Having been a Mac junkie for years, I can tell you that one of my favorite things about Apple products is how reliable they are over time. While the average PC will become unstable to use after 3 to 5 years, depending on what brand you purchase, you can keep your Macintosh going for over a decade.

The Apple product line is well known for being easy to use in addition to being reliable. Macintosh is the computer I recommend for users that are technophobic, or just inexperienced computer users (or, in the case of my honey, experienced users who still manage to get every virus and hack sent out). They are nearly impossible to “break” through daily use, and the interface of their operating system is completely intuitive.

I have a freelance corporate writing and print graphics business. Up until a month or so ago, I ran my business using one iMac G3 350 Mhz Slot Loading (Apple Code Name Kihei) with a 200 GB aftermarket hard drive by Maxtor plus as much RAM as it will hold and an iBook G3 466 Mhz Graphite FW SE with a 40 GB aftermarket hard drive by Fujitsu plus an additional 256 of RAM.

As much as I enjoy new toys (and let me tell you I covet the new Intel Dual Core iMacs and MacBooks), I had no reason to upgrade, really. This iMac / iBook set up worked well for my business for over a decade. I purchased this iMac on eBay (as much as I abhor eBay the occasional great deal is still available) for under $300 including shipping. I have seen them advertised on sites such as http://lowendmac.com for between $280 and $350 as well. If you can work with an even older iMac (such as the original tray loading iMac Blueberry 266 Mhz) you can now purchase them for under $100 refurbished – a fantastic deal for the beginning computer user or grade school student who needs to learn computer skills.

The iMacs are a one piece unit which includes your speakers, your CD or DVD drive (in mine it was a slot loading CD drive), room for an AirPort card, your Ethernet and Phone Modem connections, two USB ports, a headphone jack and external speaker jack. The screen on mine is 15”. I do not believe there was a larger screen offered for the iMac 350 Mhz Slot Loading Kihei, but I could be wrong on that.

You may wonder what software I was running on this 8 year old machine. I was running the Adobe creative design suite and all of its components, Microsoft Word, Entourage (the Apple version of Outlook), Power Point, and Excel, a fabulous program called WriteItNow (see separate product review) in which I write all of my short stories and novel length work, as well as some articles, Quick Books Pro, iTunes and the other standard Apple OS X Panther programs (including Safari, my browser of choice).

The only program I have found that did not work reliably on this iMac is Microsoft Word. For reasons unknown to me it periodically had fits and started making REALLY BIG FILES for no reason. If I deleted the plist files for it the problem stops. It was truly bizarre, but a Microsuck issue, not an Apple issue, as far as I know.

I spent as much as 14 hours a day some days working at this computer, and left it powered up the rest of the time in case a fax came through (I had it set up for eFax capability). When I worked on it I tended to have multiple programs open – the word processor program, the email program and the internet program were usually the three that were up and running. I learned that because it had limited RAM upgrade capabilities three programs at a time was the maximum it can run at a time efficiently. It does not seem to make a difference what three programs are running. When you open more than three, however; you get massive slow down (although, unlike Microsuck, no crashes).

This computer was one of the iMac G3 line that could be upgraded to a G4 processor for under $300 if you wanted (although I had not seen a reason to do this myself). The Maximum RAM capacity was 512 MB (two PC100 SDRAM slots). I upgraded mine to two PC133 256 SDRAM cards and noticed an improvement in program use by using the new PC133 capability.

Other random specifications for the Kihei iMac are: 100 Mhz bus, PPC 750 processor, VRAM at 8 MB SGRAM, ATI Rage VR Chip Set, 15” multiscan monitor up to 1024 x 768, 512 KB 140 Mhz L2 Cache, 6 GB EISE Hard Srive standard (mine is running a 200 GB Maxtor EIDE aftermarket), USB 1.1, internal microphone, 150W power, and requires a minimum of OS 8.6.1 to function.

Upgrading this machine has been amazingly simple for me to do. I do have basic computer knowledge for parts and installation and a good grasp of software, but with technical documentation and the correct tools any user can upgrade this machine. When I upgraded the RAM to 512 MB it took me 15 minutes – a breeze by any standards. When I upgraded the hard drive it took me thirty minutes, and that was only because I was being cautious (when you upgrade the hard drive you set the computer face down on the monitor on a soft surface – I was paranoid about scratches so I took my time). Regardless, I was able to find ample instructions for each process online and both of the procedures were incredibly simple to do.

It is my understanding that you can upgrade the slot loading drive from the CD tray (standard) to a CD-RW or DVD drive, however; I didn't do this myself (I have an external Sony USB CD-RW I used to make copies of work for client delivery). I do have a phone recorder from my Vonage cable internet VOIP phone into my computer directly, which created real time audio recordings of all of my calls (very handy when conducting phone interviews). This was not as easy to set up (I had to purchase an analog to USB adapter) but once I figured out how to get it to talk to my iMac it worked perfectly.

In conclusion, not only do I think Apple products far superior to Microsuck, I also think the iMac is a big bang for your budget, giving you full computer functionality for home, school or business for far less money than you would spend on another system. Its reliability makes it money better spent in the long run, as the iMac will outlast and outperform any PC on the market.

Amount Paid (US$): 285

Operating System: Macintosh

Processor speed: 301-400

RAM: More than 256

Internal Storage: CD-RW

Hard Drive (GB): Over 50