tons of parts lots to look through for exactly that purpose. The salespeople are great too.

This particular Goodwill actually is big into Apple. There is a crew from one of the local user groups that meets there every Friday to refurbish donated Macs, which are then put up for sale (both in the store and for other Goodwill purposes). I've worked with these guys before and they are all top-notch people. Right now the refurb center is connected to the store, but that may be changing sometime this year.

If you're ever in Pittsburgh drop me a message and I'll give you directions--it's the best computer thrift shop I've ever been to.

 

[LCGuy]

They're owned by the city/regional councils, who run the garbage tips. They're actually at the garbage tip.

Anyway, that Goodwill sounds great...you'd never see anything like that here - the thrift stores here usually just have the same old crappy CRT monitors, inkjet printers, a mile of keyboards and mice, scanners, etc...usually nothing really all that exciting. You can forget about finding a computer there (and when there is a computer at a thrift shop they usually charge an arm and a leg for it), and you can especially forget about finding anything Apple there - although Apple stuff does show up every now and then....its very rare.

 

[Quadraman]

I go to the Salvation Army store to look for computers. I haven't found anything interesting enough to buy yet, but I still look. Goodwill never has computers in the stores but they do have them online. I think they save them for internet sales where they can get higher prices from competitive bidders.

 

[H3NRY]

Austin's Goodwill Compter Works is excellent, and there are several other computer recycle / resale operations, as you'd expect in a university town.

http://www.austincomputerworks.org/index.html

Complete, operating systems are a bit pricey for us scrap hunters, but they put a lot of parts and "no guarantee junk" out at prices that allow taking a chance.

 

[Quadraman]

Awww, man. That Goodwill maintains a museum. Guess where all the really good vintage stuff goes. :'(

 

[LCGuy]

So I pulled the iMac to bits today and did some rummaging around inside, and put in the 80GB drive from my tray loader, as well as a fresh PRAM battery.

I haven't actually gone into a slot loader before, so I have to say...getting into these machines is hard! Once you manage to get the bottom case off without breaking any clips, you then have to fight with the EMI shield, and hope to hell that you don't drop any screws inside the case! (I did, had to shake the machine a bit to get it out, thank GOD I was able to get it out without disassembling the machine further)

Once I got into the machine, I pulled out the entire drive shelf, so that I could investigate the DVD drive a bit more...I've always wanted to know if the optical drives in the slot load iMacs were a proprietary design (like the PB3400 and Wallstreet optical drives) or if they were a standard notebook ATAPI drive. For the record, they are a standard notebook ATAPI drive, but the ATAPI connector is on the complete other side of the drive, meaning that even though the drive is electrically compatible with other systems, it still won't be able to physically fit into another system with the connector being in the different position. Anyway, back to the drive shelf - maybe its because my machine has never been opened before, or maybe its because I've never done surgery on a slot load before, but getting the drive shelf out is hard, you have to pull it out on the right angle. I'd say a lot of it is just that i'm not used to working on the machine - I can swap out both optical and hard drives on my tray load iMac in my sleep.

Either way, I'm really happy with the machine, with the G3/450 and the 512MB of RAM, as well as the 100 Mhz system bus and Rage 128, it is a lot faster than my iMac 333. Boot time is measured in seconds rather than minutes. And with 512MB of RAM, I should even be able to run Tiger fairly decently on here. And even despite all that...as much as I love my tray loader (i've had it for 10 years, and have quite a lot of fond memories of this machine, really it means a lot to me), I have to admit, the iMac DV+ is just a much nicer machine to use. I don't know what it is...but it just feels a lot smoother, and a lot more refined, and in comparison, I hate to say this, but the tray loader feels like a bucket of bolts. Pardon the car analogy, but its basically like comparing driving a V6 Holden Commodore VT Series I to a V6 Commodore VY Series II - even though its basically the same thing, the newer one just feels a lot smoother and more refined. Anyway, thats the update on the iMac right now, as I've said, I really couldn't be happier.

 

[MacJunky]

And with 512MB of RAM, I should even be able to run Tiger fairly decently on here.

Tiger is slow(Just as slow as Panther) even on my 600MHz iMac w/ 512MB and 7200RPM drive. It is worse than running Leopard on my 1GHz 7455 Digital Audio w/ 1.25GB and 256MB GF6200 and 500GB SATA HDD.
So, decent, yes, it will work. Just will be lacking.

But yea, I can see how it would be totally awesome when coming from a 333MHz TL.

I also completely get what you are saying about the SL looking quite a bit nicer/polished/etc than the TL. In person, side by side it is really noticeable.

 

[LCGuy]

Really? I was thinking Tiger would run fairly alright...compared to the tray loader, the exact same Panther install runs a lot faster on the slot load.

You know, its funny...back when these machines were new, i was actually doing work experience at an AASP, and we used to have slot loaders come in all the time for repair, usually requiring replacement APV or Down Converter boards, after overheating...as a result, even though the machines were brilliant, I was never a fan of them, simply because, well, pardon the pun, but because they didn't have a fan, and therefore had reliability issues. In the coming years, as my iMac started to pack on the years, I received quite a bit of crap for it from people who had slot loaders, when I was really quite happy with my tray loader. I hate to say it...but I can finally see where they're coming from...as much as my tray loader is still a great machine, the slot loader is just a much nicer, much better put together machine.

 

[Quadraman]

I have 10.2.8 on my 700mhz Snow model and the speed is good but the lack of support for newer software keeps me from using it much. I only have 256mb in it, so until I can scrape up a few more high density RAM sticks, it'll be staying with Jaguar.

 

[Bunsen]

Well scored there LCGuy! Getting the machine over 512MB will make a big difference in OS X - but it should still run adequately. And they make great DVD players, especially with those lovely HK speakers.

If you have a subwoofer of some kind, you can run both together - either plug in the sub and then reactivate the speakers in the Sound control panel/prefpane, or gently plug the 3.5mm socket for the sub half way into the headphone socket - you should be able to get signal without switching the speakers off.