Should I buy an eMac?

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Further to last week's USB quandry, I discovered that the box I have is older than I thought (1996) so I am thinking I might buy a new thing after all.

What of the basic eMac? Seems that by forgoing the flatscreen of the iMac you get more computer for your money. 700MHz. 17" CRT, 128MB RAM, 40GB hard drive and a DVD/CD-RW drive.

Any advice?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 10:46 (twenty-four years ago)

If you don't think they're horribly ugly (maybe they just take getting used to), of course you should.

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:12 (twenty-four years ago)

They aren't the most beautiful of products I know, but hey, on my budget the alternative is a IBM compatible (do people still call non-Apple PCs that?) or an old skool tacky iMac.

The weird thing is that no one much apart from Apple direct seems to sell these things and I'd never heard of them. And the Mac User review from May says they're only on sale to colleges and students. Has Apple changed its mind since then? - the website doesn't seem to mention this restriction at all.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:21 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh OK - I found the answer to the availability question myself

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:28 (twenty-four years ago)

Looks nice to me, but get a Ram upgrade for sure. But don't buy it from apple, buy it from some PC dealer, as it's mostly the same stuff.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:29 (twenty-four years ago)

They have them in stock in a couple of places in Tottenham Court Road, but that's not very helpful, but if there is an AppleCentre in Glasgow they'll have them. I think there's a Where To Buy link or something at the top of the Apple website.

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:32 (twenty-four years ago)

Why's is better not to buy from the website?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:35 (twenty-four years ago)

It isn't. You just seemed to be asking for an alternative.

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:38 (twenty-four years ago)

I was totally going to buy one of these, but then I read about how much radiation CRTs give off and decided what with all the time I spend on the computer I should prob. get a flat screen asap, so now I'm going to build my own so it'll be fast AND cheap (yay!) but not a mac (*pout*).

Reasons why it's better to buy from somewhere other than apple.com:

1) Apple ALWAYS charges sales tax, but other sellers will not unless you're in their area (I don't know how this works in places other than the US).

2) Other retailers usu. throw in both a free printer and a free memory upgrade.

3) you can usually find other retailers that will do shipping FREE (Apple will not).

― Dan I., Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:50 (twenty-four years ago)

1. Everywhere charges sales tax in the UK.
2. They're nothing like as generous/competitive here.
3. Apple do free shipping on whole computers.

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:54 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, the local Apple dealer seems to be over £100 more expensive than the website for the same DVD/CD-RW model.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 12:30 (twenty-four years ago)

Cripes - I just ordered it. Except I mismoused with my card's expiry date and didn't notice till it was too late so I'll have to call them to explain.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 12:45 (twenty-four years ago)

The only reason I would not buy it: You (or I) can't download from Soulseek. Well, I managed to download a couple of MP3s. Grrr.

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 14:05 (twenty-four years ago)

Nathalie, were you using a Soulseek client for Mac OS X? I've never found one for OS 8-9, but I know there is one -- albeit a rather shaky one -- for OS X, written in Python. Unfortunately, I don't have OS X -- only OS 8.6.

― Phil (phil), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 20:17 (twenty-four years ago)

yeah there's two ways of running soulseek. the one i try is very buggy. the other one is too hard for me to use. heh. then again i have been using limewire to download tons of crappy pop tunes.

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 20:25 (twenty-four years ago)

Ha ha ha, I just got one today.

― rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 21:31 (twenty-four years ago)

I myself have bought several Big Macs for the price of just one Mac. I am a clever git aren't I ?

― William Whizz, Wednesday, 21 August 2002 05:19 (twenty-four years ago)

Buy the computer from John Lewis, they give a two year warranty instead of the standard 1 year and their prices are very competitive, (i.e. the same as everyone else's). Get upgrade ram from ebuyer.com or pcupgrader.com. It needs Kingston part numbers KTA-G4/256 or KTA-G4/512 modules. If this isn't too late to cancel

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 09:06 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't be arsed Ed. I had considered the John Lewis option but..

I don't think their never knowinly undersold thing applies to online prices anymore, does it? Anyway, I'm excited about its arrival.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 09:28 (twenty-four years ago)

Piss - I just went there and it was only £819 where mine without the extra RAM would be £899. But there's didn't have a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, just a CD-RW one AND I MUST HAVE MY EYES WIDE SHUT DVD AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 10:47 (twenty-four years ago)

there their

That's probably the right prices though.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 10:51 (twenty-four years ago)

I can spell theirs, honest. What do you mean, that's the right price? Did you think I thought it was an elaborate hoax?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 10:56 (twenty-four years ago)

Until recently apple were selling an eMac with just a CD-RW drive for £819. So it was the right price for what they had but not for what you wanted, (now I'm confused), so anyway, yu have not been done by apple. Did you get any extra memory?

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 11:07 (twenty-four years ago)

I bought an extra 128MB (to 256) for whatever extra that was - 50 quid or something.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 11:09 (twenty-four years ago)

why didn't you just buy a mac to drape over your hideously outdated terminal? you would have had £835 to spend on sweeties, and you could have worn it yourself when the weather turned.

― nickie (nickie), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 11:56 (twenty-four years ago)

Never purchase a macintosh, they only have 450mhz out on those crappy machines. by some better crap like a dell, 2.5ghz now thats what i'm talkin about :) you wanted my opinion, well dont get negative about it. I am a PC expert. :P bye.

― Unknown, Saturday, 24 August 2002 21:40 (twenty-four years ago)

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