i need help upgrading PowerMac G4 Graphite

[psziel]

I won this powermac G4 on ebay, i felt i got a good deal. here is the link for the specs and actual machine. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...90003075851&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1

I got the machine and it is in great shape as he said. I put upgraded the ram to 1gb and put a licensed copy of tiger on it, it works really good. My questions are, the video is only 16mb and what can i put in it that wont rape me in price? Im really only going to use this just to serve files, for music/videos etc. Next question, i want to put in at least 2 500gb drives, any standard sata card work for that?

thanks everyone for the time to answer.

Also, the DVD-ram drive is a little flakey and think that will need to be replaced also, what kind? combo drive would be fine with me.

 

[yellow]

http://www.macsales.com will lead you to the promised land.

 

[xfiftyfour]

you can also do a search around these forums - upgrading powermacs have come up a few times recently..

 

[ricgnzlzcr]

Yes. We have had lots of threads about this including mine own. macsales.com is amazing and easy to use. Good luck

 

[psziel]

i was looking at the all the stuff they have, prices arent to bad either. i already have the drives and just need the sata card. i was hoping to find a cheaper video card to save a few dollars.

Yes. We have had lots of threads about this including mine own. macsales.com is amazing and easy to use. Good luck

 

[tweakers_suck]

i was looking at the all the stuff they have, prices arent to bad either. i already have the drives and just need the sata card. i was hoping to find a cheaper video card to save a few dollars.

Unless you plan to play modern games or work with iDVD and similar software, you probably don't need to upgrade the video card. If you are simply going to use the computer as a file server and to watch music videos the included video card is fine.

 

[psziel]

one more question, will any PCI Sata raid card work in this machine. or do i have to get a certain one? i want to take two 500gb drives and raid them for the music and videos. and a single 300gb for backups of all my machines.

 

[yellow]

If it's a PCI card, it'll work.
However, before you go all crazy with how many hard drives you're slapping in this thing, you need to think about how big (powerful) the power supply is (can it supply power to all these devices simultaneously), and how many cables it has.

 

[psziel]

i will look at the power output of the power supply and measure out the power. If power becomes a problem i can always put them in a external enclosure. thanks for the suggestions!

If it's a PCI card, it'll work.
However, before you go all crazy with how many hard drives you're slapping in this thing, you need to think about how big (powerful) the power supply is (can it supply power to all these devices simultaneously), and how many cables it has.

 

[®îçhå®?]

I found on mine that upgrading the processor helped a great deal. I upgraded by 400MHz G3 to a 1GHz G4 and it increased the transfer rate by at least double.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I started out with a dual 533Mhz G4 tower and upgraded it to the specs listed in my sig...it's a great machine that has done everything I've asked of it.

As for a video card, I highly recommend the Radeon 9600 Pro 64MB from OWC. It is a great all-round card. The only downsides are that the ADC port is unpowered (it can only be used with a VGA adapter) and it will struggle with the latest games like Doom 3. But it has a DVI port, is fanless and silent, and pretty cheap for all the performance you get.

I also recommend getting a SATA or fast ATA card and putting a new 7200RPM hard drive in your tower - it is usually good for a significan speed boost compared to the on-board ATA controller and OEM hard drive.

Also consider a CPU upgrade if you intend to play some games or run Photoshop.