On Wednesday, March 17, 2004, at 04:09PM, Nicole <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Okay, I'm (almost) ready to take the plunge into X. Go-on - now is the time to step up - OS X is better than ever (takes off Apple Marketing hat). >My machine: >Stock Rev. 2 B&W >128 meg RAM >6gig HD >Internal GV 56K modem >Rage ATI 128 video card >32x CD-ROM and Zip drive > >What I know: >1. I should ideally max out the RAM Standard PC133 SDRAM should do it (it is only 100MHz but thery are not generally available anymore and PC133 works fine). >2. Get a much larger hard drive Current recommendations from me are a Maxtor DiamondMax (for speed) or a Seagate Barracuda (for silence). Avoid Western Digital - many people have told me they are bad, and Fujitsu (I've had issues with 2 Fujitsu drives). >3. Get at least a DVD-ROM/CD-R drive a CD-RW might be useful but it's reallynot required. I only run the stock CD drive in my G4 upgraded G3 and it's not given any trouble at all. Of course burning CDs might be an issue therefore you might look at upgrading to a CD-RW. >>Should I: >1. Settle for a 40 gig HD? That's plenty. I moved up to a pair of 40GB in mine and have lately gotten lost in the free space ;) >2. Consider a processor upgrade? My B&W performed very well on it's stock G3/400 CPU. I only upgraded to a G4 so i could use Photoshop and other Altivec optimised apps. >3. Upgrade the video card? Yes, Yes and er.... Yes! Fitting a Radeon PCI card will vastly improve the graphics speed, provided you enable Quartz Extreme via a 3rd Party utility. >4. Use a DVD-ROM that doesn't ship with Mac software >(people have done it but...; and is there a >performance difference between internal and external >drives? I've done it and it works flawlessly. Checkout the Drive Compatibility Database at <http://www.xlr8yourmac.com> for the best drives. I settled on an LG DVD-CDRW combo drive for mine, but have since borrowed it to use in my PC. >5. Use the 2 available PCI slots for...? I'm thinking a FW/USB combo card and maybe >a TV tuner. Might want to upgrade the ATA conroller to ATA100 or 133. Also a FW800/USB2.0 card mighgt not be a bad idea. IIRC the FW pots on the B&W are a bit suspect, and the USB definitely has some minor issues (that don't tend to crop up in normal use but I have run onto them). -- Mark Benson http://homepage.mac.com/markbenson -- 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> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; 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 Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
