Okay, so after doing some number crunching related to how little I have spent that stimulus check along with figuring out the way forward with existing bills, I went ahead and ordered the vintage iMac.
I chose an early 2008 model, 24'' size with a 3.06ghz C2D processor, 4gb RAM and 320GB hard drive. I decided to order from one of those professional resellers, in this case, Mac of All Trades. I did some research on them along with One World Computing, and both seem to be the same and get overall decent reviews. I figured that I'd rather pay a slightly higher price from a reseller than bid on an eBay auction. The condition of the used iMac I'm purchasing is described as Excellent, and cost was $175. I bundled a used Apple Mighty Mouse for $20 more. I'll either use a Windows USB keyboard or source an Apple keyboard off eBay, either genuine or knockoff. And later on, I'll acquire the OWC repair kit in case I need to work on the iMac in the future.
Now the second part... acquiring a desk for the iMac. Walmart is sold out of the desks I was considering, and I'm a bit leery about ordering some no-name Chinese one off eBay. Don't know if the quality is as good as the big box store brands. Unless I can find a well known store brand on eBay, that is. Rusty's desk is a Walmart store brand, called "Mainstays". It's cheap, but not too cheap. The legs and supports are metal and it was easy to assemble. I was considering another one of these but I may go for a slightly smaller one.
I also put a bid in for what appears to be a genuine brand new copy of Windows Vista Home Premium. Since I have an XP rig now, I'm going to dual boot macOS and Vista on the iMac. I still think the Vista version of Windows Movie Maker was the best. It crashed just as often as the old XP one, but it had far better effects IMO.
Sounds like a good deal. After all, assuming that the Mac isn't one of those suffering from those recall issues, I feel it is a tad better than the far less modular Macs of yore, more so with the ones the Woz personally developed back in the day.
(04-21-2020, 02:54 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]Sounds like a good deal. After all, assuming that the Mac isn't one of those suffering from those recall issues, I feel it is a tad better than the far less modular Macs of yore, more so with the ones the Woz personally developed back in the day.
I'm not aware of any recalls with the 2007 to 2009 models. I thought about a 2011, but it can't run Vista and the GPUs in those (especially the 27'') are known to fail. Apple did issue a free repair for the 2011 iMacs' faulty GPUs.
(04-21-2020, 04:10 PM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ] (04-21-2020, 02:54 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]Sounds like a good deal. After all, assuming that the Mac isn't one of those suffering from those recall issues, I feel it is a tad better than the far less modular Macs of yore, more so with the ones the Woz personally developed back in the day.
I'm not aware of any recalls with the 2007 to 2009 models. I thought about a 2011, but it can't run Vista and the GPUs in those (especially the 27'') are known to fail. Apple did issue a free repairÃÂ for the 2011 iMacs' faulty GPUs.
I presume those called for a logic board replacement with what's presumably a newer-revision board, yes?
(04-22-2020, 07:07 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ] (04-21-2020, 04:10 PM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ] (04-21-2020, 02:54 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]Sounds like a good deal. After all, assuming that the Mac isn't one of those suffering from those recall issues, I feel it is a tad better than the far less modular Macs of yore, more so with the ones the Woz personally developed back in the day.
I'm not aware of any recalls with the 2007 to 2009 models. I thought about a 2011, but it can't run Vista and the GPUs in those (especially the 27'') are known to fail. Apple did issue a free repairÃÂÃÂ for the 2011 iMacs' faulty GPUs.
I presume those called for a logic board replacement with what's presumably a newer-revision board, yes?
Not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if Apple just did an entire logic board swap because money. Those faulty GPUs (ATI Radeon HD 6570 in the 21.5'' model and 6770 in the 27'') used a form factor called MXM. On LowEndMac, people recommend a specific model of Nvidia MXM GPU from an Alienware laptop that works with macOS.
Making progress on additional accessories for the iMac. I found a desk... or rather, a rolling TV stand that is just the right height to use as a desk. It even has a spot normally reserved for a VCR/DVD player, but my Pioneer CT-W40R cassette deck will fit nicely. One use I'm planning for the iMac is tape/record conversion. Audio recording works well with Rusty, but the sound control panel is a bit annoying. I have to open up the legacy Sound control panel to adjust the recording level. The mixer only controls the line-in monitor and doesn't affect the actual input sounds. I can't find any other way to adjust the line-input level outside of the above methods.
I settled on a genuine second-hand Apple Magic Keyboard. It's the older model that uses two AA batteries. I also ordered a small extension cable for the mouse. Apple made their wired mice to be plugged into the keyboard, not the rear USB port.
