PowerMac G4 Questions

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stewart

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Hello all,

A potential switcher here :)

I am looking around on ebay here in the UK and have noticed a few Macs which look like a fairly good bargin, there is a Quicklsilver G4 733Mhz with 384Mb RAM and also a G4 400Mhz with 1.25Gb RAM.

My question really is as to which one I am better off buying, I intend to use it to replace my current desktop (2.2Ghz P4 with 512Mb RAM). I wont be doing any gaming on the machine and the most resource hungry app I'll be using is Photoshop and maybe a bit of iMovie.

Thanks,

Stew

Edit: I meant to say that I have a 160Gb IDE hard drive I'd liket o use in the mac as well, will this be an issue? I know older PC's cant support more than 137Gb HDs with a BIOS update do Macs have this problem?
 
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You should buy IMO The QuickSilver 733Mhz you can upgrade the ram to what ever you want later. If it comes with anything except Panther (10.3.x) on it you should up grade it to Panther, about 120 US$. The 348MB RAM will run OS X fine but to do photo shop you should go with at least 768 [1GB is over kill unless you are doing RAW files]. There is no BIOS on mac but there is a HD size limit in the G4. I will find out what that is and post back. You can use any windows-formated HD, OSX can read and rite to it [with the exception of .exe files] but i suggest re-formating it to the OS X format in Disk Utility[is already on the mac dont worry].
 
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stewart

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Cool, I will go for the Quicksilver 733Mhz one then :)

I think it comes with Panther but if it doesn't Ill hold off until Tiger comes out - next few months I hope.

Many thanks for the help
 
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Good Choice. I beleve, correct me if im rong, but the G4 PowerMacs can only take up to 80GB hard drives[4 of them]. But if you buy a hard drive enclosure for your 160GB HD you will be able to use it as an external HD, but you will not be able to boot from it.
 
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stewart

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Ah right I'll just leave it in my PC just now and run that as a network server until I get an enclosure for the drive.
 

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I just did some research to conform this before posting. The older G4s can handle 137GB Max on the built in controler. If you want more, get an External Firewire case and put in your larger drive. Be sure though that it's a newer Hard Drive case with a newer controler or it will have the same problems. If you get it brand new it will work. Just some of the older ones would have the same old chip and the 137GB Limit.
 
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stewart

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Okay thanks, I think I have a 120Gb lying around some where any way so I can add that in straight away
 

dtravis7


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stewart said:
Okay thanks, I think I have a 120Gb lying around some where any way so I can add that in straight away

One thing I forgot to tell you as I was in a hurry, You can also get a PCI Hard Drive controler card and get rid of the limit that way. There are several that support the Mac and OSX.
 
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stewart

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Yeah I knew about the controller card idea :)

I checked on xclr8yourmac and it said that a lot of Quicksilver users have been able to use >127Gb drives with 10.2.x and newer so I might be lucky :)
 
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stewart

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Erm... I've got another question,

I have since found a Dual 450 Sawtooth on ebay and I was wondering what sort of life this machien has in terms of Tiger and how upgradable it is (new graphics cards gonna be needed as its an ATI Rage 128Pro with only 16Mb VRAM. It only has a Zip Drive and a DVD ROM drive (no burner at all although I have an external USB2 DVD burner so its not really an issue). It has 2Gb of RAM installed and includes both OSX and OS9.

My main concern with this machine is as to just how much life is left in it? And would it be any faster than the Quicksilver I previously mentioned?

Many thanks,


Stew

Edit: It's not a sawtooth, its this one here: http://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_450_dp.html also which graphics card would be a good upgrade for the machine?
 
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It will probably be supported if it can run panther. To upgrade the Grafx card just buy a mac AGP or PCI which ever that computer takes. The DVD drive just open the computer and take out a few screws and put in a new one. It will be slower then the QuickSilver but it might run smoother because of the 2GB RAM. I would still say to get the QuickSilver and upgrade the RAM because it is a newer computer and will be a) faster and b) better supported by newer OSs i.e. Tiger.
 
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And the money you put into upgrading the Processors [I can almost guarintee that you will need to] Graphx Card, and DVD Drive will be more or bring the total cost of the Sawtooth to the QuickSilver.
 

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