I mac G4 help

Hi I am new here. I have an older G4 imac it runs real slow on the internet is ther anything i can do to speed it up? its got 384mb or ram no dvd drive but a 80 gb hard drive I love the over all design is there any way to modernize this computer? i would love to put a intel prosessor 2 gb ram and a 500 gb hard drive with a modern graphics card is any of this possable? if so were can i get it done or find out how to do it myself thanks

jimshady said:

i would love to put a intel prosessor 2 gb ram and a 500 gb hard drive with a modern graphics card is any of this possable?

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You cannot upgrade the graphics hardware or cpu in an iMac G4. You could upgrade the ram (maximum depends on the model) and the HD.

HTH,

- Nick

will this make it any faster? this is the specs
power mac 4,2
cpu type power pc g4
cpu speed 700 mhz
l2 cache 256 kb
memory 384mb
boot ram version 4.41f1
and an 80 gb maxtor hard drive

what i want out of it is to be faster on the internet load web pages faster is it possable to get decent speed out of this or is it time to get a new one i love the disign of this mac even if it is only a 15' version any help would be appreciated

jimshady said:

will this make it any faster? this is the specs
power mac 4,2
cpu type power pc g4
cpu speed 700 mhz
l2 cache 256 kb
memory 384mb
boot ram version 4.41f1
and an 80 gb maxtor hard drive

what i want out of it is to be faster on the internet load web pages faster is it possable to get decent speed out of this or is it time to get a new one i love the disign of this mac even if it is only a 15' version any help would be appreciated

Click to expand...

You didn't mention what version of the OS this iMac is running...depending on the version, an upgrade may help a little bit. Also...a ram upgrade (max. 1 gig) may also help...but probably not as much as you would like.

Basically...an 8 year-old 700mhz iMac G4 can certainly surf the internet & do e-mail...it just may not be able to do it as fast as you would like, and (for example), it cannot run You Tube video content smoothly.

If this iMac G4 does not do things as quickly as you would like...the upgrades you could do to it probably won't speed it up enough...and getting a new (or a newer used computer) is probably the best solution.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

thanks nick you probably save a from waisting money now i just need to find a good affordable macbook or imac how are the g5's?

jimshady said:

thanks nick you probably save a from waisting money

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That's usually my goal...is to help folks not spend money unnecessarily.

jimshady said:

now i just need to find a good affordable macbook or imac how are the g5's?

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What do you mean...prices or performance.?

Remember:

- MacBook's are not G5's (they have an Intel cpu)
- iMacs come in a (G3, G4, G5, and Intel versions)
- G5's can be iMac's or Powermac G5's

I'm not sure of your budget...but you're really best off purchasing (new or used) an Intel based Macintosh. This would be an:

- iMac
- Mac-Mini
- MacBook
- MacBook Pro
- Mac Pro

But if you really don't have a very big budget to purchase a "newer" computer...then the G5's will certainly be much better than your 700mhz G4 iMac.

HTH,

- Nick

cphogo

thanks again for your help it is running osx 10.4.9 i will be looking for an older intel macbook maybe around 500.00 I know I can get a new dell for less but I had my Imac for 8 years now while friend went through 3 or four pc's durring the same time period so in my opinion a used mac is better then a new pc i will let you know what i get and maybe ask for more help in upgrading it thanks again jim

jimshady said:

thanks again for your help it is running osx 10.4.9 i will be looking for an older intel macbook maybe around 500.00 I know I can get a new dell for less but I had my Imac for 8 years now while friend went through 3 or four pc's durring the same time period so in my opinion a used mac is better then a new pc ...

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Sounds like a great plan Jim!

I liked your computer purchase analogy a lot!..."a used mac is better then a new pc!!!

Good luck,

- Nick

perchased a used macbook i will be asking question on the macbook forum

jimshady said:

perchased a used macbook i will be asking question on the macbook forum

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Wow...that was fast...congratulations!

- Nick

I get a little obsesive and compulsive whaen i decide to do something the i want to make it the best

Now buy Snow Leopard from the Apple store or online, format the hard drive and do a clean install and update to OS X.6.6. You will notice a huge difference over the iMac and Tiger.