# G4 PPC or G4iMac, cant decide



## Timothy Gerges (Nov 1, 2006)

Hi,
First time posting in a forum, so please be patient.

I have had a mac g4 ppc for quite some time, the PCI graphics one (2.6/350).
(whatever that means, still a little lost there, windows based computers are a little easier to understand when it comes to that)
Recently, I have had the choice of getting a G4 imac 17" 700 or 800 Mhz, but i'm not sure which is the better option. Some contructive opinions would be greatly appriciated.

Both have 512 mb Ram, the iMac has a 50gb hdd, and the powerpc 40gb.
The imac also boasts 10.4, on the powerpc, i have 10.3, but an incorrect version installed, one for the eMac, so its not performing the way it should at all. 

I really dont know what i should do.
Something to discuss i would say..
Please help...

Timothy


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## Ferdinand (Nov 1, 2006)

Well, all iMac G4s _are_ PowerPC. PPC's are all Apple's that have IBM chips (which is most of them). I am slightly confused...
Am I getting this right:
iMac                Your Mac
50 GB             40 GB
10.4 Tiger        10.3 Panther
512 MB RAM     512 MB RAM.
How much MHz or GHz does your Mac have? What G4 ist it? You just wrote Mac G4 PPC, which can mean anything, from iBook and PowerBook to iMac, eMac and Mac mini. Please say which one you have. How big is the screen of your current Mac? How new is it? If you take the iMac definatley 800 MHz because its faster than 700 MHz.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 1, 2006)

see, i told you this was my first time, No beginner's luck here...

My current mac is a G4 PowerPc PCI Graphics, i am also confused about the MHz, it says 2.6(350), it also sounds strange to me, but i dont think i am mistaken.
As it is just the tower, i use an ordanary compaq 17" screen.


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## fryke (Nov 1, 2006)

Where does it say 2.6(350)? ... Go to the Apple menu and choose "About this Mac". There it should say something definite. PCI graphics probably mean it's a 350 MHz "Yikes!" PowerMac G4. The iMac certainly sounds like the better deal. You'll want the OS X license to be "good", though. Installing from an installation disk that came with another Mac is not a good idea in various ways. (Steve would probably say "Karma".)


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 1, 2006)

believe it or not, i am not going insane, although i am a little confused, however, confusion is good at some stage or another.
I attached a picture of the system profile. Just to show you what i mean, i know sometimes i dont come across to clearly.


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## eric2006 (Nov 1, 2006)

You have a PowerMac G3, with a 350 MHz G4 upgrade (I think?). The iMac won't be as upgradable in some ways (PCI cards, multiple hard drives), but it will be much, much faster, sport a gorgeous design, and an LCD display. 512 of memory will be good for most basic applications, though you can add up to a gig, which would be optimal.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 1, 2006)

so you think i should go for the imac?


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## eric2006 (Nov 1, 2006)

Personally, I would. It's worth more than what you have now, too (unless you have some serious upgrades installed). It's quieter. It's faster. It looks cooler. Upgradability would really be the only factor that could hold you back, you loose the option to upgrade your video card, install multiple optical drives, multiple hard drives, etc. Of course, if you don't plan to upgrade, and don't have any upgrades installed, that's not really a factor.
You may want to read this: http://lowendmac.com/fishkin/06/1031.html


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 1, 2006)

and interesting read, i must admit, but it confuses me more with this choice.


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## eric2006 (Nov 1, 2006)

I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have posted that.. The moral is, the iMac is more powerful, but the PowerMac is more expandable. If you're doing stuff like web browsing, email, word processing, iLife, etc.. you'll be fine with an iMac. In fact, it'd be better. The only time I'd take a PowerMac would be if I wanted to use it as a fileserver, do some dual-monitor stuff, etc.


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## fryke (Nov 1, 2006)

"More expandable", yes. But if it really _is_ such an old PowerMac, you won't get _that_ far. For example, you won't get a graphics card for the PCI bus that truly beats what's inside the iMac. You can expand the iMac externally (i.e. FireWire harddrives) and internally (RAM) - and it becomes quite a decent machine.
I know, there are lots of people who really love their old G3 and G4 PowerMacs and will not part with them, because of their investment in CPU upgrade cards or once-expensive PCI cards, but if you're on a budget and the price for that iMac is okay, then I'd go for that if you don't intend to invest much into old hardware (which I believe to be wrong, anyway...).


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## eric2006 (Nov 1, 2006)

It also depends on what you're paying for this iMac.. if you're getting it for free, go for it. If you're paying above, say, $500, you'd be better off getting a mini, which will be much faster than the iMac, and smoke the Power Mac.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 2, 2006)

I dont know how much it would work out in $s, but in rands (ZAR,) its R2000 or so. 
Just a question, acoring to the system picture i posted, is at a g3 or g4, kinda confused me?


