The eMac: The good days of an eMac

I've never had an eMac, but would not buy one. The reasons:

1. It's very large since it's an all-in-one design
2. It has limited upgrade capabilities
3. It's difficult to repair & dangerous with the internal CRT's high voltage
4. It's had some reliability problems.

Performance wise, it's a good Mac. Better than the CRT iMacs that it replaced.

A better buy would be a G4 desktop, with an equivalent processor speed, and use a flat panel LCD display. With a desktop you can use up to 4 internal hard drives, add PCI cards, upgrade the video card, usually install more RAM, use 2 disc drives and very easy to repair.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

To be frank, unless you're buying a "museum piece" (ie for a personal collection of Apple computers), there is no sane reason to buy a PowerPC Mac.

The early Intel Macs are now fairly affordable on the 2nd hand market. Anything less, and you deny yourself upgradability via software - ie no higher than 10.5.8.

At the time I purchased my eMac, I considered an iMac of the same specs, but it would have cost an extra $500-$700. Couldn't afford it.

In terms of hardware upgrades - there's really no difference between an eMac and an iMac. So that's hardly an issue. G4 or G5 Powermac (towers) were great machines, but again, they're now outdated and seriously underpowered compared to the Mac Pros.

I love the eMac design. They are pretty, if functional. Everything about them, to me, says Apple. It was just a shame they had an ongoing list of hardware problems.

cheers

cosmic

Hey wfh,
Well we're on a budget here.
My 18 year old has an eMac. I picked it up for $40 since it had the cap problem and Apple repaired it for free. It's a 1.25 GHz 1.25 GB RAM running 10.5.8. I installed GarageBand '09 on it and he lays guitar tracks on it. Takes those files to his buddy who mixes his licks with bass and percussion. They have a band and they're working on a CD. He'll be a guitar major at a university here in Chicago next year.
We also have 3 eMacs in the music room at school running GB '09 also.
He also watches 2 1/2 Men, That 70's Show, Big Bang Theory, Family guy all in QuickTime with no problems what so ever. Of course streaming video will always be a problem but he works with downloads and DVDs so it's not a problem.
My personal machine is a Dual 1.2 GHz G4 tower w/ 2 GB RAM and 4 hard drives w/ 12 total partitions. It's a great workhorse.
I'm slowly phasing in an iMac G5 that will come out of my repair business.
Richard

Hello All,

I would like to start off with the specs of my one and only eMac.
900MHz (Overclocked 700MHz) PowerPC G4 Processor
1GB PC-133 SDRAM
100GB 7200 RPM ATA HD
Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard
Samsung Write Master DVD+-RW +-R DL with Light-Scribe
Original AirPort Card
Bluetooth (IO Gear USB Micro Adaptor)
New Wireless Aluminum Keyboard, Magic Mouse.

Pros:
First of all, Im typing this on my eMac as we speak. This is a VERY robust machine. Even with 10.5.8 Leopard it is amazingly stable. I have never ever had any serious problems with it, still use it today on a daily basis, I love it, and will make it into my Jukebox (It also had a kick@ss sound system for a stock one). It has always been a very stable computer, never let me down (except for the Raster Shift) but Apple Repaired mine for FREE so it was all good. I have overclocked it, and never had any problems with it 3 years later! I have iLife '08 and iWork '08 (I got the 10.5.6 Mac Box Set) and I love this Mac to this day. It runs all apps well on Leopard (Requires a 867MHz G4 or faster and mine is an overclocked 700MHz now 900MHz mind you) even though it MERELY meets the requirements (yeah go try that on a PC with a single core 1GHz CPU and 1GB PC-133 SDRAM with Vista and compare the results lol) It still boots up within 1 minute so Im not in need for a new computer yet...

Cons:
There are very few of them. First con: Loud Fan. (Cant stand it sometimes.) Second: Raster Shift (Apple Repaired mine free of charge so it was absolutely no big deal, took them only 15 minutes.) Third: Its hard to upgrade do to the internal setup. (Guys, please do NOT blame Apple for the "Bad Caps" problem. Do your research. Apple had NO IDEA these capacitors were defective. try these sites for more info. http://www.badcaps.net/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague )

In summary, I would definitely buy another Apple product because this machine is a perfect representation of an Apple product. This machine is still a very good trainer for someone who is new to the Mac. I will continue to use it until it dies completely and it is impossible to repair (or its uneconomical). And when it does, Im going to put it in a display case as it was my very first Mac, and because of its legendary robust nature and low failure rate.

Your Fellow eMac User,

—Matthew Knice

Hey Matthew,

First con: Loud Fan. (Cant stand it sometimes.)

