iMac G4

[MultiFinder]

Poking through the local Craigslist, I came across an iMac G4 being advertised for $20. Looking at the crappy picture, it looked to be in decent enough shape. The brief description said that it turned on and showed a grey screen, and that the owner didn't have enough time to put into finding out what was wrong with it. I decided to take a chance on it, figuring that at least it would look nice somewhere if it didn't work. I brought it home, and it booted to a blinking question mark! Excited, I threw in a Tiger DVD and it booted happily off that and let me install Tiger onto its 60GB HDD. I've bumped its stock 256MB of RAM to 512MB and am currently installing software updates on it! It runs extremely well and is fairly quiet. The machine is in beautiful shape cosmetically, and I am amazed at just how nice of a machine this is.

I have always wanted one of these unique-looking computers, and now I found for $20

 

[markyb86]

dang, grats on the pickup :approve:

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I like the Luxo G4 a lot. It is my second workstation, after the quad G5. With a gig and change of RAM and 1GHz CPU, it's good for light browsing and terminal use. Which specific model is yours?

 

[MultiFinder]

Mine is the original 800MHz one. I want to bump up its RAM someday, but 512MB is enough for Tiger and iTunes streaming for now, so I'm good on that front. It seems like a great little machine, and I'm really glad that I got it.

I've wanted an iMac G4 on and off for several years now, just never enough to invest the kind of money they usually fetch on the used market. When this one came by, I couldn't help but snap it up

Besides, if I get bored of it in a week, chances are that I can always sell it for more than $20

I don't think that I'm going to wind up selling it though - seeing as how this seems to be one of the models that can boot OS 9, it may take the role of the PowerPC OS X/9 machine, seeing as how it is much more compact and interesting-looking than the iMac G3 or the G4 tower.

 

[wardsenatorfe92]

Awesome, and nice deal!

I actually wasn't looking for an iMac G4 when I ended up with mine, but I'm glad it turned out that way. I get a lot of comments on it.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Yes, the 800 is a good choice for a 9/X unit. I like the MDDs better for combo systems, but I agree the Luxo is much more interesting-looking, compact and quiet.

 

[MultiFinder]

Just an update - I've since bumped the RAM to 1GB, letting Leopard sing well enough on it. The other thing that I'm looking for these days is a copy of OS 9 that'll install on it - the only copy I have hanging around is a retail 9.1, and it won't install on the iMac.

 

[twocargar]

Sweet! I just picked up a 15", 800MHz iMac G4 with original keyboard, mouse, SPEAKERS, and manual for $25. Gotta love Craigslist!

 

[ClassicHasClass]

The "boot any" eMac G4 9.2.2 with the last OS 9-compatible eMac will boot and install on any OS 9 compatible Power Mac, including the MDD and the iMac G4. I've mentioned it in other threads and it turns up on eBay periodically.

 

[jsarchibald]

I picked up a 17" 1.25GHz model for $20, as it was booting to a black screen but making a 'bong' sound, Turned out to be faulty RAM, so I bumped it up to 1GB of RAM and it's a great machine. Nice work!

 

[commodorejohn]

As ClassicHasClass says, you can't beat the MDDs for an OS9/OSX combo machine, but man, it's a computer that looks like Luxo, Jr. What's not to love about that?