Suggestions for buying the eMac?
Hello,
I may be getting the eMac this weekend for my father-in-law.
Can anyone give me the comparisons between the eMac and a comparable Dell system?
I want to get the eMac b/c it's compact and of course OS X will make it easy to troubleshoot...hahahaha...ease of use...I ran some pricing on the Dell and it came out to be more...thne I counted in the headaches of running updates and troubleshooting etc....
would like to hear other people's views on this...
thanks!!!
I may be getting the eMac this weekend for my father-in-law.
Can anyone give me the comparisons between the eMac and a comparable Dell system?
I want to get the eMac b/c it's compact and of course OS X will make it easy to troubleshoot...hahahaha...ease of use...I ran some pricing on the Dell and it came out to be more...thne I counted in the headaches of running updates and troubleshooting etc....
would like to hear other people's views on this...
thanks!!!
Comments
I don't think my father in law really cares about the next upgrade...aslong as it works..all will be cool..
Originally posted by Existence
I would wait until the next eMac. The current eMac doesn't support key Tiger technologies.
which key technologies? having a g5? cause that is a long ways off
I say go for it. If I were buying a desktop, I'd seriously consider the eMac. And I did, too, but notebooks proved to be useful. If you think your father in law is willing, consider the iBook G4, in either 12 or 14-inch sizes. If cost makes you drop it, it's fine too; he should be pleased with an eMac.
Originally posted by O-Mac
How's the reliabiltiy?? Anyonehave any complaints about the eMac?
There have been some problems in the past with the video subsystem, particularly the "raster shift" problem. I don't know if current eMacs are afflicted by this or not; you're best off doing some searches in the Apple forums and elsewhere looking for reports.
We went to CompUSA and were ready to buy it there then the Apple dude there said they were out of stock. Heheheh...Even though the guy took our name down I already knew we were headed for the Apple store anyway.
so we called the Apple store on the way to make sure they had them and of course! they had them in stock. We get there and buy it and we're on our way home.
I take it out of the box, plug it in and voila!! It's working right out of the box. No installing. No error messages (like I had when I first set up my Dell machine some three years ago AND had to get the monitor that came with it replaced TWICE before I ended up returning the monitor and buying one on my own).
Needless to say the eMac is nice and small, a little heavy but no big deal, I was hungry. It fit perfectly in my father in law's desk. He's never used a computer before so it 'll take some time to get used to but I'm not worried about that.
I should be a salesperson for Apple for the way I talked it up for months!! hahahaha...
My next project, justifying me getting the G5.....
Apple was so unbelievably cheap in sourcing that tube. They didn't even get a trinitron based tube, so now, eMacs are saddled with a horrible moire problem.
You may not notice it at first, but invariably you'll have some background color or image on your screen that brings it out. After that, you'll never NOT notice it again. You'll try to adjust it away, but that just chnges it, never eliminates it.
Awful awful awful choice of CRT, especially for a AIO unit.
What can I say, you should have waited...
Originally posted by Matsu
I would stay away from the eMac, even if AIO's are your thing. At least wait untill it gets an LCD. Your eyes will thank you.
Apple was so unbelievably cheap in sourcing that tube. They didn't even get a trinitron based tube, so now, eMacs are saddled with a horrible moire problem.
You may not notice it at first, but invariably you'll have some background color or image on your screen that brings it out. After that, you'll never NOT notice it again. You'll try to adjust it away, but that just chnges it, never eliminates it.
Awful awful awful choice of CRT, especially for a AIO unit.
What can I say, you should have waited...
I own two fairly recent eMacs (1 GHz, Radeon 7500 32 MB) and haven't had your experience. I have *very* occasionally noticed Moire patterns, but they're certainly not any more frequent than on other consumer monitors, even Trinitron-based units, on regular applications or while playing DVDs.
As a matter of fact, I've had a lot of PC users (with up to date monitors) come by and see one of the eMacs, and their first comment is invariably about how nice the display is. And the 80+ Hz refresh rates at common resolutions are generally equal to or better than low-end PC monitors. A Moire-free display at 72 Hz makes me nauseous (literally).
An eMac LCD would be a poor choice for the education market unless it came with a display shield that would probably cause a different set of visual issues. Plus, users would lose the choice of multiple native resolutions. Try running 640x480 or 800x600 native resolution educational software on a 1024x768 LCD. Moire would be the least of your problems!
Also, there is no established preference for CRT's in education. If anything, schools are moving away from it. I know of a few local school boards that MUST purchase LCD's (since early '02) as a matter of health and safety.
In post secondary there is no question at all. My university is an excellent example. Every single new machine comes with either a 15" (the majority) or 17" (faculty and staff) LCD. The only NEW CRT based machines, ironically, are the 70 eMacs they put into a couple of new labs (2 years ago). If Apple had had an LCD machine for a decent price, that's what would have been purchased and deployed. The machines were purchased and deployed to keep some depts (faculty and students) happy, but even in their CRT form they cost more than 15" LCD Dell bundles the school has been running -- quite trouble free, I might add. I might also add, that in my very first year (9 years ago, as a student), easily, three quarters of all the machines were Macs. Today they furnish a lab of 500-600 seats, and 70 are Macs. I wonder why.
Matsu, what university do you work at? That's interesting to hear of a university deploying eMacs. Is it a community college? Most universities, even ones on shoestring budgets (which ones aren't right?), will at a minimum deploy the iMac but usually roll out the PowerMacs. Being there's only a few hundred dollars difference between the eMac and the iMac, I can't believe the university opted for the e over the i. For space purposes alone they should have gone with the i. I also can't believe they found "comparable" Dells with LCDs that were less than the i. Yes, I know you can get a $400 or $600 Dell...but they are far from comparable and if a university is deploying those type machines...they've got bigger problems than just bad technology decisions.
Now if I can just find a job that uses Mac's I'll be free from the PC menace for a good while. hmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmhm...
Originally posted by jginsbu
There have been some problems in the past with the video subsystem, particularly the "raster shift" problem. I don't know if current eMacs are afflicted by this or not; you're best off doing some searches in the Apple forums and elsewhere looking for reports.
I was at WWDC this year and talked to a couple of University people (students & profs). They all said that their universities had moved away from Macs over the years mainly because they could not afford to buy Macs anymore.
All the 'feature' and ease of use stuff sounds good to us, but when it gets to the VP/Dean/Directors office, it looks superflous and high cost, and hence Macs are usually not chosen. Obviously not the best way to make decisions, but that's just the way it is for now.
-M