help me upgrade my mac g4 =)

K

kidxsai

Registered
let me start off saying that id probably consider myself a mac newbie or a computer newbie in general.

ok i have a

G4 400mhz (AGP graphics)
312mb ram (64/128/128 dimm sdram)
10 gig harddrive + 5gig external hd
os 9.1

i just bought OSX and before i install it i would like to upgrade my computer so everything will run super smooth.

what i was planning on getting is:

- two 512mb ram so therefore i would have a total of 1152mb ram
- Western Digital Caviar WD600JB Special Edition - Hard drive - 60 GB - standard - 3.5" - ATA-100 - 7200 rpm w/ 8mb cache (i will get rid of my 10gig HD and replace it with this new 60 gig hd. partition it into 2 and run classic on one and run osx on the larger partition and keep my 5 gig external hd for mp3s)

is this ok? will my g4 400mhz be able to handle 1152mb ram? or do you see anything else thaty mite be wrong? also after in replace my old hd with my new hd should i initialize the new hd with osx or classic first? im planning to run both on my comp but will boot and use osx more. i hope this make sense. =)
 
I had the same computer up until I got my new Dual 1GHZ. You don't have to get rid of the old hard drive. take out the old one and put the new on in its spot and then put the old on above it on the hard drive carriage. There are already cables for the second hard drive. The only reason you are moving the Drive positions is so that your new drive is in the main drive slot. It'll be very easy to do. All you need is a Phillips screwdriver. As for the Ram i don't know if you can put more than a gig of ram into it. I never got my ram above 512.

Good luck. That is a good machine. Mine is actually now at my dad's office and it still works very well.
 
thats a good idea about the hds. i could just leave os9 on the old one then and install osx on the new hd that i will use as the main hd. thanks alot. i also thought that you needed 1gig of ram to run osx smoothly. but if your saying my machine cant exceed 512mb ram than i guess that sucks cause my main problem with this comp now is with memory issues
 
I think he meant that he never put in more than 512, not that it can't go over that. You can get get double that amount with little problem, providing the RAMs the same speed as the computer. Definitely keep your old drive - the more space the better, and don't bother partitioning the new one. Not much point these days. The only other thing you may want to consider is a better graphics card if the one you have isn't too hot, but more memory will give you a boost anyway.
 
You can put more than a gig of RAM in an older G4, but OS 9 will only see a gig - OS X will see up to 2, I believe.
 
Originally posted by kidxsai
i could just leave os9 on the old one then and install osx on the new hd that i will use as the main hd.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I did when i installed a second drive. I had 9 on my old drive and X on the new one.

Originally posted by kidxsai
i also thought that you needed 1gig of ram to run osx smoothly. but if your saying my machine cant exceed 512mb ram than i guess that sucks cause my main problem with this comp now is with memory issues
Click to expand...

No, I didn't mean it could only hold 512mb of ram. I just meant that was what I had in mine. I knew it can hold at least 1Gig, but I wasn't sure if it would recognize more than a Gig of ram.

Anyway, good luck with your machine. Let us know how it turns out. I had always thought about maxing my ram out and I still am thinking that on my DP 1GHZ. Right now I've got 512 in it too. I personally feel 512 is enough to run X well, then again it may be that much better with a gig of ram.

Maybe someone else who has experienced both scenarios could enlighten us.

Good Luck!
 
I have basically the same machine, except it's a 450. OS X won't run smoothly on this machine, at least not like OS 9 does, It will be slow and jerky. I installed it on a drive and just played with it a little because of this. I bought a PowerLogix 1GHz processor and since then haven't gone back to OS 9. It runs great. I also put an ATI Radeon 8500 Video card in. I have 1.25GB of memory.

So if you think it will be as fast as OS 9 on your machine, you're going to be disappointed.
 
Between the 10 GB and 60 GB HD's, put whichever is faster in the main slot (if they are both the same, leave the 10 in there) and install X onto it. 9 can go on the other, or even on the external if you want to leave it connected and will not be booting into 9. If you install X on the 10 (how appropriate), then you will have lots of room for it to expand, and all that space for the rest of your stuff on the 60.

Be sure to upgrade to at least 9.2 as 9.1 doesn't work with X as it should (if at all).
 
hey thanks guys. umm can my machine hold 2 internal drives? i opened my mac and it doesnt look like theres space for another drive. heres my profile.

