>From: John Verity >Subject: dilemma >I am running CE on an old G3/266MHz, bought 6 years ago but now, I see, >for sale here and there at just $99. Time, perhaps, to move up, invest >some $$$ in a new Mac. But which one: the much faster (but no doubt >end-of-the-line) G4
Just for the record, this is what I did. My wife and I have absolutely identical beige G3/233 desktop Macs running OS9.2.2 and Emailer (of course). I increased memory to 256Mb and swapped the Hard Drives for Seagate ST380011A 7200rpm 80Gb EIDEs (easy, just connect the new drive temporarily in place of the CD drive) and fitted USB cards and hubs. I did install OS10.2 in a 7.8Gb partition, after a struggle, but I wasn't very happy with it. 233MHz is really too slow. So we still use OS9.2.2. Then I had the offer of a used G4/400 with ATY, Rage 128 Pro AGP display card and a SCSI card as standard. Also equipped with 1Gb memory, a 40Gb HD and a 60Gb HD and OS9.2.2. The guy was desperate for cash and wanted just 680 GBP for the G4 and LaCie 19" monitor - which itself cost 500 GBP originally. (In terms of value, UK dealers usually change the $ symbol to GBP when importing Mac stuff so those of you in the USA can think in terms of $680 for the lot, even though there are two dollars to the pound.) I changed the G4 40Gb HD to another Seagate ST380011A 7200rpm 80Gb, installed Panther 10.3.2 and fitted the Sonnet 1.4Gb CPU upgrade. This machine rocks. I can't imagine needing anything faster! Start-up time with 10.3.3 is just 40 seconds. Finally, I replaced the G4 CD/DVD drive with a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-107D Superdrive and transferred the original G4 drive to the G3/233 so it can now read CD and DVD data discs.. All three Macs are connected to a wireless/ethernet Vigor 2600We ADSL router which gives Internet connection and allows file transfers. Now my method of working is mostly unchanged. Most of my work is done on the G3/233 but, if it's busy doing something or maybe I want to do some rapid surving in "Safari" or burn a DVD, I wheel my office chair backwards and do some work on the G4. I'm gradually adding more software to the G4 but I'm amazed by the speed of "Classic" emulation. Software like QuarkXpress 4.1 loads and runs faster than on the G3. PhotoShop 7 blows me away. I don't actually need to upgrade. I tried Emailer on the G4 and it seemed OK but I'm still using it on my G3 workhorse for now. So there's my suggestion. If you have room, and the G3 is $-wise almost worthless, get a used G4 and use BOTH computers for now. Like me, you'll gradually move across to Panther and it will be relatively painless. Also, you can spread the cost. For me, the step to a G5 is too expensive and totally unnecessary. Heck, my G4 came from a graphics studio that produced movies on DVD. If it can do that with a 400MHz CPU and OS9.2.2, just think what I can do now with Panther, a 1.4GHz CPU and a superdrive! The nice thing is that my G3 can read floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and has a serial, ADB port and USB ports. The G4 is fast when I need speed and of course it will run all the very latest applications. And the two are networked together. How much more flexible could it be? Sorry, my enthusiasm runneth over but I thought you'd like to share my experiences. :-) I've just installed Panther on my brother's "new" iMac 500MHz DV SE and, although it's not "fast", it's perfectly acceptable. He's going to love it, compared with his virus-ridden Pee Cee. ;-) Martin Pickering (UK) ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
