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Operating System Specific Discussions => Other Operating Systems => Topic started by: save2600 on November 05, 2009, 01:34:39 AM
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Had to share here in the group... I did something VERY Amiga like that I've never really done before on any other modern or mainstream computing platform. And that was to spend money on an "obsolete" computer, bringing it to modern or semi-modern spec! lol
Friend literally gave me a mint B/W G3 PowerMac that I just couldn't NOT use. Just a cool looking piece of equipment. Well, it originally came with a 300mhz G3 processor, CD ROM drive, 4GB HD and 64mb of ram... LOL!
Discovered there's a 1.1ghz G3 upgrade that sells for only $109 and learned the only difference between that and a G4 was this Altivec thing that I guess most programs don't even take advantage of anyway. Doesn't just seem to be marketing hyperbole either as the system totally flies with OS10.4.3, iTunes, iPhoto and Adobe apps.
Have an Airport card coming, some ram, but she now already has a Superdrive in her, 80GB HD and 640mb RAM. System doesn't feel all that much slower than my G5 iMac and I'm quit familiar with the evolution of these things including the entire G4 range.
A G3 for next to nothing at a performance level that bests similarly priced G4 systems :-) Yay! lol
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The Motorola stuff is going to drop like crazy now that the newest MacOS won't run on any of it.
I still like my overclocked G3 Clamshell iBook running Tiger though.
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I remember the clamshell books. One of the first "cool" or "hip" looking laptops of theirs. Yeah, I'm seeing dual core G5 PowerMac's selling for crazy cheap even. Good. Hope they go lower and when they do, I'm going to snag up the highest end Quadcore they ever made for peanuts then :-)
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I remember the clamshell books. One of the first "cool" or "hip" looking laptops of theirs. Yeah, I'm seeing dual core G5 PowerMac's selling for crazy cheap even. Good. Hope they go lower and when they do, I'm going to snag up the highest end Quadcore they ever made for peanuts then :-)
That's my plan too lol
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I'd love to get a beige G3 at some point (before Apple went all futuristic and silly with their cases). Maybe the same mod can be done to that too?
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I'd love to get a beige G3 at some point (before Apple went all futuristic and silly with their cases). Maybe the same mod can be done to that too?
Yes indeedy - here's the linky:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/PowerLogix/PFZGX10001M/
...got to be one of the best cost<>performance upgrades I've ever seen for this kind of thing - outside of replacing your motherboard of course ;-)
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Got a 9500 for free (200 MHz 603e), played with 9.2 a bit (slow, few current apps), then I discovered Sonnett's awesome G4 1GHz upgrade for $99 - with the help of a bit of RAM, a bigger HDD I had lying around and a DVD ROM my Miggy wasn't eager enough to get it's running Tiger now. I've been told that Leopard would also be feasable, but a bit of fiddling required. Hmm...
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You will regret upgrading to Leopard. I have a 2.1ghz G5 and 10.5 totally sucks on it and Snow (a patch for their shite 10.5) is not supported on PPC's! Avoid at all costs. I have since reinstalled Tiger and am much happier. System zings along now.
BTW: I have a spare 5500/225... since that uses a 603e, can that be upgraded as well? Where did you get your Sonnet?
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I have a quicksilver g4, and leopard really feels slow on it. Even being a 933mhz with 1.5gb of RAM. I think that the "feeling" is mostly related to the video card, which is a Geforce 4 Ti 4600. Does not enable "core image"...
Tiger also feel a little sluggish. Actually I never ever had a quick feeling on any OSX on any HW. My wife has a Core Duo Macbook Pro and I still think it sucks!
I'm a huge Windows fan. (Don't kill me guys!)
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@save 2600
OK, thanks for the advice. Of course Tiger isn't actually fast on a 1 GHz G4 & Rage 128 PCI running on 50 MHz async RAM, but it's very usable.
Leopard was just appealing to the sportsman, being the last PPC OSX and possibly running on an ancient machine - but apparently I better not trash my Tiger setup then. Maybe I'll try it on a spare disk though. ;)
I bought the Crescendo PCI directly from Sonnet, but it's been sold out since. Actually bought two and sold one for a very good price on ebay to an extremely pleased customer. That card was regularly 350 € here in G - when you could get it. I'd even have imported some more if Sonnet hadn't run out of stock.
I've also acquired a set of 128 MB DIMMs for that machine (5V FPM/EDO being extremely rare) at a decent price - half of that's still waiting for ebay... :D
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All,
My experience with dozens of computers ,mine,my friends,and work,is that plenty of RAM is the key to maximizing performance,which also includes plenty of RAM in the video.
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OP, Mac os x itself actually uses the Altivec Co-processor. A lot. So do the all the included apps, and things like photoshop, video editors, etc.
Even without Altivec, The G4 is so much better than the G3 it's scary, even at half the clock speed.
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Hmm... well, from what I read on the marketing site - guess I was duped? lol Still, this computer and the apps I have for it all seem to fly. I do have a 500mhz G4 I can plug in. After I reinstall the G3 and then install the G4 enabling program that is. I might just do that someday for comparison. But in the meantime, this is what the Powerlogix people had to say: