Regretting Buying Powermac G4 Dual

[crazysaxchris]

I am kind of regretting buying my powermac g4 dual 500. I know in less then a year they will be updated to intel and the powermac g4 will be garbage. I also need to buy all kinds of upgrades

Hard drive
Tiger
More ram
And so on.

Do you think it's worth the upgrades it needs? Or should I save up and buy a quiksilver or mirrored drive doors?

Do you think that it will be outdated and can’t be able to use. Now I have to wait for the holidays to get all kinds of upgrades, boy I wanted a new canon.
I only paid 300.00 I still don’t think I got a good deal. I always hear my dad saying “I think that computer for him was a waste of money has he even been using it” I’m really mad, I think it’s a piece of JUNK! Do you think I got a good deal? Boy 9.2 really is making me use my XP more then the apple? I’m almost ready to sell it back on eBay! What yall think?

I think I might go back to windows! I wish not, but I don't know what to expect with tiger?

 

[altair]

Your using like a 4 or 5 year old machine, running a previous generation OS...

I don't know what else to say...other than upgrade to tiger/panther first and see where that takes you, although I gotta say I woulda just saved my money and bought a mac mini.

200 bucks more and a billion times better.

Good luck

 

[ravenvii]

Yeah the Mac mini is even faster than that.

What can I say, you're regretting buying a 4-5 years old machine because a new machine will come out next year? That makes alot of sense...

 

[Mechcozmo]

It is a great server. Expandable, cheap, etc. But yes, it is old.

 

[crazysaxchris]

Well I was thinking of buying a mini, but everyone said a mac mini would be terrible for video editing. I mainly will be doing the usual IM, internet,photoshop,powerpoints, some imoive, everyone siad that a apple powermac g4 dualie would be much better maxed out with ram. So is this true or did i just wast 300.00 on a piece of crap?

 

[crazysaxchris]

How much do you think I could sell it for?

 

[radiantm3]

Well I was thinking of buying a mini, but everyone said a mac mini would be terrible for video editing. I mainly will be doing the usual IM, internet,photoshop,powerpoints, some imoive, everyone siad that a apple powermac g4 dualie would be much better maxed out with ram. So is this true or did i just wast 300.00 on a piece of crap?

You spent $300 on 512 megs of ram?

 

[crazysaxchris]

I meant the powermac!

 

[homerjward]

How much do you think I could sell it for?

with tiger i'd say more than $300. assuming you're a student and can get tiger for $69 dollars you might actually make a profit (especially if it has a dvd burner)

 

[revenuee]

Well I was thinking of buying a mini, but everyone said a mac mini would be terrible for video editing. I mainly will be doing the usual IM, internet,photoshop,powerpoints, some imoive, everyone siad that a apple powermac g4 dualie would be much better maxed out with ram. So is this true or did i just wast 300.00 on a piece of crap?

If the kinda editing you're doing will be sustainable on a 500 mhz G4 and 2 gigs of ram then the MINI would of been more then enough for you ..

it's not as BAD as a 300$ paper weight with flashing lights but you probably would of been better off going with something a little more current.

 

[savar]

I am kind of regretting buying my powermac g4 dual 500. I know in less then a year they will be updated to intel and the powermac g4 will be garbage. I also need to buy all kinds of upgrades

<snip>

Do you think it's worth the upgrades it needs? Or should I save up and buy a quiksilver or mirrored drive doors?

It sounds like a good deal to me. AFAIK, the QS and MDD power macs were never dual-proc (if I'm wrong please correct me), so your dual 500 shouldn't be too much worse than the QS 733 I've got. RAM should be pretty cheap, maybe $100 bucks for a 512 DIMM. You're going to want 512 minimum in my opinion. I have 640 in mine and I have recently begun to push against the upper limits. You definitely need Tiger too if you can afford it. If not, at least pick up Panther 2nd hand off of ebay or something similar. It should be dirt cheap these days. At that point you will have a very usable machine.

If you need a larger HD, get a nice firewire drive. The benefit is that it will be a snap to move all your files to a new machine, and you'll immediately increase the capacity of the next machine you buy too.

Do you think that it will be outdated and can’t be able to use. Now I have to wait for the holidays to get all kinds of upgrades, boy I wanted a new canon.

The fact that the intels are coming out in a year or two tells me that now is a good time to save...don't go buying willy nilly if you know you really want the Mactel. Just get enought to get you buy for the next 18 months.

 

[LethalWolfe]

It sounds like a good deal to me. AFAIK, the QS and MDD power macs were never dual-proc (if I'm wrong please correct me)

The QS's maxed out at dual 1ghz and the MDD dual 1.42ghz.


to the OP
W/some TLC and upgrades (I'd look into proc upgrades) you can cobble together an okay machine, but, and I'm not meaning to jump on the band wagon, what did you expect out of such old computer? Although when you add up the costs of all the upgrades it might be cheaper to buy a used MDD or QS (or even a used iMac G5).

If it makes you feel any better intel PM's probably won't be out before 2007.

Lethal

 

[csubear]

One simple upgrade would make that machine better:

OS X 10.3 or 10.4

I never liked OS 9, unstable , very much windows 95ish.. Its not too bad of a machine, for being 4-5 or more years old. If you want to see slow, i've got a 333mhz G3 imac sitting around. Even that machine is usable with OS X (also long as you have one app open at a time).


And you machine won't be trash when the intel macs come out. Thats the point of the dual binaries.

