Possibly buying a powermac g4 400

Hello there macfans

Well, after selling my 15'' tibook, for professional reasons, I'm decided to switch my desktop to a powermac.
Since I just want to see movies, listen to music, internet and office use and a little work (I mainly work on my laptop), I was thinking about buying a Power Mac G4, 400 MHz, 1Gb Ram, HD 20Gb, Modem , zip drice, cd rom & dvd.
I think I can get one for about 270 dollars. What do u think?
I could always add another HD and put in my plextor dvd-rw.
And if I needed, a processor upgrade, later on.
My question is .. will Tiger run ok? Is it a good buy or should I buy a mini (I don't really like it becaus de HD is slow, and it's a little more money that I have right now).
Thanks in advance.
Waiting for you're opinions

Thx

Crypto

Crypt0 said:

My question is .. will Tiger run ok? Is it a good buy or should I buy a mini (I don't really like it becaus de HD is slow, and it's a little more money that I have right now).
Thanks in advance.
Waiting for you're opinions

Thx

Crypto

Click to expand...

Over the past three OS X updates the performance has improved noticebly with each upgrade. Most people I've talked to expect Tiger to follow this trend. I am continually amazed by this since it never happened with the classic mac OS (that Ican recall) and it certainly never happens with windows upgrades. I have a PM 500 MHz that runs panther really well for basic stuff and is stable under load, but not fast. PowerMac G4s are getting cheaper and cheaper to upgrade (1GHz = ~$195) so I says go for it.

Thx for the answer.
I just have another question ... what are the sound card possibilities for me to put my 5.1 spekers working on the powermac?
I really didn't want to be forced to go back to that crappy sound, specially because I'll use the powermac multimedia (listen to music, movies, etc).
Thx in advance

EDIT: just another thing I've thought about ... if my power supply dies, is it possible to get an atx power supply to work on the powermac?
I really don't want to spend the money that an apple power supply costs ... It's really expensive

Maybe I'll get an UPS

I'm afraid sound cards are not something I know much about. I don't know of any reasonably priced PCI sound cards that support the mac. I think there are some pretty good USB to suround sound breakouts though. I don't think using an atx power supply is easy, but it is certainly not impossible. I think it involves splicing the mac MOBO connector in place of the atx connector. There is at least one How-To at www.xlr8yourmac.com.

EDIT: I may be wrong about the sound cards maybe some one else here in forums can help with that.

To throw in my two cents. I had a PMac 400 with 1GB ram and it was nice and all, but I needed more RAW speed. I bit the bullet, traded in and upgraded (well, sold my PM on ebay and then bought from apple) a Mac Mini and I couldn't be happier.

Sure, I can't upgrade much on it, and yes the HDD is slower (which is fairly noticable to me actually), but I'm still VERY VERY much pleased with the bang for the buck on the mac Mini. I'll never give it up either! Maybe this might help you with your choice. Best Luck!

mateo107 said:

To throw in my two cents. I had a PMac 400 with 1GB ram and it was nice and all, but I needed more RAW speed. I bit the bullet, traded in and upgraded (well, sold my PM on ebay and then bought from apple) a Mac Mini and I couldn't be happier.

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I have to conceed that if I were on the market for a mac right now I'd probably go mini. Its got quite a bang for the buck. Especially since you can upgrade the hard drive when faster bigger notebook drives drop in price. I've had fun upgrading my old powermac though. And if cashflow is a problem you can spend $$ a little at a time when you get a cheap used mac and end up with a real beast of a computer... eventually.

Crypt0 said:

I just have another question ... what are the sound card possibilities for me to put my 5.1 spekers working on the powermac?
I really didn't want to be forced to go back to that crappy sound, specially because I'll use the powermac multimedia (listen to music, movies, etc).
Thx in advance

Click to expand...

I just found out that M-audio makes mac compatible 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, mac compatible, pci sound cards. They start around $60 or $70 bucks I think. Also there are USB sound card things that start around $44.

Thx for all the answers.
I think I'll buy the powermac. Dunno if I'll buy that exact model or if I'll buy another one (it depends if I sell my desktop quickly and the person selling the powermac still has it).
Hope I don't take to long to buy one ... I'll say something when I have it
Thx again