[nak-1]

Hi,

I currently have an old dual G4 450 and am thinking about what to get next.

Having looked around there are several companies that offer upgrade boards for my machine that will replace the processors with two 1.2Ghz ones.

Would it be worth doing this or saving for a while and buying a new G5?

Has anyone had any experience of processor upgrades with a mac? (Good and Bad)

Your thoughts would be most welcome,

Thanks

[Qiranworms]

Personally, I would go with the new machine. Instead of just getting processors clocked twice as fast, you get ones clocked four times the speed, much more RAM capacity, 64-bit processing, Panther, the new iLife, and a lot more. That's my opinion on the matter. The way I look at it, eventually you'll want to upgrade to G5 CPUs anyway...and you might as well not regret having spent money on the G4 upgrade.

By the way, we are expecting a G5 revision soon...I would wait a few months. 3 GHz was promised for this summer....

[g5orbust]

You can still get old powermacs from Apple on the CHEAP.

• Dual 1.25GHz w/ 2MB L3 Cache per processor
• 256MB DDR333 SDRAM (PC2700) -1 DIMM
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive
• Optical 1 - Combo Drive (DVD/CD-RW)
• Optical 2 - None
• ATI Radeon 9000 Pro dual-display w/64MB DDR
• 56K internal modem
• Apple Pro Keyboard - U.S. English
• Mac OS - U.S. English

$1599.00

Go to www.apple.com, then go to store and go to the bottom and look for "Powermac G4" in that center table. Thats where youll find them

[Qiranworms]

Originally posted by g5orbust
You can still get old powermacs from Apple on the CHEAP.

The thing is, he's not looking to buy a new Powermac G4, he's asking whether he should upgrade his, or get a new machine.

[RyansTech]

The G4 upgrades are great (I use them at work) however the only upgrade cards that are really worth the money are the pre-G4 upgrades to breath some new life into the old beige macs so for the price I would advise you to get a new mac. By the time you spend the 400-500 bucks on the upgrade card new towers will drop by about that much.

[nak-1]

Thanks for your comments.

If I'm being really honest I want a nice shiny new mac......

[mac_mogul]

Upgrading Macs is for Hobbyists.

Buying new Macs is for Users.

Period.

[g5orbust]

Originally posted by qiranworms
The thing is, he's not looking to buy a new Powermac G4, he's asking whether he should upgrade his, or get a new machine.

well they sell the Sonnet Encore chip replacement set for 499$ for 1.4GHz single proc.

https://secure1.sonnettech.com/store...b04f664ef5e003


I suggest getting a whole new mac though. Parts seem to run better when theyre made to run together.

[RyansTech]

posted by g5orbust
I suggest getting a whole new mac though. Parts seem to run better when theyre made to run together

I would just like to add to this, I agree but I also would like to say one of the G4's that I use at work all the time has a sonnet 800mhz chip in it and it has been running rock solid with no problems at all for at least 1.5-2 years. Great performance out of it too. But YES buying a mac with parts that are engineered to run together is always your best bet.

[CrossMX]

You know you will never be happy unless you have the best and to do that you know your going to want a G5. I personally would go for the G5 because I know even with the upgrade I would be thinking about the G5 after I did it a month later