That's odd, in my experience these machines are very quiet. You might have a bad fan or bad temp sensor.
I actually have an extra fan around here and I was just about to to put up a post about quieting a iMac G5 fan.
Richard

Hello Spudnuty,

Well Its also all the way up against the back of the desk too so that could be the cause of the problem. But my fan is ALWAYS running full speed. Never slows down. Where is the temperature sensor located? (NOTE: Ive also overclocked the processor from the factory 700MHz to 900MHz.) That may also be the cause.

Your Fellow eMac User,
—Matthew Knice

Hello one and all.

Well, my journey took me to a local Salvation Army thrift shop last November where I encountered the eMac that I'm using now. It's a 1.25 GHz G4, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, Combo Drive with the standard 40 GB HDD. I was looking for something to complement my existing iMac G4/700 and thus I came across this one. I bought it for $120 after a little haggling with the guy who was looking for $150. A little steep perhaps, but I got the crown jewel of my outfit. I quickly did a complete reformat and install after acquiring the eMac restore discs from eBay and installed both Panther and Tiger. And I can safely say that it has been one of the better experiences of my life. Viva la eMac. LOL.

I have just started using Mac, i have been a serious windows user for years and wanted to know what all the hype was about, im running a 1.42ghz eMac, 512mb Ram and 10.5.8, and i must say for sheer value for money it is excellent, it is aging as far as performance goes but for everyday use great. it cost me £40, and has everything i need as a backup office PC that is immune to all the nasties my windows PC's are so prone to.
+by far the cheapest G4 unit available (excellent way into the Mac world)
+everything built in
+dependable unit
-big heavy thing (actually looks like the nose cone from a Boeing 747)
-limited upgradeability

Buy one! if you don't like it stick it on Ebay, you wont loose anything!

Hi Dom and welcome to Macs.

big heavy thing (actually looks like the nose cone from a Boeing 747)

I think the eMac fan also comes from the same Boeing.

Hello Roam,

Fan comes from same Boeing. AGREED. =D

Your Fellow eMac User,

Matthew Knice

hello Matthew,

Yeah, the e in eMac was for education. I believe they were made to be robust.
I can imagine some classroom designed in a Californian desert, with the geckos cooling themselves under the big blast of the fan del turbos.

45 degrees C. the eMac blows and the dust swirls.

Hello again Roam,

Yeah so true.

Your Fellow eMac User,

Matthew Knice

I think that the 1.25ghz and 1.42ghz models are still very capable machines today and they are built like tanks. Also the crt's aren't deadly like many people think and aren't really that dangerous if you are careful. But the PM g4's are very good still with the upgradability. They were so advanced in their period that my 1999 400mhz AGP model can still play youtube videos! So the eMacs are amazing computers but so were the other G4's of the time period.

I bought my emac new and it has been a workhorse. I have a G3 700 iMac that also works fine, but is running Panther. If I upgraded it to Tiger I could upgrade some of the applications. I have a gig of ran in it and replace the original 60 gig 5400 hard drive with an 80 gig 7200. Other than that, a battery replacement and a CD drive that gets a little attitude at time. The screen is fine and I like that it is so quiet. I purchased it I think in 2001.

My emac was purchase 5+ years ago. Nice screen. There have been some irregularities on occasion with the screen, but they have been minor and go away after a few minutes. I never found out what the cause was. My videos and photos look nice on the screen. I like iPhoto09. All 09 apps work on my machine except iMovie. I deal with that because I use a different program to edit my videos. I have made numerous DVDs of family movies on it. I have upgraded the hard drive to 500 gig 7200. That was a good move. I use a program on it that will not work after Panther, so I have Panther on one of my 3 partitions. I also have Leopard on it.
Memory is maxed out at 1 gig. I have the G4 1 gig processor. I have replaced the battery once. The speakers are limited, but I often use headphones. I just bought a small external speaker system that helps.
It has been a real good computer and I wold have no problem picking another one up if I got a good deal on it, but I would try to get one of the later ones with a faster processor and more memory capacity.
Eventually when money is not any issue and the dust has settled for HD video creation- that is when making a HD home movie is a effortless as it is with Standard Definition, I will upgrade.
Until then, I think it is a solid machine and was a very good purchase. My overall experiences with Apple have been that they do just work. I am getting an average of 7+ years out of my Macs. I use a power UPS system to help protect the electronics.

Hey Forestman,

If I upgraded it to Tiger I could upgrade some of the applications.

Yes that would be a good move.

Nice screen.

I still think that screen is one of the sharpest made.

There have been some irregularities on occasion with the screen, but they have been minor and go away after a few minutes.

Google:
"emac ivad cable"
You'll find a video problem that these early Macs were susceptible to.
Richard