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bcis93

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 21, 2008
2
0
Newb here. Just bought my first Mac (used). It has OS X 10.2.8. Should I upgrade? I want to use the Mac for music, pictures, & video applications. i am not sure what specific applications yet still in the learning process. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Yes, absolutely upgrade from 10.2 (Jaguar). At least get 10.3 (Panther). I'm not sure if 10.4 (Tiger) would be worthwhile on a machine that old, depends on what apps you want to use since many require 10.4 or later. Dunno what "video applications" you'll be using, but on a 400MHz G4, you'll be pretty limited even in video playback.
 
You should have no problem with running 10.4, Even with 512mb of ram. When 10.4 was first released apple was still selling their computers with 512.
How ever you should upgrade your ram to at least 1 gig.

I have a little g4 emac running at 700mhz. I have 1 gig installed and this baby flies, for a 6 year old computer. I have ilfe 03 on her, and used to use her allot for putting together short fun family videos.
I even have a ibook g3 with 10.4
 
Another vote for Tiger.

Do you mean you have 512 + 64 total amount of RAM (thus 576 MB), or do you mean you have 512 MB RAM, and 64 MB VRAM on grfx card?
If the latter, then you're in very good shape.
I would recommend getting an extra 512 MB PC100 SDRAM, for a total of 1 GB. That surely must be very, very cheap, and Tiger likes it a lot. :)
 
I'm typing this on a mac 400 mhz G3 running 10.4.11. OK not my main machine, but I use it to browse.

My advice would be to fill it with ram as it will be so cheap for that mac, & don't worry I'm sure it will be a good starting point to get to grips with what you want to do. Spend the serious bucks when you are sure what EXACTLY you need to use the 'mac' for.

My twopennth':D
 
don't waste your money on upgrades, your processor is to slow.



''What'' now-body did any photo, movie or music editing, before last year.
You dont have to have The latest computer to be productive or let your creative side create something.

He just bought the computer, and he wants to use it. For about $100, for ram and a copy of 10.4. He can have a pretty decent machine. ilife 03'' will run pretty good on that little power mac. Garage band, itunes, iphoto, imove,
He can even buy a used copy, of a older version of photo shop, on ebay. Heck cs2 will even work on her. A little slow, but still work.
 
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