Hopefully this isn't a played out topic, but I am thinking of switching to mac, but I'm not sure what the best/cheapest method of carrying this out is.

First, is switching a smart move to begin with? I am extremely familiar with Windows...as in I know all the ins and outs of the various operating systems and am a computer technician and fix people's machines(as a hobby). However, this is one of the benefits of switching. It's honestly become too boring on a Windows machine...as everything is just plain old. So, switching to Mac would give me tons of opportunity to learn a new environment.

Second, what kind of machine should I get? I am thinking of simply purchasing a used "older" imac from ebay or an online store. But, what specs are necessary? I would like to find one that already has OSX, but I'm not sure what specs are needed. If this was a Windows machine...I'd know exactly what specs to go for.

For example, my current machine is a 1.3Ghz celeron, 384MB Ram, 40GB HD, etc. It's obviously not a top of the line PC, but what would that equal in "MAC terms"? I was looking at old imacs and the specs were like 266-500Mhz range. Which in PC terms would be absolutely horrible. But what's the formula for converting stuff?

Any thoughts would be helpful.

If you want to get the full OS X experience, get at least a G4. That would mean 800mhz - 1Ghz should be fine for you. iMac/eMac/iBook should be fine. Btw, this would be much faster than your celeron.

I would say any of the current systems available (From New) will run Mac OS X 'adequately', its subjective i guess to each and every person. Personally i'd agree that a G4 processor around 800MHz plus with 512Mb RAM and a decent video card (32Mb +) would run Mac OS X Panther pretty tidily...

The next iteration of Mac OS X, codenamed 'Tiger' is due in the next 6 months or so, and newer technologies are being introduced which push the hardware boundaries a little further. It might well be worth getting a Mac capable of fulfilling Tiger's Hardware specs to ensure you can get the most from both your Mac, and Tiger in the next Year. The basic specs would remain the same (so anything like i just quoted you would be 'pretty nice') but Tiger requires more powerful GPU's than anything Mac OS X Panther currently requires.

The hardware specs for supporting these two new technologies, Core Video / Core Image, are -



As you can see, this cuts out pretty much all the older Mac's, most definitely Pre G4 Models as well as the eMac. Of course you don't NEED to fulfill the hardware requirements, Tiger's quite scalable to the machine's capabilities, but in terms of longevity and all, i thought it was worth mentioning.

If you want to read more on the forthcoming Mac OS X release, have a look here -

http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/

Maybe more specifically - 'Core Image'

http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/core.html

I hope thats not all too daunting and it was helpful to you, any queries, just fire away.

Oh and one more thing (LOL! ) If you've a little bandwidth and time to burn, watch this webcast, from 'WWDC' back in the summer. It previews Mac OS X Tiger, and shows off some of the cool new stuff like 'Spotlight', 'Dashboard', 'Automator' as well as demoing some of the eye candy served up via Core Image / Video. It's really really nice stuff...

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc04/

Hey David,

Firstly, I was bored with Windows too, when i switched. I switched about a year ago, and I have no regrets. Mac OS X is a great new environment to learn and you will have so much fun exploring.

I would not recommend buying an old iMac. Your should get at least an old PowerMac G4 733 Mhz + system to run Panther to your liking. To get out more of Tiger, I would say the faster system the better. RAM wise, I would try get something that has DDR Ram, since it's cheaper to upgrade these days. Get a good graphics card too, as Steve mentioned earlier. Just remember, old iMacs are cheap now, but are pretty useless to Switch. It would be wiser to save up for an iBook or eMac.



One more thing, congrats on your decision to switch. I have no regrets myself.

I got an iBook for school after using windows all my life. Now Im barely on my PC and when I am on there, I only use it for games, nothing else. I love apple now, when I didnt know what to think of it before. Make the switch! You wont regret it


EDIT: Oh and definatley get a newer mac. You can get an eMac for cheap, but I would definitley recommend an iBook. Good luck!

Well, I guess I'm sort of clueless on what to do now. I don't have anywhere near the amount of money required for a new apple machine, and considering I have no job at this moment, it seems out of the picture.

So basically...I should just not buy anything and wait until I have money to buy a new ibook? If I do ever get the money...I'm almost scared of spending that much into a machine I'm clueless on.

But, I suppose I could always keep my crappy desktop currently if I do purchase a new mac...that way I have the security of Windows if I need it for some reason. And yet have the speed of a new mac.

There's nothing wrong with buying a 400mhz G4 to try things out, then moving up to a bigger model. It will run OS X just fine...not quite as well as a current machine, but definately enough to mess around with it. You can find these for around 400 dollars pretty easily

If the reason is that you are bored with Windows I'd suggest trying Linux first.... it's quite a bit cheaper then buying a Mac.

