On 5/3/02 1:33 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Q 2) I have been told that, within about two more years, our Rev A iMac will > become mostly obsolete for accessing the internet as progress(?) marches on! > True our iMac is a tad slow by comparison, but I'm seldom in so much of a > hurry to have that be a big problem. Still, if this obsolescence is to > become an unavoidable reality which must be dealt with, what if anything, can > I do to modify this machine to cope with new technologies on the web for a > few years longer? I have investigated installing a faster chip, but the cost > seems excessive. I really do prefer this old iMac with its drawer loading CD > option and would prefer to keep it if it could be upgraded fairly simply! Is > there a 'cheap chip joint' somewhere out there on the web where I can buy an > enexpensive processing chip suitable for our iMac Rev A?
Obsolescence IS an unavoidable reality, especially for iMacs, which are not designed to have their innards swapped out and improved upon like towers. The easiest modification to make is to add more RAM. With 386MB, you're pretty darn good, especially for OS 8.6. Next is to replace the internal hard drive with one of larger capacity (maybe even a faster speed). Next you can purchase a processor upgrade. The Harmoni from Sonnet can boost you to 500 or 600 MHz and will add a FireWire port. Finally, as discussed recently, you can replace your CD-ROM drive with a CD-RW drive. However, that's not a particularly common upgrade and you'll lose the capability of booting from CD. If you add all those together, you get quite a hefty price tag. That's probably $500-$700, just in hardware. If you want to upgrade to OS 9 or X, (which some program will force you to do, eventually) that's another $130. All told, it's almost enough to justify getting a brand-new $1000 machine. And this time next year, the G4 iMacs will probably be that low. And even if you did all that, it wouldn't change the fact that you have a 2MB or 6MB ATI graphics card that is not fully optimized for OS X. It's not that your machine won't be able to access the Internet just as it is now, it's that all the programs will have advanced 1+ versions and have higher system requirements. Next thing you know, most PDFs will require Acrobat Reader 6, which will be OS X only. Or QuickTime movies will require QuickTime 7, which won't run too well on 500MHz. Or Java or Flash or Explorer, etc. will require 512MB of RAM to work successfully. Some of you may think that's nuts, but no one ever used to say "Just give Netscape 1.1 80MB of RAM and it won't crash." I'm a Revision C owner and I don't really want to give it up, since I've put so much money into slowly improving it (RAM, HD, External burner, etc.) Yet I don't know if more hardware upgrades are really worth it, since a "flyback transformer" glitch could off it at anytime. Eddie Hargreaves -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | SPECIAL LIST PRICES - Apple iMac CDROMs from $79.99, iMac DVD CDROMs from $99.99 3 port USB Hub $14.99, 40GB Hard Drive Upgrades $119 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/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/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
