Slashdot Mirror
Apple Revises eMac
RadRafe writes "Today Apple revised the eMac. It now sports a 1.25 GHz G4 processor, DDR RAM, and Radeon 9200 graphics. The Combo Drive model has twice as much RAM as before, and the SuperDrive model now costs just a grand. This is the first consumer Mac update in five months."
The eMac is a good machine. the proc is fast enough to do most things [web, mail, WP, digital camera editing, mp3 ripping, etc.]. A few things to be aware of. The eMac is much larger than you think it is. Unlike the original iMac, the eMac doesn't have a handle, and the 17" monitor makes it rather awkward to pick up and move around.
And yes, you'll want to up the RAM to as much as you can afford [OSX likes to use RAM as cache].
Enjoy!
Blocklevel: Practical Information Architecture
This website has a test that relates to your question: Apple vs. Mac Benchmark (Barefeats.com)
Although it doesn't show a direct comparison of the systems you mentioned, you'll notice that the P4 3.0 GHz just barely loses to a G4 1.42 (MP!) system in most of the tests and beats a G5 at 1.8 MHz in about half the tests.
This speaks well of Apple for processor cycle efficiency, but I would wager that a Pentium 3.2 would outperform a G4 1.25 by quite a lot.
Note that cross-system/OS comparisons must always be taken with a large dose of salt!
Anyone know this machine with the 1.25 GHz G4 processor fares against the new Intel 3.2Ghz processor with 1Gb RAM?
The 1.25Ghz G4 fares extremely well - It costs a lot less!
While the P4 3.2 costs between $300 and $400 just fo rthe chip, this $800 unit includes the 1.25 G4, Combo drive, 40GB hd, 256K Ram, CRT built in custom housing, video, networking, USB 2, Firewire800, Airport Extreme upgrade path, Bluetooth upgrade path, OS X Jaguar, iLife (Garageband, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, iTunes) and the cache of owning an Apple.
You can check out this review of the 1.25 Ghz G4 when it first came out and this review of the P4 3.2Ghz vs. an Athlon
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
>It is a Jaguar system
Panther, actually.
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
The eMac has Firewire 400, not 800.
'e' stands for 'education'.
Apple released the eMac as a more durable, less expensive alternative to the LCD iMac. Schools wanted it.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
If you want a game machine, buy a PS2
If you want to run some special windows only app, buy Virtual PC for OS X
If you want to get work done in an efficient, user friendly, secure, stable, virus-free, low stress manner, buy a Mac
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
$749 for the combo/40gb, and $899 for the superdrive/80gb!!! That's $100 savings on the latter. Seems like it'll be a great buy for students who.
well, in order. A different proccesor architecture, theres a fuckload of software, and almost any gnu app can easily be ported (or, if you don't insist on tying apple products to their OS, you can run linux or BSD just fine), blizzard dual releases and other companies eventually port (but if you only own a computer for games, why do you read the apple slashdot page... oh, you're an AC. this post doesn't really matter.) I use a g3, a dual g5, an ulstra sparc, 1 althon box and 3 pentium III's. I like my macs better. oh well.
Don't worry - its just stigmata. Pass me a napkin and don't you dare tell my mother.
Get the stand for the eMac, if you do buy one; I think they're about $60, and it really makes re-positioning the eMac a lot easier. W/o, the eMac is just so much of a 70# boat anchor.
--
$tar -xvf
My parents have bought two computers from Costco, and had nary a problem with them. (Well, except for the usually MS virus/worm/insecurity nastiness, which I had to deal with for them.)
Although personal experience doesn't negate your point, this: " I understand Costco has a kick ass return policy" is very true.
I believe it is ONE YEAR (!!!) with NO restock fee! If it was me, I'd want it to break after 9 months (and if the proc is going to fail, it's likely to happen in the first year).
For a cheap computer like this one, I'd be willing to save the $200 dollars by buying at Costco.
*Your milage may vary*
Cache = store, etc. I think you might mean cachet. That's pronounced "kash-ay" for you Americans that don't speak foreign.
At last a reasonably priced Apple computer. And the international prices don't have the standard 50% Apple International tax, they are reasonably close to the US prices after currency conversion!
:)
For a laugh earlier I configured a system on Dells site with similar features. This was a 2.6GHz Celeron 2400C system. It came out higher priced than the eMac (eMac 549, Dell 580) for as close a match of specification as possible (and I made sure that warranties, etc, were minimal on the Dell, I'm not an Apple owner so I won't cheat like that!). Certainly not a bad deal in my opinion, especially with iLife and Panther included (after a year of using XP, I realise how much I loathe it). The Dell looked like a turd as well, if that matters to you!
.. then I found that this clear plastic eMac stand COST $95 (you can find it when you select the eMac; price is from apple.ca)
Note to readers: that's 95 Canadian dollars, or 59 US dollars. US$95 would indeed be a lot, but US$59 seems reasonable for a well designed accessory that does its job well and adds certain convenience. Feel free to skip it and buy an aftermarket stand, or make your own, or use an old text book.