Maybe you should at least wait until you get that new job, that way you don't have to worry about any extranneous purchases. Also, maybe you should consider waiting until the release of Tiger. That way, if you buy your new Mac off of an autherized reseller, you can get your new machine with Tiger preinstalled, saving you the purchase of the new OS.

However, if your old machine is that awful, the 800 MHz should meet all your exploration needs and then some. Hopefully that will give you some direction.

Well, this is a tough decision here. I'm really quite desperate to get myself into the mac world, but saving up $900+ even for an emac is going to be quite hard. However, I think it's doable to get $400.

And with $400, that'll be enough to buy me a used older imac. For $400, I can buy a used Imac G3 600Mhz, 256MB Ram, 40GB HD, CD-RW, and with an operating system(not sure if it's OSX though). That's from Mac of all Trades.

For $200, I can get a G3 333Mhz, 128MB Ram, 6GB HD, and operating system mac.

So, what are your guys view on this? For $200, I can at least have a mac to test. For $400, I can buy one that'll at least be decent enough to marval my current celeron system. Or, I think for $350, they have a similar model with 20GB(instead of 40). Then I could spend that extra $50 adding on another 256, which will make it a 600Mhz, 512MB Ram, 20GB HD, CD-RW, etc.

OR, more likely, I can go on ebay and purchase specs similar to those above for the same price, and it'll probably already have OSX installed. I found a nice one on now that's $350 buy it now with jaguar.

If cash is low at the moment, then, I would go and buy a 400 MHZ G4, like Chad said. I would say no way to the iMac because its not very upgradable. Buy a G4 now, and you can expand it later if you wish - eg. the graphics. I assume you have a PC monitor, and you can hook that up to the G4. you can put more hard drives in too. I am sure, you can a G4 system for $400 in the states, since you can get them for $500 here in Oz.

Your best bet then is to look to get the best, highly spec'd PowerMac G4 you can get for your money. You'll get much better performance for your money from these, than you will a G3 All in one iMac. Thats if you have a screen you could run a PowerMac off already...

I would also get at least a G4 or a high end G3. I have an iBook G3 (900mhz) and it is pretty good for most tasks, but some things are a lot slower then they would be on a G4 like encoding music with iTunes.

Well, the reason I wanted to go with an imac was to experiment with macs, but also I love the design. Quite frankly...having a big clunker desktop is quite pointless.

While I do have a monitor, it's hooked up to my PC. So if I purchased an imac, I could simply place it along side my current setup.

However, as I research this more, I'm sort of doubting the whole concept of used macs now. What gets me frustrated with my current PC is that it's slow and can't play games. A 1.3GHz Celeron, 384MB and onboard graphics doesn't equal a powerful PC!! Although in comparison it's probably lightning fast compared with a used imac.

Had my professor been a Pentium 4 and have an AGP Slot, I probably wouldn't be complaining. I think maybe if I invest $400 in a PC setup I can get a decent system.

Well...I'm thinking that buying an old Imac(233Mhz) will allow me enough speed to explore the operating system. I can find them on ebay for pretty cheap(under $180), that even have X installed. That would allow me to see if I really like the environment and can learn it...while not having to put forth a huge amount of money. Does that sound like a good idea or not?

id go with a used emac, the speed will be alot better, esp allowing for a nice panther experience

Unfortunately that's not an option. Wouldn't it at least run nicely with a 266Mhz and 190MB Ram on an original imac? I'm not looking to make it a replacement computer for my celeron...just enough that I could fully test around with OS X and get to learn the system well. Then, if I still love it, I can always buy a new apple computer and I'd really be in my glory!

I just think putting in $150-200 is smarter than simply buying a $1500 apple to find out I don't like it. Plus I'd have all the time to get familiar with it.


I've been on PC's that were like 400Mhz, 256MB ram, and they ran Windows XP Pro fine. Granted they weren't as fast on my celeron, especially for any gaming or other stuff. But, they certaintly did the job just as fast as my 1.3Ghz celeron(such as word processing, etc) on certain tasks.

Your thoughts? I see them on ebay pretty cheap.

i have also been thinking of switching to mac for a while now. but since i play alot of games that is kinda limited on a mac.

lets say you have a os emulator, like virtual pc, and runs win xp in it on your mac. would you be able to play win games then? or is it to demanding?

(sorry for bad english!)

no as afaik, virtual pc emulates some old s3 card. running solitaire prolly is slow