B/W G3 vs G4 Yikes

[leftbanke7]

I am thinking of purchasing a used B/W G3 or G4 Yikes now that Sonnettech has released a 1Ghz processor upgrade for the 2. Which one would be the better buy? The Yikes is more visually appealing (which makes little to no difference but I'm weird like that) but the G3 is generally cheaper to pick up used. Should I just perhaps go a little further and grab a G4 Sawtooth or maybe even a Gigabit Ethernet/Digital Audio? I am on a limited budget and can't afford any more than 12-1500 tops for all parts and upgrades. Don't want an eMac nor an iMac and I am weary about buying a laptop anytime soon (kinda waiting to see how the whole "G5 Powerbook" rumormill pans out and a getting a laptop is not a high priority as all I would use it for is for playing video games during really dull lectures in class).

 

[Maclarny]

I'd go for the B/W G3 so you'd have some extra cash to really up the RAM, video card, and processor, etc.

 

[MoparShaha]

For that kind of money, you could buy a brand new 1.25 GHz G4 from Apple, which would far outperform any upgraded G3 or G4, even a 1.4 GHz upgrade.

 

[crazzyeddie]

I would recommend getting a 1.25 G4 from Apple (refurb maybe). That would come with a 1 year warranty and has everything you need in it.

If you were to buy a used machine, make SURE it has AGP. Quartz Extreme is a must have and only works with AGP systems using Radeon or Geforce2 graphics cards. So if you bought a used Powermac, you would need to upgrade the processor, RAM, and graphics card just to approach what you would get with a new or refurb 1.25 G5 from Apple.

On Apple's refurb page, they current have this system in stock:
Power Mac G4 1.25GHz/256MB RAM/80GB/Combo CD-RW/DVD /Gigabit Ethernet/56k modem - Refurbished
$1,099.00

Thats a great deal... and would have everything you need (maybe you would want more RAM) to use OS 10.3 and future OS X releases with no problems.

And, since you mentioned classes.. you could get the EDU discount from Apple and get a dual processor G4 1.25 for a little more, which would operate quite a bit faster is OS X (Granted you want/need that power for games or something)
Dual 1.25GHz PowerPC G4
2MB L3 cache/processor
256MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA drive
Combo Drive
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
Mac OS 9 boot supported
$1,469.00

 

[Maclarny]

These guys make a very good point. I just got a refurb 1.6 ghz G5 for 1500 (with tax).