 | |
 2003 eMac | |
| Manufacturer | Apple |
|---|---|
| Product family | eMac |
| Type | Desktop computer |
| Release date | May 6, 2003 |
| Introductory price | $999 |
| Operating system | Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger, English |
| CPU | PowerPC G4 @ 1.0 GHz |
| Memory | 640 MB (PC133 SDRAM) |
| Storage | 40 GB HDD |
| Display | 17 in (43 cm) Flat CRT |
| Graphics | ATI Radeon 7500 |
| Connectivity | 3 USB 1.1, 2 FireWire, 2 Audio jacks, 1 Mini-VGA |
| Website | https://www.apple.com |
In 2002, Apple released a desktop computer called the eMac (short for education Mac), intended for the education market. It was later made available as a cheaper alternative to the iMac G4 for the general public. The eMac was discontinued on July 5, 2006 and replaced by a low-end iMac G5. The eMac is the last Apple computer to come with a CRT display and weighs about 50 lb (23 kg).
Collection Specifics
My specific eMac is the "G4/1.0 (ATI)" model, released on May 6, 2003, costing $999 back then. This model has the 1 GHz G4 processor and the ATI Radeon 7500 graphics card. My model also has 640 MB of SDRAM. I bought this eMac for $10 from a teacher at my tech school on October 27, 2023.
Operating System
Originally, this eMac would've shipped with Mac OS X 10.2.4 Jaguar and because this model is the original "Combo" drive configuration instead of the SuperDrive config, it was supposedly capable of booting Mac OS 9 as well. I haven't been able to get this to work, though.
True to the eMac's purpose, this computer was previously used at the tech school that I bought it from - apparently up until 2011 according to leftover files on the hard drive. This means that this eMac was upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger at some point in its life. I'll probably keep this Tiger install for a while since it still has activated installs of various Adobe CS3 programs which can't be legitimately re-activated now that Adobe pulled the plug on their activation servers.
Hardware
I have not done any hardware upgrades to this machine yet, but the CD drive appears to have some issues reading discs sometimes, so that might get replaced at some point.