Hi. My Starmax 5000/275 has done a good job for me over the last 5 years, but it's getting clunky for some of the small things I do. I can't even listen to mp3s without slowing down Clan Lord. Geneforge is a bit jittery and has occasional 30 second freezes, too. Well, I've looked around and I've narrowed down my options, but I want some input from people with experience upgrading their Starmaxes.
My system: Starmax 5000/275, 48mb (32+16) of RAM, RamDoubler tripling to 144mb, original 4gb hard drive with about 500mb free (for now), and running OS 8.6. Quite a few extensions (I've even cleaned it up and my Extensions folder has 586 items in it). The only things I've put in are a VillageTronic 8mb Voodoo1 card, and a generic (well, Matsushita I think?) CD burner. Everything pretty much runs, just feels too slow. G3 L2 slot processor upgrade: this was my first thought. I want to spend about $100 on this. I know I can get that kind of price for a G3/300 but maybe you all have better ideas. Suggestions for a good upgrade to get? The ones I know of are Sonnet and NewerTech. I would want something I can still find of course, preferably unused. Also, my computer works OK now... any cards that have a high chance of making my computer not work OK? RAM: best I've found is $24 for 64mb (of the right kind) at Other World Computing. Would this $55 or so to take out my 16mb and add 2 64s give me a better boost than the G3 upgrade (remember I have 96mb of virtual RamDoubler memory that would be replaced by physical memory)? Would you recommend doing one or the other, or both upgrades? Being poor I don't want to spend $150 unless the second upgrade also gives a significant boost over the first. Any better prices on 64mb unbuffered 3.3V 168 pin EDO DIMMs? Any general suggestions on the most cost-efficient ways to speed up my Mac? Thanks, Eric Anderson -- StarMax is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> StarMax list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/starmax.html> 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/starmax%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
