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Have PowerMac G4, Can I upgrade?How?

L

laszlo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2007
15
0
Canada
Have the following G4 PPC:
OS 9.2.2
Memory 640
Speed 733mhz
HardDrive 80GB Internal....240GB external using Firewire 2.8.5
VideoCard NVDA GeForce2MX (32MB VRAM)
Display 17" Apple Studio

Want to run Tiger (move into the new generation)....heard finding a Hard drive for these machines can not be found and the largest out there is the one I have now??
Can I upgrade my RAM? How much can this puppy hold and will it be enough to run Tiger, CS3, QUARK etc....

Was thinking of new iMac 24" but they seem to have problems with the Video Card..Can't you just replace the video card in the iMacs with a better one than ATI Radeon HD 2600?

Alot of this is new to me so bare with any stupid question I ask.

Need advice from all you Pro's out there.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Laszlo
 
FF_productions

FF_productions

macrumors 68030
Apr 16, 2005
2,822
0
Mt. Prospect, Illinois
You have an early PowerMac G4 Quicksilver.

You can't have a hard drive larger than 128 gigs, or else it just won't recognize all of it, you'll only get 128 out of, lets say a 250 gig drive.

You can put up to 1.5 gb's of ram in there too.

You need to get this: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Intech USA/SPEEDHCCD/

Also, you can't touch the iMacs video card, it's built in and impossible to upgrade it.

If you want to upgrade the processor in that G4, there are tons of options for that model: http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upg...ype=Processor&TI=5703&shoupgrds=Show+Upgrades
 
Sun Baked

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
Wait to see what Leopard requires, but the HD can be upgraded since there likely should be another drive spot open on the ATA bus with the other drive.

While you are limited to a 12x GB HD with that old ATA bus, you can always add use a PCI upgrade card for the machine and make use of the current large PATA drives.

Though likely the graphics card will be the problem with some Leopard features.

---

As far as the new iMac, it is a laptop at heart so the card needs to be a mobile card in a form to fit the iMac -- with drivers.

A few hurdles beside voiding the warranty, that make it more difficult.

Plus the old video upgrade companies of the OS 9 era are long gone, so the hopes for an upgrade are limited to Apple repair parts at the moment. :(
 
L

laszlo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2007
15
0
Canada
Do you think the iMac 24" is suitable for Graphic Desingers now or do we still need the Pro's?
I heard the Pro's were geared more now for the video and game playing/designers????
 
tersono

tersono

macrumors 68000
Jan 18, 2005
1,999
1
UK
laszlo said:
Can I make my G4 into a Web Server?
Click to expand...

Sure - I use a much less powerful Mac - an old G3-400 running Tiger - as a web / mail / IRC / server and it works well. I also have a G4-400 with around 1tb of hard drives running as an iTunes and general file server. Your G4 would be easily able to handle both jobs simultaneously as it's still quite a quick machine.

Servers are a great way of re-using older Macs :)
 
L

laszlo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2007
15
0
Canada
tersono said:
Sure - I use a much less powerful Mac - an old G3-400 running Tiger - as a web / mail / IRC / server and it works well. I also have a G4-400 with around 1tb of hard drives running as an iTunes and general file server. Your G4 would be easily able to handle both jobs simultaneously as it's still quite a quick machine.

Servers are a great way of re-using older Macs :)
Click to expand...


I am not a computer building person...so what is the best way to convert it into a Server or how...where????:confused:
 
P

psingh01

macrumors 68000
Apr 19, 2004
1,571
598
If you have gotten by all this time with OS 9 then probably don't have to spend alot just to get Leopard. Tiger or even Panther should run just fine on your Mac. As far as cpu upgrades I have purchased from sonnettech.com in the past and I like their quality.
 
MorzillA

MorzillA

macrumors 6502
May 16, 2007
302
0
Miami
laszlo said:
I'm a graphic designer...so Print Media, Catalogues, Trade Show Booth designs, Annual Reports, etc... No gaming or video stuff

My Web Design & Programming is done on my PC Platform.
Click to expand...

So you'll be using the iMAC for your graphics and the G4 QS as a server?! I'm not so sure about the Quick Silvers as running OS 10.5 but I'm sure it can

I'm looking to upgrade mine (see below) as well and all the upgrades that are needed for my grahping needs (as well as other needs) can be met. So I aslo agree that you can use your QS as your server and possibly back up too!!
13644A.jpg



:apple:
 
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