Want to try a Mac

ajf · 6 Oct 2007 at 22:31

Thinking of getting a Mac of some kind to play around with as never used one before.

Quick search on eBay found the following:

Powermac G3 300Mhz
256Mb RAM
6 Gb Disk
CD-ROM
OS X
No mouse or keyboard for £20.

Is it worth the risk at that price? Do I need a specific Mac keyboard and mouse though or would a standard USb/PS-2 one suffice?
Is the OS recent enough to be representative of current Macs?

Thanks
Andrew

Slogan · 6 Oct 2007 at 22:38

Why not go to a Mac store? You could play about with one there and the £20 would be better spent on travel.

Latest tech and far closer to what you're likely to be buying.

PardonTheWait · 7 Oct 2007 at 00:25

A G3 is pretty unlikely to have OSX installed on it, and won't run it well at all. It won't be a good introduction, and will probably put you off!

gumbald · 7 Oct 2007 at 00:26

I bought a G3 to play with and get Mac experience, was worth it. 18 months later, I've bought myself a MacBook

You'll probably want extra RAM in it to make it more usable, but you might have some of that hanging around.

Normal USB mouse and keyboard will work, or PS/2 through an adapter.

Skully · 7 Oct 2007 at 01:14

I bought my first mac after a horrible experience with a G3. It had a fuzzy screen, no stability (friend decided to try and pimp it) and it was a yellowish brown colour.

Using that mac put me off, until one day I just decided to buy a new one and I love all things apple now!

ajf · 7 Oct 2007 at 16:55

Thanks for the feedback. Might wait and see what else comes up then. I don't want to spend a great deal as I am pretty tied into PCs with my software etc but would like to get some basic experience of one.
Can only go by the ad I saw which stated it had OS X installed - the seller has a number of similar machines for sale plus some G4s - would that be a better bet maybe?

Andrew