[rescue] G4 pricing

[Michael Parson]

On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 05:38:28PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
> On 8/14/06, Jonathan C. Patschke <jp at celestrion.net>wrote:
>> On Mon, 14 Aug 2006, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>>
>>>>> Is $350 a good price for a G4/400 Power Mac, 640MB RAM, two disks
>>>>> (75GB and 128GB)?
>>>>
>>>> If it doesn't have an AGP slot, no.
>>>
>>> Cymru just forwarded me the Freecycle post again and it does say "PCI
>>> graphics".  So, I guess we'll pass.
>>>
>>> What would you consider a fair price for that configuration?
>>
>> That particular machine has -really slow- IDE.  Think "blue and white G3
>> with a G4 chip crammed in there".  It has a healthy amount of storage,
>> so $350 is probably a -decent- price for it, but it's just such a
>> lopsided configuration.
>
> Find out the models of the HDs.  I believe Deathstars are stock, so
> that might be something for pushing down price.
>
> You could easily fix up the IDE slowness issue for <$50 with an IDE card.
>
> Another thing to find out (I discovered this the hard way) is whether
> the FW ports are working.  FW bus problems are common PowerMacs and
> problems with FW ports often result in problems with PCI slots.  My
> on-board FW is dead, and one of my PCI slots is dead as well.

Ugh.  If it just killed the FW, then at least you could get a card,
which would take up a slot, but this effectively takes out two slots.
:-/

> At the least, tote a FW/USB drive with you and see if you can test all
> the ports.  From what I read the iSight cameras are particularly
> notorious for blowing FW ports (use on an isolated FW hub if you must
> use).

Good to know.  Any idea why this is?  Camera draw too many amps?

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org