05-13-2011, 10:41 AM

Hi, i am not a mac guy. i recently came into ownership of a Power Mac G4. I got it from my tech school. They were a donation froma local biz. I just picked one up to play with cuz i never used one before and being an IT student i wanted to play.

so it's got OSX 10.4.11 and it's ok i guess but i wanted to know if i can update this box?

it's got a dual 867s and a gig of ram so it's not a bad machine but i wanted to get the newer OSX on it.

I am just using this thing as a hub more music and movies and stuff in my living room so i dont need a rocket machine here. but i wanted to make it as good as i can.

is there anyway i can get a blueray player for this thing?

05-13-2011, 10:44 AM

which powermac is it, what color is the case?

If Im not mistaken you can pick up the Dual 1ghz or 1.2 processors attached to the daughter card on ebay and drop it in your machine depending on which it is. When we sell them on ebay I think they typically go for 60-100 bucks now, maybe less its been a while since I have had some to sell.

Also, I *think* those take DDR, not sure what speed though...

05-13-2011, 10:48 AM

it takes 133 DDR. but i just wanna get a blueray player and if i can i wanna put one in this thing. can i do that?

05-13-2011, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by mastak89

so it's got OSX 10.4.11 and it's ok i guess but i wanted to know if i can update this box?

You can to a degree:

- you can upgrade the cpu...but will cost you $200-$300. This is primarily done via cpu upgrade cards. If you're lucky you might find one on e-Bay for less.

- you can upgrade the ram a bit further to 2 gig.
- you might be able to find a better graphics card...just got to be careful that it's compatible (NEEDS to be a Macintosh version...not a Windows card)
- could always upgrade the DVD drive...here are blue-ray options:

http://eshop.macsales.com/search/internal+blu+ray

Originally Posted by mastak89

it's got a dual 867s and a gig of ram so it's not a bad machine but i wanted to get the newer OSX on it.

You can upgrade the OS to OS 10.5...but an upgrade disk is going to cost you around $100.

The bottom line is...Macintosh computers don't have the same number of upgrade options as Windows computers, and not as much compatibility between models. Apple is always changing things which makes "parts swapping" difficult. And almost all upgrade (especially cpu & video cards) are really expensive.

Also remember that the computer you have is about 8-9 years old...so you have to be careful how much you spend upgrading it. Personally the only thing I would upgrade is the ram.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

p.s. If I got the model correct...this is the ram you need:

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgr...69&type=Memory

05-13-2011, 10:52 AM

Im not 100% sure about this. I am not sure if there would be some type of processing issue since blu-rays are so massive. someone with more knowledge than I will have to help you out there.

Never tried putting a blueray in anything really... lol

05-14-2011, 01:02 AM

not worried about the CPU. i would like to put a updated gpu in it tho. about the cindows and mac cards... found that out last night when i pluged an older Geforce 7800 in to it. The mac freaked, started making all sorts of strange noises and stuff. needless to say it didn't work. i picked up some ram allready.

like i said tho. i am a student and i just picked it up to toy with and use for a media platform. just use it to play mocies to the 42" and pipe music to the system.it's faster then my gaming rig wich is sad but i guess OSX is more effiecent with resources the windows 7.

but ya complete idiot when it comes to macs.

sooooo when i go to upgrade what are the steps? can i swap in a bigger hard drive first and start fresh? can somone talk me thru the install just so i dont hose it up? is it like linux where u need to allocate boot space to make room for the yum updates they dont tell you that you need to do right off the bat?

05-14-2011, 01:18 AM

Given that the machine is eight or nine years old, and given that OS X has no native support of Blu-Ray, basically trying to add BR to that machine is a pipe dream.

Third-party solutions that are in an affordable realm offer very limited BR functionality -- nothing that could play a movie, for example.

To answer your last question, no the Mac isn't like Linux at all in this regard. Most upgrades -- if they are compatible -- are basically plug and play.

05-14-2011, 12:08 PM

really? OSX has no BR support at all? even the lastest version? Really? well thats a run off. kinda sad the windows one ups the mac in that respect...

05-14-2011, 05:25 PM

what about VLC?

wouldnt that play it?

05-14-2011, 06:42 PM

There will never be bluray support for mac, clash of interests with itunes downloads, greedy jobs wants all the cash he can get

05-14-2011, 06:44 PM

There will never be bluray support for mac, clash of interests with itunes downloads, greedy jobs wants all the cash he can get. you have two choices either rip the movie with makemkv or bootcamp