Reanimation_LP said:
Is the G4 500 card worth the boatload of money Sonnet wants for it? Also how does it help like the video screen savers, Flurry runs badly on this.
That depends on what you want to do with your PowerBook. I do web and graphic design and edit audio (and sometimes encode video for the web) and the G4 helps out a lot in those tasks. But I don't play games or watch movies on this system (I use my iMac which has an ATI Rage 128 in it and runs those task much better).
Flurry is very graphics intensive, and 4 Mb of VRAM with a Rage LT isn't enough to really power it (even with a G4).
But all and all, this PowerBook has been running so great that I just can't justify getting a new system. At the time that I put the G4 in it I was planning on getting an eMac... that was a few years ago and so far no eMac (or Mac Mini).
x.x Also I'm having trouble when I put it to sleep in X.2.3 and try waking it back up the screen comes on but the backlight wont. >.<
I had the same problem with 10.2.1. Back then I ended up grabbing a file from a 10.2.0 instillation to fix the problem. I believe Apple fixed the problem for later versions (10.2.6 and later).
My system never sleeps now though. But the screen dims out after a while, the drive spins down, but it is always awake as I'm pretty much a 24 hour a day person (I have no set sleeping habits, so neither do my computers
).
As for Sonnet's card, not only is it very reliable (this
post should give you an idea about that), but it is also cooler than the original G3 that came with the system (you don't feel as much heat from behind the keyboard and the fan hasn't fired up since installing the G4).
The thing is, is a 10.2/G4 system going to serve you well into the future? I've already gotten a number of years out of this system, so everything has paid for itself (and much more). But you're starting now. Well it pay off over the next couple years for you? That is hard for me to say.
It is really a judgment call. Do you think it'll be worth it? Specially doing the things you want to do with it.
