Can an old 450mhz G4 use the new LCD screens?

[LimeiBook86]

I am very confused right now, most 15 year old boys are thinkin about girls and cloths and other crap while I am thinkin about computer parts... anyway to my question. My dad has an "old" Power Mac G4, 450 mhz (I think ) It has a DVD player, also I think it was from 1999, anywhoo, with a special PCI card or adapter can my G4 tower run the new LCD screens from Apple? I am also very confused with the Serial, VGA, DCI, VCI ( I think I made most of those up ) formats, what the difference!? And can someone help me figure this out. And answer my question? Thanks!

 

[edesignuk]

I think your Mac will have an ATI card with VGA and DVI connections, you would need to get a DVIator to connect to a Apple LCD.

 

[menoinjun]

I don't believe that any powermac g4 desktop ever shipped with dvi output. I could be wrong though.

You either have VGA or VGA AND ADC. If the unit is a dual processor you definitely have ADC, if not then you will have to check yourself. ADC looks like an oval with lots of little pins on angles in it. The female end will be on the video card.

-Pete

 

[AlphaTech]

Is it one of the original G4's or the second run that came with the Sawtooth motherboard??? It has either PCI or AGP for video. If it has AGP, then get a Radeon card that has a DVI connection (unless you already have that on the video card) and get the DVI to ADC converter.

If you have the PCI video, then you will need to get ATI's PCI Radeon card and also get the adapter.

Or you can just get a third party LCD, such as from Viewsonic and NOT need ANY adapters at all. Besides, the 17" screens from ViewSonic are cheaper then what Apple sells for a 17".

 

[edesignuk]

Originally posted by ptrauber
I don't believe that any powermac g4 desktop ever shipped with dvi output. I could be wrong though.
-Pete

Sorry, you are right, I guess I got confused .
My old G4 400Mhz did have an ATI with VGA and ADC.

 

[Choppaface]

ya i just picked up a VGA friendly 17" samsung for about $600 (after rebates)

so see what else is out there. the third party LCDs are pretty good

 

[AlphaTech]

I still favor ViewSonic LCD's... they may not be as cheap as the others, but they use top grade glass... referred to as 'first run' I believe. I don't mind paying a few extra $$ when I KNOW the quality is worth it. Why else would I buy Mac systems???

 

[menoinjun]

Samsung and Sony make great LCDs, but only a select few are digital and use DVI. I find that running an LCD from VGA as opposed to buying an Apple LCD is horrible!! Spend the extra money (i know that's easy for me to say!) and get the digital Apple display. There is a noticeable difference.

-Pete

Back to the original question...if Verbose101 had ADC on his old 400, then you should have it on your 450 no problem. Double check with the description I gave above though.

 

[AlphaTech]

I had NO ADC on my G4 500 (AGP) so I seriously doubt that any others of that generation (non-dualie) came with ADC.

If the system has Gigabit ethernet, then you have ADC, otherwise, it's VGA and DVI only.

Considering how you mentioned it was purchased in 1999, I have a feeling you DO NOT have ADC but VGA and DVI.

As for "running an LCD from VGA as opposed to buying an Apple LCD is horrible!! "... I have a single word for that... BullSh*t. I HAVE a ViewSonic VG175 display that is as sharp as a razor and sweeter then you could imagine. It has VGA inputs (actually two so that you can easily run it on TWO systems at one time) and has EXCELLENT image quality.