FYI, the eMac is slightly shorter front-to-back than a CRT iMac :)
It is, however, wider, higher, heavier, and a pain to move around. Good machines though, and the CRT is flat which makes it pleasant to work at.
Oliver.
- Oliver
The right to bear arms is only slightly less stupid than the right to arm bears...
The eMac uses about as much power (ie produces as much heat) as a similarly sized CRT monitor. So for the heat output of a nice size monitor you get a whole computer. Even if you've got a flat panel display it is going to be driven by a little space heater under the desk. While an LCD is definitely going to be smaller than an eMac the overall power savings aren't too impressive. If you want a system that won't heat up a room or take up a bunch of space get a Powerbook. My 12" PB uses as much power as a small light bulb and has a really crisp screen.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Besides, what source doesn't Apple share already, that a GNU license would force them to? Darwin is totally open. You can download the source here.
Yes, OS X (10.3 at least) is a very, very good operating system -- I own an iBook G4 -- but only if you agree with the design philosophy. OS X was designed for completely different people who want to do completely different things with computers than, say, Linux users.
:)
Uh. I run PostgreSQL and Apache on my eMac, as well as an IMAP server. Same thing I would do if this was a Linux box. I keep a terminal in my dock. GIMP is there too.
There's tons of choice in OS X. Install Fink and pretend it's a Linux box.
There is a difference though, I can do (almost) all of my Linux stuff PLUS have iTunes and GarageBand -- Ardour+LADSPA+Jack-rack+Hydrogen are amusing but horrible hacks in comparison.
Oh yeah and I can't run Wine. Is that a bad thing?
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html
It tells about how you can use an nvramrc to change graphic-options on your mac to enable monitor spanning (as apposed to monitor mirroring). It works on Radeon 7500 eMacs but it is unclear yet whether this trick will work on these new eMacs. Let's hope so....
Another thing for people to keep in mind is that this is the 'e'Mac.... as in educational. This box is not designed for power users or even 'prosumer' high-end home users. It's designed to be a relatively cheap computer that Apple can sell in bulk to school districts.
Exactly. Apple made Aqua by themselves *for themselves*. They're not giving it back, and I don't expect them to. If they did, they'd be stupid (they'd quickly have to compete strictly on hardware specs, which, historically speaking, they've shown they can't do) and, at the same time, heroes of the FOSS movement, much as IBM became when they made a serious (to us, anyway) investment and commitment to free software.
Giving back Darwin is fine. I'm sure it's helped half a dozen people who've made the choice to run that as their system. I don't know why anyone would want to, since it's technically inferior to the Linux kernel, and has a lot less people working on it, but I'll assume it's benefitted somebody. So that's good. Apple's testing the waters. I like it. I hope they continue down the road towards openness, rather than closed-ness. It's better for the consumer, and that's *me*. Knowing Apple extremely well, I highly doubt they will continue towards freedom, however. Darwin really *is* a token gesture, designed to get them PR and increased conversions from the FOSS camps. Remember "Come on in, it's open!" on their OS X website? Hell, *I* thought they were putting out a BSD-licensed OS until I read the fine print.
So basically, what irritates me is the salesman-type spin people here put on Darwin, like it's the greatest gift to the FOSS community that ever existed. I've tried it, and it *sucks*. I don't have any problem at all with Apple themselves, but their overzealous little followers on here are making it out like Apple is an open-source company, like they're a charitable organization. They're not, but the amount of noise made by shills claiming that they *are* an uber-ethical corporation is overwhelming. I am the anti-shill. People I can only assume are paid shills (they're often so far from reality they have to *know* they're lying) try to convert Linux users to Mac OSX by pointing out the technical similarities and the fact that Apple has left Darwin open instead of opting to close their version, causing a fork. They conveniently make it sound like moving from Linux to Apple results in no vendor lockin and no loss of freedoms. This is incorrect, and should be clarified. There are a lot of good things about OS X, but its "openness" isn't one of them.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
the eMac was originally introduced for "education", it was in fact only available via edu channels, i.e. at your university bookstore or via the Apple Store after you proved you were a teacher, student or school administrator. After initial sales, they opened up the buying to 'everyone'.
Think of it as the VW bug of the Mac line... the sad thing is it's now 30% or so faster than the original iMac that I spent a cool grand more on a couple of years back... that's tech for ya.
They did make this once, it was called the cube, and it was a complete failure. It didn't have much in the way of expandability, but it was completely silent, and it looked very nifty. Unfortunately, it didn't sell very well.
They do have cards that can upgrade a cube to an 800Mhz G4, but you're still going to be hampered by the rest of the hardware. It runs OS X just fine though.
Apple probably won't make something like it for a long long time.
- Sherman
This still doesn't change the fact that *I* don't want a CRT. My friends don't want a CRT. Everyone OTHER than graphic design peopel don't nessesarily want an LCD. The grpahic design people are a minority.
Attached monitors are silly. If apple made the eMac just a box, I assure you more people would buy it.