Report Created:3/4/03 at 7:28:34 PM

Devices and Volumes

Internal ATA 2
ID = 0
Hard drive
Driver version: 3.2.8
Mac OS partitions: 1
Removable media: No
Vendor: QUANTUM
Revision number: A1S.3700
Product ID: FIREBALLP KX10.2
Serial number: 154002236104
Size: 10.26 GB (1K = 1000)
Capacity: 9.56 GB (1K = 1024)

!WTRAN
Volume format: Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
Capacity: 9.56 GB
Available: 7.45 GB
Percent full: 22
Write protected: No
Is being file shared: No
Internal ATA 0
ID = 0
DVD-ROM drive
Driver version: 1.4.7
Mac OS partitions: 0
Removable media: Yes
Vendor: MATSHITA
Revision number: 1A28
Product ID: DVD-ROM SR-8585
Apple disc burning: Supported

No mounted media inserted
 
kidxsai,

How many drives do you have now in your computer? Do you still have your manual that came with your computer. If so, read the part about installing extra drives. If not we'll proceed from there.
 
My machine at work was just upgraded to 1024K ram. I am running a 400Mhz. It is fine so far.

My question is "What video card would I upgrade to?"
 
Originally posted by banjo_boy
My machine at work was just upgraded to 1024K ram. I am running a 400Mhz. It is fine so far.

My question is "What video card would I upgrade to?"
Click to expand...

I believe you mean MB, not K. if so I'd love to see how you've got OS X running on 1 mb of ram! :eek:

As far as the video card it all depends on what you do and how much of it you do. If you're browsing the web and sending emails there's not much that you need to expect from a GPU. If you're playing games it all depends on the type of game you play.

In other words, it's a whole 'nuther can of worms! Although I think the topic's been discussed quite a bit in the past if you feel like searching for it.
 
Originally posted by Rhino_G3
I believe you mean MB, not K. if so I'd love to see how you've got OS X running on 1 mb of ram! :eek:

As far as the video card it all depends on what you do and how much of it you do. If you're browsing the web and sending emails there's not much that you need to expect from a GPU. If you're playing games it all depends on the type of game you play.

In other words, it's a whole 'nuther can of worms! Although I think the topic's been discussed quite a bit in the past if you feel like searching for it.
Click to expand...

Yes! I mean Mb. Sorry bad typing day!

I usually work with 4-8Mb Photoshop files with many layer. Same goes for Illustrator. My redraw time is rather sllloooooooowwwww!
 
More RAM will help those programs (which you now have :) ); a faster processor will help those programs as well; a faster graphics card will probably help some, but not as much as if you were, say, a game beta-tester; if you feel daring, you can try to upgrade the motherboard, but I wouldn't recommend this if you don't know what you're doing inside a computer. ATI and Nvidia make the best cards; pick an inexpensive one from either (at least GeForce 4 if you go Nvidia).
 
If I could jump in and ask a question too ... ? I basically am trying to upgrade the hard drive on a machine with the same configuration as kidxsai. A friend of mine gave it to me and I'm planning to pass it on to someone else but it needs a much bigger hard drive. I got a 300GB drive but on the initial boot to initialize the drive it's only recognizing 128GB? I looked thru the manuals I could find on it and it didn't say anything about a maximum size drive. Is there a maximum for these old G4s and if so, is there any way around it aside from exchanging it for a different size drive?
 
Try this Debberoo http://www.speedtools.com/ATA6.shtml

The Intech ATA Hi-Cap Support Driver software was created to allow the use of extended capacity ATA drives (drives greater than 128 Gigabytes in size) on older (Pre-Mirrored Door) G4 and G3 Macintoshes running MacOS X versions 10.2 and later. Without this software installed, any extended capacity drive which is connected to the native ATA bus on older Macintosh models will be limited to only 128 Gigabytes. Later model G4's and all G5's do not suffer from this limitation.

It's a driver that allows your hard drive of over 128 GB to be recognized in full.
 
i can't believe there has been all this talk of upgrading a great g4, and no one mentions owc. i got my ram and cpu from here. they also do controler cards, video cards, and just about anything else you can get to upgrade your mac. as you can see, mine is not stock anylonger, and it is rather snappy. sure, not as quick as a g5, but it does run 10.4 really well.
 
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