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Upgrading a G4 processor.

LloydieDB9

LloydieDB9

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 17, 2006
8
0
Rural Buckinghamshire
Hello all.

I'm new to this wonderful thing that is 'Mac' so please forgive the silly question.:eek:

My budget is strictly very limited and I am looking at a G4 on ebay with a 400mhz CPU. cheap!
I have also seen a quick silver processor at 733mhz. Also cheap.

Can this be installed, is it easy, am I mad to attempt such a thing?

Also, it currently runs OS9, is there an option to upgrade somewhere on the web to a current version of OSX but not nessecarily the latest one. Again, budget is of the essence.

Thanks all.

Steve
 
imacintel said:
Google is your friend.
Click to expand...


That's no answer at all to someone coming to a forum seeking advice. Complete waste of space. :mad:

OP: What I don't quite understand is what you mean. Do you want to upgrade your existing Mac or buy a cheap G4?

The 733's run OSX reasonably well but are slow; we have a couple running OS 10.3 (Panther) at work that have been relegated to server status. If you hunt around the Marketplace on this forum or eBay you might find a cheap version of Panther to run on them.

These machines are OK for web-surfing, word-processing and the like but will choke on more demanding tasks.

Edit: If you mean dropping in a new processor card, then it's awkward for someone with no experience at all; it often means booting into OS9 and updating the firmware. Still, it's not overly difficult.
 
Not sure how strict your budget is, but I got my 867MHz Quicksilver Power Mac G4 off of eBay the other week for $207. :)

A 733MHz G4 would be okay- if you have patience to wait for things to load. I am going to be upgrading mine to a 1.6GHz+ G4 from PowerLogix soon. :)
 
LloydieDB9 said:
Hello all.

I'm new to this wonderful thing that is 'Mac' so please forgive the silly question.:eek:

My budget is strictly very limited and I am looking at a G4 on ebay with a 400mhz CPU. cheap!
I have also seen a quick silver processor at 733mhz. Also cheap.

Can this be installed, is it easy, am I mad to attempt such a thing?

Also, it currently runs OS9, is there an option to upgrade somewhere on the web to a current version of OSX but not nessecarily the latest one. Again, budget is of the essence.

Thanks all.

Steve
Click to expand...

A) If you want to buy that G4 off ebay, be certain it is a Sawtooth (AGP video) and not a Yikes model (PCI video)

B) No that cpu wont work. The 733mhz models use a 133mhz front side bus, and the 4-500mhz models use a 100mhz bus. The best you could hope for (on a budget) would be to find a dual-processor 450 or 500mhz cpu card from a Gigabit Ethernet model and use that. But even then, you will need to check the motherboard revision for compatibility (it has to be a "UNI-7" to accept dual-cpu cards). There are other options, but they are more expensive.....

C) If you have worked inside computers before, installing a new cpu card is straightforward and at most a 5 minute job :)

D) NO, you can not freely just update OS 9 to OS X. You will have to buy a copy of OS X and install it from the CD/DVD. The current version is 10.4/Tiger, and can be found on ebay for ~$50-60, or the previous version of 10.3/Panther for ~$25-40.

Once you have the basic version, you can freely update to the latest point releases (10.4.8 or 10.3.9) through the built-in software update application. Installing it is just a matter of backing up your critical data, insert & boot from the CD/DVD, cliking on the install button, and let it do it's thing.

Once you decide what you're going to do, then post back and we can help you with the specific details of each operation :)
 
dmw007 said:
A 733MHz G4 would be okay- if you have patience to wait for things to load. I am going to be upgrading mine to a 1.6GHz+ G4 from PowerLogix soon. :)
Click to expand...

the upgrade process on Tower Mac like dmw and me have it's fairly forward process of upgrading the cpu board..

I spent around $250 US on my dual 400 Mhz Gigabit ethernet system then waited to save some cash and bought the 1 Ghz dual card but the install of card took 7 mins after i shut the system down ..


Macs are alot easier to upgrade the cpu than PCs :D :cool: :eek:
 
Thanks for the help.

Hello all.

Thanks for all the advice. At the last minute, i was pipped to the post.

Imacintel.
Didn't see what you wrote so I guess your lucks in.

The rest of you. Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it. Please continue to forgive the silly questions as I ask them. Once I get a MAc, I think all will become clear adn I can't wait!!

Cheers

Steve
 
dmw007 said:
Not sure how strict your budget is, but I got my 867MHz Quicksilver Power Mac G4 off of eBay the other week for $207. :)

A 733MHz G4 would be okay- if you have patience to wait for things to load. I am going to be upgrading mine to a 1.6GHz+ G4 from PowerLogix soon. :)
Click to expand...

