Upgrade a "Sawtooth" G4 or new iMac??

[lopresmb]

I have a computer that gets the job done, but would like to make a bit quicker and powerful. Currently:

G4 "Sawtooth" 400 MHz
640 MB Ram
40 GB Hard Drive
DVD Drive
Rage 128 PRO 16MB AGP
17in CRT Monitor (old)


--I was thinking of upgrading this to:

1.4 Ghz G4 ($340)
1.3 GB Ram ($200)
120 GB Total Hard Drive ($70)
DVD RW DL 16X Drive ($70)
Radeon 9200 128MB Video ($90)
Tiger and iLife '05 ($120)
20" Widescreen LCD monitor ($700)


***But, this would run me somewhere in the order of $1500!!!!
-Why would I want to spend this kind of money, when I can get a brand 2GHz iMac 20" for a couple hundred bucks more? While I'd rahter not simply junk the old G4 powermac, the only advantage I can see is that I would be able to use the external monitor with a new computer, whereas the iMac screen dies with the rest of it.

--uuuggg, why are legacy upgrades so expensive???

--Anyone have any good advice / ideas / cheap parts they'd like to sell??

 

[Chrispy]

I started a post earlier today that was similar to your situation. Check it out here.

 

[zen.state]

I have a computer that gets the job done, but would like to make a bit quicker and powerful. Currently:

G4 "Sawtooth" 400 MHz
640 MB Ram
40 GB Hard Drive
DVD Drive
Rage 128 PRO 16MB AGP
17in CRT Monitor (old)


--I was thinking of upgrading this to:

1.4 Ghz G4 ($340)
1.3 GB Ram ($200)
120 GB Total Hard Drive ($70)
DVD RW DL 16X Drive ($70)
Radeon 9200 128MB Video ($90)
Tiger and iLife '05 ($120)
20" Widescreen LCD monitor ($700)


***But, this would run me somewhere in the order of $1500!!!!
-Why would I want to spend this kind of money, when I can get a brand 2GHz iMac 20" for a couple hundred bucks more? While I'd rahter not simply junk the old G4 powermac, the only advantage I can see is that I would be able to use the external monitor with a new computer, whereas the iMac screen dies with the rest of it.

--uuuggg, why are legacy upgrades so expensive???

--Anyone have any good advice / ideas / cheap parts they'd like to sell??

if you can hold out on your current setup till you get that cash together then you're better off getting the iMac by far. you would then have 2 systems. 2 is always nice. give the 2nd (old) one tasks and take load off the new one and make it that much faster.

 

[wdlove]

Personally I would prefer the brand new iMac G5. Even after the upgrade parts you would still have the old motherboard.

 

[toothpaste]

Keep your sawtooth, but purchase the imac g5. Even with all the upgrades the core of your system is aging. Take the g4 and turn it into an awesome media server as you can jam pack it with drives and give it some serious storage. Freeing up your imac to run smoother doing your more important daily tasks.

 

[Jo-Kun]

get the iMac ;-)

I'm not sure if the hack for screenspanning will work on the iMac but if it does you can hookup any monitor to the iMac as secondary and if your internel monitor dies I guess you can still use the iMac with an external monitor anyway...

 

[cwerdna]

I have a computer that gets the job done, but would like to make a bit quicker and powerful. Currently:
--I was thinking of upgrading this to:

1.4 Ghz G4 ($340)
1.3 GB Ram ($200)
120 GB Total Hard Drive ($70)
DVD RW DL 16X Drive ($70)
Radeon 9200 128MB Video ($90)
Tiger and iLife '05 ($120)
20" Widescreen LCD monitor ($700)

--Anyone have any good advice / ideas / cheap parts they'd like to sell??

Assuming you still want to go w/upgrading your machine why not go w/a Dell 2005FPW 20" widescreen LCD when they hit $399 again? They're hit $399 or $450 pretty regularly. Just be on the lookout at http://www.techbargains.com/cheaplcdmonitor.cfm.

Regarding the 120 gig drive, $70 isn't a very good deal. You can regularly get 160 gig Seagate IDE (PATA) drives for $50 after rebate. Sometimes they hit $40 after rebate.

Do you really need Tiger and iLife 05?

If you're going to spend ~$1500 perhaps it's better to just get a Mini w/Dell 2005FPW, an external Firewire drive, 1 gig of RAM and forego the DL burner. Or perhaps go iMac G5. In both these cases, you'll get Tiger and iLife 05 and a warranty. If the motherboard or power supply were to fail on your Sawtooth, you'd have to scrounge around for a used replacement or (my guess) pay a lot for a replacement from Apple.