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."

Really how fast is this 1.25GHz machine

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone know this machine with the 1.25 GHz G4 processor fares against the new Intel 3.2Ghz processor with 1Gb RAM?

The first ever "bargain" Mac

[amichalo]

For under $800 this Mac is a bargain for potential "switchers". It is a Jaguar system for those who don't want to invest in a $2,000+ G5 setup to give the Mac a try.

When I wanted to try out OS X, I did so with a $1800 Powerbook Ti G4 at 400Mhz, 256k RAM, 20GB HD, and a CD/DVD reader. I found that system well equiped to flex the power of then OS 10.1. Panther and Jaguar are both responsive on my 400Mhz PB and I can only imagine that on the $800 eMac, especially if the 256k is upgraded, it would be a great low cost Mac.

This eMac system is well equiped for experimenting with iMovie, iPhoto, iTunesMusicStore, and GarageBand - all which come with it. For just $200 more you get a DVD burning SuperDrive and twice the drive space.

But like I say, for $800, this is a great system for those who don't want to make the investment in a G5 inorder to give OS X a try.

Re:The first ever "bargain" Mac

[PretzelBat]

Remember that "bargain" in this context is very relative: a similarly configured PC could be found for somewhere in the vicinity of half as much: just today I saw a complete system at Costco for less than $500 with:

-P4 2.8
-256 MB
-40 GB HD
-CD-RW
-17 in. Flat Screen CRT
-Windows XP Home :(

You could argue that the better OS is worth the extra $300, but in terms of hardware, a bargain Mac is still not much of a bargain.

PARENT IS A JOKE!

[Anonymous Coward]

Moderators are morons, the parent is a joke, not a flame

Re:Really how fast is this 1.25GHz machine

[fm6]

Note that cross-system/OS comparisons must always be taken with a large dose of salt!

And are irrelevent to anybody who'd consider buying an eMac. These are people who just want to run basic Mac stuff and don't care about performance -- if they did, they'd look at something fancier.

The Mac-versus-PC performance debate has always been kind of pointless. People buy Macs because they like them, or because they think they're more usable, not because they care about the architectural superiority of the PowerPC chip. People buy PCs because they're cheaper, or because they need low-level compatibility, not because they have a misguided love of Intel technology.

The issue is particularly irrelevent for people who aren't performance conscious. A 1Ghz PC may have a lot less computing power than a 1Ghz Mac, but it still has a lot more than most people need.

Re:The first ever "bargain" Mac

[amichalo]

The statement was that it was a bargain Mac, not a bargain piece of hardware.

I fully disagree that one can simply exclude the cachet of Mac/OS X ownership and the benefits of such by saying "well it comes with XP so that is the same".

That is exactly what is NOT the same. Otherwise, why would people buy Macs, because the cases look cool?

Re:The first ever "bargain" Mac

[Anonymous Coward]

Costco PCs are crappy, with zero "real" support and poor quality.

If you don't get support, you might as well build your own. I put together similar Athlon-based system for about $225. Add $75 for a "Flat Screen" CRT.

That's a whole lot cheaper than your Costco crap-box! If you're going to go with crap, you might as well get it for cheap!

Re:Still way outdated, Apple fanatics please read.

[Dr Reducto]

since when is a 2.4GHz celeron cutting edge?

Since people stopped caring about how much a large cache improves performance.

Re:Still way outdated, Apple fanatics please read.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is an obviously bogus comparison. Since when is a 2.4 celery a 1.25 ppc? Even worse, motherboard integrated el cheapo graphics don't compare to a Radeon 9200. This is not even considering the iLife suite, the comm ports on the mac, and os x. The high-end dell machine is nice, I'll admit, but what it gains in terms of hardware is compensated for by things like the iLife suite on the mac.

1.25 Ghz G4 faster than Intel's 3.2 Ghz

[nuckin futs]

specially when you're trying to run OS X on Intel's processor.
A lot of people I know bought a Mac because of OS X, it didn't matter if it was "slower" than a comparable Intel processor in certain functions. Show me an Intel processor than can run OS X (not just Darwin) then we can start talking about speed comparisons.

