Help..get a new mac or keep my emac?

I currently have an emac that I want to upgrade a little. But don't know if I'm being penny wise and pound foolish. What's your opinion?
Here's what I do. I run an ecommerce website selling art supplies. I will also be using photoshop software. Other than that the usually computer stuff, surfing the net and family photos etc. (and to stop the spinning beach ball of death...lol)
I currently have this emac:
Processor 1 Ghz Power PC G4
Memory 256 MB SDram
L2 Cache (per CPU) 256 Kb
Bus speed 133 MHZ
Hard Drive:
Capacity 74.52 GB
Available 44.5 GB
Used 30.03 GB on disk
Running OS 10.4
I want to upgrade with the following:
Large Monitor ( & Cord to attach) $220
External Hard Drive $150
More Memory $ 60
Dongle (to do wireless) $ 20
Total $450
VS
Buy NEW mac $1200.
Funds are limited for me right now, but again I don't want to be penny wise and pound foolish.
Since I know more about art than computers, your help will be greatly appreciated....what's your thoughts.
Thank you
Heidi

For starters your eMac doesn't have any video mirror-ing capabilities, so you can't use any external monitor with your eMac. So, your stuck with the built-in monitor.
That'll save you some cash.
You can always adds extra HD space, by buying and installing an external FIreWire drive to your eMac.
256 MB of RAM is real low amount to efficiently run OS X.
Some eMac posters have written here that you can install 2 GBs of RAM into your eMac.
The official amount of Max RAM listed by Apple is 1GB of RAM.
Either way OS X likes as much RAM as you can throw at it, so, the more RAM, the speedier your performance.
The cheapest new Mac is a Mac mini at $699.
Figure in the cost of a relatively cheap monitor and the price moves up to between $899 and perhaps $999.
It will be cheaper to upgrade your eMac and see if you experience a performance boost with just increasing the amount of RAM in your eMac.
Installing 2 new sticks of 1 GBs of RAM is a fairly simple job to do in an eMac and you may see improved results from this.
The type of SDRAM you'll need is PC 133, 3.3v unbuffered, 8-byte, non-parity with 168 pins on each RAM stick.
This about the only upgrade really possible in an eMac.
Also, you mention that your OS is OS X 10.4.
You could update your OS system to OS X 10.4.11 by using the software update preference in OS X's preferences pane.
You need to an archive and install and use the preserve user setting option when doing the install
For more info on upgrading a Mac OS X operating system, check these links.
http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/
Message was edited by: MichelPM

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Hey all.
I could use some help here. I probably already know what I need to do, but here's what's going on (my apologies if this topic has been addressed elsewhere before):
My iMac--see the model info included at the bottom of my post--has been a trooper, but I think I need a new computer. However, after skimming over the post listings regarding upgrades and the like and looking at some buying guides online, all the info is kind of overwhelming (and I've put off making substantial upgrades and/or getting a new computer mainly for that reason). What is comes down to is: I simply don't know where to begin when it comes to my own computer.
Here are the main issues I currently have with my iMac:
--It gets hot; that is, I think the fan needs replacing.
--I'm on dial-up, and would need an OS upgrade in order to be cable/dsl ready.
--And, b/c I'm on dial-up, I can't enjoy using the web at home like I'd like to. It's tooooo sloooooooow.
--I can't come out of sleep.
--I can't use the "reboot" option anymore. In order for the little green light to come on--indicating the screen is turning on--my computer has to be shut down in order for it to start-up correctly.
--The computer is HEAVY (I blame that huge, build-in monitor) and I don't have a car, so getting things fixed/maintained has always been an issue. (I don't like shelling out $$ for computer house calls.)
--I've tried many ways around it, but when I try sending documents from my computer to friends, they can't read them. And, I cannot read Word documents I receive. (An AppleWorks/Word incompatability?)
There's probably more, but I'm at my work computer for now, so my "problem child" isn't right in front of me.
I know I'm LONG overdue an upgrade, but at this point, it seems that simply getting a new computer might simply be the best way to go, especially with all the new bells and whistles available. I'm a student (returned to it after several years away from it), grad school is probably on the horizon, I won't be getting a car any time soon and need some hand-holding while dealing with computer issues as they arise.
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Thoughts? If you need me to clarify something, let me know. (Wow, long post ...)
Thanks (in advance),
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Actually the Blueberry Rev C or D. iMac G3 was sold throughout 1999 and did contain a fan. In Oct 99 the slot loaders arrived and the fan was gone (now that was nice I went for 3 years with two different fanless Macs). It's entirely possible old stock of the Rev D was still on clearance in to early 2000 too.
The Fan is Apple Part (922-3566).
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Help..get a new mac or keep my emac?

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