Special-K Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Some of you might remember I was talking about buying a G4 a couple weeks back. I didn't and it's a good thing, cause I now have a MacBook. But one of my boys got that same one for Christmas. To be specific, it's from like 1999-2000 era. It's still got OS 9 on it. Yea exactly. He wants to upgrade to OS X solely for Garageband (He's not very bright mind you). So I'm wondering what's the highest version of OS X I could install on it without it being excruciatingly lagtastic. I'm thinking that it's Tiger, but I'm not sure, hence why I'm here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrupted Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 What're the specs on it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special-K Posted December 27, 2007 Author Share Posted December 27, 2007 Sorry, forgot to put that. It's the G4 Powermac AGP Graphics version. So whatever came stock on that is what's in there. I think it's something like: 400MHz processor 256 or 512 Ram It's got an Airport slot, but I don't think they make the card for it anymore. Everything else is stock, so that should help. If you need anything else, I'll go over there and check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 With such limited memory and CPU this isn't going to be a very productive machine for Garageband. Doesn't Garageband have a minimum requirement of OS X 10.4 anyways ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(MoC) Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Headrush is right and... Find a copy of final cut studio for OS 9 somewhere. That G4 can fly under OS 9 with Pro Tools. I for one miss OS 9; but I still have it on my B&W G3 (Special Edit.)!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embio Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Panther if your heart is set on OS X, but OS9 isnt bad - as long as he doesnt want to use it for the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special-K Posted December 28, 2007 Author Share Posted December 28, 2007 Like I said, not very bright of a guy. I was pretty sure it was gonna run horribly, but he still wants to try it. And he wants the internet. Mostly for porn and downloading of Kiss. I guess I'll find a copy of Panther and hope it works. I just looked up the minimum requirements: System Requirements Checklist Macintosh computer based around a PowerPC G3, G4 or G5 processor (600MHz G3 is the absolute minimum). A G4-based system is required to make use of Software Instruments, although a G5 is recommended if you intend to rely heavily on Software Instruments. An Absolute Minimum of 256MB of physical RAM, although I recommend 512MB, or better still 1GB, for frustration-free music making. Your System will need an up-to-date installation of at least Mac OS X v10.2.6, although performance under Panther (v10.3) is thought to be much improved. An installation of Quicktime 6.4 or later is also required. A Display with a resolution of at least 1024x768, although a higher resolution will help you work more efficiently. 4.3GB OF DISK SPACE for installation, plus plenty of free space for creating those all-important recordings. More or less it should work. I'll just tell him to upgrade the RAM if it's too slow. He should be fine though. He's not computer savvy at all so he'll think it's fast enough. Thanks everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mebster Posted January 3, 2008 Share Posted January 3, 2008 I've run 10.4 on a 400mhz G3 fairly smooth with 640mb memory. I also tried 10.3 and didn't notice much difference so stuck with 10.4 (Tiger). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilis Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 My G4 is dual-processor and has a bit more RAM (512mb), but it does fine with OS X Tiger on the internet and for any general purpose stuff like office work. Remember that these machines were top of the line when they were released, and people used them just fine on the net back then. They haven't gotten any slower; expectations have just gotten higher . Matter of fact my first computer I ever used on the Internet was actually a 486 75Mhz with 6MB of RAM and an 80MB hard drive - running Windows 3.1 (Trumpet Winsock FTW!). While I'm sure I'd throw it out the Window if I tried to use that machine today, back then I had it browsing the web and checking email just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 My G4 is dual-processor and has a bit more RAM (512mb), but it does fine with OS X Tiger on the internet and for any general purpose stuff like office work. Remember that these machines were top of the line when they were released, and people used them just fine on the net back then. They haven't gotten any slower; expectations have just gotten higher . But the question isn't just OS X, but Garageband. I think that's the kicker in this situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilis Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 But the question isn't just OS X, but Garageband. I think that's the kicker in this situation. Yeah. I'm not an iLife user so I'm not sure how much horsepower Garageband would use. If he's really hit up for cash you *can* get processor upgrades for those old G4's. A 1.6ghz runs $219 from macsales.com. 256MB Mushkin RAM sticks (which I can confirm worked fine in my G4) run $24 each from Newegg. So for ~$330 or so you could have the machine physically decent at 1.6ghz with 1GB of RAM. Hard drive is kinda small though. That's replaceable too, but if you want a larger drive and/or Serial ATA you need to buy an extra PCI SATA card - another $30 or so. So then you're up to $425-ish. Throw in the $100 for Leopard or Tiger and you're basically already at the price of a Mac Mini. The Mini will blow the 1.6hz G4 out of the water. Then again though I pretty much figured in a 500GB hard drive in those upgrades, which is much, much more than what the Mini comes with. I'm pretty sure the Mini also comes standard with only 512MB of RAM compared to the 1GB on the upgraded config. Really is kind of a toss-up. I was looking at this same option regarding my own G4 system and opted to build the Hackintosh instead of sink money into upgrading the G4. The Hackintosh itself was ugpraded since I built it, but my intitial build came in under $300. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special-K Posted January 14, 2008 Author Share Posted January 14, 2008 Neil, even the $330 you purposed there is more than how much he paid. So I doubt he's gonna sink in that much cash to the computer. It's alright though, they went with a WinPC cause the Mac wouldn't work with their phone line. So they told me, whether or not that's the least bit right I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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