In defense eMacs-- was350MHz G4 and suggestions-- MacDV Digest #2674

[Ted Langdell]

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
>
>
> ------------------------------