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## sinclair_tm (Nov 2, 2006)

if it looks like -->this<-- it is a g3 that has been upgraded to a g4.  if it looks like -->this<--, then its a native g4.

but either way, the 2000zar is about 270usd, which means its a good price for the imac.  i would get the imac (and this is comming from one of those that has upgraded his g4 and won't let go of it like fryke was talking about  )


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 2, 2006)

it looks like the second option.
As in the picture i posted earlier, the CPU type is G4 2.6, this sounds odd to me as i havent seen or heard of one that high on a G4. I havent made any alterations to the mac, so if it is possible that it is indeed a 2.6Ghz CPU, it must have been the previous owner. 
2.6 by any standards is fast, much faster i would think that the 800Mhz sported by the imac, but still scepticle about whether it is actually 2.6GHZ or 350 MHZ.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 2, 2006)

The imac is 800Mhz, which aparantly is fast in mac terms, although in windows terms, i would say its extremely slow. The picture i posted of the system information of the powerPC said it was 2.6Ghz. Is it just me or is it hard to beleive. I have never seen one that goes up that high,except maybe the newer G5s. Maybe i'm not understanding it correctly. Cause if it is indeed 2.6Ghz, then it should kick the iMac's .... in terms of speed. But still confused if it is really 2.6 or 350. The more likely one would be 350 but it does say 2.6ghz. Please take a look at the picture in one of my previous posts.


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## eric2006 (Nov 2, 2006)

It's not a 2.6 GHz processor, that's just the version # of the CPU. It's a 350 MHz processor ("CPU Speed"), so the iMac will be more than twice as fast. 800 MHz isn't "fast" by modern standards, but unless you're doing video editing or something really processor intensive, it will feel just like a modern mac (with enough memory).

I just did a currency convert check, and it looks like that iMac is costing $272 in USD, which is a great deal.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 2, 2006)

I see.. That makes more sense now, Thanks..
It looks like my mind is slowly becomming more made up. Looks like the iMac outdoes the powerpc.
Being very experienced with windows computers i know the inside of any windows platform computer inside out better than the back of my hind. The inside of the powerpc is rather simiallar. So, if a problem comes along, I can handle my own fixing/swopping the hardware. But what happens if something goes wrong with the iMac? What type of HDD does it take?


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## eric2006 (Nov 2, 2006)

I believe that it's a normal 3.2" ATA hard drive. Here's what's inside:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html

Looks like full size stuff. You could even put a full-size burner in there if you wanted, and the RAM is cheap stuff.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 13, 2006)

man, you gotta love my dad... Here's why
He brings home the Imac G4, he says I can keep it indefinetly, well, I just cant use it until exams are over. Although, he does say, as long as its sitting on my desk, I might as well use it on weekends and while i take breaks from studying. Naturally, one of the first things i do, is download lightroom and install that to keep up with my photography habits,(for some reason, this one never had iLife). I was attached since the moment i turned it on, It was super fast, and i had troubles sleeping at night just thinking and looking at it.

Then, one day at school, he sends me an sms, saying that he sold all the imacs, (he bought like four). And one of them was to one of my friends' sister. Turns out when he said all imacs, he included mine, and that night, my friend's sister came to collect her imac.
I was sooo sad, i'm not a computer freak, but man, i loved the 5 days i had with the imac, Now i just got the powerpc.. I really like it too, but its only 350 mhz, and i need to get osx tiger from somewhere, and prefribly one that is not computer specific so i can use it to its full.. (Photography with panther just doens't happen!)


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## eric2006 (Nov 13, 2006)

Well, there's always eBay..

You can get refurbished macs on the Apple website and save a lot on the "old" generation models. They're still expensive, but less than a new one.

The G4 towers are relatively cheap, and you could use one with your existing setup.

Also, adding RAM to your existing Power Mac will speed it up.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 14, 2006)

Sometimes i wish i lived in the states, here we dont have facilities like ebay. I often look at ebay, but finding second hand macs here are extremely difficult. Upgrades too


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## Lt Major Burns (Nov 14, 2006)

PowerPC is the processor type inside, like Pentium or Athlon.  you have a Power Mac.  the model is Power Mac G4 (Yikes!).


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 14, 2006)

Will i be able to take ram out my P4 and put it in the powermac?


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## eric2006 (Nov 14, 2006)

You can put in PC133 SDRAM
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Power+Mac+G4+(350,+400,+450,+and+500MHz)


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## just4funuk (Nov 14, 2006)

I brought approx 6months ago imac G4 800Mhz with 256MB memory and 80GB HD with a Faulty DVD Drive.

