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View Full Version : Upgrading a B&W 400MHz Rev 2.



FinnishFlash
Feb 5, 2004, 09:17 AM
So I got my new toy today.

It has 320Mb RAM, 6 Gb original hard drive, Rage Pro 16Mb, DVD drive.

What should I upgrade if I have about 200 € to spend? Overclock it maybe...?


blue&whiteman
Feb 5, 2004, 10:20 AM
you can buy a sonnet G4/500mhz upgrade for 200 american. you have enough ram that upgrading it could wait a bit. I have the same sonnet upgrade and it gave my 350mhz blue and white a huge kick. osx runs well on any G4 so that would be a good way to spend your 200.
cubist
Feb 5, 2004, 11:35 AM
What do you want to run on it? Some other possibilities:

(a) 7200RPM bigger hard drive - this will give you a 10% performance boost, and more space
(b) Graphics card - these are overpriced, but you can shop around or flash a PC card (e.g. Radeon 7000 PCI)
(c) Firewire and/or USB 2.0 card

I think the CPU upgrades are expensive for what you get. You see, you can buy a Sawtooth for $500 or less, and it'd be somewhat faster than the upgraded B&W.

Overclocking is not a good idea, as it shortens component life and lessens reliability. A B&W 400 is a very reliable machine, one of Apple's best.
Hemingray
Feb 5, 2004, 11:58 AM
Funny you should mention... I just finished upgrading a 400MHz B&W G3 here at the office. First thing I did was put in an ATI Radeon 7000 PCI graphics card. That right there increased my graphics speed by over 100% (I benchmarked the computer before and after, of course.) I also put in a Sonnet Encore/ZIF 500MHz G4, so Photoshop performance has definitely improved, and upped the RAM to 640MB, which also helped. One thing this computer still lacks, though, is a faster HD. I wish I had put that in with my upgrade proposal.. but then, any higher and you start getting into the cost of just buying a used G4, so I kept the cost at around the $400 mark.

So, as the others mentioned, my advice is to get two things at the very least (okay, three...):
1) ATI Radeon 7000 PCI graphics card.
2) 7200rpm hard drive.
3) A couple extra 256MB RAM chips in there wouldn't hurt either.

That right there will give you a significant performance boost.