Over all, I bought the 2006 Mac for $400 Australian on Ebay. Spent over $1000 on upgrades. I'd say to anyone wanting to do this that they would be better off saving up and buying a later model Mac. My next upgrade will be to just do that. A 2006 Mac is what it is, and it's no racer.
Can you return (or re-sell) any of this gear? For what you've spent, you could have bought a 2010/2012 MP that would be just as fast as what you're trying to upgrade to (and could be upgraded even more in the future), and wouldn't have any of these challenges/issues.
I hope you take this in a kind way, but just a few tips...
1. Do your research and ask questions
before you buy stuff. Lowendlinux could see where this was going in his first reply. Even the most die-hard cMP enthusiast would have said this was a terrible investment (not
trying to make you feel any worse about it). Most around here still upgrading a 10 year old MP are scrounging around for free/minimal cost parts, not investing AU$1K.
2. Don't draw conclusions on hardware and what works and doesn't work when you have little knowledge of what you're doing or talking about. It antagonizes those who know otherwise, and you end up looking even more clueless.
3. Always a good idea to explain the "why are you doing this?" - what you're trying to get out of your Mac and your usage. That will help others suggest what you should consider and where to concentrate your efforts.
4. I'm sure many appreciated the "entertaining" way you write (you're obviously a good writer, and you know it), but keep that to a minimum here... you lose half your potential audience when they see big blocks of text and lots of words that have nothing to do with what you're trying to get an answer to.
5. Don't play the girl card (unless someone else makes an issue of it), especially when you're the only one who's bringing it up. If you just stuck to your questions/issues, no one would even know you're a girl. And while it's unfortunate that this would even be an issue, you pretty much reinforced every single stereotype that exists when it comes to girls and computers. The regulars around here are 98%
boy geeks, so slamming them isn't going to endear them to helping you.
6. You've already apologized in another thread, so I'm not going to harp on it here, but take that big chip off your shoulder. There are many people here willing to help - that's why they hang out answering questions they already know the answers to - they're not getting paid, they're doing it because it feels good to help someone who appreciates it (and it strokes their ego - and there's nothing wrong with that). But you have to show you're willing to do the work and show appreciation for the help.
Best of luck!