I have  replaced the DVD drive and maximized the memory to 1GB (512MB PC133 (taken from P4) and 512 SoDimm). Before getting this machine my main machine was a Intel P4 2ghz to do most of my browsing etc on built about 3-4 years ago. But have always wanted a nice Imac but the price was the main reason why I had not got one. After seeing this imac going cheap because the CDrom drive had failed decided I had to have it.

Even though it is only an 800mhz which in the PC market would be classed as slow. I find this machine to be fast enough for my day to day usage which include surfing the internet and burning the odd CD or DVD. I have also manged to get medal of honor and some other games that run reasonably well on it.

To give you idea of the speed my girlfriend has a Amd 800mhz and to convert a track to MP3 most where taking 2mins +. On this imac most tracks where being converted in under 60 sec.This was using itunes to do the converting as the music was being converted to go on an ipod.

Upgrades that are possible include replacing the internal Harddrive  to 127GB (ATA IDE 3.5") internally from what I have read and possibly limit less if upgraded with external harddrives.

The 1GB ram limit in my opinion is not a limit.

The only minus is the Graphics card built inside is only 32MB and no way to upgrade.But if your a games player you would be looking for a faster CPU anyway.

Sorry I got carried away.

But as you can tell I like my IMAC G4.

Would I use an intel again ? Well it looks like I may have to with Apple jumping c/ship.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 17, 2006)

I was thinking, yeah, this does happen on the odd ocasion...
If i could upgrade the ram on the mac, that would be cool, but what would really make it a kick ass computer, would be upgrading the CPU.. How fast would it be with 1Ghz and 1GB ram, ram is not a problem, its the CPU.
Here in sa, finding mac stuff is like like looking for a windows computer in an american movie, (in my experience, this never happens). I know that sonnet and place like that make 1Ghz processors for g4s, but there is no sonnet in south africa.. Unless i am missing something
Would upgrading the CPU make that much of a difference?


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## Natobasso (Nov 17, 2006)

I don't think going with the iMac is a good idea, especially if you want a computer you can grow with. I had a 17" iMac G4 800Mhz for two years and it always seemed a few steps behind when it came to processing power for my graphic design work. Even after I upgraded the RAM to 1GB it just didn't cut it. 

Beyond the RAM upgrades, this computer just isn't very expandable. You're stuck with the video card and the internal parts require a licensed tech (except for the user-accessible RAM/Airport card slot).

If you want a more flexible computer, find a G4 or G5 tower, buy a monitor keyboard and mouse and then you have a computer that can last at least a few years with processor, RAM and hard drive upgrades. Don't go MacPro unless you want to be on the bleeding edge of current technology and have your software work even slower in Rosetta emulation for the time being.


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## Timothy Gerges (Nov 17, 2006)

At the moment, the speed of the power mac isn't impressing me at all


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## Michel PM (Jan 24, 2007)

I absolutely love this generation iMac.
Get the G4 800 Mhz model, the faster the better
The 17" and later the 20" LCD screens on these iMacs is a beautiful thing.
It'll be faster then your current Mac, but won't be as expandable/upgrade-able as a PowerMac, though.

Max the RAM to 1.0 GB!

The 32 MB 2X AGP card is this iMac's Achilles' heel, but it's designed to work with OS X Quartz and Quartz extreme graphics engine and hence won't use main CPU for screen graphics and redraws.
I do not believe there are any CPU upgrades fro these iMacs, though.
Have you looked online for newer versions of this generation iMac?
Newer versions can take more RAM and CPU speeds are faster G4's
Last of these models had MAX speed of 1.25 Ghz CPU's and can take up to 2.0 GBs of PC2700 RAM.
Plus these had 4X AGP cards that are 64 Mbs
These will,probably, cost more but would be a much more powerful machine!
Closer in power to the last of the PowerMac G4 towers.
Something to think about if you like the iMac you're looking at now.
I guess you can tell I really like this particular generation of iMac.


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## nixgeek (Jan 24, 2007)

Timothy Gerges said:


> At the moment, the speed of the power mac isn't impressing me at all



I know this is quite old and you probably already upped the memory, but remember that you have a Power Mac G4....a rather old computer.  While upgrading the RAM and getting a faster hard drive will help, there's only so much speed you can squeeze out of that CPU (barring any overclocking, which I don't recommend).  So just take into account that you are dealing with an older computer, so you can't expect performance to be almost as good as a G5 or an Intel Mac....it's just not going to happen.


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## Michel PM (Jan 24, 2007)

I just noticed where the dates are posted on these forums
LOL my bad!!
The location there in and the tiny size and style font make this easy to miss here!
I'll pay more attention in the future!
Obviously, the original Poster probably already made the decision and I am waaaay too late to the party!!!
LOL


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