 

[disconap]

I run my main work (which includes graphic design) on a single 400mHz Sawtooth G4. It's fine, just boost your RAM.

If you're not using anything that takes advantage of the dual processors, though, then you're only running slightly faster than a single 500. Still, they're good machines, and I think worth the upgrades (you can also upgrade the processor for between $150-600, depending on how high you want to go).

So far I've found that I have no need AT ALL for a G5, since I don't use video editing, 3d rendering, or do intensive coding. I may eventually upgrade my processor, but I'll likely skip this gen of processor (G5) altogether, other than maybe picking up a used one a few years down the road.

The comment on the Mc Mini was spot on, though, provided you don't need to upgrade ever.

Overall, I'd say it wasn't a dumb purchase. You can do a lot with it, and as someone else said it can make a mighty fine server as well, especially if you eventually upgrade. Or when you do, gut it and use it as a RAID box. Never a bad idea to buy a G4 tower, imo (but yeah, definitely upgrade to 10.3, I've found it's the perfect OS for the early model G4s).

 

[MacTruck]

I always hear my dad saying “I think that computer for him was a waste of money has he even been using it”

Can you please slap your dad for me? I got my 2 yr old son a mac mini and it was the best thing I have ever done. When my 3 month old gets up and touches the mouse he gets one too. A computer in this day and age is a must have for anyone. You really can't live without one. Well yøu can but you can also take a dump outside and wipe with leaves.

Computer in every home? F that, I got one in every room.

 

[MacTruck]

Oh and by the way never regret getting a mac, especially a dual no matter what the speed. Dual cpu is the only way to go unless you go quad.

 

[briangig]

your dual g4 isnt that much slower than mine...get some ram in there (at least 512...more is better), and tiger, and i can almost guarantee it will feel like a new machine...

 

[dogbone]

I mainly will be doing the usual IM, internet,photoshop,powerpoints, some imoive,

I don't know much about imovie or powerpoint although I'd guess it would be fine for powerpoint. As for photoshop if you're running ps6 or 7 on a dual g4/500 you'll be flying. For 99% of work on PS you won't notice if you had a dual G5 as long as you've got plenty of ram.

 

[balamw]

I got my 2 yr old son a mac mini and it was the best thing I have ever done.

My kids are 4 and 2 and are using my ~5 year old 750 MHz PIII box with some minor upgrades. I used this box for video editing until I replaced it with a 2.8 GHz Dell desktop xmas 2003. I think a dual 500 G4 should be plenty for some basic video stuff, but not the newer codecs like MPEG4 or H.264.

They are learning the painful way using XP. We don't let them use the iBook, but intend to replace the PIII with an Intel mini when they finally arrive. At least that way I can potentially dual boot/virtual machine XP and keep running some of the games they like to play under XP that don't have native Mac ports.

B

 

[shadowmoses]

Just pick up a 2nd hand version of Panther on eBay and get a minimum of 512mb RAM in there and you will have a nicely running machine which will cover most your needs well,

Shadow

 

[FadeToBlack]

I'm gonna have to agree with everyone else on this one. If you put OS X on it, you will definitely see a big improvement. My friend had a Dual 500 and it seemed pretty quick running OS X. If I remember correctly, he was running Panther on it.

 

[cube]

Your machine is twice as fast as mine and I'm happy with it.

Just install ANY version of OS X you can afford (well, maybe not 10.0).

 

[Chaszmyr]

Really, you should have bought a Mac mini for any number of reasons (smaller, faster, new OS, warranty, etc). Is the mac mini good for video editing? not especially, but neither is that old PowerMac.

 

[Abstract]

Well I was thinking of buying a mini, but everyone said a mac mini would be terrible for video editing. I mainly will be doing the usual IM, internet,photoshop,powerpoints, some imoive, everyone siad that a apple powermac g4 dualie would be much better maxed out with ram. So is this true or did i just wast 300.00 on a piece of crap?

It wouldn't be great for video editing, but since you didn't list video editing as one of the tasks you planned on doing (other than iMovie, which you don't even have because you're running Mac OS 9.x and not OS X), why did you listened to your friends? "Terrible for video editing"?? Maybe, but you also could have bought a Mac Mini.

I've used a machine slower than that, and it wasn't great running OS 10.2 Jaguar. However, the processor (or maybe it was a dual) was a G3 (around 350 MHz), it only had Jaguar, 256 MB of RAM, a horrid video card, very little HD space remaining, etc etc. However, Panther would probably speed things up a bit on your dual 500 MHz G4.

 

[G5power]

At this point, you have already invested in the dual 500, so I would recommend looking for the most economical way to update the machine to the point that you will be happy with it for several years. Most processor upgrades will represent a substanial investment, so I would hold off on that and look for inexpensive RAM and a cheap hard drive. Both of those will make your system feel faster and offer the most value.

My "second" Apple is a dual 450 with 1GB of RAM and it seems fairly fast to me. I replaced the original hard drive with a $29 after rebate 7200RPM 120GB from Office Depot and am very satisified.

The neat thing with your system is that you can easily add very inexpensive extra hard drives. Also a lowcost DVD burner from Newegg.

Be patient and look for very low cost upgrades so that you don't substantially increase your investment.

Unlike the mini, your system has multiple RAM slots, so check with friends and neighbors that have old PC's and see if you can find cheap memory updates. If you find either 256MB or 512MB PC100 upgrades it will help a bunch.

As recommended by almost everyone else ditch the old OS and find a good student deal on OS X.