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cheapest mac


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i'm looking for the cheapest mac that can run leopard. it needs to run safari, sherlock and itunes. i've been looking at g4's. my budget is like 250 bucks. this will be a project mac.

 

please help!

 

 

 

additionally if you have time:

help me decide what to make

 

- kitchen mac: A recipe viewer for our family kitchen and make mum proud

- Bathroom mac: An Rss Reader for the toilet and an itunes box for the shower

- Server: planning on getting around 12 g3 imacs for free. so maybe do some practice work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you don't want to go with a PowerMac G4, the cheapest machine that can run Leopard is a G4 Mac Mini. Its good for internet browsing, iTunes, etc. I think Mac Mini would work for your project mac, a kitchen mac, and a bathroom mac. You can grab a G4 Mac Mini from eBay for less than $200.

 

For a server, you could use a high end G5, an Xserve (probably too expensive), or even a PowerMac G4 or a B&W G3. But since you are getting 12 G3s I guess you could use those too, but G3s won't run Leopard, only Tiger. As for Sherlock support, Leopard doesn't have Sherlock as far as I know but you can use Spotlight instead.

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You are going to need a late G4 machine to run 10.5, be it ibook, Powerbook, iMac, eMac, Mini or Powermac.

 

The only one that is going to be in that low price range is the Mini and you'll likely be browsing eBay to get that price as some one else suggested. Portables will run you at least I'd say 400 for an iBook and 600 for a Powerbook if you got them off of eBay. A G4 iMac will run around 500 and an eMac 350. A Powermac will have to be a late Quicksilver or Mirror Drive Door and will also run around 500. This assuming a 1GHz or slightly faster clock speed as the minimum is 867Mhz for 10.5. Most QS Powermacs will probably be 933MHz single processor units. There was a 867MHz, but as far as I know they are pretty uncommon. Most of the late QS are going to be dual processor machines as well as most of the MDD units with the execption of the 1GHz MDD and the 1.25GHz MDD; both were the cheapest Powermacs at the time.

 

Now what's going to be the best bang for the buck is on you. The Mini will be cheap, but it will also be SLOW by most standards. Then again it's the only G4 machine in the range you can afford. You might be able to find a sweet deal on an 1GHz eMac since they seem to be largely ignored by most people. I think most people don't know they exist though.

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The 1GHz+ eMac is going to be your best deal without modifying or upgrading. I've found a lot of them on eBay ranging from $190 to $250.

 

Give eBay a search for 'GHz eMac' to find all the 1GHz or higher. Even comes with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. You can't go wrong.

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