That price is ok, but really, if you have 200 bucks or so, you are actually better off going to a Mac site like OWC. (www.otherworldcomputing) and buying a new CPU card. I just had a look and you can get a Single 1.0GhZ Sonnet or even a 1.2GhZ OWC Mercury G4 Card for 200 bucks. If you have a bit more, like say 250-300, you could easily get into the 1.4GhZ and up range. Just my opinion, but I think you should also consider maxing out that ram to 1.5GB--makes all the difference. 1.5GB plus a 1.0 (or faster) CPU and you should have no issues with Tiger or any previous versions of X or 9.

The cool thing about OWC is that they have a fantastic system configuring search. Just enter the model and CPU of the Mac you have and you can get all the info you need. No, I dont work there, but they have helped me to upgrade/repair/rebuild about 6 different Macs including 3 G4 Cubes, a couple of towers, and a Powerbook. Great service. :)
 
Duffman said:
That price is ok, but really, if you have 200 bucks or so, you are actually better off going to a Mac site like OWC. (www.otherworldcomputing) and buying a new CPU card. I just had a look and you can get a Single 1.0GhZ Sonnet or even a 1.2GhZ OWC Mercury G4 Card for 200 bucks. If you have a bit more, like say 250-300, you could easily get into the 1.4GhZ and up range. Just my opinion, but I think you should also consider maxing out that ram to 1.5GB--makes all the difference. 1.5GB plus a 1.0 (or faster) CPU and you should have no issues with Tiger or any previous versions of X or 9.

The cool thing about OWC is that they have a fantastic system configuring search. Just enter the model and CPU of the Mac you have and you can get all the info you need. No, I dont work there, but they have helped me to upgrade/repair/rebuild about 6 different Macs including 3 G4 Cubes, a couple of towers, and a Powerbook. Great service. :)
Click to expand...


$200 is what I paid for the entire system, and $229 could net you a 1.6GHz PowerPC G4 from PowerLogix (from OWC's site). :)
 
Also for upgrading to OS X without spending alot of money on it you can get it off the net which is illegal and you shoudn't do;).
 
dmw007 said:
$200 is what I paid for the entire system, and $229 could net you a 1.6GHz PowerPC G4 from PowerLogix (from OWC's site). :)
Click to expand...
Oooohhh :) The whole thing! I get it now. Sorry I thought you meant that you paid that much for the G4 card!

Damn thats cheap!:cool:
 
Thanks for the info and sorry...

...for not being back to thank you all. i lost my password and only recently found it.

As for what I have, I finall y won a G4 AGP 450 with toger installed and a lot of other bits.
Have upped the Ram to 1.2g and added an additionnal 128gb hard drive.
Don't have the disks, but its working far better than my Dell. (no surprise).

Thanks again people and for the info about the online store. Saved in favourites for the next time I need to spend some cash.

Steve
 
I wanna upgrade a lil'bit my Pro Tools Mix24 system/Power Mac G4.
I wanna go from ProTools 5.1 to 6.4, the last this system can run.
Do you know what's the last OSX this system is capable to run?
ThankYou

rey
 
rey46 said:
I wanna upgrade a lil'bit my Pro Tools Mix24 system/Power Mac G4.
I wanna go from ProTools 5.1 to 6.4, the last this system can run.
Do you know what's the last OSX this system is capable to run?
ThankYou

rey
Click to expand...

If it's anything below 867mhz it can run tiger at the latest and if its 867mhz+ it will run leopard, but probably slowly, i would consider a CPU upgrade
 
msheldrick said:
If it's anything below 867mhz it can run tiger at the latest and if its 867mhz+ it will run leopard, but probably slowly, i would consider a CPU upgrade
Click to expand...

I have a Sonnet 1.0 g G4 upgrade in a Sawtooth that is just able to run Leopard. That or the aforementioned 867mhz G4 native Mac processor would be the bottom line.
And as much RAM as you can handle.

jodelli
 
I have a G4 400mhz/1M cache/64mg SDRAM/20gigHD/dvd-ROM/56k modem/1000BT/KB
How do I know if is a Sawtooth AGP video or Yikes PCI video?
 
rey46 said:
I have a G4 400mhz/1M cache/64mg SDRAM/20gigHD/dvd-ROM/56k modem/1000BT/KB
How do I know if is a Sawtooth AGP video or Yikes PCI video?
Click to expand...

if it has an AGP port then it's the Sawtooth, but it sounds like you have a Gigabit Ethernet model (the AGP port is the brown port above the PCI slots)
 
LloydieDB9 said:
As for what I have, I finall y won a G4 AGP 450 with toger installed and a lot of other bits.
Click to expand...

Toger, toger, toger....

displayimage.php

To the pedants out there, I know it's Toga.
 
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