G4 450khz 1.5gb Ram For 1000 Usd - Good Deal?, Newbie needs help in choosing first Mac Options

[Sumerki]

Hello,
I'm an experienced musician, but a total newbie with the Macs. I'm very tired of my PC with all theese bugs and etc, so I've decided to enter the world of Macs and stay there. I've been made an offer: G4 450Khz 1.5Gb RAM, no monitor and no audio interface for 1000 USD. Is it a worthy deal? Currently I have Pentium celeron 4 with 1,5Ghz and 640 DDRAM. Will the speed of this mac equal or exceed the speed of my current PC? Will the PC monitor work with the Mac? Thanks for the help in advance, mates.

[lepetitmartien]

You haven't told us what you want to to exactly with. MIDI only (then it's ok) or audio or both.

For the price, the advice of someone in your own country would be more on the point.

[Sumerki]

I intend to use it for the whole music creation process - MIDI sequencing, audio mixing, spectral analysis,mastering etc and plan to use logic audio platinum as my main workstation. I'm buying this Mac online and have no chance to ask anybody about the Mac here in my country(nobody sells it here, and hardly anybody uses it).

[rickenbacker]

It doesn't sound like a great deal, to be honest. There are plenty of new Macs that aren't much more expensive that'll do a better job and you'll have a full warranty in case of disaster.

But if you can't get one any other way, the machine you mention would probably do for Midi and some audio, although the more audio you record, the flakier it'll get. It's a reasonably powerful machine on paper, but with no warranty, no monitor and no audio interface you're probably going to spend another $1000 (at least) to get a decent set-up.

Check a few other prices on the internet and see how your offer compares - places like ebay etc. I'd be wary of buying a second-hand computer without getting to see it working first.

Doesn't sound like a great deal to me, either. About right, I guess. He's definitely asking a fair price. It's not a dual 450, is it?

Also, I understand that when you max out the RAM on those models, you can run into some weird problems.

If it hasn't been done already, you'd probably want to get a new internal CD burner for it. They're cheap, and pretty easy to install.

I have a G4/400 and it's pushed pretty hard when I mix on Digital Performer.

[natedogg2380]

Super super super CRAPPY deal! don't do it! Check ebay... you can something more than 2 times as powerful for that price...

[trippinginthefal...]

I got an 867 w/1.12gig Ram for 900 buy it now.

You can get a good deal if you watch it like a hawk, saw a 1ghz powerbook for $1500 get snapped up in a few minutes... I suppose if I waited I could have done better, not by much though.

even a dual 450 isnt worth $1000 from what I have seen. macofalltrades.com has them for $799.

forget RAM in the price

Ram is the cheapest thing to upgrade, its $150 for a gig these days.
Look for the newest motherboard/cpu you can afford, dual 867s are a great deal if you have 1500 to spend, usually that covers superdrive AND maxed ram.

Another good thing, scsi160 drives - that makes a difference worth paying for.

just my opinions though,
Scotty