on 16/7/02 00:34, wappling at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > RE,I realize this is opinion question,so Ill ask,I want to upgrade my > machine,G4 350 2xagp sawtooth 2 ati 16 mb rage pro vid cards 492 meg. ram, > My machine is not one to take dual cpu upgrade,so when the prices are within > reach for me, should I just go a faster single CPU,or look into changeing > motherboard and cpu, or trade in for newer machine? presantly my mac is in > excellant shape,but i dont know how it will fare with OSX jaguar and > beyond,Im just so tired of makeing repairs every couple of times I use the > internet, thankyou in advance
I used to invariably vote for buying a "new" (used) computer. You have very little invested in the hardware of your G4 so I'd say you could be better off selling it for whatever it can fetch, and then buying a newer machine (new or used). To bring your machine up-to-date with OS X's latest requirements (for full support) you'd have to upgrade your video card to an ATI Radeon or nVidea card and replace your CPU (& probably get more RAM... 492 isn't that much by today's standards). That might set you back as much as the difference between selling your machine & buying a newer one. But, your machine isn't any worse than G4/733 or slower. The mobo isn't significantly slower, and feature-wise the new machines haven't provided any notable enhancements (like 100% silent operation) to warrant their purchase (aside from a *much* faster CPU). This is what I've done each time I faced an upgrade or replace situation: price out the cost of an upgrade to what I *wanted* and compare with the cost of a much newer machine that offers that and more. I faced the choice of upgrading a PPC 7500/100 to a G3/450 (I had the G3 CPU already... just needed the card), upping the internal 1 GB to something more (4 GB IDE + card), upgrading 32 MB RAM to 128 MB, and upgrading a 4X CD-ROM that couldn't read CD-RWs. It was *much* cheaper to sell it, trade in my iCrap Rev A and get a G3/350 that had 192 MB RAM (much more than I wanted), a 12 GB drive (much more than expected) & built-in Firewire/USB (not to mention a bus speed 2x higher), 16 MB video card (vs 2) and the guaranteed ability to run OS X when it would come out. Your choice is unfortunately much less obvious. With the CPU upgraded you're pretty much on-par with the faster G4 line. A high-powered video card to support Quartz may be nice, but I suspect that it won't make much of a real-world difference. Anyway, my long, protracted (procrastinated) answer seems to come down to this: Both upgrading and replacing seem to be viable options -- are you satisfied with all the current hardware features of your machine (HD enough, video card enough)? If so, there's probably very little reason to replace the machine and you could easily pop in a new CPU if it weren't too expensive. However, if you want more HD room, more RAM, more video RAM you may want to do some price comparisons on new/used machines & find out what you can get for a G4/350 + 492 MB RAM. Eric. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
