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877-639-1543 9-6 CST, M-F (901-759-1543 in TN or
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901-591-1548 tech
support
FAX
615-523-1360. Remember our bottom line price
includes shipping! We stand behind the products we
sell with a 30
day warranty
less shipping and handling (90
days on systems).
Prices subject to change with out notice. Questions? Try
our HELP
file
first. Need
hardware help? Read Bob's Mac Tech
Tips.
Why
use reconditioned equipment?
See
the Mac Comparison Chart!
All large orders have to be signed for. Operator Headgap
Systems, Inc.,7181 Autumn Forrest Dr. Memphis, TN 38125
Contact
Us.
View
our Computer Comparison Chart!
So
many of you liked the way the chart shows all the
different features and prices into one easier to read
chart you can now access it from here or the store.
Simply close the window to go back to where you
were.
Why Buy
Reconditioned Equipment?
There
are a number of reasons why purchasing reconditioned
Macintosh equipment may make sense for you or your
organization. The two most common reasons, though are the
obvious ones Price & Functionality.
Many
older computer systems can perform needed functions as
well as the newer, more expensive models. If all you do
is do a bit of word processing, cruise the web, answer
emails, or balance the checkbook your desktop machine
doesn't have to be the latest Intel Mac running quad
processors. The same is true for Email Servers, Print
Servers, Fax Servers or machines dedicated to printing
mailing labels. The purchase of a reconditioned system
will save you money while meeting your needs beautifully.
We can also recondition and upgrade your old systems
should you choose. Some of you have expensive NUBUS cards
running your milling machines or other industrial uses.
We can help. We can also help move your old data off your
older systems so that you can use it on your new one, or
even convert the format of your files so they will open
in your new applications.
BAD NEWS FOR
CLASSIC USERS • NEW INTEL MACS WON'T RUN
CLASSIC!
Not
only can you not boot into 9, you cannot even use classic
mode with the new Intel Macs. If you are using old
software you will want to pass these systems up. If you
are new to Mac or never use old software then they may be
the system for you. Keep in mind while Apple says they
are 2 times faster that is only true if you are using
Applications that are optimized for theIntel processor.
Most Pro Apps like any Adobe Product will be slower,
until they release an Intel optimized version. If you
work for a living you may want to avoid buying one until
the software catches up or locate one of the remaining
real G5 processored systems. It is kind of cool that you
can run Boot Camp beta and boot into XP, if you have a
need to gather PC viruses and spyware and don't mind that
it expires forcing you to update to the new OSX version
when Leopard arrives if you want to continue to use
it.
EVEN MORE BAD
NEWS FOR CLASSIC USERS • NEW LEOPARD OSX WON'T RUN
CLASSIC!
One
major gotcha for many folks is that Leopard does NOT HAVE
A CLASSIC MODE. If you must run an older program you can
boot back into 9.2 on dual bootable machines and use your
programs. If your computer is not 9 bootable then you had
best keep Tiger around a while longer. I think some folks
will probably keep a second drive with Tiger and classic
installed if they must run a classic application and they
have a system that only boots in X.
THE NUMBER ONE
REASON: Are
the programs you use mostly in OS9 or older? The latest
machines no longer boot into 9, and many programs do not
work properly in classic mode. Many of our later custom
upgraded systems are equally at home running in 9 or the
latest version of X. You can still use your old Pagemaker
or Quark or earlier versions of Pro Tools, yet still have
the ability to boot into X and use the latest
software.
THE NUMBER TWO
REASON: Hardware
incompatibility. If you've made equipment upgrades with
your current system, you may find that these upgrades
will be incompatible with a new machine. For example, if
you have an older Mac with big bucks invested in a SCSI
scanner, SCSI externals, they won't work in the new Macs
that lack a SCSI port (you could add a card but that's
another expense). Perhaps you have a nice large monitor.
To adapt it to the output of the new Macs may make you
reconsider. Perhaps your expensive Laser Printer will not
longer be supported. Have your backups on floppy, or deal
with folks who bring you files on floppy? Plan on
spending another $60 or so for an external USB floppy and
then buy a powered hub because you are out of USB ports
and then what do you do when you get an 800K floppy? The
USB models only read Hi Density disks.
Actually,
some older Macs may perform functions that newer ones
won't or it would be too expensive to equip the newer
machines for the purpose. Our upgraded G4 Towers can run
both the later versions of OSX yet still boot into the
older OS9. Another example, the Beige G3 Tower has always
been a favorite as a File Server. It has a G3/300
upgraded to a 500 mhz processor, can handle two or three
internally mounted hard drives, has two SCSI buses for a
total of 14 SCSI devices, boasts 3 SDRAM sockets, and, to
top it all off, it has EIDE bus allowing low cost PC
drives, CDRW's etc to be inexpensively added. Compare
these specifications to a new system, then look at the
cost of the newer system!