(04-23-2020, 05:29 AM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]Not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if Apple just did an entire logic board swap because money. Those faulty GPUs (ATI Radeon HD 6570 in the 21.5'' model and 6770 in the 27'') used a form factor called MXM. On LowEndMac, people recommend a specific model of Nvidia MXM GPU from an Alienware laptop that works with macOS.
Figures. I've vaguely heard of the MXM form factor before, but while that seemed like a promising solution when it comes to upgrading a laptop's internals, in practice this is hampered by some OEMs making non-standard variants of the MXM standard, again because money by way of vendor lock-in. It's just as unnecessary and greedy as those pharmaceutical companies selling glucose meters using mutually incompatible test strips.
Talk about fast shipping for a keyboard. I received my wireless Apple keyboard today. After taking a disinfectant wipe to it and putting in fresh batteries, it works good. I'm typing on it right now, having connected the keyboard to Rusty.
It takes some time getting used to, but the key travel and responsiveness are good. It would actually make a good Windows keyboard as well. The command key becomes the Windows key, and option is Alt (and the keyboard denotes it as such). The media keys don't seem to work though. I set the volume on the Sony stereo to a specific level, and I just use the handy volume knob on my HP media keyboard for controlling the volume from the PC.
LGR takes a look at Windows Me, the perfect time capsule of the year 2000. I miss those days.
(04-25-2020, 03:34 AM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]Talk about fast shipping for a keyboard. I received my wireless Apple keyboard today. After taking a disinfectant wipe to it and putting in fresh batteries, it works good. I'm typing on it right now, having connected the keyboard to Rusty.
It takes some time getting used to, but the key travel and responsiveness are good. It would actually make a good Windows keyboard as well. The command key becomes the Windows key, and option is Alt (and the keyboard denotes it as such). The media keys don't seem to work though. I set the volume on the Sony stereo to a specific level, and I just use the handy volume knob on my HP media keyboard for controlling the volume from the PC.
LGR takes a look at Windows Me, the perfect time capsule of the year 2000. I miss those days.
Me was a mistake, as regardless of its merits it still inherited Windows 9x's issues of instability and then some. But a lot of them do apparently stem from PEBCAKs on part of the average home user who isn't well-versed with the intricacies of computing. No matter how one would make a "user-friendly" interface there would
always be a WalkingTechbane.
Windows Me was rather pointless anyway, seeing that XP was released barely a year afterward, containing nearly all the new features Me had while being much more stable thanks to the NT kernel. I remember that in 2001, we got another new computer with Me preinstalled, and since we purchased it in September of that year, we were eligible for a free XP upgrade. We took the offer, and in December, we finally received the XP upgrade discs from Gateway. The move to XP was great at first, but it soon proved that XP needed more that 128MB RAM to run well. Making matters worse, our particular Gateway PC used RAMBUS RAM which was more expensive than traditional RAM sticks, even years after the Gateway became obsolete.
But yeah, my experience with Windows Me was rather short lived. It didn't seem any different than 98 except with the Windows 2000 theme. The occasional instability was also not that much different from 98. And when I was able to get my own Windows PC in summer 2004, it had 98SE preinstalled.
(04-25-2020, 04:07 PM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]Windows Me was rather pointless anyway, seeing that XP was released barely a year afterward, containing nearly all the new features Me had while being much more stable thanks to the NT kernel. I remember that in 2001, we got another new computer with Me preinstalled, and since we purchased it in September of that year, we were eligible for a free XP upgrade. We took the offer, and in December, we finally received the XP upgrade discs from Gateway. The move to XP was great at first, but it soon proved that XP needed more that 128MB RAM to run well. Making matters worse, our particular Gateway PC used RAMBUS RAM which was more expensive than traditional RAM sticks, even years after the Gateway became obsolete.
But yeah, my experience with Windows Me was rather short lived. It didn't seem any different than 98 except with the Windows 2000 theme. The occasional instability was also not that much different from 98. And when I was able to get my own Windows PC in summer 2004, it had 98SE preinstalled.
Considering how it was a case of CapcomSequelStagnation as it was effectively Windows 98 with a Windows 2000 theme and updates for the previous release pre-installed (along with real-mode DOS excised), it's no wonder why most ignored Me and went straight to XP, myself included (though my brother's PC ran Windows 98SE and later Windows 2000 for its existence until it was unceremoniously decommissioned due to capacitor plague).
Ahh Rambus... That proprietary RAM standard which I am glad never caught on, despite Intel initially backing it to the point that they bundled their early Pentium 4s with two Rambus memory modules as the sticks were insanely expensive for little performance benefit compared to the more open DDR SDRAM standard.