---------- Original message ---------- Subject: Sawtooth Upgrade Date: Thursday, 06. January 2011 From: Jasiu <johnschiavone...@gmail.com> To: "G-Group" <g3-5-list@googlegroups.com> > I have a 400 MHZ G4 Sawtooth that I would like to upgrade. Switching > the processor is prohibitively expensive. What kind of video card can > I stick in this? What about a SATA card? Thanks
Funny. I'm just selling one of my processor upgrades on eBay... I suggest a 7455 processor upgrade, since I've heard that 7447a/7448 upgrades tend to make some trouble. But I don't know for sure. I'm most satisfied with my OWC Mercury Extreme 1.4 GHz G4, but the Giga Designs G4 upgrades make a good impression too. I've never had hands on Sonnet and others. I also successfully overclocked a stock Dual-450 MHz to Dual-500 MHz. Since the performance impact wasn't so well this was just a project to prove that it's possible. But it certainly makes overclocking a 800 MHz processor to 1 GHz or a Dual-1 GHz processor to Dual-1.1 GHz or even Dual 1.2 GHz sound very interesting... When I tried to upgrade my G4 AGP Graphics for the use with Leopard I found that the processor is only one part of it. A graphics card with Quartz Extreme and Core Image support is as importaint to get the real Leopard experience. Otherwise working with it is no fun. I'm at a dead point right now because flashing some PC cards that I had laying around didn't work out that well. One GeForce3 Ti200 does work... partly. The Open Firmware part is broken, thus the initial picture distorted and unusable. But once the graphics driver from Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 takes over control, the picture is alright and the graphics performace is quite okay with Leopard (no Core Image though!). That's how I use it... If you're willing to play with flash graphics card firmwares and also with solding on CPU daughter cards for overclocking -- then you may be able to get your upgrades cheaper. But you will have to make this to your hobby, and you may as well be stuck at a dead point from time to time (like me right now). Otherwise these upgrades (processor + graphics + memory) tend to be more expensive than getting a used high-end G4 (which is now low-end I guess), or even a lower-end G5. Considering what you pay you will most likely get more worth out of your money than by upgrading your Sawtooth... Cheers, Andreas aka Mac User #330250 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
