After some serious searching on Craigslist I managed to find a slightly used iMac G4 for the low, low price of $200. Now, that may seem a lot for a computer that is 5 years old but we all know how well Macs hold their value. Buying a 5 year old PC would be ludicrous, sure. However, this thing is more like a piece of home decor. And, it fits perfectly on the desk in our guest room.
Here are the specs (as purchased):
15″ Display
1GHZ PowerPC G4
512mb ram
Upgrades thus far:
Purchased 1GB ram (being delivered Monday). Although Apple only officially supports 1GB total- the unofficial word is that it will hold 1.5GB total (512mb DIMM and 1GB SODIMM- user replaceable).
Airport Extreme card. Let me say the belkin wireless usb adapter I purchased was a nightmare. After 5 different drivers it still was not working. The airport extreme was purchased at Fry’s, installed in 10 minutes, and working in 5. Sometimes it’s best to just stick to Apple products since they play nicely together.
Installed Apple Remote Desktop (client). This will be for maintenance and general spying when guests are in town (kidding! sorta).
Upgrades coming:
New Keyboard/Mouse!. My wife and I cleaned the hell out of the keyboard (each individual key) because it was 7 layers of disgusting. However, I still don’t like it- too bulky for the desk it sits on. Also, not having the Mighty Mouse really stinks due to the lack of a scoll ball.
All in all, it’s a great little computer. Obviously no where near the horsepower of the current intel-based macs but still a great work of design and engineering.
Pictures from Flickr:
