Powermac opinions please guys?

[Paul C]

I've just sold my mac mini to go back to a G4 Powermac, my budget is limited to about £350, I don't care about RAM or HDD cos I've got that already, my options are below:

1. Get a G4 450 AGP and buy a 1ghz Sonnet Encore upgrade, also have to buy a keyboard, mouse and DVD writer

2. Get a newer Quicksilver which will be about 733 or 800 G4 then add a little to it to get a DVD writer.


Basically the main things I use my macs for are: Surf the internet, burn DVD's, imovie, itunes. So I don't need a super computer or anything.

Help guys

 

[symphonix]

I'd recommend getting the Quicksilver over an upgrade. Sonnet upgrade cards seem to be about 90% as reliable as an original system, and you're less likely to run into compatibility problems, firmware or hardware conflicts, and so on if you stick to original configurations as opposed to upgrade cards. You won't get much difference in performance between a G4-700 and a G4-450 that's been upgraded to 1ghz, simply because the latter will have a narrower bus-speed anyway.

 

[Paul C]

Ahh right is this because the Quicksilver has the 'Velocity Engine' and the AGP doesn't? also will encoding video be much difference between the two?

 

[powermac]

I am not sure of a comparison between the two. I owned a 733 and it performed well under many circumstances. I used it for music processing.

 

[Paul C]

I'm thinking about just getting an AGP 400 and upgrading it to a 1.2 Sonnet cos it's going to be a lot cheaper for me. The costs are below:

Quicksilver 733mhz, 80gb HDD, CDRW, 512mb RAM = £375

AGP 400 upgraded to a Sonnet 1.2ghz, 40gb HDD, 512mb RAM, DL DVDRW = £350

 

[georgelien]

I upgraded two 466MHz G4s, aka Digital Audio, to gigahertz G4s with OWC solution.

They perform very well, and only cost me a total of $1,000 USD, $500 each.

With ATi 9000 Pro graphic card upgrades, they even outperform the Mac minis, mainly thanks to the faster 7200rpm hard disk drives.

Remember to go with Digital Audio G4s.

 

[sinclair_tm]

if it has a g4 cpu, then it has the 'Velocity Engine' . that what make a g4 different then a g3. i have a da 466 and it has been doing great for me. i love it. and i'm saving up for a cpu upgrade too. price wise its great, and it seems that most people that have done it never have a problem. so i say if it costs less that way, go for it. thats was what i thought when i got mine.