Reconditioned
equipment isn't always the answer. But, before you buy
new, you owe it to yourself to compare.
QUESTION:
I
am musician who uses Pro Tools and other music software.
Many of my plug ins run in OS9 only and I have quite an
investment in software. I want a faster system but all
Apple has only boots into X. Can you help.
ANSWER:
We
upgrade standard G4 Sawtooth or optionally Digital Audio,
or Quicksilver model systems with single and dual upgrade
processors. We also install new faster larger hard drives
(for increased performance) and new optical drives
(DVD/CD Burners) along with more ram. These units are
designed for you and others who still need to boot into
9. With OSX software installed you can also boot into X
if you want to try some of the newer software that only
works in X. We have quite a list of musicians who use our
systems. I guess being here in Memphis has probably
helped us be aware of what musicians are needing.
I can't
tell you how many folks including print shops, graphic
designers, and more, who need to use software that only
works in 9. We are here to help providing fast thoroughly
reconditioned systems that perform at high levels.
QUESTION:
I
am a graphic designer/AD. Opening my own business asap.
I'm confused about the new Macs and all the software
compatibility problems and vendor issues. I need
something really powerful that will not be out of date
tomorrow. What's your advice? What do you have for
me?
THE LONG
ANSWER: Depends
on how much money you have to spend. For heavy duty use
we recommend our custom upgraded G4's, but the G3 Beige
Boxes or the Blue & White Towers depending may do
what you need for less money. The G4's have to run 9.2.2
and up to Tiger OSX10.4 but the Beige or Blue and White
G3's can run OSes as early as 8.6. I usually run 9.2.2 on
them. What is nice about most of these Macs is that you
can also install OSX on them. There may be some
limitations so you should check before buying. That
enables you to use new software on the same machine as
well as keep your old investment.
I like
and am still using the Beige G3 boxes. You probably are
already familiar with them. They come in a Tower and
Desktop model. There main limitation is a 66mhz bus speed
which is relatively slow by todays standards.
That being
said, what I like about them though is they are
dependable (that built in ROM doesn't get fouled like a
software rom), have a built in floppy, SCSI external and
internal, use IDE devices so large drives, CDRW's and
DVD's are relatively low cost since they share the market
with PC's. Our upgraded G4 Towers are also a good choice
as they can be updated to 1.8Ghz Dual Processors and have
100 or 133mhz buses. These machines all will boot into 9
but can also boot into X when the need arises and give
good performance for the money.
We sell
Hitachi (IBM) Deskstar & Seagate 7200 rpm Hard Drives
and prefer them. We have never seen a bad one, and while
they are a few dollars more I think they are worth it. We
stock 80/120 sizes. The Mac OS has a problem with
anything over 132GBs. I won't talk bad about Maxtor or
Western Digitall, but see what goes out in my trash. If
dependability is important to you then the Hitachi or
Seagate drives are worth the few dollars
difference.
We like
the latest from Pioneer for $69.77. We have iTunes
drivers included and use it with Toast 5.2OEM that works
with 9 and X. Use these with Toast or if you run X buy
the iLife package and get iDVD. You need a good graphics
card with at least 16MB on board to playback DVD's so
count on the extra expense of a card and using a slot on
the beige boxes. Most Blue & Whites and G4's have a
good enough video card to playback DVD's, though on the
Blue and Whites you may need to run the patched DVD
player.
The
Beige Tower Models (and now some Desktops) we sell can
have an A/V personality card, so that you can do Analog
Video input and editing and of course with added Firewire
you can also take Digital input. The best of both worlds.
If you have a lot of video on tape and or an analog
camera this is the one to buy. We actually sold a heavily
upgraded box to a famous Hollywood producer. Of course
you can buy a $200-$300 conversion box but they don't
work as well as a Mac with the built in hardware in terms
of dependability. We have a local eye doctor who burns
his finished productions from an Analog video camera out
to CD's. The format is called VCD and you need Toast
Titanium (full version) to burn these but they play on
modern home DVD players. This allows his clients to view
the material rather than read from a pamphlet. Since it
burns on 20¢ CD's his cost is minimal and you can
get about an hour and 15 minutes on one CD! Plus he burns
at 52X on CD's not a 4 or 6X on expensive DVD's.
The
Beige Boxes use SDRAM PC100 and can hold up to 768MB. It
is important that you buy the correct configuration of
ram. We carry top quality ram that is capable of running
with the fastest processors.
