Older G4's best one to upgrade?? and Ethernet questions

[iaJim]

I'm not so sure that the G4 would have to be upgraded. They are very capable machines just the way they are. Boost the ram and you are good for most of what you want to use it for. If you do have to upgrade, then get the mini.

[jdc]

iaJim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm not so sure that the G4 would have to be
> upgraded. They are very capable machines just the
> way they are. Boost the ram and you are good for
> most of what you want to use it for. If you do
> have to upgrade, then get the mini.

not a bad point -- maybe something like a dual 533 or a maybe a 933 --looks like 933s are sorta cheap -- i used to love my 933

http://computers.search.ebay.com/933_App...QQsbrsrtZd

[ka jowct]

A mini? Did you guys read the part about scanning and working with sound files?

A G4 tower is a better choice, I think.

The ones you want to avoid for sure are the non-AGP models.

[rexrzer]

Get a Digital Audio G4/533DP, and you'll be all set. Nice units are going for $250-$300 on eBay. I am using one right now, and it's been *heavily upgraded* because I have to have a 2nd heavy duty workhorse PowerMac in my studio...and I didn't want to spend $1500 on another G5 tower. My G5 1.8GHz DP was just replaced by Apple Computer because of 4 major hardware failures under warranty, so I'm awfully lucky to have this G4.

Now the Mac= G4 1.8GHz DP (Giga Designs)/120GB & 40GB HDs/1.5GB RAM/SIIG USB 2.0 PCI card/SIIG 4-port FireWire PCI card/DVR-109/Radeon 8500 Mac Edition.

There's no way a Mac Mini can do all of the things this machine can do now. While I wait for my new Dual Core G5 to be built and shipped to me, the G4 will be my main machine. Thank the lord I upgraded it...who would've thought my G5 would have to be replaced?

For the kind of work you're proposing for your 2nd Mac, the OEM G4/533DP setup should be adequate. However, if you want to upgrade the CPUs, I prefer what I have, the Giga Designs CPU line of upgrades. They've been around for more than 4 years now, and are financially stable, and technically superior to all the other brands IMO. I love OWC, but if you wanted to buy a DP upgrade for a Digital Audio G4, they don't have anything except Sonnet's, which will cost you $599+. I paid $498 at DayStar for the 1.8GHz DP Giga Designs upgrade, and it's worked fantastic since day No. 1.

Good luck, and hope this helped.

________________

[jdc]

ka jowct Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A mini? Did you guys read the part about scanning
> and working with sound files?
>

i did that on my quadra 660AV... =)

[IronMac]

jdc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i used to love my 933
>
>

Oh oh...if jdc doesn't love his 933 then something bad must have happened! What was it, jdc?

P.S. I have a 933 that I'm not planning on replacing for at least two more years.

[ka jowct]

jdc, I did some sound editing (many years ago) with a IIci and a Farallon MacRecorder, but I'm guessing this guy needs a little more drive capacity and processing power.

I had a lot of fun making custom alert sounds from a British sci-fi series. I had Sounds4Fun so I made sound suitcases for different system functions (startup, shutdown, empty trash, insert disk, eject disk, caps lock on, caps lock off, etc.) containing a bunch of sounds, and set up Sounds4Fun to randomize the sounds that got played back. I loved Sounds4Fun. I wish it existed for OS X.

I still have the IIci and the MacRecorder. On Macs with two serial ports, you could hook up two of those recorders and record in stereo.

[Guitarman]

YOu sure can do audio and scanning and such on a mini. you'd have a better video card and you can use firewire for extra drives. I don't see any reason at all to get a G4 and then upgrade it instead if he doesn't need internal drives or pci cards.

I mean heck, at $250 for a G4 plus around $500 for an upgrade card you could practically get a refurb G5 iMac.

[Baby Tats]

I upgraded from a beige to a dual G4/450 "gigabit ethernet" machine specifically so that I could keep and continue to use all my PC100 ram. I also transfered my USB card and my ide drive straight over. I paid $250 for my machine including a 17" monitor. I got it locally on Craig's list so there was no shipping cost. I have been using this machine for almost 1 year and I have never had a kernel panic. (Cocktail reboots it once a week on Monday morning at 5:30 AM.)

[Kraniac]

Wow,

Thanks for all that everyone, lots of crap to think to think about including...did the US win against The Slovakian team in Hockey today? good game then I had to go. Also, That Shani Davis, the speedskater, I like his story, but he seems to be a bit bitter about something. Dang, first bro to get an individual gold in the wointers...he should be HAPPY. why do these dudes let things tarnish their Olympic thang?

Im gonna mull this g4 stuff around. I generally dont like being limited by boxes like imacs or minis but the price/preformance thing is sort of tempting. I would like to have a second internal drive to keep data on...lots of chunky files I deal with sometimes...I do a lot of large prints which come from large scans.

not sure what to do...there is a point at which I could almost get a dual mmd g4 or a bottom end G5 for the bucks, after upgrading and peripheral crap. not quite but almost.

hmm again.