eMac G4, how does it compare to intel?

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pokeman89

New Member
I was looking at an emac with Tiger 10.4 for $60. Obviously I know it is outdated, but I was looking for something in which I could try out the mac OS without spending too much money, but my main concern is that it has only a 700Mhz PowerPC G4. I understand these are supposed to run faster than the equivalent pentium IIIs, but about how much of a difference am I looking at, especially since there will be no antivirus software. Will it be as fast as, say a 1200MHz P3, or the slowest P4? It has a 40GB HD and 512MB of RAM, and the mac was made just after the introduction of the pentium 4.

I have a 2.4Ghz Celeron also. Any chance of overclocking a g4 to make it run better than the celeron?

My baseline I guess would be the Intel Celeron M @1.0GHz. If it runs slower than that, I guess I really have to consider this one.
 
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1. Pentium 4's are slower than Pentium III clock for clock.
2. You cannot compare the speed of a Powerpc processor running OSX to an X86 cpu running windows or linux.
3. You cant overclock apple products except by modifying a select few.
 
bomberboysk said:
1. Pentium 4's are slower than Pentium III clock for clock.
2. You cannot compare the speed of a Powerpc processor running OSX to an X86 cpu running windows or linux.
3. You cant overclock apple products except by modifying a select few.
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Ok, I guess what I am asking is will it be slow, and will it lag a lot when using the internet for example (I have a 30Mbps connection, so that is not an issue), or iLife (Not newest version, and older one). I also have a Pro animation software program called Anime Studio Pro 6, are the G4 processors good with multimedia, I know that is the weakness in all of my other PCs. Basically, is it worth $60 for the performance I am going to get?
 
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eMacs are old and end of life. You can maybe run Leopard on them if you are lucky, most likely Tiger would be best.

PPC processors are RISC based, so they are different. Generally speaking a lower clock speed RISC based processor was faster than your standard x86 processor. Some people like to say double the clock speed, but that was back when processors relied mostly on clock speed. Where as nowadays there are so many other factors. Cache, pipe lines, instruction sets, voltage, clock speed, cores, so on and so forth.

If my OS actually took full advantage of my quad core processor, it would be a ton faster than most things out there today.
 
tlarkin said:
eMacs are old and end of life. You can maybe run Leopard on them if you are lucky, most likely Tiger would be best.

PPC processors are RISC based, so they are different. Generally speaking a lower clock speed RISC based processor was faster than your standard x86 processor. Some people like to say double the clock speed, but that was back when processors relied mostly on clock speed. Where as nowadays there are so many other factors. Cache, pipe lines, instruction sets, voltage, clock speed, cores, so on and so forth.

If my OS actually took full advantage of my quad core processor, it would be a ton faster than most things out there today.
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Ok, it has Tiger on it, and I do not plan on upgrading the OS to Leopard so that is not a problem. Will there be problems running programs like older versions of iMovie?
 
pokeman89 said:
Ok, it has Tiger on it, and I do not plan on upgrading the OS to Leopard so that is not a problem. Will there be problems running programs like older versions of iMovie?
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Like mentioned, it will be somewhat slower and it will probably lag with iMovie somewhat, but it should be usable for internet and everything however.
 
bomberboysk said:
Personally, id say no for a product that old. That $60 could get you over halfway to a new cpu+mobo that would be a heck of alot faster than an emac.
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Well my problem is I have software that only works on macs, so I need to buy one of those. I have no idea about hardware changes in a mac, but from what I've heard the OS is very picky. Besides, I just spent $300 on a barebones kit and a new OS because XP decided it didn't like my new mobo. so I have one of those new kits. Pretty nice one too for what was originally a $180 system (Intel E5300 @2.6, Radeon HD 4350). I was considering this because the Macs are the one computer I have never owned.

I will try and negotiate it lower. Also, I looked it up and according to mac2sell.com that emac is worth $90. I do not know how accurate that is and I believe you are closer in your estimate anyway. I'm guessing maybe $45.
 
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pokeman89 said:
Well my problem is I have software that only works on macs, so I need to buy one of those. I have no idea about hardware changes in a mac, but from what I've heard the OS is very picky. Besides, I just spent $300 on a barebones kit and a new OS because XP decided it didn't like my new mobo. so I have one of those new kits. Pretty nice one too for what was originally a $180 system (Intel E5300 @2.6, Radeon HD 4350). I was considering this because the Macs are the one computer I have never owned.

I will try and negotiate it lower. Also, I looked it up and according to mac2sell.com that emac is worth $90. I do not know how accurate that is and I believe you are closer in your estimate anyway. I'm guessing maybe $45.
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If your looking for a computer to run osx, maybe take a look at some of the older g4 imac's vs the eMac's, and shoot for at least a 1Ghz.
 
tlarkin said:
You can probably get a first gen intel mac mini for $200 or less used.
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Yeah, first I have to find someone who hasn't got their mac mini listed for twice as much as it is really worth. I checked ebay, cheapest one is 165 but I have to pay shipping, and I need another monitor and a RAM upgrade, so it isn't worth it.
 
pokeman89 said:
Yeah, first I have to find someone who hasn't got their mac mini listed for twice as much as it is really worth. I checked ebay, cheapest one is 165 but I have to pay shipping, and I need another monitor and a RAM upgrade, so it isn't worth it.
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Go local and check craig's list. I sold all my macs 2 summers ago on Craig's list. They ranged from $120 to $500 for what I was selling. Sold them all for cash in person.
 
I was going to suggest the first gen mac mini's aswell, just anywhere online such as ebay they are a little overpriced...
 
tlarkin said:
Go local and check craig's list. I sold all my macs 2 summers ago on Craig's list. They ranged from $120 to $500 for what I was selling. Sold them all for cash in person.
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Well I wish I was in your neighborhood, every single mac on my local craigslist site is vastly overpriced. One guy wanted $250 for a 800MHz iMac G4 without keyboard monitor and speakers, and it was completely stock, not even a RAM upgrade.

Most Minis are sold for between $300-$900.

I have been looking for quite a while, actually just listed a post in the items wanted section stating my price and what I was looking for, so maybe I will find something there.
 
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