iMac G4 ?

Definitely get one if you like the design. I have bought three on CL locally, and paid between $325 and $250 for them. (Deals are out there.) I think the median price is $500 in my area (Boston is heavily Mac though, Im sure your location may vary.) I would try to get the 1 GHZ version for the speed, and I wouldnt worry about the superdrive, as there are lots of terrific external DVD/CD Burners for Macintosh that are reasonably priced. Macsales (OWC) has $49 superdrives you could put into your G4 iMac if you want to go that route. Maxing the ram is always a no brainer upgrade. Helps with the spinning beach ball, and makes the mac generally more speedy, I have only one pair of the speakers and they work and sound great. But its weird to use speakers nowadays. Home or Office, Im wearing headphones. hope this helps.

I understand the G4 Pretty well, and the main reason I asked about the superdrive is I don't wanna do too much work other than software restoring and upgrading. But I'm sure I could to it.

I love to do hardware upgrades and hacks - but on an iMac G4 I would say get a Superdrive-equipped model and don't go for an aftermarket upgrade. To replace anything other than the RAM or Airport card, you have to open up the unit, breaking a seal that's created by a large, thick lump of thermal paste. Apple's Service Manual says that you have to cut the paste (it's pretty stiff), then clean it all off and replace it with a similar lump when you reassemble. If you don't use the correct amount or consistency - even if you don't retighten the screws right, making them too loose or too tight - you can reduce the efficiency of the heat transmission inside the machine, and fry it.

I don't want to sound alarmist, but I just feel cracking open an iMac G4 is a lot of risk for not much reward.

I would recommend paying a few extra bucks for a unit with a Superdrive, and for the fastest CPU you can find (and for the 17" screen as opposed to the 15" if you can afford it).

At any rate, I owned a G4 iMac, and it is one of my all-time favorites - a great machine with good performance, unbeatable personality and ergonomics, and very decent-sounding speakers (for computer speakers, anyway).

Best,
Matt

I have one of the 1GHz 17" superdrive models. Its a great machine and quite fast. Feels better than the 1.25GHz eMac anyways. The only problem I ever had was the hard drive going bad 2 weeks after warrenty ran out. Go figure, but it was a good chance to upgrade. As the others have said, 17" is reccomened over the 15". If you're lucky enough to find a 20" I am jealous! The little speakers it comes with are actually really nice. Quality sound, so I wouldn't worry about those.

A Superdrive seems like a necessity and really screen size in nothing to me just processer speed,hardrive,memory and so fourth. I think finally I've got an idea what Mac to Purchase and since the G4 iMac Gets good comments everywhere I've been it's time to start looking for my new iMac.