G4 questions...

J

jnikolai

Registered
Hello. My name is John and I'm a Windows user.

Wow! I feel so much better now that I admit that I have a problem. ;) Now with that out of the way I can move on to something better like the G4 line of computers. I would like to ask some general (possibly newbie) questions before I take this bold step into a brave new world.

I have this PC and I would love to gut the thing and use some of the components in a G4. But I'm not sure if the following components will work in a G4 or not...

- PC133 256MB, CL-2, Non-parity memory
- GeForce 3 Ti-200 PCI video card
- 2x IDE hard drives
- Sound blaster live card

I doubt the GeForce and the sound card will work in the G4 but how about the memory and the IDE hard drives? It would be great if I could use one of my HD's as it has tons of mp3 files on it already. I would hate to have to re-rip and re-encode these on the Mac. I know there are ways to transfer files from a PC to a Mac especially with OS X and it's unix core (ie. Samba)...

I'm debating between the 733mhz and the 867mhz machines (Dual 800mhz is overkill for what I want). I do plan on playing some games but my main focus will be on learning how to program OS X using Apple's free development tools (a wonderful thing!), simple graphic design and digital photo touchups (for the web and such), mp3 crunching (need my music!), digital photo manipulation (iPhoto looks cool!), email, and browsing (of course).

CD-RW is importent but I'm not sure if I will need or will ever use a DVD burner. Of course I may change my mind once I start using one and a DVD-R would make backups a bit easier. Is the 867mhz a $1000 better than the 733mhz?

With these in mind, which system would you recomend? Any idea when the next G4 speed bump may be announced?

Finally is MS Office for the Mac worth the money? Too bad I can't use my PC license to buy the upgrade to the Mac license. :(

Thank you for all your help!
- John
 
You will have to check the specifics, but i believe that the ram and hard drives (with a reformat) will work fine in os x. I think that there is also a good chance that sb live will work. But i cannot find a web site to confirm it (i remember hearing about it a while ago).

As for transfering files, I would recommend putting all of the files that you want transfered on one hard drive and reformat the other in HFS+ (so it runs fast and you can use it in os x). Plug both into an os 9 machine (this may work with os x also). Both hard drives should show up automaticly. Then do a direct copy from the old hard drive to the new (HFS+) hard drive. Once this is over with you should be able to format the old one as hfs+.

Personally, i would wait before buying a high end system. There is alot of speculation going around about a new system being released that has a good chance of blowing all other systems out of the water. This was seposidly going to be released in the past week. So, in the end it is your choice to wait or not.

I have heard that ms office for mac is very high quality, but you really don't need to go out and spend amazing amounts of money for it when you will get Appleworks included (it can open .doc files).
 
a small note: appleworks is not included with the pro line... it is only included in the "i" line of products (imac, ibook) ...that said, the mac version of office is fantastic!

if the formatting option that mailseth listed is difficult for you, transferring the files will be no problem via an ethernet connection. a bit slow, maybe, but not difficult.

i bought the 733 instead of the 867 because i had little money and budget was a huge concern.... if you can afford it, the speed boost and super drive would be worth it.

if you hack around a bit, you may even get the video card to work.


the speed bump (and possibly a move to the G5) is right around the corner... you could either buy now (there are some good bargains/bundles out there) or wait for the new machine to roll out in the next month or two.
 
Realisticly, when do you think the G5's will be announced? When is the next Apple event after Macworld? I guess I don't see a new Power Mac comming out until they have another key note...

Of course I could be wrong! ;)

Thanks for your your input.
- John

Originally posted by rinse

<snip>

the speed bump (and possibly a move to the G5) is right around the corner... you could either buy now (there are some good bargains/bundles out there) or wait for the new machine to roll out in the next month or two.
Click to expand...
;
 
Seybold is in May, IIRC. It's definitely not anytime soon, because it is not on Apple's Hot News page. The next event is MacWorld Tokyo, which is at the end of February.

