i have a PowerMac AGP 400mhz with 128 of ram and runing os 9.1 and need to know a suitable version of OSX to run
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
help need info on choosing version of osx to use
- Thread starter macnewbie001
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Mechcozmo
macrumors 603
Upgrade the RAM to 512MB, at least. PC133 RAM (remember to get good-quality Mac compatible stuff) is cheap-- you might want to get even more.
You can also upgrade the hard drive, if it hasn't been already, to a faster-spinning 7200 rpm drive. If you're going to use the motherboard then the drive must be less than 128GB, however. (Not that big of a deal, really, and pretty cheap)
Do those two upgrades and you can use Tiger or Panther. Without them, and I'm not sure what version I'd go to-- perhaps Jaguar, but 10.2 is pretty old.
You can also upgrade the hard drive, if it hasn't been already, to a faster-spinning 7200 rpm drive. If you're going to use the motherboard then the drive must be less than 128GB, however. (Not that big of a deal, really, and pretty cheap)
Do those two upgrades and you can use Tiger or Panther. Without them, and I'm not sure what version I'd go to-- perhaps Jaguar, but 10.2 is pretty old.
panoz7
macrumors 6502a
You're going to need to up the ram regardless of which version you select. That powermac has 4 slots (I think) each of which can hold 256MB for a maximum of 1GB total. I'd suggest at least 512MB. You might also consider upgrading the graphics card to a model that supports core video.
I've got panther running on an old G3 iBook. It's remarkably snappy... I'd give that a try.
I've got panther running on an old G3 iBook. It's remarkably snappy... I'd give that a try.
Mechcozmo
macrumors 603
That PowerMac can go up to 4GB of RAM. 4 1GB sticks. And IIRC OS X requires a minimum of 128MB of RAM... (Apple's site says Tiger requires 256MB)
panoz7
macrumors 6502a
Just did some research... we're both wrong. The AGP G4 only supports 512MB sticks and can address a max of 1.5GB memory.
http://support.apple.com/specs/powermac/Power_Mac_G4_AGP.html
Mechcozmo
macrumors 603
Even better source for ya, that further disproves both of us. But this one really is the source I should have looked at in the beginning.
Mactraker says 2.0GB of RAM under OS X, 1.5GB under OS 9 and previous. It also says it takes PC100 RAM. (PC133 will work in it, but not DDR RAM.)
Linkety to Mactraker
SmurfBoxMasta
macrumors 65816
Having owned several of the 400-500mhz AGP macs (ie Sawtooths), I can absolutely confirm that they have 4 ram slots, capable of holding up to 512mb per slot for a max of 2GB of either PC 100 or 133 low density ram (the type with chips on both sides of the circuit board). And that OS 9 will only recognize up to 1.5GB of it.....
And finally, that with 1GB+ of ram and a fast HD, a Sawtooth WILL run Tiger just fine, it certainly wont be a Shake/Motion/FCP workhorse, but it WILL work good for most other everyday tasks 😛 Been there, done that several times over !