Craigslist: eMac 700Mhz $130

[coius]

I am picking up an eMac 700Mhz off of Craigslist for $130. it was $135, but since I am the only one serious about it, and am picking it up today, he knocked off $5.

specs:

eMac 17"

700Mhz w/ 64K L1, 256 L2 1:1 Ratio

128MB PC-133 (I have more. I have a 512 stick to put in it )

60GB HDD

32MB DDR Geforce2 MX

Keyboard, Mouse (pro keyboard and white optical mouse)

Software CDs

The only problem is that the optical drive is broken. I plan on getting a DVD Burner down to road

It doesn't have an airport, but It doesn't matter since I have wired anyways

I suspect the optical drive just needs to be cleaned though. It acts like it tried to read, but spits it out. Sometimes it reads. So I will pull the drive, open it up and spray off the lense and use isoprypal alchohol on it to remove any dust

I don't know what optical drive it has, but it doesn't matter. When I am done, I am going to try to hack Leopard on it

what REALLY sucks, is that screen spanning doctor doesn't work on it. I was hoping to have dually monitors on it, but it doesn't work :S

EDIT: Fixed screen Size Typo (Changed from 15 -> 17"

 

[redrouteone]

I've got a 700MHz eMac. It is a good system. I don't use it much any more since though.

I upgraded and Hard Drive and DVD drive in mine, they are quite a pain to get you. B sure to set aside a couple of hours to do it.

 

[luddite]

That's what I use as my main system... mostly for graphics and audio. Very nice for $130. ISTR having some issues with the optical drive at first, but they went away with one of the OS upgrades... maybe you'll be so lucky.

 

[MacMan]

Very nice price for a decent machine. I remember lusting over these in computer shops several years ago! The CRTs in the eMacs are very crisp IIRC.

Getting Leopard on it shouldn't be too much trouble and I expect it'll run pretty well once it's installed since the 700MHz G4 is not far under the official minimum requirement. Good luck!

 

[coius]

uh.. no leopard. people are reporting video problems with the GFX card in these. So tiger it will be. As far as optical drives...

Well, the CD/CD-RW functions work

I think the DVD laser it in went bad :-/

 

[coius]

well, i left the keyboard and mouse, forgot to tell you about that. The mouse they used was a hocky-puck mouse (they got a mini and moved the mouse to that) and the spare keyboard they had, was the white pro, but one of the "Essential" keys were missing

like "Return"

so, i left the keyboard and mouse, but I am now kicking myself, because I remember I have my wireless blutooth Pro keyboard sitting in the corner with a bad membrane (some keys don't work) and all I had to to was just swap keys. well...crap...

oh well, i can probably scrounge up another keyboard. Maybe get the original Bondi-blue or getter!!! Saphire!!!

that would look TOTALLY cool. Saphire keyboard, black mouse, and white eMac

 

[funkytoad]

good deal!

 

[coius]

When I first installed 10.4, it was slow as hell. I mean, apps took like up to 4 minutes to launch. After doing all the updates, and repairing permissions (that was REALLY screwed up) and then running ALL the cron scripts

it seems to have settled down.

2 of the first things I did was to kill spotlight, and kill dashboard

it helped, but it still is a tad slow right now. I assume by tomorrow, it will be good as new

When I got it, it had like 128MB RAM, and it ran 10.2. Why in the heck would apple ship a machine with 128MB of ram on an X system? that's like suicide of a product line almost. The machines will swap like hell, and with the slow HDDs they put in there, it is just killing the system.

Anyways, these are the specs i have it at now:

17" eMac 700Mhz G4

64K L1 Cache/256K L2 (1:1 Ratio)

40GB ATA/66 HDD. apparently it's a 5400RPM.