Fast DVD burner, too!

[jimlau]

From the "Tech Specs" page:

SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW); writes DVD-R discs at up to 8x speed, reads DVDs at up to 10x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 10x speed, reads CDs at up to 32x speed

8X DVD-R speed, that's twice what they're putting in the G5s! Bonus points for that. It's nice that it's not a bare-bones low end model.

Re:Worth buying?

[Anonymous Freak]

So just hide it in a cabinet, and attach a VGA-plug LCD screen...

Re:Worth buying?

[crackshoe]

At the moment, i would go with a CRT over an LCD. why? I don't particularly value my desktop space ( i currently have 2 19" displays and a 21". i have the room), and LCD's are tiny per cost. I've used the apple 17" display, and its gorgeous, but overpriced. I do haev a few smaller (15") LCD's i use in a 'server closer' or for portable systems, but i wouldn't want to use one everyday. But as far as attatched displays go, I agree with the exception of the iMac. We bought one for my mum, and its a great box (unless you want to get all fiddly in it). The eMac is really designed for educational entry level enterprise use. after i graduated, my highschool upgraded to eMacs, with individuals logging in and having a floating profile. they were, i believe, designed to be cost efficent (as far as apple goes - theres also a CD-ROm only version thats only available for educational accounts) all in 1 systems. while i think it is currently the cheapest available apple boxen, i would think that the affordable iBOok would be a better draw for those on the edge of switching - but for mass deployed education, you want a relatively sturdy all-in-one box. LCD's get damaged really easily (hey, ir member the joys of making permanent squiggles in the school owned laptops).

Re:Still way outdated, Apple fanatics please read.

[logicat2001]

Windows XP? I prefer Windows 2000 myself
If you continue to base your opinions on a copy of Windows 3.1 you once used ten years ago - OS 9 was arguably even worse

I didn't post above, but I currently use both XP and 2000 daily. Make your own decisions but I also use OS X daily and it's far and away the most pleasant working environment I've encountered to date. That doesn't mean it's perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but that's not the point now, is it.

As for "OS 9," um, who's talking about OS 9?

If you want Unix, install Linux... FreeBSD... SuSE... Debian... Lycoris... Lindows... There are choices in the Windows world.

Well, by the time I've finished clicking through the (Continue) buttons in an OS X install I've managed to install both the entire GUI environment and the entire Unix OS. I can also install other Unix systems on Mac hardware, but frankly I've got everything I need right here.

I don't need to install anything else except Logic Pro 6 [emagic.de], Ableton Live [ableton.com], MetaSynth [uisoftware.com], ArtMatic Pro [artmatic.com], MetaTrack [uisoftware.com], Voyager [uisoftware.com], VTrack [uisoftware.com], Absynth [nativeinstruments.de], OmniGraffle [omnigroup.com], OmniOutliner [omnigroup.com], OmniDiskSweeper [omnigroup.com], Studiometry [oranged.net], FileMakerPro [filemakerpro.com], Adobe Creative Suite [adobe.com], LaunchBar [obdev.at], MySQL [mysql.com], Perl 5.8.3 [perl.com], Fink, Plone [plone.org], Keynote [apple.com], BBEdit [barebones.com], FastTrack Schedule Pro [aecsoft.com], Sonasphere [sonasphere.com], Toast 6 [roxio.com], ZBrush [pixologic.com], and a few more but I'll get to those tomorrow.

I run all these (plus my email, internet, contacts management, calendaring, etc) in the same operating environment; not an emulation shell, not after dual-booting, but in the very same operating system and simultaneously.

To top it all off OS X comes with a full set of developer tools, documentation and optimization utilities, plus [apple.com] Cocoa [apple.com]+Obj-C [faqs.org] is a match made in heaven.

There's no need to pay Apple for a decent Unix experience.

Well, I believe there is. I enjoy the ability to support quality whether it's a film, a restaurant, a music venue, a book, clothing, my neighborhood, an artist, etc. every single day.

The hardware is just a hunk of material until you've discovered/designed an interface with which to use it. Solely on a base consumer level, I'm very happy to pay Apple for what is, in daily practice, a superior computer operating system. From the level of both a technology consultant and a media creator, the solution is very simple.

