G4 Flat Panel 700MHz


Is my girlfriends dads G4 flat panel mac underpowered?  

26 members have voted

  1. 1. Is my girlfriends dads G4 flat panel mac underpowered?

    • Yes
      7
    • No
      8
    • Where's the goat milk?
      11


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When I first moved in with my girlfriend, i found it strange that her dad was using a G4 700MHz mac with 10.2 I think or 10.1

First thing I noticed....128mb RAM!!!!!>!!>!

Then he told me that it would cost too much to upgrade it any more.

Meanwhile I had his old G3 beige to experiment with :devil: turned out most of the parts were PC compatible hard drive, cd rom, usb card, even the psu i think!

Then I got thinking, does the G4 use PC compatible bits, so we got out a hex key and opened her up. First there was the "User Servicable Memory bit" Which looked like it could fit notebook memory, then I went deeper into the guts of it and whadda ya know? 128Mb SD-RAM PC133.....

So later on after reassuring my gfs dad that i could do this and give him 512 ram i did! funny thing is, it seems as though the apple centre had convinced him that it uses special parts that can only be upgraded by the Apple People... Gee whiz. Anyway I took the 128mb SDram and stuck it in my athlon 500 muhahhahaha it was hynix i think. But i guess what the underlying question is, why are G4 macs so sluggish? opening a menu takes time! Even with the upgrade its still a bit on the slow side. But then his other daughter uses a G3 333Mhz, with OS 10.3 now thats gotta be slow! I also upgraded that from a mere 64mb to 384mb would do 512mb, but what can you do?

I do like some of the new features in 10.3 Thumbs up to apple there!

Oh and by the way, my gfs dad did notice the difference with more Memory....his font menu in Photoshop loads faster.......... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

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Using OS X as opposed to Windows XP does seem less snappy, true. But the GUI's aren't even comparable really... OS X in this area, is where your next Windows release will be, with hardware of today, or in yours / my case YESTERDAYS hardware :laugh: Generally tho, most common parts to a Mac, are just 'computer' parts, so you shouldn't be so surprised, My cube has a 'regular' 120Gb Hard Disc, 'regular' PC100 SDRAM, but it has a 'Mac' GeForce3 ... thats one of the differences, but generally, the common components, are interchangeable :)

How much RAM is in that iMac now? 512 or greater is 'ideal' i'd say.

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Anything less that 512MB of ram with OS X is just asking for trouble!!! also an upgrade to 10.3 will GREATLY increase his speed, money well spent if you ask me.

OT: I've got a spare copy of Panther if anyone wants it really cheap, box/manual/all cd's etc...

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Using OS X as opposed to Windows XP does seem less snappy, true. But the GUI's aren't even comparable really... OS X in this area, is where your next Windows release will be, with hardware of today, or in yours / my case YESTERDAYS hardware :laugh: Generally tho, most common parts to a Mac, are just 'computer' parts, so you shouldn't be so surprised, My cube has a 'regular' 120Gb Hard Disc, 'regular' PC100 SDRAM, but it has a 'Mac' GeForce3 ... thats one of the differences, but generally, the common components, are interchangeable :)

How much RAM is in that iMac now? 512 or greater is 'ideal' i'd say.

its got 512 atm

what OS did the Flat panels ship with?

was it 10?

I dunno about the whole gui thing, i just take what i'm given and xp is doing fine, nice easy to navigate for me

I must admit prior to mac os X i found it difficult to get from 1 window to another

i swear the taskbar in windows is an amazing thing

the whats it called is good though, what is it ? F9->F11? the work well

its evolving

uh huh, yesterwho?

yester you :p

geforce3 hehehehe

wheres my freaken freaky R423e?!?

LOL

BRING IT ON MACCY

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How much RAM is in that iMac now? 512 or greater is 'ideal' i'd say.

But why did they include only 128 when selling it?

isnt that a bit cruel

Apple Reseller: Sure you can have a huge 128mb Memory

Mac fool: YAY lots of number!!!!

2 days later

Mac fool: Why it take 7 months to start up?

Apple Reseller: Ahhh thats because you need to buy some "Special" notebook memory for the "user servicable port"

Whadda rip!

he nearly paid AU$250 instead of AU$130

Mind you that not bought from any Mac store, thats buying PC parts from markets

EGAD

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Anything less that 512MB of ram with OS X is just asking for trouble!!! also an upgrade to 10.3 will GREATLY increase his speed, money well spent if you ask me.

OT: I've got a spare copy of Panther if anyone wants it really cheap, box/manual/all cd's etc...

hes got 10.3....... :wacko:

how come you have a spare copy?

ahh nevermind, i suppose i have 3 spare sega mega drives (genesis) .........

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hes got 10.3....... :wacko:

how come you have a spare copy?

ahh nevermind, i suppose i have 3 spare sega mega drives (genesis) .........

Due to the fact AppleUK messed up the Panther Launch, I ended up with 2 copies :yes:

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its got 512 atm

what OS did the Flat panels ship with?

was it 10?

I dunno about the whole gui thing, i just take what i'm given and xp is doing fine, nice easy to navigate for me

I must admit prior to mac os X i found it difficult to get from 1 window to another

i swear the taskbar in windows is an amazing thing

the whats it called is good though, what is it ? F9->F11? the work well

its evolving

uh huh, yesterwho?

yester you :p

geforce3 hehehehe

wheres my freaken freaky R423e?!?

LOL

BRING IT ON MACCY

iMac's would of shipped with Jaguar. 10.0 Puma is OLLLDD, and yes the GUI is vastly different. The F9 - F11 'thing' is called 'Expos?'. The Taskbar in Windows - Amazing? How so? :unsure:: Its never appealed to me as 'amazing', nor half the Neowinians here running Docks for Windows. :laugh::

LOL mate, I dunno wat your talking about, GeForce3, yea thats what I have, annd? Ever tried getting that ATi into a G4 Cube? :unsure:: :no::

I was actually referring to the Mac's, I don't really care what PC components you have, it still runs Windows, I was referring to the iMac 700MHz and the Beige G3.

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?30 + Shipping

Give me a week or two, if thats ok? I gotta tonne of stuff to pay around the 14th, don't wanna spend ANYMORE Unnecessary ... if thats ok?:DD Shipping wouldn't be more than a few quid, eh?

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Just nip to manc and pick it up Neyo :D

My PowerMac came with 256mb installed, and I never thought it to be slow (coming from a Windows XP machine with 512mb) thought I admit, when I added 512mb more it made a difference.

I do agree that macs seem to ship with a seemingly small amount of ram compared to what most end up with, oh well, at least it's quite cheap :D

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:woot: :woot: meh so my poll turned into a bidding war with people wanting to know where the goat milk is

well.....IM NOT TELLING :ninja: :woot:

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the original imacs shipped with 10.1.2 or 10.1.3 i dunno.. but its one of them

i have the same imac as you and i don't think its slow. it does what i need although it isn't as snappy as my pc (amd 1800+)

as for the gui thing, yes, windows is much snappier, but i have heard that if u get a dual g5 os x seems as fast as classic.

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