Thinking of dropping a hint to my boss, what do you think?

Bryce · May 3, 2009

So, my boss gave me these old POS iMacs to do my work on and I've been thinking of buying a new one for myself and to get my work done a little quicker. Should I drop him a few hints about he needs to upgrade or just plain out see if he'd help pay for a new one. My dad was like, yea ask him, that's what you're using it for. To get work done for him. But I'm a bit not wanting to. I don't think I should. What's your opinions?

BTW, he's spent ~$15,000 per Mac Pro he has and he's got 3 of them and a shit load of monitors, etc. (8 per machine) lol.

Fire2box · May 3, 2009

I think it would be a good idea. Even if he doesn't use your advice at least you offer some and offer a fresh view.

Bryce · May 3, 2009

I just need to figure out a way to drop the hint now. Should I email him or wait til I go back over there to pickup work?

mm3 · May 3, 2009

I'll take those eMacs, lol.

Anyway, I'd tell him "Hey, these machines aren't cutting it for my work anymore, was wondering if you could spice them up a bit?"

If not, don't buy yourself your own Mac, buy Mac-like parts and build a hackintosh system.

Bryce · May 3, 2009

Shit, I forgot about hackintosh XD. Yea, I'll defiantly do that if he doesn't buy em. But right now I'm LOVING synergy. It'll help me until he says yes lol.

Just the other day I was working on a project and the mac literally gave me the wheel of death for about 3 hours before I said fuck the work and rebooted. God, I now know to save every 10 seconds on that thing lols.

Ultima · May 3, 2009

I don't see what could be wrong in hinting it, just be like "Hey, these old computers aren't up to it anymore. We should upgrade to increase productivity." Getting new computers is an investment. You do work faster to earn better money. Just my 2 cents =]

babibear · May 3, 2009

Bryce said:
So, my boss gave me these old POS iMacs to do my work on and I've been thinking of buying a new one for myself and to get my work done a little quicker. Should I drop him a few hints about he needs to upgrade or just plain out see if he'd help pay for a new one. My dad was like, yea ask him, that's what you're using it for. To get work done for him. But I'm a bit not wanting to. I don't think I should. What's your opinions?

BTW, he's spent ~$15,000 per Mac Pro he has and he's got 3 of them and a shit load of monitors, etc. (8 per machine) lol.

I don't think it is likely to hurt. How old are these machines anyway? CRT era?

Bryce · May 3, 2009

It's the old 1.8ghz iMacs from like late 1999 or something. And then an eMac lol.

ajsco · May 4, 2009

Bryce said:
It's the old 1.8ghz iMacs from like late 1999

OOOOOOOOH, fancy. Anyway I would just take it to him directly - he may take offence to 'hints'

Puppyluvs · May 4, 2009

Just out of interest, what work is he getting you to do on them?

If it's something fairly simple, then I can understand him only supplying an older machine; but if you're doing graphics work, or something processor intensive, then you have a good reason to ask for an upgrade!

I still have my old G4, and it works just fine for some things like web-browsing, writing, and iTunes, but I wouldn't try to use it for any major graphics or video work!

babibear · May 4, 2009

Bryce said:
It's the old 1.8ghz iMacs from like late 1999 or something. And then an eMac lol.

Hmm, that would be the first gen G5 Macs (Hero) from 2004.

(iMacs from 1999, the first generation were 233mhz G3s and these are quite elderly now. The eMac is the end of the G4s)

The 1.8 machines should be just fine for most anything but the most demanding apps. These are still supported machines, heck, my main desktop is a Quad G5.

I suppose I could understand if these were G4 or even the earlier G3s since the these machines are getting a little long in the tooth. But as long as these 1.8 G5's have enough RAM (base size was 256m, max 2g) they should do fine for the great majority of things. They are a little slow graphics wise though compared to the current crop.

Bryce · May 4, 2009

I have noticed slowdowns when using Final Cut on the computer and I was over at his house earlier today to pickup some work. I never did get a chance to talk to him about it =/. I guess I'll just save up and buy myself one or build myself one and forget about talking to him about it.

h3g3l · May 4, 2009

Bryce said:
So, my boss gave me these old POS iMacs to do my work on and I've been thinking of buying a new one for myself and to get my work done a little quicker. Should I drop him a few hints about he needs to upgrade or just plain out see if he'd help pay for a new one. My dad was like, yea ask him, that's what you're using it for. To get work done for him. But I'm a bit not wanting to. I don't think I should. What's your opinions?

BTW, he's spent ~$15,000 per Mac Pro he has and he's got 3 of them and a shit load of monitors, etc. (8 per machine) lol.

Your dad is right on this one.

Tell your boss that it would be best if he upgraded. See other posts here for tactful introductions into the topic;
Make damn sure that your productivity / performance goes up. Otherwise he'll feel taken.

Also, what is the geekbench score of these machines? I'd be happy to take some 1.8GHz boxes off your hands; after you convince your boss of the importance of new machines, he'll have a buyer for cheap machines - me!