Should I upgrade my powermac G3 to a G4 or just get a mac mini?
- Thread starter Phluxy
- Start date
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
Keeping your old machine may allow you to get to 1GHz, but your memory bus speed will be limited (~66MHz, I believe). Your hard drive bus will also be stuck at a slow 33MHz (if not slower).
The Mac mini has a much faster RAM and hard drive bus, but less expandability.
If you're looking for speed, the Mac mini would probably be faster than your upgraded G3. If you're looking for expandability, keep your old G3 and upgrade it.
The Mac mini has a much faster RAM and hard drive bus, but less expandability.
If you're looking for speed, the Mac mini would probably be faster than your upgraded G3. If you're looking for expandability, keep your old G3 and upgrade it.
nixgeek
Mac of the SubGenius! :-)
Consider that the Mac mini has a faster system bus and also uses much faster RAM. With the upgraded G3, you'll be stuck with a 100 Mhz bus and PC-100 RAM. Of course, you could also upgrade the heck out of the CPU-upgraded G3 as opposed to the Mac mini. Basically, it's a decision up to you whether you want the expandability or whether you want the speed. Consider that most of what the Mac mini has can be upgraded externally (storage, etc.) and the memory itself as well. The only thing you're stuck with is the paltry video memory.
Phluxy
Registered
If i can i'll do both. Since I am kinda a new mac guy. (old powermac G3s and powerbook g3s) trying to get to the newer stuff. I have tiger on my powermac and it is great but what could i do on the 1ghz powermac? Will it do H.264? Will i be able to play halo? (and i am planing on upgrading graphics also) Will the widgets load faster? Will the visual effects be better? stuff like that i suppose. But i have been fairly limited with a G3. How responsive will it be on the things it wasn't responsive on before? I have so many questions to ask because i won't even touch my PC anymore because of my mac. Thank you for your help.
robjcooper
Registered
Hi phluxy,
Oh, the old upgrade or buy new question - a question repeated many times since Emethyrius pondered whether to have his chalkboard repolished or buy some of that new fangled papyrus stuff ! So here's my dollar's worth....
Not sure what you mean by 'will it do H.264' - this is an encoding format for video compression. If you are thinking of doing any file compression, from AAC in iTunes to mpeg2 for making DVDs, then you will need a G4 - it's the Altivec Velocity engine on the G4 which speeds up all these processes and your G3 does not and will not have one - my iTunes CD importing went from 1-3x speed to 6-9x speed and an encode of 50 minutes of DV footage to DVD went down from 4 DAYS to 8 hours when I fitted my Daystar G4 600 mhz processor (which is what I would recommend you look at especially as it's only $179.) If you go for the faster speed G4 you will lose a third of your bus speed (100 down to 66mhz). If you were considering the faster G3 upgrades don't forget they do not have the AltiVec engine.
With a faster graphics card (go for the Ati Radeon 9200 Mac Edition) Halo should be playable.
As for the visual effects, Quartz extreme and core image are disabled for all pci graphics card, so you'll not get any of the 'visual effects' like the rotating cube. Widgets won't load faster - they're still as sluggish as a slug on mogadon and IMHO just about as useful. There is a hack which enables these facilities with a pci card, but there is a distinct possibility that it can also make your whole system very unstable.
Also, do you fancy the challenge of making your machine just that little bit better ?
I've fitted a Daystar 600mhz G4 processor upgrade, 1gb ram (which if you haven't done, do so now - it will give your system a real performance boost and ram is cheap as chips), an internal Pioneer DVD 109 burner, a 250mb Zip drive, an ATA 133 pci card which runs the three hard drives I've fitted (200gb, 160gb and 60gb - I'm a video editor and all that space does get used up !!), an ATi Radeon 9200, firewire 800 and USB 2 pci cards - all into a rev 2 Blue and White G3 which although it is not a Dual G5, it does Photoshop, Painter, Final Cut Pro, DVD and CD encoding, and a whole host of other things much quicker than when it was a humble G3 and, it was a whole lot of fun doing it all. It feels faster and is definitely more responsive and 'perky'. Also it didn't cost me that much - most of the upgrades were purchased on ebay for a lot less than their new price - however as I'm assuming you live in the states you have a much bigger selection of options and at MUCH lower prices than we have here in the UK.
