G4 Strategy

Hi,

I'm still running OS 9.2.2 on a Sawtooth 450 but will likely begin in the OSX world before long. This Mac is used for a fair amount of Photoshop web work, so it's not like I'm chewing through huge files. Also GoLive gets used to maintain several websites.

Awhile back I came into possession of 2 additional and identical Sawtooth models. I was going to move them on eBay... but I have to say I REALLY like the security of having at least one back-up machine for my work. With these 2 back-ups machines... I feel near invincible... LOL.

My Question:
I was looking into buying an OWC accelerator for one of these back-up Sawtooth Macs and migrating slowly to OSX. I'm now looking into the possibility of moving all my Sawtooth models and getting a pair of Quicksilvers at 867MHz.

I believe the Quicksilvers has the faster bus and better graphics card... and they are cheap enough on eBay to allow me my all important back-up machine.

Does this sound like an reasonable move, or would just getting the OWC accelerator for the current Sawtooth produce similar results for me.

Thanks in advance for any input.

John

Yes Quicksilvers have 133MHz system bus speed compared to the Sawtooth 100MHz, but also faster AGP slots for better graphics etc etc. Depends on the bucks available I guess.

Have used a Mercury Extreme 1.3GHz CPU upgrade from OWC with great success in a Gigabit Ethernet machine, model after your Sawtooth. Ran Leopard fast and rock solid,. The beauty of that CPU upgrade is that it has jumper on it to work with either 100/133MHz system bus speeds, and the 2MB L3 Cache makes them fly.

If money is not that much of a problem and you wish to stay with a G4, look out for a FW800 1.42/1.25 Dual Processors. The FW800 were the last G4's made and are fast.

harryb2448 said:

Yes Quicksilvers have 133MHz system bus speed compared to the Sawtooth 100MHz, but also faster AGP slots for better graphics etc etc. Depends on the bucks available I guess.

Have used a Mercury Extreme 1.3GHz CPU upgrade from OWC with great success in a Gigabit Ethernet machine, model after your Sawtooth. Ran Leopard fast and rock solid,. The beauty of that CPU upgrade is that it has jumper on it to work with either 100/133MHz system bus speeds, and the 2MB L3 Cache makes them fly.

If money is not that much of a problem and you wish to stay with a G4, look out for a FW800 1.42/1.25 Dual Processors. The FW800 were the last G4's made and are fast.

Click to expand...

Hi Harry,

The cost at this time really is a bit of an issue... it's just that I can sell my 3 Sawtooth models and by adding just about $100 to the sale proceeds, can then buy a pair of the 867MHz Quicksilvers. It seems to me, at least going by the used market, that the 867 Quicksilver is about the best bargain for a pretty capable G4 coming in at about $120.

It seems like a modest cost to upgrade to an OSX capable machine.

An 867MHz Quicksilver will run Tiger and Leopard. Upgrade the memory to 1.5GB, the maximum for that model with three slots and install a superdrive such as a Pioneer DVR-115D for about $40 and you will be off and happy.