However, I expect Apple to do one of those special event things like they did with the May 2001 iBook or the iPod. The reason? The high-end iMacs are better than the low-end PowerMacs and will cannibalize the Pro sales. Since the new iMac is already accepting pre-orders, many people will look to the iMac since the PowerMac is not much faster. Apple can't afford this, and so I believe that they probably have something up their sleeve they will release by the end of January.

I would be willing to bet that PowerMacs will be at least out come MacWorld Tokyo in February. So if you can wait, don't buy just yet!
 
I guess I will put up with my windows machine for another month or two. One of the few, arguably, redeeming value of the machine is that I can play Counter Strike on it. But that's getting old and it's high time to get my creative juices working and buy a computer that will be the better tool for doing so.

I did find a site that talked about hacking a GeForce3 PC card and getting it to work in a Mac. It requires re-flashing the GeForce3 ROM on the PC box though and I'm not sure if I want to risk "blowing the card up". I can post the URL if anyone is interested... I would post it now but I didn't bookmark the site. Silly me :rolleyes:

I'm still looking around for info regarding the SoundBlaster Live card and if I can use it in a Mac.

Thanks everyone for there input, it's helpfull! Here's hoping that Apple will announce something soon!

- John
 
Sound Blaster Live! won't work in Macs, sorry. Tried it today, and it didn't run at all. Apple System Profiler couldn't see the card, nor did it give any sound, instead my internal speaker made a bunch of noise.

Maybe it'll be possible with third-party drivers, but for now it seems impossible
 
Ok, now i dunno what sorta guy you are, but if you have half a brain, and don't use it for business use (tax man & audit not good), you can just download office for mac. hell. i've nearly filled a 20g drive with music, music videos and software, and guess what? i only paid for one after-market program. even that was before i had the g4. dont frickin buy software dude. that's what the freakin internet is for. use hotline, find a decent server, download office, away you go. also, as much as i dislike Micro$hit, office is better for editing (& saving) word files.

also, you can find appleworks too. hell you can find anything. im currently downloading OS X from hotline. screw payin $220 for it.

that's my two cents worth anyways.
 
Buy a dualG4, run OSX, and fly away.
The dual 800 is too expensive ? Find a Dual 533 at ebay. Ports and cache are a little bit slower, but they are still faster than 733 and 833 proc. These machines are fantastic, and OSX is made for them.
And remember that hotline networks are not made for cracking. As the disclaimers say, people download software for evaluation, not for use, as anyone knows ! And they upload for backup purpose only...
 
people download software for evaluation, not for use, as anyone knows
Click to expand...

what are you? a frickin retard!?

have you been in a frickin coma?

the whole world isn't quite as pure as you are matey. some of us, have to actually do stuff, and dont have the money to buy the software.

why buy when you can borrow?
 
I was jockin', quackingpenguin. I even rule my own hotline server, but it's not maintained anymore now. It's just that Hotline network doesn't need advertising, its future is still uncertain, as too many people seems to know now how smart is this project. If Hotline's disclaimers still argue the kind of argument I've quote, it's to protect their owners against industry. Internet has to be free, you're right. And we have to fight for that. And software should be free (as firms would only buy the training). But for the moment, this "business model" is not really dominant. And they have the lawyers...
 
hey, carracho aint' that bad either. It is more mac friendly also. In general I have found that it has a better community. But hell, maybe things have changed in the year since I ran my own carracho and hotline servers ;-)
 
Oh uh, you were jokin...sorry for goin off ma' nut at ya... oh and yeah.... *wink wink nudge nudge* i personally only use commercial copies of software, which i buy from my local macintosh dealer. . o O ( think they're buyin' it? ) i have not before use illegal, or so called pirated software. i also do not use or have knowledge of the so-called MP3 technology. I am also unaware of what the terms 'DIVX', 'Rip', 'crack', 'hack', 'warez', 'leech', or 'ul to dl' mean.

i would like to conclude my message now with a prayer.

Dear lord,
may those reading this be either:
  • really simple
  • retarded
  • employed by Microsoft.

amen.


QP
 
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