G4 QS Upgrade Questions... Please help!

[MacWeenie]

I'm gonna upgrade my G4 733 QuickSilver.

Objective:
- Make my QS a viable, usable system until the Intels arrive
- I primarily do the usual email, itunes, web-surfing, store/view digital pics in iPhoto. But occasionaly program (using Xcode) and would like to do more movie "stuff" - download from a digcamcorder, manage and create DVD's.

Question #1: CPU upgrade
Giga designs 1.8 SP upgrade or PowerLogix 1.8 SP upgrade or OWC Mercury Extreme 1.467. The Giga and PL are the Freescale 7447 with 512 L2 cache. The Merc is 7455 with 2mb L3 cache. All can be had for around $350. Which would you recommend - or is there another upgrade besides these that I should consider?

Question #2: Video upgrade
I would like to upgrade the video. Other than the ATI Radeon 9600, which has to be modified for a G4, what other options really exists for upgrading a QS video card? It currently has some Geforce thingy, the original 32mb card. It's connected to a Dell 20" 2005FPW.

Question #3: HD upgrade
It has the original 40GB drive and I'm planning on upgrading to a Maxtor ATA133 IDE 7200 drive. Any issues or important considerations (other than the 130GB wall) with upgrading a drive?

Question #4: CD -> DVD +/- RW
Is the Pioneer dvr-109 the best choice for DVD burner? My QS currently has the orignal Sony CDRW. What other options exist for a DVD burner which is natively supported by OS 10.3.9?

Question #5: Should I just bag all of this and get a mini?

That's it... It has plenty of RAM (900MB), a Buffalo PCI 802.11 card and a Belkin bluetooth dongle. Probably will upgrade to Tiger at some point.

I really wish OWC or some other upgrade house would create some "upgrade packages" for folks like me. I bet they'd be popular.

Any other infor or advice appreciated.

 

[greatdevourer]

Just so you know, you could probably buy 2 or more Minis for the price of that

 

[crap freakboy]

don't buy retail prices, shop around on ebay.

Regarding upgrades, try xlr8yourmac , use their database for various system upgrade suggestions.

 

[MacWeenie]

Maybe one mini but not two...

Just so you know, you could probably buy 2 or more Minis for the price of that

CPE upgrade ~$350
Video ~$120
Hard drive ~$75 (or less)
DVD burner ~$60 (or less)
============
So for a total of... ~$600, I get a 1.8 class G4, with plenty of fast disk space, airport compatible, bluetooth compatible.

I guess you could add another $100 for Tiger for that upgrade.

I don't have to upgrade the video right now and could grab something off of ebay as has been suggested.

My upgrade is in the ballpark of one 1.42 mini. I'd probably want to upgrade the drive in the mini... so add another $150 for a 2.5 drive for the mini. My upgraded G4 would have a better video (assuming I spring for the 9600). Only downside I see is the mini has a slightly faster system bus.

Believe me... the dilemna that a mini is in the ballpark has me frequently agonizing over this upgrade. If Apple had put more into the last mini update beside ram, I probably would have bought a mini by now.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Upgrade the PowerMac ... You'll have more HD space, faster graphics, faster proccesor (1.8GHz) .. update the PowerMac

You're going to want a FAST PPC Mac as there will be no more of them

 

[greatdevourer]

CPE upgrade ~$350
Video ~$120
Hard drive ~$75 (or less)
DVD burner ~$60 (or less)
============
So for a total of... ~$600, I get a 1.8 class G4, with plenty of fast disk space, airport compatible, bluetooth compatible.

I guess you could add another $100 for Tiger for that upgrade.

I don't have to upgrade the video right now and could grab something off of ebay as has been suggested.

My upgrade is in the ballpark of one 1.42 mini. I'd probably want to upgrade the drive in the mini... so add another $150 for a 2.5 drive for the mini. My upgraded G4 would have a better video (assuming I spring for the 9600). Only downside I see is the mini has a slightly faster system bus.

Believe me... the dilemna that a mini is in the ballpark has me frequently agonizing over this upgrade. If Apple had put more into the last mini update beside ram, I probably would have bought a mini by now.

That cheap! Someone call PowerLogix, we're being ripped off over here