My first computer, well, Mac

I've always fancied an Apple, and yesterday I finally bought one on eBay. Here are the specs:

733Mhz Quicksilver G4
1024mb RAM
160GB HDD
2 x FireWire 400, 2 x USB, Ethernet
Superdrive (DVD-R)

Also came with an AOC 17" flatscreen monitor, and keyboard and mouse.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4607&item=5215472245&rd=1

Pretty badass deal I got, what do you think? Pen marks are a bit stange, but they can be cleaned off or painted/stickered over.
I was thinking of upgrading the processor to a Sonnet Encore ST G4 1.4GHz, which I can get from America for about

Is the firewire like USB?

Firewire is a similar sized connection, but offering pretty high speeds as the name suggests and also allows devices to connect to each other without the needing resources from a computer. It's mainly used for storage devices, digital cameras, some high-end mp3 players and output like printers.

Firewire was developed mainly by Apple so many, if not all, current Apple pcs support the connection, along with virtually all home/office PCs these days - even mine - joy!

USB is pretty darn fast itself though

lol, are those writing's on the monitor?

Well, anyway, congrats chris on your brnad new mac.

Nice buy dude. You'll be suprised at the amount of games that actually come out on the mac. Most popular ones have mac versions. Starcraft, Civilization 3, Counter-strike, Doom 3, Battlefield 2. All have reasobly good mac vesions.

I suggest you do upgrade the processor by the way. The processor you have at the moment dosn't really do the rest of the machine justice.

Yeah I've been looking at some comparisions of the Sonnet G4 processors, and I think the 1.2Ghz would be fine. Can get that for

All Blizzard games are Mac native, and of course they're the ones that matter most.

Weird with the marks though...

Excellent stuff. I want a Mac, just cant afford it!

This really is brill for movie editing though, with all the RAM and stuff.

Is it single 733 or dual?

Single. Remember Mac processors look slower on paper than PC ones, they're not really comparable, but I still want to upgrade.

of course! my mate had a 400Mhz G3 that was way better than my 1Ghz Athlon.. back in the day!

Awesome, looks like a very good deal.

I was thinking about getting one of those Mini Macs for my room. I need something like that because I'd need to move it around a lot, do editing with my camcorder and stuff.

Has anyone seen/used/got advice to give about them?

Firewire is comparable to USB2. USB2 is slightly faster but sends data in packets, this is fine for peripherals such as printers, scanners etc. While Firewire is slightly slower it uses a constant data stream which makes it the perfect choice for applications such as video streaming and backing up to an external hard-drive

You pay for the size with the Mini. You can get an eMac with better spec for the same price. Or look on eBay for something second hand like I did

I don't think a Mac Mini would be poweful enough for any serious video editing...

nice sale.. god u were worrying on msn, lol... i may look in to buyin a mac mini..

Mac minis are good, but if you need it for anything serious then better off getting an imac or powermac.

Fuck this. It's been a day and the seller on eBay hasn't replied to my emails or contacted me yet. Maybe I'm impatient. There's another tasty G4 I've got my eye on so I might just get that instead! Mwahaha.

So the guy finally replied. But I wont be able to pick the stuff up until Saturday... Still pretty excited.

Also, I ordered a 1.2Ghz processor from the good ol' US of A, nice and cheap. I'm might get an ATI RADEON 9800 Pro Mac Edition on eBay, which would make the package complete. And my friend gave me copies of Final Cut Pro 4 and Photoshop 7, woo hoo.

Are Macs generally better value for money then PC's, or did I just make that up? I've always had a faint interest in Mac's, they look cool, I want one! (then again the Ipod looks cool, but there are much better mp3 players out there)

however it does have some pen marks on it due to a crazy ex girlfriend.

Are Macs generally better value for money then PC's, or did I just make that up?

No, you pay for the design. Pc's are far better value for money.

< Edited by msenyszak on 2005/7/13 21:45 >

Macs cost more, but are much more reliable and efficient.

Yeah, I think it's all debatable. For creative professionals, Macs are worth the extra money for the power and for the colour matching - Macs display colours much more faithfully than PCs, which is importnat for print based work.

However, the average PC user would be making better use of their money if they bought a PC.