[MacDV] Re: In defense eMacs-- was350MHz G4 and suggestions-- MacDV Digest #2674

[Ronald Woodland]

I concur with Ted.

I bought my Daughter an eMac for high school graduation.  It's a 
not-quite-one-year-old 1 GHz eMac with SuperDrive.  She loves it.  
Absolutely no problems -- video editing (with FCE), DVDs, iTunes, MS 
Office, Adobe Creative Suite, anything she wants to do.  Her PC friends 
are jealous.  It runs continuously -- never shutdown, just put to sleep 
when she's not using it.  I am planning to buy a second one for my wife 
with the tax refund.

Just for the record (not to brag), I have also had a G5 dual 2 GHZ as 
soon as I could get one after Steve announced them last year.  I bonded 
with it in the first hour and never looked back.  There are no PCs in 
my life and I want to keep it that way.  I also own Honda cars 
exclusively, a Honda Goldwing motorcycle, and a 25-year-old Honda 
lawnmower that still starts on the first pull every time.  Hey!  When 
you find a product that is the best at what it does, why waste money on 
anything else?

Ron Woodland
St. George, UT


On Apr 16, 2004, at 6:56 PM, Ted Langdell wrote:

> There's some new news on the eMac front:
>
>  http://www.apple.com/emac/
>
> Apple's dropped the price of the top end emac to $999 upped the G4 
> processor speed to 1.25 MHz for both the Superdrive AND CD burn/read 
> drives.  The CD burner model is now $799.
>
> The new machines have USB 2.0 ports, and use faster RAM, among other 
> differences from the older models.
>
> Check out http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/apr04/041304.html for 
> other details, including a report that the DVD burner will cook at 8X.
>
> Prices on the 1GHz machines with Superdrive and 256MB Ram are now 
> under  $899 at Frys, perhaps because of the price changes.
>
> A Google search for eMac problems turned up a few that appear to have 
> been identified and fixed.  Nothing to indicate a large range of 
> problems, and it would appear from a quick scan that the units 
> affected were not recent.
>
> There WAS a raster shift problem that involves a cable, and the fix is 
> to replace the cable.  Macfixit.com has details.
>
> http://www.macfixit.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20030131071918881
>
> Perhaps the posters below could check into what brought the machines 
> into the shop mentioned,  what the problem(s) were, and what 
> models/age of machines were affected.
>
> That's more useful than blanket statements from un-named sources that 
> "eMacs are major bad."
>
> I'm QUITE happy with my 1GHz Superdrive eMac and will continue to 
> suggest them as a viable option for someone looking to do as our 
> original poster with the 350MHz machine wanted to do on an $800 or so 
> budget.
>
> Ted.
>
> Ted Langdell
> Ted Langdell Creative Broadcast Services
> Marysville, CA
>
> On Apr 16, 2004, at 4:12 PM, Macintosh Digital Video List wrote:
>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:59:07 -0700
>> Subject: Re: [MacDV] Re: 350MHz G4 and suggestions--MacDV Digest #2672
>> From: Gregg Gorrie <ggorrie at telus.net>
>> Message-ID: <BCA5B34A.166E4%ggorrie at telus.net>
>>
>> on 4/16/04 11:50 AM, matblack at mac.com at matblack at mac.com wrote:
>>
>>> I just heard from someone that eMac's are major bad.
>>> oh, I spoke with my mac-head yesterday. The eMac is *****, plagued
>>> with
>>> problems. He sold 400 of them last year and has 65 in the shop. he 
>>> sold
>>> 4000
>>> G4s and has 5 in the shop.
>>> Apparently the problem stems from the heat build-up caused by the
>>> monitor
>>> which quickly degrades internal components. also, because the 
>>> speakers
>>> are
>>> built-in, their magnets cause the monitor to jitter and develop odd
>>> color
>>> shifts. apples trying to dump them.<<
>>>
>>> Just FYI...
>>
>> The college I teach at has had 40 + eMacs operating 24/7 for over 2 
>> years
>> and we've had no problems at all ... in fact they've been so rock 
>> solid I've
>> been contemplating getting one for myself and have recommended them to
>> several friends/family members/students. I find the displays clear and
>> stable without jitter.
>>
>> That being said, these were first (or maybe second?) generation 700Mhz
>> models with the combo drives. Perhaps the later high speed models do 
>> have
>> more heat generation and/or other design flaws that cause problems, 
>> though
>> your post is the first I've seen on this.
>>
>> Would be interested in more information on the newer model's 
>> reliability
>> before making a decision.
>>
>> Gregg
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>
>
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