pkmgarf Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Okay, I just want to see what everyone here thinks. I'm going to be starting college in the fall. I'm taking my G4 with me and will also have a new laptop (It will be a PC, but I'm ditching Vista and will run OSX86). The G4 is going to serve as my...well, server, and will hold my music and will probably end up doing the brunt of my work. I was given the G4 for free and have a little over $100 in it to get it working how I want it. I'm looking to upgrade it further to keep up. Right now, it is a Gigabit Ethernet, DP500mhz, 1.25gb RAM, 40gb and 15gb HDs. I'm looking at a larger hard drive and most likely some sort of processor upgrade..possibly max out the RAM at 2gb. This is my first Mac. I've used PCs my entire life, but I love this thing. I don't really have a budget in mind, but nothing too crazy (will be college student...therfore, have no money). I was thinking, if it is possible or practical, to try to use a DP1.25ghz board from a MDD G4, as I think it would be cheaper than going with an aftermarket one....Is it possible? Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eire3678 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 You can't use the processor from a MDD. Completely different interface. Unless you add a PCI card for SATA or ATA133 you won't be able to use any HD larger than 120GB. And no matter how fast the processor you stick in there you will always be crippled by a 100MHz bus. Being the owner of 2 Digital Audio G4s I can tell you now that unless you want to make a hobby out of this or have hardware/software that will only work on your Gigabit G4 it makes zero sense to upgrade it. For the cheapest of processor upgrades it will cost around $180 for a single G4, plus your RAM costs, plus a hard drive, plus a new graphics card if you want to use QE (if the card is still stock that is). To outfit the G4 with a dual processor upgrade, RAM etc. would cost well over $500 retail. You could buy an Intel MacMini for about the same cost as upgrading the G4 and it would destroy it at just about everything, not to mention what kind of OSX86 machine you could build. So in my opinion, it almost never makes sense to spend money on an old G4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkmgarf Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Thanks for the feedback...I think... I was given the G4 for free. I already have upgraded the RAM to 1.25gb ($80 on ebay), have a working wireless PCI card (Buffalo Technologies), and have gone from OS9 to 10.4. Granted, no matter what, I've still got a 100mhz bus, but I'm planning on watching ebay for upgrade processors (dual 1.?ghz). I simply do not believe in paying retail for computer components. It doesn't make sense to when prices drop so quickly. As far as the hard drive, two 120gb ATAs would be fine. I am not going to fill 240gb of space. Period. My largest space hog is my music, which is currently at like 35gb. If I want, I could just go with an external firewire HD, but I don't see that being necessary. The graphics card is the stock one, but it was shipped with the ATI card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Go to Macsales.com and check out their processor upgrades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkmgarf Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Yeah, that is one of the sights I've been looking at. It's crazy how the price jumps up so much to go from a dual 1.0ghz to something like a dual 1.6ghz. I'll keep watching ebay, and try to decide how much I want to spend. As far as an x86 unit...that is what my new laptop will be. But that is another topic entirely... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eire3678 Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 If you can get everything cheaply by all means go for it, I just don't see it being worth the time, effort and cash. Trust me though, you will want to find a better graphics card. At the very least see if you can pick up an AGP Radeon (original Radeon, technically a 7200) or Geforce2MX to enable QE. Shouldn't cost more than $20-30 on ebay if you can find one. It is also possible to use the processors from Quicksilver G4s with a 12v modification. Those would likely be cheaper than retail upgrades, but unless you have some soldering skills they would run at a lower speed and, if I remember correctly, the L3 cache will be disabled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 You can still enable the L3 cache using some sysem preferences, or else G4 ipgrades wouldn't even bother with having them on the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkmgarf Posted June 15, 2007 Author Share Posted June 15, 2007 Anyone have any more info on using a QS CPU? I could probably find a dual unit for a good price if I watch ebay. The QS has a 133mhz bus though, right? What sort of modifications would be involved in getting it working? I am pretty confident in my soldering skills, so I'm up for anything. As for the graphics card, it comes up in system profiler as ATI Rage6, and QE is enabled already, so I'm good to go there. I think when the college that was using this G4 in their lab ordered it, they ordered it with a better card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eire3678 Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Wow, a Rage6! It is a Radeon that was build-to-order on the Cube and probably the Gigabit series as well. They aren't very common and sometimes aren't recognized correctly by software but it should work just fine for you. As for a QS CPU, since it was running on a 133MHz bus, the multiplier will lead it to run slower on a Gigabit. A dual 1GHz has a 7.5 multiplier and as such will run at 750MHz unmodified in your Gigabit, although there sometimes are other problems seen when running these CPUs on 100MHz boards. The L3 is not always capable of being enabled (something of a hit-or-miss depending on which run of CPU it is). In order to install it you will need to modify your case and also desolder the IDE connector for the optical drive bay from your motherboard as well as hook up a 12v lead to the 4th pin of the CPU card as it needs the voltage to boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkmgarf Posted June 15, 2007 Author Share Posted June 15, 2007 Hahah...turns out what I thought was a "questionable" video card is decent then? I got the computer from a tech college that upgraded to G5s, and it came to me like that. What sort of mods are required to the case to get the QS chip to work? Is the QS the latest chip that will work, even with mods? Is there a how-to somewhere? I could pick up the QS chip, then overclock it, no? Sorry for all of the questions, I just stopped home for a second, and am heading out right away, so I want to ask everything right away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eire3678 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Yeah, the graphics card will work fine. It won't set any speed records as it is the slowest card capable of QE though. You need to cut out part of the optical drive cage in order to close the case with the Quicksilver processor in. If you're going for it head to www.xlr8yourmac.com and read read read. And then read some more. The forum disappeared unfortunately but the database and FAQs hold more information on older Macs than you're likely to find anywhere else. Everything you need to know is either on the site or contained in links from the site, with lots of photos too. Everything I know about the install came from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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