Since we got back from overseas the kids have been bugging me to get them new computers for their rooms. They still were using an old eMachines PC that I had given them back when they shared a room together. That unit had seen better days and the kids had recently taken to co-opting my desktop for their gaming and homework. I felt that I had to assert myself and put a stop to that practice since it was starting to seriously cut into my World of Warcraft time.
The kids had fallen in love with my MacBook Pro laptop, Winona, over the summer and kept hinting at me to get them Apples. Because they now had separate rooms, they of course wanted separate machines. Since the new iMacs and Macbooks start at about 1100 dollars, I decided that I was going to have to search around and buy them used or refurbished if the kids were gonna get their wish.
The kids are fairly young and only need a basic functionality for web surfing, photo editing, and word processing. The two computers needed to have decent sized hard drives, OS X, at least 512megs of ram, and wireless capability so I didn’t have to run any cables to their rooms. I preferred a self contained system with a built in monitor so I didn’t have to buy a standalone LCD flat monitor. I also wanted to spend only about $500 for both systems. As a result the cheapest Apple system, the Mac Mini, was out of consideration since it has no monitor and starts at $599 just for one unit.
I surfed around to some of the more reputable sites on the web that deal in used Apple equipment and was shocked to find out that even the older G3 powerbooks and iMacs were still being sold for around 300-600 bucks a pop. I am sorry but there was no way on earth that I was gonna pay that much for outdated and used equipment. Especially since I could buy or build a brand new entry level PC for that much. Now granted, I would probably be stuck with Windows Vista as an operating systems so any price benefit would be offset with frustration of having to deal with Microsoft’s new OS. So I figured that eBay might be the only place where I might find the right system for the kids.
I found some decently priced Mac desktop and laptop systems on eBay. I decided that I would go with desktops because the kids are young, and like most young kids, are still prone to being careless with their things. Plus buying used laptops can be even more risky than the standard eBay purchase due to the probability that the previous owner may not have been careful while toting the laptop around. My daughter wasn’t thrilled about getting a desktop but she knew that it was better than not getting a system at all or getting a laptop that might have been beaten up and slapped around.
To make a long story short I placed a bid and won the auction on 2 used eMacs. The price for both systems was only 200 bucks including the shipping. The systems were 700mhz G4 processors with 40gb hard drives and OS X 10.4 installed. The one down side was that the eMacs only had built in CD-ROM drives and 256megs of ram.
The seller was also not going to provide the original system disks. I decided not to sweat it since I could backup and make a clone of the installed OS using SuperDuper and with a small amount of work I could swap out the CD-ROM drives for $30 DVD writers in the future. Plus I could find decent priced ram for the computers on eBay as well. The Ram was more of a priority since we already have DVD players in the house I purchased an extra 1gb of ram on eBay to boost up the base 256megs that came installed with the eMacs for only $45. Finally, I purchased two wireless USB adapters for $44 to give the macs wireless capabilities.
I was lucky that when the systems arrived they were pretty much as the eBay seller described, with one exception. The one thing that the seller failed to mention was that the one of the computer screens had a small discoloration at the corner. I was gonna complain and send it back but I figured that I came out ahead because I spent less than $300 for both computers and my son never even noticed it. In fact the systems looked so good that after a recent visit my mom told me that she wanted one. I guess I am gonna have to start looking again.