The
processor in these units are ZIF (Zero Insertion Force,
they simply pop out) so you can easily upgrade. Sonnet
has G4 Processor upgrades up to 1 Ghz for these models. I
would consider any machine that had a ZIF socket will be
very expandable. We of course have G4 upgrades from
Sonnet in stock if the software you run takes advantage
of the Altivech sub-processor the G4 offers. The new Dual
1.8 ghz model although a bit pricey gives top performance
to the older Sawtooth, Gigabit, Digital Audio and
Quicksilver G4's. If you need maximum horsepower and
still boot into 9 these are the way to go.
On
Beige G3's graphics wise they have 2MB ATI Rage Pro
Graphics built in and are expandable to 6MB (the 4MB
expansion chip is only $20 and worth adding). That's
enough for most folks and gives decent performance. Two
options are ATI Rage Graphics Card 16MB (used, when we
can find them) for $?? (PC output), or the ultimate for
this model is the ATI Radeon 9200 with its 128MB of on
board ram with DVI, & HD15 PC style etc. The Radeon
can be "patched" to run in OSX's Quartz Extreme mode for
more speed. They run around $150.
For
monitors we recommend you either buy our adapter ($19.99
shipped and works with almost anything) or if you get one
of the upgrade cards they work straight up with PC
monitors. Go down to the local discount office supply
store and catch a 17" Flat Screen for less than $200
after rebate. No reason to buy a 4 to 7 year old Apple
monitor. We have quit handling anything over 15", since
they are heavy to ship.
We add
usb and firewire via the PCI slot either with separate
cards or save a slot with a combo card. If you plan to
use more than the 2 root USB ports make sure you purchase
a high quality POWERED USB Hub. We carry a good one. If
you are bucks up we recommend the Sonnet Trio Card which
has Firewire/USB and ATA 133 on one card. This will
improve the performance you get from those fast 7200 rpm
Hitachi Hard Drives. USB2.0 cards are available for the
Mac but there are no drivers available prior to OSX.
Firewire is faster and better anyway so avoid USB2.0
products unless you are going to be running OSX.
If you
have DSL or Cable Modem or are on a fast network we sell
and recommend the Realtek 8139C chipset 10/100 Ethernet
Card. We sell the card and include the Mac driver for
less than $20. We also now have 1000baseT Gigabit
Ethernet Cards for the Mac for 8 6-X and are fast and
reasonably prices should you be on that fast of a network
with an older machine.
Most of
these products are available in the premade models we
make up, but we can build to order. For servers you may
want RAID for dependability or UltraWide SCSI or even the
Serial ATA for speed. We carry the components to build
these and do so frequently for a lot of our customers.
Your larger graphics and print houses like these
components, but anyone needing high reliability may want
to consider the extra money it costs to add these
components.
We also
do about the same things to the Blue and White Towers.
They have 100 mhz buses but you lose the floppy and built
in SCSI and serial ports. They use software roms and you
are more likely to have trouble with them under some
circumstances. In fact you can booger these up to where
they are darn near unsalvageable. They are fast though
and with a processor upgrade and up to a Gigabyte of ram,
fast large drives, and CDRW's or DVD's they make great
little work stations and servers. We have internal modems
for these and can add SCSI and external floppies. Serial
ports are more of a problem but if you have a USB printer
or a network printer this is a good choice. Serial Cards
are kind of pricey and are not always compatible with all
printers. We get a used one every once in a while but can
special order on if you need one. We like and personally
use the KeySpan Card in one of my systems.
The G4
towers are now more affordable to upgrade. We are buying
them and upgrading them with fast Seagate or Hitachi Hard
Drives and Pioneer SuperDrives as well as new larger ram
chips and in most cases faster processors. You do lose
the serial and scsi ports and of course it doesn't have a
floppy. These all can be added though if there is
something that you can't live without that uses
them.
All the
Native G3 and the G4 upgrade machines we sell will run
OSX, although Panther (and Tiger) requires a system with
built in USB ports. There are patches that will allow us
to run Panther on Beige, but Beige G3 owners should stick
with Jaguar 10.2.8 or earlier. They little patches work
but are a hack and reliability will likely be an issue.
Leopard the latest Mac OS has some pretty stiff system
requirements and does not support classic mode. I would
encourage folks to continue to use Tiger for as long as
you can. We can upgrade any G4 Tower to Leopard
compatibility by adding a faster processor, ram and video
card, if you are ready to move up.
Take a
look at our model comparison page. http://resale.headgap.com/compchart.html
It
shows what we build and price at. We do customs anytime
though if you want something different.
Apple,
Apple Macintosh, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, Mac,
iTunes, iLife, iDVD, Disc Burner, Quadra, Centris,
Performa, Jaguar, Tiger, Leopard, LaserWriter and
StyleWriter and the multi-color apple graphic device are
trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks
are properties of their prospective owners.
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