Unexpected Conquest

[coius]

Well my mom has the new Mac Mini with 8GB RAM installed (it runs really well) and the iMac my mom had (late-2006, I need to make correction, has the ATI X1600 graphics (128MB VRAM) 2.0Ghz C2D) was supposed to go to my dad since he bought the replacement logic board to fix when the GPU died.

Turns out my dad decides he doesn't want the iMac. So I received (for free) the iMac with the following specs:

Late 2006 (my mom bought it in 2007) White 17" 2.0Ghz C2D iMac

ATI X1600 128MB VRAM

500GB SATA WD 7200RPM "Green" HDD

4GB RAM (3GB RAM, Apple crippled the chipset)

1440x900 LCD

DVD-+RW DL

3x USB 2.0, 2x FW400, Mini DVI out, Sound in/out, Gig Ethernet, AP/BT

So I have it reloaded and sitting on my desk as I had to send my defective ASRock board back since they have defective design in their first revisions leaving me with no desktop.

I must state I hate these iMacs. They remind me of Jay Leno with the chin, but for free I can't complain. Either way I will use it until either my dad wants it back, or when I get the new board.

It plays WoW (kinda on low settings) even though I don't play much anymore, however Diablo III (beta or when the full comes out, it) will not even launch. Unsupported GPU.

So I am debating on what to do with it once my board comes back from ASRock. Do I sell it, or hold onto it in case my mom's mini goes in for repair which I can quickly set it up if the mini has a dud HDD or something?

Also, with those specs, if a friend were to buy it (as he has indicated interest) what would be reasonable price? it already has the latest OS. and it's pretty much decked out for the machine (Max RAM/etc...)

I was thinking $350 w/ Kbd/mouse is what I would say. I am going kind of by ebay/craigslist, and what I would say a fair price is for a mac (not a PC) with those specs. That's adjustable since the one I am seeing on ebay are going for $300 with only 160GB HDDs and 2GB of RAM. So it's all debateable what the price would be. The screen also has NO lines or stuck pixels. Perfect 100%

Suggestions on what to do?

 

[jsarchibald]

I would sell it and get a Mini. If you keep an eye out, you'll find one cheap enough. Why pay for a monitor built in if you already have one?

 

[olePigeon]

Makes for a decent server. I use that exact model (except that it has 40 vertical lines going through it) with Leopard Server installed on it. It's my backup server at work for our Mac mini server.

On a related note, my brother bought an ASRock Gen 3 motherboard. It came with bent LGA pins in the socket. He took it back to the store and they refused to replace it because the technician claimed that the motherboards would never ship with bent pins. So he contacted ASRock and they said the exact same thing.

So now he's on phone tag with the computer store's HR department trying to get it replaced.

 

[coius]

After thinking it over and talking with my dad, I decided to keep it. My dad really doesn't want it, and while I would rather have a different mac, I decided against selling it (as I am not sure what the future will hold or how long my macbook pro will hold up) and at least for the short term, play with it a bit.

So since i had my 60GB SSD sitting around, I cracked open the iMac and proceeded to upgrade the 500GB HDD to the 60GB OCZ Vertex II. I got trim enabler and TRIM has now been enabled on the SSD.

The machine from a dead start, once the chime will be at the desktop in 9 seconds. Not bad for a boot?

that's with Lion

I can live with the iMac and really don't want to mess with selling at and I might as well not look down a free mac. It will suffice for many of my needs and will probably serve me (if I keep it) for a few years. I hit ebay and had a Mini-DVI -> DVI adapter sent to me for a total of $2.99 w/ shipping, so I can hook it to one of my spare monitors (like my 1920x1080) and run with dual LCDs. The internal will be fine but I could use the extra real-estate so I can share my ASUS HD LED display with the iMac and the touch of a button on the LCD it can switch to my PC when I need it. It will be a welcome improvement over the rather small LCD.

It's quick enough and can do quite a bit. I will leave any data storage up to my server with the Gigabit Ethernet network, which will make quick transfers.

The DVD Drive is on the fritz like I Recalled. It will burn/read DVDs, but will not burn CDs even though it will read them. The speakers are in very good condition but I will have it hooked up to my sound system.

One of the reasons I decided to keep it as it doesn't take up much space (same as an LCD) and it has the webcam so I can facetime with my friends while sitting at my desk. Beats taking out my macbook pro for that and finding a place to put it.

the SSD specs are at the bottom:

http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=571268&doc2=1&setCookie=true