New mac arriving tommorow, need advice..

[billyergs]

This is my first mac purchase after waitng for a long time so please understand.

My new 2.7 pm is arriving tommorow, I already have an extra 2 gig of ram and ati x800 waiting to be installed. Should I install these things when I get the PM right out of the box or is it better to run, register etc. and then put in the extra ram and video card?

Also, are there any simple tests to see how much difference has been made after adding the new parts?

 

[CanadaRAM]

This is my first mac purchase after waitng for a long time so please understand.

My new 2.7 pm is arriving tommorow, I already have an extra 2 gig of ram and ati x800 waiting to be installed. Should I install these things when I get the PM right out of the box or is it better to run, register etc. and then put in the extra ram and video card?

Also, are there any simple tests to see how much difference has been made after adding the new parts?

Easy answer: Boot the Mac and test it before making any additions whatsoever. That way if you have a warranty problem nobody can say that you $^#%ed it up with the upgrades.

Then, whenever you make hardware or software changes, do ONE thing at a time, restart and test. Otherwise backtracking your changes to troubleshoot becomes much harder.

There are some benchmark applications for the MAc - do some searching on www.versiontracker.com You'll get various arguements about whether the benchmarks hold true to real life results or not.

 

[Kerry Sanders]

CanadaRAM beat me to it. I was going to say basically the same thing. I do not have my Mac yet (waiting on the truck to get here), but with any computer that you get, you should always boot it up, let it go through its setup motions and then play with it for a while to make sure everything is working correctly and stable.

After that, you can start adding the things that you want to play with.

 

[FFTT]

This is my first mac purchase after waitng for a long time so please understand.

My new 2.7 pm is arriving tommorow, I already have an extra 2 gig of ram and ati x800 waiting to be installed. Should I install these things when I get the PM right out of the box or is it better to run, register etc. and then put in the extra ram and video card?

Also, are there any simple tests to see how much difference has been made after adding the new parts?

Once you've determined that everything is cool out of the box, then shut down and add your RAM being very careful to add in pairs one stick on each side of the logic board RAM divider.
You'll see.

These RAM sticks are very close tollerance and you have to make sure they're in all the way and that the RAM keepers click into position.

Then boot up again and make sure they show up in your system profiler..

Personally I would run the new tower totally factory equipped for at least 24 hours, before adding anything.

Enjoy!

 

[billyergs]

Well I received the large G5 package yesterday and I followed all the advice about installing my upgrades.

Everything is working great and this machine is seriously fast.

I'm still in the process of installing software but I can't stop admiring how quickly everything is going and the desktop looks awesome on my dell 2405.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[JzzTrump22]

This is my first mac purchase after waitng for a long time so please understand.

My new 2.7 pm is arriving tommorow, I already have an extra 2 gig of ram and ati x800 waiting to be installed. Should I install these things when I get the PM right out of the box or is it better to run, register etc. and then put in the extra ram and video card?

Also, are there any simple tests to see how much difference has been made after adding the new parts?

Definatly boot it the way it comes out of the box. If all is good then add in the new stuff. That way you know if something goes wrong it has to be the 3rd party additions.

 

[Roz]

Well I received the large G5 package yesterday and I followed all the advice about installing my upgrades.

Everything is working great and this machine is seriously fast.

I'm still in the process of installing software but I can't stop admiring how quickly everything is going and the desktop looks awesome on my dell 2405.

Thanks for all the help guys.

Let me know how the x800 works out for you. Last I heard, it wasn't supported with Tiger. Although maybe there is a patch out already. That's what is holding me back from purchasing the card for my 2.7.

 

[Maxiseller]

Congrats on the new Powermac!!