A Mac for My Son: The Saga Continues

[carrie]

Well, because of some unexpected dentistry, I was not able to buy my son the laptop I recently inquired about. The plan now is to see how much we can get for the PC he currently has and get a desktop Mac instead. The one he is looking at is:
http://www.gainsaver.com/bNetStore/Temp ... 8&Param5=0

Does that seem like a pretty good deal? What is/are "diagnostics"? Would I be smart to get the extended warranty and insurance? I suppose the airport thing has something to do with internet connectivity?

Can anyone give me a rough idea of what his current PC might be worth, and how to go about selling it? Here are the specs:

emachines D2244
2.20 Ghz
Intel Celeron processor
256 MB of something or other
40 gig hard drive
Ethernet
10/100 (0?) Mbps
6 USB ports
3D Intel something or other Graphics (can't read my writing)
CD drive
Runs Windows XP
15" monitor (at least)

Everything works fine. It's 3 years old. Just to keep things in perspective, my son is 13.

We also have an old Power Mac to throw into the deal; I don't imagine it would be worth much but I could get the specs if that would help. [Update: my son reports that it is a Power Mac running 8.1 OS; 200 Mhz, and that there's something that's 7,300.]

Many thanks. I will refer to the other thread I started for previous suggestions on other websites to check Mac prices.

Thanks again. I can't tell you how much I will appreciate whatever help you can offer.

Carol

[emmline]

Good luck Carol. I'm watching intently to see if anyone thinks you can get any money for that eMachine.

[carrie]

Yeah, I know it's not worth much, but at this point every little bit helps. A pawn shop offered just under $100.

Carol

[lenf]

Does that seem like a pretty good deal? What is/are "diagnostics"? Would I be smart to get the extended warranty and insurance? I suppose the airport thing has something to do with internet connectivity?

I've installed six eMacG4s, though a few years ago. Two have never had any trouble, two required work, one screen, one logic board. It's a reasonable price for a clean, working unit, and capable of almost any usual stuff your son is likely to toss its way.
"Diagnostics" could be anything from saying, "Hey, it seems to work..." to a copy of TechToolPro4. If it ships with the full set of discs that Apple supplied when new, I wouldn't worry about "diagnostics." Yes, airport cards go into a little slot in the computer for wireless networking. The eMac already has Ethernet (the plug that looks like telephone but bigger, internet or other network hookup).
I was surprised that there was an "insurance" charge... for shipping?? Seems a bit high, but I certainly wouldn't order it for delivery without insurance. I've watched boxes come off a UPS conveyor belt...
Do you have a good Apple service provider near if there are problems when it comes? You'd want to get everything ironed out within few enough days that you can cancel the whole purchase if the unit comes DOA, assuming you are paying by CC.
Extended warranty: Not a bad idea on this, but only if it is a good warranty. I've read some 3rd party extended warranties that were so much trouble no one would ever use them.

[djm]

If there is a bricks n mortor Mac shop near you, see if they will meet or come close to the deal you found. There are just too many things that can go wrong with a computer. Its so much easier to resolve problems face-to-face with a local store you can trust than trying to deal with strangers remotely via email and having to pay shipping for stuff back and forth. Differences in price from the local shop can suddenly become insignificant.

djm

[BillChin]

$100 isn't a bad offer for that machine. If you are in a city supported by Craigslist, an online buy-sell-trade-rent board, you might get $150 for it. A new machine with warranty with better specs can often be had for $300 to $400, so only the uninformed would pay all that much. It is free to post for-sale ads on Craigslist and you can always start out high and then lower the price if it doesn't sell. Something heavy like an old computer isn't a good thing to sell on Ebay because shipping will be $50 or more.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/

It is a good idea to see how much the local shop will charge. Apple products are not widely discounted, so the price difference might be negligible. If you know a college age student, usually the university Apple stores are about as cheap as Macs can be bought for. For most other tech items (non-Mac) techbargains.com and dealtime.com are a good place to comparison shop and to look for deals.

[Tyler]

Yeah, I know it's not worth much, but at this point every little bit helps. A pawn shop offered just under $100.

