mac idea from an outsider

a_greera_greer
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
I have used dos and windows for 15 years (of course on big clunky pc's) and am now considering a macintosh because osx is the best unix distro i have ever seen (I know it is more than a unix distro but that would be my interest...and photoshop ) but i want a toweror a similer form factor



the emac is nice and i would buy 1 but i already have a breathtaking 17 inch crt (same with many other users) so why not an emac with no display and in a mini-tower enclosure for say...150$ less than e-mac that monitor and enclosior must cost a ton to make so they ccoud do this and have a REAL budget freindly mac for us "switchers"



i dont need a g5 and pcix slots or optical audio out just osx and photoshop (maybe X-code too)





thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    dylsexic manupilatordylsexic manupilator Posts: 139member
    I'll give Steve a call and ask him OK?

    ( maybe he's in more of a X-mas mood than I am)
  • Reply 2 of 12
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    Unfortunately, Apple haven't had a consumer machine with a separate monitor since the Performa 6400, which was when the Performas started getting good: my parents are still using theirs, after a few (simple) upgrades. If you want to buy a "headless" Mac, the only Apple options are PowerMac or XServe.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    t'hain esh kelcht'hain esh kelch Posts: 1,274member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Stoo

    Unfortunately, Apple haven't had a consumer machine with a separate monitor since the Performa 6400, which was when the Performas started getting good: my parents are still using theirs, after a few (simple) upgrades. If you want to buy a "headless" Mac, the only Apple options are PowerMac or XServe.



    Well.. The cube was a consumer machine... Apple just didnt realise that consumers dont have as much money as company's..



    And, the Performa 6500 came after 6400. Lovely machines!
  • Reply 4 of 12
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    I think we'd all like something like this. A Mac that packs a punch that doesn't have a hefty price tag. The G5s are great machines but out of many people's price ranges, and like you said, not everyone wants a machine with a built in monitor.



    Sure, you could go the G4 tower route, but you're still looking at a $1299 price tag. Maybe things will change after MWSF in a few weeks.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    The Performa 6360 and 6400 actually had the right idea. They were awesome consumer machines as well. Apple really hasn't come close to matching those since. iMac is great, both those machines competed on price, performance, and expandability.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    homhom Posts: 1,098member
    God, YAHMR (yet another headless mac request).



    It's not going to happen. There is no market for them except geeks that are too cheap or unable to buy a tower. Apple went to their largest education customers and asked them what they want in a computer, they said iBook or eMac. Apple went to its professional customers and asked what they want, they said G5. Apple went to their consumer customers and asked them what they want, they said flat panel iMacs with large screens. So what customer base is left? Education, check. Pro, check, Consumer, check. I guess what's left is cheap geek. Too bad there aren't enough of them to make up an entire product line.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    gspottergspotter Posts: 342member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HOM

    ...Apple went to their consumer customers and asked them what they want, they said flat panel iMacs with large screens. So what customer base is left?...



    What about switchers? That would be a rather BIG customer base. I would assume that most PC users do own a monitor , so it would make switching cheaper and therefore easier if you could buy a rather cheap Mac.



    Another thing: The product life cycles of monitors are rather differnt than of computers. I typically use my monitor longer than my computer, so IMO, coupling a monitor and a computer in an All-In-One package is not the best best idea. The only advantage of an AIO package is the easier setup.



    On a sidenote: An iMac would be also too much space consuming for me: My desk is rather small, but I have more than enough room under my desk for a tower...
  • Reply 8 of 12
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    I think your only real option is to buy a used PowerMac G4 on eBay. You can get older ones (100 MHz bus and AGP 2x, 350-500 MHz) for under $500 usually. There are also dual processor versions of the older ones, and they usually don't cost more but they give excellent performance in OS X (I have a dual 450 myself and I love it). Then there are newer ones with a 133 MHz or faster bus and AGP 4x that range from 466 MHz all the way up to the fastest PowerMac G4, the dual 1.42 GHz. Depending on the speed the prices will range from about $600 for a 466 MHz model to over $1000 for one of the really fast duals. You can get a single 1 GHz machine (if that's all you need) for around $1000.



    Then you can upgrade at will, add hard drives, swap out the graphics card or even the processor (it's feasible to buy an old one and then get a 1.4 GHz processor upgrade for $400), and use your old monitor. Unfortunately you can't buy one of these new - you have to either get it through a reseller, or from eBay. There are also a few forums that have classified ads, like MacNN and PowerBook Central.



    Good luck! I agree completely about a low cost tower but I don't think Apple will ever do it again. If they do it'll be horribly crippled much like the PowerMac 6400/6500 - they had a soldered on processor (requires a processor upgrade in the L2 cache slot if you want something faster) and a 128 MB RAM ceiling. At least they had the right idea though.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    I've read so many threads about this, but I just thought of something I'd never seen mentioned. Shipping headless Macs would be a hell of a lot cheaper. I mean, you could fit 4 headless eMacs in their boxes in the same space one eMac takes. So, shipping from Taiwan to here would be significantly less, adding to profit margins and/or reducing any R&D strain.



    I think that could be a significant number. It's not so much the cost of shipping to an address in the U.S., but shipping massive numbers of units around the globe. If you really could send 3 to 4 times the number of boxes per shipment that would help drive costs down.



    Anyone know boating costs from Taiwan?
  • Reply 10 of 12
    ludwigvanludwigvan Posts: 458member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by T'hain Esh Kelch

    Well.. The cube was a consumer machine...



    Actually, it was meant for professionals. Steve Jobs said as much to a question regarding the demise of the Cube. He mentioned that one of the things missed was how much professionals really wanted expandability in their computers (or words to that effect).



    Quote:

    Apple just didnt realise that consumers dont have as much money as company's..



    That much is true. However, if Apple had meant the Cube exclusively or largely for the consumer market, they may have made a cheaper model, perhaps to go alongside the original higher-priced version.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by bunge

    I've read so many threads about this, but I just thought of something I'd never seen mentioned. Shipping headless Macs would be a hell of a lot cheaper. I mean, you could fit 4 headless eMacs in their boxes in the same space one eMac takes. So, shipping from Taiwan to here would be significantly less, adding to profit margins and/or reducing any R&D strain.



    My wireless keyboard arrived in a box bigger than a PowerBook box. The keyboard sitting in it's nice little box, sitting diagonally in this huge freaking box full of air bags.



  • Reply 12 of 12
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    My wireless keyboard arrived in a box bigger than a PowerBook box. The keyboard sitting in it's nice little box, sitting diagonally in this huge freaking box full of air bags.



Sign In or Register to comment.