I've been thinking about upgrading my Power Center 120 to a G3/500 (if that is possible). I have also ordered a 128mb stick of RAM (next payday I'll add another stick bringing it to over 256mb). Here's what I am wondering.
First, I do a huge amount of PC repair work at a shop so I have some very nice PCs (for my personal use) that I put most of my disposable income into (that destined to computing that is), so I don't want to pay alot to upgrade this box. We periodically fix issues with Macintosh computers and deal with PC/Mac connectivity, so I have some motivation behind upgrading this box--for the learning experience. I want to keep this cheap, yet I'm not averse to looking at some more expensive options if they result in a considerable upgrade, but they have to be well below the cost of actually buying a Mac outright. This Mac is really only used for my own learning experience. I have worked with Mac over the years and supported them but there was a timeframe when I took a long break from anything having to do with Macs (as I had none to work with). I love learning about new computer hadware and OS changes, but I love upgrading things more then I like buying. My questions then are: Are there any reliable processor upgrades out there? Are there any that do NOT require that a card be placed in a PCI slot to upgrade them? Is there native support in Mac OS 8.1 for most PCI video cards? I have a couple spare PCI video cards that might work in this Power Center 120 if that is the case. Is there a cheap and fast way to get an upgrade to Mac OS 8.5? 9.x? Does anyone know the limit of the addressable memory for OS 8.5 and/or 9.x? Or will it see it all and use it all? If I upgrade to 512m with 4 sticks of 128m does it make sense to keep virtual memory on? It looks like the mobo has for slots for some video memory. I see 4 short slots for some sort of memory and 4 long slots for memory and then I see a couple of other memory type slots. I would be interested in upgrade them if it is cheap enough and the parts are available. Is the power supply in the "original box" Power Center 120 upgradeable with a standard ATX power supply or is there something special about those in the original box? I looked but didn't see anything unsual. How does the G3/500 processor upgrade perform? I suspect the performance would be better with the added ram and video ram. And finally, I have an applevision monitor (17") that looks like it has a standard VGA connector. Is it possible to connect this monitor up to a PC and/or does it require and adapter to make it work? Or is it that the technology is so different that it won't work, ever? Thanks in advance for any and all responses. -Jim -- Power Computing is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Power Computing list info: <http://lowendmac.com/power/list.html> --> 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]> List archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powercomputing%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
