Apple M9461LL/A eMac SuperDrive (1.25 GHz PowerPC G4, 256MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, 8x SuperDrive, 17" Flat CRT)

Amazon Customer Reviews

(5 out of 5)

Darned Apple!

I just bought my eMac in December for $$$ more! But with that aside, this is the first computer I bought that I've been thoroughly satisfied with since I bought my FIRST computer (a Windows 95-based PII)--and let me say that my computer savvy has grown a whole lot since then, so for me to be satisfied now is saying a lot.

And there's a lot to like about the eMac. First off, is price. You're paying less for more! The eMac is basically the iMac in a different shell, but it's several hundreds less. If you can live without a flat-panel LCD (and most people can), then get this computer!

With a 1.25 GHz G4, this beauty is as fast as a 2.4 GHz P4! And combined with the wonderful iLife suite, it makes multimedia work simple. From making movies and DVDs (iMovie + iDVD), digital photo slideshows (iPhoto) and playing music (iPhoto) everything is simple to use and fast, too. And with the new iLife '04, you can MAKE music, too, using GarageBand!

Heck, at this price, it's cheaper than any quality PC with similar specs: 17" flat screen monitor (16" viewable), 256 MB RAM, 1.25GHz G4 (2.4GHz P4 equiv.), 80 GB HD, 32 MB ATI Radeon graphics card, 8x DVD burner (w/32x CDR write), 2 USB + 2 Firewire and a great bundle of software in the iLife suite!

I was a long-time Windows user and worked rebuilding old PCs, but I just got so sick of the Windows clutter and the inherent problems with the OS that I decided to go with Apple and I have never been happier.

If you're thinking that you don't want to go Mac because you don't want to have to relearn how to use a computer, don't worry. Mac OS X is easy to use, as it uses almost the same GUI as Windows (although Apple came up with it first), and the only differences are that icons line up on the right on Macs and you can't just click on the button on the window to close the app--you have to select "Quit..." to close it. If you can make those adjustments, you can use a Mac! And, if you have any problems with the OS (eg. a "kernel panic"), you can restore the OS without deleting precious information on your HD! How convenient! Try doing that with Windows XP! Sure, XP can restore to a previous point, but that rarely works (I've had to do that about 30 times in two years until I went Mac)--I've had to restore Mac OS X once (four months ago--it was my fault for downloading the wrong version of a program), and everything was like brand-new again and I haven't had another problem since. Wonderful!

But, I can't only spout about the good. Some problems with Mac are that it can't natively play AVI files--a fairly common video file format. Software is expensive--up to as much as twice that of Windows. Sudden price changes/model releases--like when I bought my eMac in December, they released the new iLife in January--so I didn't get a free upgrade (I missed the cutoff date by a week), but had to BUY iLife for $$, even though I hadn't had my computer for a month! Had I known, I'd have waited the extra week and saved myself some money! Oh, and I also would've gotten Final Cut Express 2.0 for $$ instead of FCE 1.1!! Now if I want FCE 2.0, I'll have to shell out another $$!!! What a pain!

But that's more problems with Apple the company, rather than the computer. Hence, my giving this computer 5 stars. No computer I've owned up until now deserved it, but you won't find more bang for your buck.

(5 out of 5)

An Incredible Value!

I just bought one of these to use at home as a multimedia creation station. All I can say is, "Wow!" The performance and the feature set of this computer is just an amazing value for the price. It performs noticeably faster than the brand new Dell Dimension 2400 w/2.8 Ghz Pentium 4 I use at work! Don't let the "1.25 Ghz" processor speed scare you. This is a speedy machine. The screen is very bright and colors display quite well - which was a relief for me. I was tempted to buy the 17" flat-panel iMac instead, but the idea of keeping an extra $800.00 in my pocket won out. The iMac's flat panel *is* truly gorgeous, and I liked the desk space-saving aspect of the iMac, but with the money I saved buying this eMac I can buy a leftover or refurbished iBook and have both a desktop *and* a laptop! The only negative things I have to say about this computer is that the fan noise is somewhat loud (not ear-splitting LOUD! but a somewhat forceful "whoosh" sound that is definitely noticeable and can be distracting/annoying), and the speakers are pretty unimpressive. "Thunderous sound system" - yeah right! The speakers *sound* good enough but the bass frequencies start sounding like a paper bag way before the sound is turned up to full volume. Don't try to attempt to impress your friends by bumping your Snoop Dogg CDs unless you get some external speakers.

All in all, this machine should meet or exceed the needs of just about *any* consumer/"average joe" computer usage and also excels at video, photo, and music editing! A great value for the money!

(5 out of 5)

Great computer; a switcher's review

I did a lot of research before I bought this eMac. I was a windows user, and was worried about having a smooth transition. I was surprised to find that there was virtually no transition. Everything was extremely easy to figure out. There are only 3 wires! How easy of a setup is that? My old Windows machine had so many wires, I couldn't even begin to find where things went. I was also surprised to see that the speakers and the processor were built into the monitor. So there's no extra "tower" that sits on the floor.

Panther is very easy to use also. I find myself thinking "thats how it should have been" a lot while I use my eMac. Everything just...works. For example, to connect to the internet, all you needed to do was turn it on. Easy as that. Bluetooth is the same thing. Just turn it on and it works.

Don't let the 1.25 GHz fool you. A 1.25 G4 feels considerably faster than my 2.0 GHz Pentium.

I am very pleased with Apple, and I will definitely be buying more Apple products.

(4 out of 5)

Very good machine but noisy

Very fast. My only complain is the noise of the fans at the back. When i work at night its really annoying. Try listening music with itunes when you always hearing those big fans in background... Also the screen lack sharpeness. At night again its become very hard for the eyes to read words at the screen specially when you're doing desktop publishing. So im planning to buy an other flat screen (a PC one, bigger and scrisper) later. i find a patch on the internet where i can go in dual mode with 2 monitors. It works perfectly and make me really happy, i can't understand why apple did not included it in the machine.
Yes the noise is really the big annoying thing.

(5 out of 5)

Great computer; a switcher's review

I did a lot of research before I bought this eMac. I was a windows user, and was worried about having a smooth transition. I was surprised to find that there was virtually no transition. Everything was extremely easy to figure out. There are only 3 wires! How easy of a setup is that? My old Windows machine had so many wires, I couldn't even begin to find where things went. I was also surprised to see that the speakers and the processor were built into the monitor. So there's no extra "tower" that sits on the floor.

Panther is very easy to use also. I find myself thinking "thats how it should have been" a lot while I use my eMac. Everything just...works. For example, to connect to the internet, all you needed to do was turn it on. Easy as that. Bluetooth is the same thing. Just turn it on and it works.

Don't let the 1.25 GHz fool you. A 1.25 G4 feels considerably faster than my 2.0 GHz Pentium.

I am very pleased with Apple, and I will definitely be buying more Apple products.