Best, Easiest, Cheapest Way to Upgrade eMac 700

esotu · May 31, 2004

Hello everyone. I just joined MacRumors. Been a Mac fan since Day 1 and wouldn't have it any other way.

Anyway, lately my friends and I have been LAN'ing up Warcraft 3 for some sweet 10 - 12 player games. They all have PCs (of course) and pretty quick ones at that. I'm always the last one to load the maps...the game is usually a bit choppy and laggy, and some of the bigger maps (DOTA for anyone that knows WC3) my poor eMac can't even load in time and I get booted. You can imagine the comments from all the PC weenies as they wait for me to load.

I was just wondering the easiest way I could upgrade my eMac to have it running faster and cleaner when playing Warcraft and others on a LAN. I searched the forums for "eMac Upgrades" and found a bit about RAM, but I'm pretty much a n00b at upgrading and have no idea what I need. I know RAM is important - but is a mHz upgrade more beneficial? Can I install RAM or a mHz uprade myself? Would I need to just take it in to a Mac place and have them do it? (I'd prefer to do it myself)

My computer is an eMac 700mHz with one 128MB RAM slot and one 256MB RAM slot. 384 MB RAM total. I'm running Jaguar. Everything else is standard eMac.

Thanks!

JOD8FY · May 31, 2004

Definetely upgrade the RAM as much as possible. Buy your RAM from http://www.crucial.com. I doubt you'll be able to upgrade your processor very easily so RAM is the way to go. Here is a link to the Apple Support site on how to upgrade RAM in your eMac:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=34860

Don't listen to those Windows (L)users. Instead, just send them a virus and we'll see whose laughing now...

Best wishes,
JOD8FY

FightTheFuture · May 31, 2004

overclocking your G4 may actually be a great learning experience for you. albeit a powder keg.

http://www.studio-northwest.com/Hakz/index.html

loading it up with 1gig of ram on the other hand should load your maps much faster.

esotu · May 31, 2004

Awesome. Thanks for the advice. I've decided that I'll try to buy two 512MB modules and install them.

My question now, however, is if I can sell the modules somewhere. What should I do with my old modules?

blue&whiteman · May 31, 2004

esotu said:
My question now, however, is if I can sell the modules somewhere. What should I do with my old modules?

sell them on ebay or post in the marketplace forum here.

esotu · May 31, 2004

Alright, thanks!

About the overclock. I'm really pretty interested in it, though I have NO experience with building/upgrading computers. I had no idea what the instructions on that site were talking about.

Is it really worth it? I'll do it if it'll make me say "Whoah...this is freaking fast." But if it's just a minimal speed difference, I don't think it'll be worth me risking frying my motherboard.

Suggestions?

mwpeters8182 · May 31, 2004

I'd also look into upgrading to Panther, I noticed a pretty decent speed increase with that. I also second the RAM upgrade, I just did on my iBook and it's helped a ton.

MP

blue&whiteman · May 31, 2004

esotu said:
Alright, thanks!

About the overclock. I'm really pretty interested in it, though I have NO experience with building/upgrading computers. I had no idea what the instructions on that site were talking about.

Is it really worth it? I'll do it if it'll make me say "Whoah...this is freaking fast." But if it's just a minimal speed difference, I don't think it'll be worth me risking frying my motherboard.

Suggestions?

it depends on how far you can push it safely. I would say unless its at least a 200mhz increase then don't bother. if you couls safely go to say 1ghz then for sure.

of all the mac overclocking stories I have hear I seem to hear the most success from the emac oddly enough.

you may find more info
although it is geared toward the 800Mhz rev.B emac I remember seeing some 700mhz info there.

best of luck. its always a good feeling when you give your computer more speed.

Maclarny · May 31, 2004

If you really want to max out the performance of your eMac, load it up with as much RAM as possible and upgrade to Panther.

esotu · May 31, 2004

Thanks for all the replies...you guys rock.

I think I'm going to get a gig of RAM and try to upgrade to Panther.

My friend (PC User) was telling me, however, that because my processor is so slow, more RAM won't help because without enough processor speed the RAM goes unused. Is this true? From what you guys are telling me that probably isn't true, but I just want to make sure.

it depends on how far you can push it safely. I would say unless its at least a 200mhz increase then don't bother. if you couls safely go to say 1ghz then for sure.

By safely, do you mean assuming I don't screw up? I also plan on playing World of Warcraft, as many of you also do. The minimum requirements are a 1GB processor. Will overclocking get my 700mHz processor over the 1GB mark so I can play? Or is there any other way to upgrade so I can play the game when it debuts?

LeeTom · May 31, 2004

I wouldn't mess with overclocking at all. The results will be minimal, if noticeable, and the possible side-effects are not worth it. I would just upgrade the RAM, and maybe upgrade to Panther. (If you do upgrade to Panther, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, and do an install from scratch. Don't upgrade, but do a full clean install.)

At this point, your eMac is pretty much maxed out. Use it, enjoy it, and then by the time it gets unbearable (it always does, eventually), replace it with the best thing that will be out there at the time (a G5 iMac?).

Lee Tom

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