How check out a used G4?

[J J]

Jeff said
"I am buying my first Mac this week, a G4/400. 
Looking
for advice on how to check out this machine--steps to
follow, what do I check out, etc.

1.  Are there built in utilities in OS X that would
run through and check my hardware and software (hard
drive, video card, etc)?

2. Any good shareware (preferably) or commercial
products that would test out this system? "




Make sure you are getting an AGP model and not a 
PCI Graphics. Run system profiler in OS 9 as it 
will show more info about your ram. I would then 
run it in OSX as well. And compare what's in the 
box to the Apple website of what was originally in 
the box.

  Look it over very well for and cracks or bruises 
on the case, that the door opens and locks 
smoothly. Put a DVD in to verify the DVD/CD Rom 
Drive.It should have a 10 gig HD (or bigger) and a 
ATI Rage Pro 16meg vram (or better) AGP graphics 
card. Profiler should show a 100 Mb bus speed and 
an Apple branded CPU. If it is an upgrade CPU then 
probablly the bus speed is only 50.

You could run RamChecker on it in OS 9 after you 
get it home- Just make sure they give a warrantee 
for 30 days or so. Give you time to test it all.

Make sure you get a legal copy of OSX (and/or 
OS9), That way you can reinitialize/reinstall to 
know the system is squeaky clean-prestine.

Check prices for the exact model on ebay and 
dealmac.com or other price compareson websites.

Get the deal and warantee in writing.

I use a 400 Sawtooth AGP w 1.3 gig of ram and it 
sails along just fine. 
Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign/Quark/Quake3/OS9/OSX/zip/scanner/3 
printers (usb, serial, eathernet)/CD burner/2 
cameras/speakers.

Drawbacks: no ADC connector on Rage Pro 128 (has 
DVI and VGA) and no Quartz graphics in OSX, no 
serial ports (need usb-serial adapter), no SCSI 
(without a card), small keyboard-F12 max (extended 
has F15), hockeypuck mouse (beg/buy/include in the 
deal an optical), no bluetooth (lotsa wires baby).

Positives; Not expensive now, SOUND IN & OUT plug 
ports, zippy enough, restart button included, 
everything really works-OS9 is fast-OSX never 
crashes. Welcome to the platform where the grass 
is stable and green.

jj