OS X is a very impressive "Holy Grail" for all my current activities. Strap me in because I'm ready to get to work.

Re:The first ever "bargain" Mac

[Moofie]

Hmm. I wonder whether the build quality of the computer you got at FUCKING COSTCO is anywhere near the same as Apple's.

Pay for quality. Or don't.

Re:Worth buying?

[bhima]

This has always been one of my problems with Apple!

I've always thought they should just pass the RAM at market prices and double or triple the RAM in base systems

Surely the positive reviews would be worth very slight drop in the revenue stream.

After all I love OS X but it sure ain't fluxbox!

Re:Nice little system

[bhima]

That "standard 50% Apple International tax" is enough for me to go back the US, say hello to some old friends, pick up a new PowerMac & Display (When they finally come out) and drag them both back. For a net savings!

So I wind up giving my money to KLM rather than Apple.

Disclaimer: Part of this is caused by the Dollar Euro conversion rate and the fact that I Still have US dollars.

$679? What kind of crack did Dell give you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Add some software to your precious Dell, bucko:

$679 will get you XP Home instead of Pro, no office suite, no movie software, no firewire & no optical mouse.

Add all that stuff and you are looking at $898 now. Your Dell is a whopping $100 cheaper, which will be quickly eaten up by your Anti Virus & Firewall software you'll have to buy and you still don't have anything close to iDVD or Garage Band. Add Adobe Photo Album to make up for your lack of iPhoto and your Dell becomes $925

I'd bet that a high percentage of entry level consumers, if presented with both alternatives in a FUD free enviroment would pick the eMac over the Dell.

Ta-da yourself.

Re:The first ever "bargain" Mac

[The Infamous Grimace]

Go ahead take the cheap shot. Me, I'm going to buy one of the high-end ones at with a student discount. Everyone here is talking about initial cost, but not TCO. While I'm currently using our iMac DV 400, most of the time I spend on a computer is on my PowerBook G3 300 Wallstreet. The only upgrade has been the RAM, to 320MB, which is more than is officially supported. It's also running OS X 10.3, with a little help from XPostFacto. I still boot it into OS 9.2 often because Virtual PC and Windows 98SE run faster under it. I use it for word processing and software development with Xcode, nothing fancy, and it's certainly slower than I would like at times, but hey, OS X has become more and more responsive with each new release. Show me a 6-year-old WinTel laptop thats runs XP faster (or at all, for that matter) after SP1, and faster again after SP2 .

(tig)

Re:Still way outdated, Apple fanatics please read.

[mcwop]

No iMovie,iDVD or GarageBand on the Dell is there? Those apps kick the crap out of comparible apps for Windows. Those are the apps I use a lot. I consider more than just cost when buying a machine.

Re:The first ever "bargain" Mac

[gobbo]

This box is not designed for power users or even 'prosumer' high-end home users.

True, but that's consumerism for you. There's a high-productivity video production studio downstairs from me, and they bought an eMac just to develop interfaces and do preliminary graphics work, plus After Effects rendering on the side.

Considering a lot of power users in the video trades are still using their tricked-out early G4's (it ain't broke, don't fix it--I even know an audio project-studio still doing their main recording and mixing on a Blue&white G3), a compact 1+GHz G4 with OS X and a near graphics-grade screen slots into the workflow just fine thankyouverymuch.

And it's not dual-boot...

[huchida]

... Unfortunately. I was hoping Apple's lowest tier would still allow us to boot into 9 when necessary... Another case of Apple dragging us into the future, whether we like it or not.

Unfortunately there are many applications (including a few decent games) that don't boot, or run buggy from X running "classic." My faithful laser printer doesn't print from X running "classic." I can understand why it wouldn't work with a G5, but how difficult would it really be to allow dual-boot with the remaining G4 computers?

Re:Worth buying?

[huchida]

For high-end graphic design you need a CRT. LCD will never get the color right (colors actually tend to be deceptively deeper and richer on LCD... Ever notice how pictures that seem beautiful on the LCD screen look like crap when you print them out?)