Just aquired my first Mac.

EvilFranky

EvilFranky

EvilFranky

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We have recently done a job at work for a client that used Macs.

They swapped to PC's and the Macs were going for recycle but I snagged one before they left.

I believe I got the best of the bunch, it's a PowerMac G4 Dual 800mhz, 512MB RAM, 60GB HD.

Don't think it has one of those super drive things, but I suppose they are only DVDRW's anyway?

So basically, what can I do with it now?

Whats upgradable? I have tried installing an old Geforce3 card I had lying around but it didn't seem to like that, the card defo works though. Didn't seem to boot.

I've given it 1GB RAM, I had some Geil stuff lying about and it worked a treat.

Its on OS 9 at the moment but I'm looking into getting OSX, will it run it OK?

Can the processors be upgraded and if so what options do I have?

Just some general advice would be great :)
 
EvilFranky said:
We have recently done a job at work for a client that used Macs.

They swapped to PC's and the Macs were going for recycle but I snagged one before they left.

I believe I got the best of the bunch, it's a PowerMac G4 Dual 800mhz, 512MB RAM, 60GB HD.

Don't think it has one of those super drive things, but I suppose they are only DVDRW's anyway?

So basically, what can I do with it now?

Whats upgradable? I have tried installing an old Geforce3 card I had lying around but it didn't seem to like that, the card defo works though. Didn't seem to boot.

I've given it 1GB RAM, I had some Geil stuff lying about and it worked a treat.

Its on OS 9 at the moment but I'm looking into getting OSX, will it run it OK?

Can the processors be upgraded and if so what options do I have?

Just some general advice would be great :)
Click to expand...

I think you need to get a mac compatible graphics card If you want the fancy effects in OS X

sid
 
You can upgrade the optical drive, hard drive and RAM easily enough.

With that spec Leopard should run pretty well

Processors might be upgradable but most likely very costly.
 
sid said:
I think you need to get a mac compatible graphics card If you want the fancy effects in OS X

sid
Click to expand...

Its got a Geforce 4 MX 32MB in there at the moment. Any reason why the Geforce 3 64MB wouldn't have worked?

I noticed an extra contact on the GF4 MX card just along from the AGP interface. Is there something to that?

I may beable to get hold of a 256MB X800 ATI card, would that work?
 
You might need to flash the BIOS to get the card working, if there's one available. If not, there's a plenty of Mac version cards kicking about on't web.
 
The graphics cards need a Mac BIOS to work you might be able to flash a card with one there is a limited selection of cards though.
 
t might sound silly, but why are you looking to upgrade the graphics? What you have there'll be fine for everything but gaming. Some games will even work well. I play Quake 3-based games on a Mac only slightly better.

Tiger would be a better choice than Leopard IMO. On my dual 1 GHz G4, 1.5 GiB RAM, GeForce4 PowerMac every version of OS X ran faster than the one that preceded it until Leopard. It's a bit slower.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
t might sound silly, but why are you looking to upgrade the graphics? What you have there'll be fine for everything but gaming. Some games will even work well. I play Quake 3-based games on a Mac only slightly better.

Tiger would be a better choice than Leopard IMO. On my dual 1 GHz G4, 1.5 GiB RAM, GeForce4 PowerMac every version of OS X ran faster than the one that preceded it until Leopard. It's a bit slower.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I guess its because I have a card l could use. A GF3 is going to be a hell of a lot better than the 32MB GF4 MX thats in there.

Is it going to be too much hassle then?

Your right about the gaming though, I'll never use it. This is basically to have a bit of a mess around on and learn something new.
 
EvilFranky said:
To be honest, I guess its because I have a card l could use. A GF3 is going to be a hell of a lot better than the 32MB GF4 MX thats in there.

Is it going to be too much hassle then?
Click to expand...

You'd need a Macintosh BIOS from whoever made the card which is unlikely to be honest. Get hold of the BIOS and it's easy enough - I've reflashed Voodoo 3s before no problem for a PowerMac.

GF4MX to GF3 will make sod all difference as the feature set is the same. Best upgrade for that system on OS X would be something that supports Core Image eg ATI 9600 upwards, GeForce FX5200. Full list on Wikipedia if memory serves.

/edit : Core Image basically requires the same hardware as Vista Aero so anything with Shader Model 2 is good.
 
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That should run like a dream. Definitely get Tiger on there, although Leopard should be good too. My G3 350 is fine as an internet/e-mail machine, so that'll be much better.
 
Well I have mixed and matched some RAM and now have 1.5GB, not sure how stable it'll be but will see in the coming days.

Also found an old 10GB HD and put that in there for a little extra space.

All seems good so far, just getting used to the OS really.
 
I think he's referring to the fact that Tiger is very similar to Leopard.

If it struggles with Leopard, then Tiger will run smooth as it's less demanding.
 
Yo

Leopard will work, you jut need to type in a line of code in terminal during verbose boot from leopard disk :)
 
Just checked and it is a Dual 867Mhz, so shouldn't have any difficulty getting is installed.

What is it about the latest OS X that will be taxing?
 
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