>The G3 is obviously faster, but for 90% of the things I do, the speed difference is... >I've had up to 768 mbs of RAM installed at once, but I can't say >I saw much difference beyond the first 128 mbs or so. >So my opinion is that unless you find a specific need for a particular >upgrade, don't get it unless it is really a good bargain. For myself, my >best investments were in the 200 mHz processor and a good, big monitor.
I resoundingly second that! There is a lot of pure bollox out there about computer speed, mainly out of men who are trying to make up for inadequacies in other areas. For what normal users do the law of diminishing returns says that over a certain megahertz, additional speed really doesn't matter. I bought a set of two Umax 200Mhz 604e cards off of eBay for just $10. I put one in my 7500, and relisted the second one which went for over $30! Obviously, the best investment I ever made, since I got more than twice the original speed plus $20 bucks! The 604e is a workhorse, and does everything I need to do (including video editing for the web) quite well. I currently have a ridiculous twelve programs running (including iTunes, Acrobat Reader, BBEdit, IE 5.1, Word 98, Eudora) for which more than 128MB is needed (I have 256, and another 256 on the way soon). But if you just run a few programs at a time, your most notable speed increase will max out at about 128 MB like the previous poster said. Same with video settings. With the on-board video and just 2MB VRAM, I have millions of colors at 800x600 resolution (the best my monitor can handle). The only problem is that QuickTime streams are a little choppy. If I dropped in another 2 MB and got a better monitor, I could do everything but hardcore games at 1024 or 1280 resolutions. OS 8.6 and OS 9 make great use of the accelerated video features of the on-board ATI chip very well by the way. I also have A-Dock, an Aqua theme for OS 8, some pretty icons from www.icons.cx, and other system enhancements that make OS 8.6 very usable and very pretty. The only thing I'm not satisfied with right now is disk space, soon to be relieved when I add an U2W SCSI controller and (hopefully) two new big LVD drives and an external array for video scratch. First, I would suggest buying memory. Velocity and OWC have good memory prices on 128MB sticks, and I've bought mine from SMSAssembly.com before, also for a very low price. Then, if you have more money to spend, I would recommend a G3 or G4 upgrade. Specifically, if you shell out the extra bucks for an XLR8 Zif Carrier, you will be able to pop in just about any G3 or G4 ZIF as prices drop on down the road (or, if a generous friend upgrades his Blue & White, PM G4 or whatever, he may give you a great bargain on his old chip!!!). -- --Chris PM 7500/604e 200Mhz 4 gig SCSI 256 megs/512k cache OS 8.6 (This machine rocks!) -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | SPECIAL LIST PRICES - Apple PCI Video Cards from $19.99, MacOS 8.5 CD $79.99 Replacement Parts IN STOCK, Apple CDROMs from $19.99 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.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/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