Carol

I'd say a hundred bucks is a fair scrape for a computer that old. My laptop is three years old this year and still truckin along and my older G4 is about that old, maybe only two years, I think ( I can't honestly say when I got that one...It was one of those gifty thingies you get when you go and sit through a timeshare conference, I think it was for Westgate or somethingotother), and a five year old Dell that's still a very solid runner. I've looked into selling all three before and can get about $100-150 for the laptop and about $200 for the older G4, and about $25 smackaroos for the PC, so I'd say $100-150 is a fair offer for your pc.
I'd also echo the opinion that if you're going to get into a Mac, you ought to buy one locally. You might pay slightly more for it, but it will be well worth it if you happen to have any of the slight signature problems Macs sometimes have. I've never had a problem with mine, but Ive heard one of the biggies with macs is faulty hardware. 99.995% of all mac distributors will be more than happy to correct any problems that may develop while the computer is under warranty, and having someone local that you can take it to would be worlds easier than trying to deal with a 'faceless' dealer and shipping the computer back and forth (by the way, a lot of times you get to pick up the cost of the extra shipping in these cases).
My local mac dealer is MacDocs, and though I've never had any major problems, they've been more than friendly and helpful with my questions, so I'm pretty sure I'd be treated well should I ever have to bring my unit in.
My DingyDell is another story. I've had good experiences with them and bad ones, so don't get me started about having to deal with Dell about their computers...I kept buying their warranty extenders for my old unit (which they now refuse to honor) and getting them to cover normal wear and tear or faulty gunk in their units is like herding cats.

Final opinio: Buy your Mac local; it might cost a little more, but the payoff, being less hassle, will be worth it in the long run

[Wanderer]

Yeah, I know it's not worth much, but at this point every little bit helps. A pawn shop offered just under $100.

Carol

Might want to take that offer. I built my son a machine brand new for close to those specs for somewhere around $225.00.

[fearfaoin]

Carol, looking at the iMac you want to buy, and the machine you
already have, it doesn't seem to me that you would really be gaining
much in this trade. Could you remind me why your son wants a Mac
specifically? I can't think of much that particular iMac could do that
your eMachine couldn't. They're pretty close in power...

I've always been worried about the iMac idea. Screens (especially
CRTs) are often the first thing to fail in any computer system, but
with most computers you can replace the entire screen and keep on
computin', and then you could take advantage of price drops to
upgrade your screen size. With the iMac, you would need a costly
repair job just to get you back where you started. But, that's just me.

If it were me, and I could delay my gratification this is what I'd do:
After Christmas, the price of the Mac Mini will probably have dropped
below $500 (maybe even below $400). This would allow me to use
the screen and keyboard I already have (and keep the option to
upgrade the screen in the future). The mini is also more flexible, as
it uses an Intel chip, so it can run MacOS and WindowsXP at the
same time. By that time, all the Mac software should be running
correctly on the Intel Macs (some things like Photoshop haven't
been completely ported yet).

[carrie]

Most excellent advice from everyone--many, many thanks.

fearfaoin--my son has one main purpose for the mac. He's really gotten into making movies and music and he wants iLife and Garageband. I tried to interest him in substitutes for the PC but no dice. (Garageband does look cool, I have to admit!)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time and trouble to reply. I really do appreciate it.

Carol

[mukade]

Be careful when getting rid of old computers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4790293.stm

Mukade

[fearfaoin]

fearfaoin--my son has one main purpose for the mac. He's really gotten into making movies and music and he wants iLife and Garageband.

Ah. Movie making is going to be slow on either the iMac you posted
or the eMachine. But Garageband is hard to beat, so I understand
the Maclust. As soon as my current PC is completely outdated (such
that I feel justified in a purchase), I'm probably going to switch to an
Intel Mac. The new OS is pretty sweet.

[bradhurley]

The computer on Gainsaver is an eMac not an iMac -- there's a big difference. The eMac was designed for the education market, and it's not a very high-powered computer. You could run GarageBand on it, but I'm not sure how good it would be for movie making. I used to run GarageBand on my old iBook and it was sluggish...the eMac would be better but I still bet it would drag a bit if you ask it do a lot of movie editing.

The other reason to shop local is that if you do buy an eMac, you don't want to have to pay for shipping...those things are heavy!

[Tyler]

So, Carol, any new news yet on the Mac?

and btw, how old is that old powermac of yours?

[carrie]

Hey Tyler,

Well, we're still plugging away at the problem. I can definitely see the wisdom of buying locally. The problem at the moment is that there is only one machine we've found for sale from a place that would back it up--and it's an iMac for $649. I'm tempted...but we want to visit a few other stores to see what might be available. The powermac is about 6 yrs old, I'd say.

Updates when they become available.

Carol