Apple eMac Desktop 17" M8950LL/A (1.0-GHz PowerPC G4, 128 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

[Archived in Apple, Apple Computer, Power Mac G4 Desktops, Products]

Manufacturer: Apple Computer
Price at amazon.com: Used from $850.00

Product Description:

Affordable, easy to use and surprisingly diminutive, Apple's new eMac series of desktop computers meshes well with situations where space is at a premium and the user is not necessarily a computing expert. It is therefore a particularly good fit in the elementary or high school classroom. In fact, Apple has designed the system with this function in mind. The mid-level model of the eMac roster is the eMac Desktop 17" M8950LL/A, a smartly priced yet capable unit that's ready for the unique conditions of a multi-user educational environment. Driven by a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor and an ATI Radeon 7500 graphics chipset with 32 MB of dedicated DDR SDRAM memory, the eMac Desktop 17" M8950LL/A sports plenty of front-end speed and satisfactory 3D graphics capabilities. Its 128 MB allotment of RAM may be a bit light for some purposes but can be upgraded to one full GB. Surprisingly, Apple has managed to equip the system with a generous 17-inch flat CRT display screen while adhering to the space-efficient exterior dimensions of its popular 15-inch-CRT-based iMac. The eMac Desktop 17" M8950LL/A features a variety of data handling options, including an ample 60 GB hard drive for file and data storage, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive through which the user may burn audio and archival CDs and play DVD's (DVD writing is not supported), and a pair of high-speed FireWire 400 ports and five traditional USB 1.1 ports for interaction with peripheral devices such as scanners and digital cameras. E-communication support includes a standard 56K modem, a 10/100BASE-T Ethernet port and an 802.11 wireless connection (with the addition of Apple's AirPort Extreme card). Prospective buyers should note that the eMac permits the operation of Mac OS 9 in Classic mode and integrates with most existing printers and scanners. Bundled software includes Mac OS X, World Book 2003, Quicken 2003 Deluxe, and a broad range of powerful multimedia utilities.

Description from Manufacturer:Affordable, easy to use and surprisingly diminutive, Apple's new eMac series of desktop computers meshes well with situations where space is at a premium and the user is not necessarily a computing expert. It is therefore a particularly good fit in the elementary or high school classroom. In fact, Apple has designed the system with this function in mind. The mid-level model of the eMac roster is the eMac Desktop 17" M8950LL/A, a smartly priced yet capable unit that's ready for the unique conditions of a multi-user educational environment.

Driven by a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor and an ATI Radeon 7500 graphics chipset with 32 MB of dedicated DDR SDRAM memory, the eMac Desktop 17" M8950LL/A sports plenty of front-end speed and satisfactory 3D graphics capabilities. Its 128 MB allotment of RAM may be a bit light for some purposes but can be upgraded to one full GB. Surprisingly, Apple has managed to equip the system with a generous 17-inch flat CRT display screen while adhering to the space-efficient exterior dimensions of its popular 15-inch-CRT-based iMac.

The eMac Desktop 17" M8950LL/A features a variety of data handling options, including an ample 60 GB hard drive for file and data storage, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive through which the user may burn audio and archival CDs and play DVD's (DVD writing is not supported), and a pair of high-speed FireWire 400 ports and five traditional USB 1.1 ports for interaction with peripheral devices such as scanners and digital cameras.

E-communication support includes a standard 56K modem, a 10/100BASE-T Ethernet port and an 802.11 wireless connection (with the addition of Apple's AirPort Extreme card). Prospective buyers should note that the eMac permits the operation of Mac OS 9 in Classic mode and integrates with most existing printers and scanners. Bundled software includes Mac OS X, World Book 2003, Quicken 2003 Deluxe, and a broad range of powerful multimedia utilities.Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: Switched and how! Rating:
My wife is a translator who works at home and I am a freelance writer, teacher, and programmer. We both have used PCs for a LONG time. Her Win 98SE machine was never great and between the lock-ups and random shutdowns never really let her work comfortably. She had even adapted a habit of saving after every line of translated text so as not to lose too much when it crashed. Anyway, her computer was getting on in age and we started thinking about a replacement. I had an XP Home machine but it wasn't too hot either with all it's nasty security bugs (I fought for 8 hours with some internet anonymous who was controlling my system with MS_Blast). I finally secretly settled on an eMac birthday gift. She didn't need the gaming power of some Wintel boxes and other than Word and the internet didn't need much at all. The eMac was nicely priced and once Office v.X was installed had everything she needed to go right on working. To be safe I also bought Virtual PC 6.1 and replicated her old Win 98SE system on her eMac right down to the installed software and quantity of RAM. It took me less than 4 hours to get everything setup (multi-OS network, digital camera, printer, ADSL line, etc.) and I didn't encounter a single problem through the entire process. I was stunned. After more than a decade of fighting with PCs to make them work it was shocking for a computer to just do what it was supposed to do when I wanted it to. Simply elegant. The eMac has worked perfectly with my PC and her old PC on the network and she has had no compatibility problems after having "switched". After 5 months of ownership she is delighted and I am converted. Regardless of the fact that my PC is only a year old I'm pitching it in the garbage where it belongs and buying a Mac. To be able to work with your computer instead of on it is a thing you can only expect from a Mac and so I'll never touch a PC again if I don't have too. If you're reading this you are probably considering "switching" and with the new Macs I'd highly recommend it. They work well with the Windows world but allow you to laugh at it's problems (which you'll never experience). Only caution is to be careful that your system is in good shape when you take it home. I had read that some of the early releases of the eMacs and PowerBooks had some glitches. They were fixed for free but it's still frustrating. We've had no such problems.

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Comment: ditch your PC and get an emac Rating:
For the same standard features, you will pay a bit more for an Apple, but as any Mac user will tell you, you get what you pay for. Now you can get this great system for a budget price. Unless you need the absolute fastest processor, or have your heart set on a flat-panel display, this is the best deal around. You'll need to get a better mouse (true for any Mac), and it could use some extra RAM, but other than that, this has everything the average user needs.

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Comment: Terrific user-friendly computer. Rating:
A recent user survey in PC magazine identified Apple computers as the most reliable and easiest to use computers currently available. Yes, most people use Windows-based PCs, but do you want to be another member of the PC herd -- with all of the problems and frustrations presented by Windows-based PCs -- or are you looking for a computer which is user friendly and seldom crashes? If ease of use and reliability are more important to you than being one of the crowd, please seriously consider buying an Apple. Since the eMac is Apple's least expensive computer, it's a terrific way to enter the user-friendly world of Apple computers at a very reasonable price. And don't be concerned about the processor speed, this is a very fast computer. The 1 GHz G4 processor is roughly equivalent to a 2 GHz Pentium processor. If you're willing to try something off the beaten path, you'll love this computer.

Posted at November 11, 2003 06:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)