DVD/CD-RW (DVD part is dead, will look into replacing that. I need time to go into the system)

Lucent Wifi Card (although it sticks out from the Optical bezel, which I am about to take off)

640MB PC-133 DIMM (128+512 )

apple Black Pro Keyboard, and Logitech wireless notebook mouse

 

[coius]

well, i delved into the machine, and upped the HDD to 80GB now. it made a HUGE speed increase. Anyways. It was VERY frustrating working on it, because I had to put it back together 3x before I got it. Two of it was because the wire kept coming out of the power button (which is molded on the case, but the wire goes through shielding and does an odd-twist onto the logic board) and the third was because I plugged the Power Supply for the logic board in wrong. When tried to power it up the first time, my heart sunk. Not because It didn't power up, but because I knew I would have to go back into the stupid thing to fix it. That was AFTER putting in like 20 screws to hold it together (apple should be SHOT for making the design like this).

I also have a new conquest, BLOODY HANDS!!! normally I don't draw blood on an Apple Case, but this is one of the rare exception. I musta cut my hands in 6 different places. It is a PITA trying to muscle the board in and out of the system. That, and the rest of it has sharp edges and stuff.

Oh well, i am NOT going back in for a super drive. I will just have to either live without the dvd, or use an external. this was the last time I would go into it.

 

[Orion]

I picked up a 1.25ghz eMac off of these boards a while back. Its a nice machine. I mainly use it as an internet radio and I do any scanning I need to do on it. It has the airport card in it, so I can set it anywhere I need the music. Its a nice machine, and I really love the monitor. Much sharper than the old CRT iMac monitors. I'd use it as my main machine, but I have a 1.25ghz dually G4 and a 22" widescreen LCD that would feel too lonely.

 

[QuadSix50]

Be aware that the eMacs were around during the time of the capacitor plague, so that might be something you want to check into. If you're handy with a soldering iron, it shouldn't be too bad. I don't think Apple is still replacing logic boards for these anymore.

 

[coius]

Yeah, I know about that. While I was in, i checked for ANY signs of that stuff. I gave it a thorough check out. Checked connections, components/etc...

Right now, the only problem it has is that blasted optical drive.

I might do something, but I am not too concerned with it right now. I have an external FW400 DVD-ROM case I can use (and accompanying DVD drive)

 

[Orion]

Be aware that the eMacs were around during the time of the capacitor plague, so that might be something you want to check into. If you're handy with a soldering iron, it shouldn't be too bad. I don't think Apple is still replacing logic boards for these anymore.

Mine supposedly had a new motherboard put in before I got it. I would hope it would be beyond those troubles, but it could have been sitting around since who knows when, I guess.

 

[coius]

it's running leopard

It runs pretty smoothly. I am surprised how well it runs actually. It's nice having two machines that run leopard

I now have a desktop mac and a laptop mac

This just plain ROCKS!!!

 

[MacMan]

Well done!

Low End Mac is currently building up people's success stories about Leopard installations on unsupported machines and are looking for folk to report on their findings with particular machines. The eMac is currently not reviewed so take a look at http://lowendmac.com/osx/leopard/unsupported.html if you would like to share your success with more of the wider world.

Hope you enjoy your Leopard eMac!

 

[coius]

well, i am happy to report (and unhappy about doing that) I have replaced the Combo drive with a straight DVD Drive. I got enough machines I can burn CDs with, and all I really need on this is the DVD-Rom on it (for movies)

I decided to revert back to 10.4 and 10.3 (dual-boot) because I want to run games under 10.3. 10.5 was too slow for me, so I decided to run the last "Latest and greatest" OS: "Tiger 10.4.10"

I only have 10.3 on it right now, am going to wait a few hours before putting tiger on it. 10.5 was "OK" but I DID notice a slow down. I guess upping the drive from 40GB to 80GB wasn't good enough for speed. Plus, the ages 66MB/s ATA bus was very slow. and I *thought* it had 64MB VRAM, well... it doesn't... It has 32, which makes it VERY slow.

 

[coius]

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Pics will follow in 1/2 hour!!!