Mac Forum / General / Hardware / January 2006

Add up what it will cost to do those upgrades (don't forget the cost of
a license for OS 10.4), then check the price of a new iMac G5.

I have the same machine. I solved the problem by buying a used
quicksilver, (867 mhz with a gig of ram, built in cd burner and tiger
10.4.3). Still have the old G4 and will use it for a backup. I was using
retrospect to back up via 250 mb zip discs, which I still have.
Upgraded to retrospect for OS 10 and now can burn cd's. Forgot to
mention that the new G4 has 2 hard discs, one of 130 gig and the other
'only' 80 gig. On the larger one I put os 10, and on the smaller one os
9.2.2.  If you do not need a G5 (it will not run os 9 easily) why not
consider an older mac G4 like I did.
Best of luck.
jeff

Considering the number of things you want to upgrade, a new system might
be a good idea.  A do-it-yourself estimate (parts-only cost) is
something like:

$ 400 - 2G RAM (4 512M DIMMs)
$ 100 - DVD-RW drive
$ 150 - 250G hard drive
$ 300 - CPU upgrade (they're $200-400, depending on speed)
$ 130 - Mac OS X
-----
$1080 - total parts

At this price, you may want to seriously consider a new Mac.

A 17" iMac costs $1300.  This gives you a 17" display, a 1.9GHz G5
processor, 512M RAM, 160G disk, a DVD+/-RW drive, and Mac OS X.  Add
$120 for a 1G DIMM (total 1.5G RAM) and install it yourself (which is
really easy) for a total cost of $1420.  This will cost $340 more than
the parts-only cost of an upgrade and will be a much more powerful
system.

Another alternative would be a maxed-out Mac mini.  The 1.42GHz model,
with a DVD+/-RW drive, and upgraded to 1G of RAM (80G disk and Mac OS X
standard, use your existing keyboard, mouse and display) costs $800.
This will perform similarly to adding upgrades to your G4 and will cost
less.  The only real downside here is the hard drive speed - add $170 to
get a 250 FireWire drive and that will solve that problem and still end
up costing less than the G4-upgrade cost.

As for what to do with your files, copying them over isn't difficult.
Use an Ethernet cable to connect the two Macs, turn on file sharing and
drag-drop everything to copy it to the new system.

If this is too expensive and you simply want to upgrade one piece at a
time, I'd recommend upgrading the RAM first, then the CPU, then Mac OS.
I think this will give you the most bang for your buck.  Mac OS X may
seem like a downgrade if your CPU speed and RAM are insufficient.

-- David

start with backup media: dvd-burner for the built in cd-rom drive.
RAM is a need for MacOS X, 512 MB minimun to make it work flawlessly,
768 or 1GB to leave space for your apps.

You need about max 2GB hard disk space for a proper install of MacOS X,
if you are nice to the system and yourself, give it a partition with a
least 10 GB, if you plan to run MacOS 9 natively, give it another
partition to easily switch between the systems. Otherwise just do it the
Apple way and have one partition for all. Free space is never hurting,
keep in mind MacOSX always uses virtual RAM.

next step could be a graphic card.
next the cpu. (400MHz G4 is X capable, but the X surface acts much
slower than 9)

Greetings Frank

Eric Rachel & Katherine <eranderson3@adelphia.net> writes in article <BFD6D5E0.54E7%eranderson3@adelphia.net> dated Tue, 27 Dec 2005 11:28:32 -0500:

This machine still has useful life in it, and it's worth money to upgrade,
but there are some caveats.

CPU upgrade -- not worth much.  Even if you upgrade the CPU to 1.2 GHz or
whatever the fastest G-4 ever made was, your system bus will still run at
133 MHz.  Don't waste your money.

Memory -- start by buying 512MB sticks for each empty slot.  This will
improve your computer's ability to run multiple apps (decrease time that it
takes to switch from one app to another).  

DVD burner -- A new DVD burner will probably outlast the system.  The price
for an external (Firewire) burner is $50 more than internal, and it makes it
very easy to switch between computers.  Look for one that comes with MacOS
DVD-burning software (both 9 and X since you're considering switching).
If you can only find OS X software you may want to put off buying the burner
until after your OS upgrade.

Additional hard drive -- Old IDE interfaces can only use the first 120 GB on
a hard drive.  My G-3/350 is like this, and your G-4/400 might be too.  So
get an external hard drive (again $50 more than internal, you can buy a
regular internal disk and a $50 Firewire enclosure).

OS X upgrade -- leave OS 9 where it is, and install OS X on the new hard
disk.  You can switch between the 2 as you wish (if you don't mind
rebooting).  

-- spud_demon -at- thundermaker.net
The above may not (yet) represent the opinions of my employer.

For your backups, I recommend a Lacie firewire pocket drive, at least
as large as your hard drive.  You can use it even if you do not buy a
new hard drive.  Zips are too small anymore. Your G4 will run OS X as
long as your firmware is up to date from the apple.com site, and you
have at least 512 mb ram.   If your existing OS 9 apps work for you,
maybe stay with 9.2.2.  Running classic mode would be annoying on your
model, and it is not worth trying to upgrade the CPU, I think.  Bob R.