Steven Bright wrote (regarding someone upgrading his mom's s900): << New OS: $100 IDE Card $100 New Drive: $150 CD Burner: $200 More RAM: $100 Endless days of frustration: Priceless! >>
Actually, I think he can do it more economically: 1. VST Ultratek card from OWC: $45 2. IBM 60gig "60GXP" ATA/100 drive from gogocity.com: $98 3. ATAPI CD-RW burner: $80-120 or so (after rebates) 4. 2 128mb DIMMs from OWC: $66 (approx.); or just one for about $33. 5. Leave the OS with 8.1 -- unless she has to have iTunes. Alternative: upgrade to 8.6 - I bought an AppleCare Service Source CD there with ALL versions of OS8 on it (8.0-8.6) for $40. If she can make do with just an additional 128mb of RAM (on top of what she has now), and if she's willing to stick with 8.1, you've spent roughly $275 to get her upgraded. That will add a couple of years' life (or longer) to the old s900, for a LOT less than the cost of a new Mac. That's pretty much what I did myself. The only sticky point is installing an ATAPI CD-RW mated to an ATA/PCI card. It's less of a problem with "hardware incompatibility" than it is with DRIVERS. It *can* be done, though, as I'm using one now. I'll have to compose a tome detailing all the pitfalls of trying to get *2* ATAPI CD's to work from a single ATA/PCI card <G> - John -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | PowerON Computer Services <http://www.poweron.com> REPLACEMENT PARTS in STOCK Drives, CD-ROMs, RAM, Processors, Power Supply <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/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/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