Anyway, I'm glad I did mine as I know it will now last me until I can either afford one of the last Octet-processor G5's or until the MacIntel's have settled down !
Enjoy your dilemma-hope this has been some food for thought.
Cheers
Rob C
Oh, the old upgrade or buy new question - a question repeated many times since Emethyrius pondered whether to have his chalkboard repolished or buy some of that new fangled papyrus stuff ! So here's my dollar's worth....
Not sure what you mean by 'will it do H.264' - this is an encoding format for video compression. If you are thinking of doing any file compression, from AAC in iTunes to mpeg2 for making DVDs, then you will need a G4 - it's the Altivec Velocity engine on the G4 which speeds up all these processes and your G3 does not and will not have one - my iTunes CD importing went from 1-3x speed to 6-9x speed and an encode of 50 minutes of DV footage to DVD went down from 4 DAYS to 8 hours when I fitted my Daystar G4 600 mhz processor (which is what I would recommend you look at especially as it's only $179.) If you go for the faster speed G4 you will lose a third of your bus speed (100 down to 66mhz). If you were considering the faster G3 upgrades don't forget they do not have the AltiVec engine.
With a faster graphics card (go for the Ati Radeon 9200 Mac Edition) Halo should be playable.
As for the visual effects, Quartz extreme and core image are disabled for all pci graphics card, so you'll not get any of the 'visual effects' like the rotating cube. Widgets won't load faster - they're still as sluggish as a slug on mogadon and IMHO just about as useful. There is a hack which enables these facilities with a pci card, but there is a distinct possibility that it can also make your whole system very unstable.
Also, do you fancy the challenge of making your machine just that little bit better ?
I've fitted a Daystar 600mhz G4 processor upgrade, 1gb ram (which if you haven't done, do so now - it will give your system a real performance boost and ram is cheap as chips), an internal Pioneer DVD 109 burner, a 250mb Zip drive, an ATA 133 pci card which runs the three hard drives I've fitted (200gb, 160gb and 60gb - I'm a video editor and all that space does get used up !!), an ATi Radeon 9200, firewire 800 and USB 2 pci cards - all into a rev 2 Blue and White G3 which although it is not a Dual G5, it does Photoshop, Painter, Final Cut Pro, DVD and CD encoding, and a whole host of other things much quicker than when it was a humble G3 and, it was a whole lot of fun doing it all. It feels faster and is definitely more responsive and 'perky'. Also it didn't cost me that much - most of the upgrades were purchased on ebay for a lot less than their new price - however as I'm assuming you live in the states you have a much bigger selection of options and at MUCH lower prices than we have here in the UK.
Anyway, I'm glad I did mine as I know it will now last me until I can either afford one of the last Octet-processor G5's or until the MacIntel's have settled down !
Enjoy your dilemma-hope this has been some food for thought.
Cheers
Rob C
Lt Major Burns
"Dicky" Charlteston-Burns
i would say, with the things you want to do, get a mac mini. it's also a hell of a lot smaller. it'll do halo, it'll give you tiger at a respectable rate. you'll get all the new iLife apps. you'l get everything and all the benefits of a completely new system.
Johndoemanny34362
Registered
he mac mini is your best bet. IT has the fastest ram and bus speed (too bad it's not 800mhz) and other features. Also i think it is cheaper than a G4 1ghz. IT's hard to not get it because of the size of it though... you can take it anywhere.
Johndoemanny34362
Registered
Your the opposite of me... i can't get away from my pc. I paly games though so i have to stick with it.