G4 AGP "Sawtooth" upgrade

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My oldest mac, the G4, is showing its age but its still kicking.

Specifics

G4 450MHz
OS 10.3.9
100MHz bus speed
512MB RAM
ATI Radeon 32MB
40GB HDD
20GB HDD

I have other macs in the house so this old trusty G4 will go on my bedroom desk. It will just function as a web surfer, music/video downloads, no hardcore apps. However, even doing these things seem sluggish. Should I reformat all the HDDs and start from a clean slate, more memory, new processor?

I've totaled less than $300 for a 1.6GHz processor and 512MB memory stick from mac-sales.com You guys help me work it out. If I go too far on this G4 upgrade then perhaps I should dump it and get the Mac Mini? I've heard the arguments that going overboard on a powerful processor upgrade is moot considering that the rest of the hardware can't keep up.

Well, you've seen the specifics of my machine, what its function will be, what my options are and now I just need some sound advice. If you advise on getting a cpu upgrade please be specific: Newer Tech, PowerLogix, OWC Mercury, Sonnet, etc. I can pretty much expect you guys to tell me to max out my RAM.
 
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Well,
if you would have asked me yesterday, i would have said upgrade away.
But now, i would go with a Mac Mini,
they are so cheap its unbelieveable. I checked the prices this morning,
if you just want to do basic things, than the mini would obviously fit the bill.
I'm checking the (refurb) apple store right now,
they had like 6 at about 7this morning, now its down to 2.
The 1.83GHZ core 2 duo/1gig mem/80gb hd/cdrw-dvd combo for $499. ANd it ships with Leopard.

A drawback (IMO at least), they use the same hard drive as notebooks, so upgrading will be more expensive (and i've heard its a pain to put one in).

Good luck!
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
I am in the same boat, upgrade an ageing G4 or just buy a MacBook or MIni

I think I would save the money and get a Mini, by the time you have done a processor upgrade, hard-disk and ram you have almost reached the price of a mini.

The only advantage for me is the strength of the pound, @2 dollars a processor upgrade looks cheap
 
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Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
I am a fan of upgrading as even second hand Macs here in Australia are a temendous price. Everything is double US prices. For instance the DVI-ADC adapter Apple sells for $99 they sell her for $199 and 1.42DP MDD are going for over $1,200.00.

The 2MB L3 cache on newer CPU upgrades is their secret, giving loads of punch and speed. never did like the 2.5" HDD in laptops so would not fancy one in a mini. Modern OS require super HDD response times.
 
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g5velocity
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The 2MB L3 cache on newer CPU upgrades is their secret, giving loads of punch and speed. never did like the 2.5" HDD in laptops so would not fancy one in a mini. Modern OS require super HDD response times.

Is that what I should look for, the cache? There is the Sonnet Encore/ST G4@1GHz Processor with 2MB L3 cache($175USD) and the OWC Mercury Extreme [email protected] with 2MB L3 Cache($199USD). Yeah, I guess my two drives in there are slow. I believe they're 7200rpm Ultra ATA/66.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Guess it comes down to the dollar value.

I went with a 1.3GHz Mercury Extreme and am very satisfied with it and run Leopard no problems. Either supplier will send the upgrade with pre-set jumpers for your machine.

If they are 7200RPM drives they are okay. Was referring to the smaller 2.5" drives.
 
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g5velocity
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Does the chipset matter? Like 7447A, 7455, 7448. OWC uses the older 7455 which is the oldest of those three.
 

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