G4 OS9->OSX upgrade advice...

skatman

Hey peeps,

my friend has a G4 (non Quicksilver) and wants to upgrade to OSX 10.3.

I know OSX relatively well, although I work mostly with PCs and SGIs, but I don't really know Mac OS9 besides regular user type of things.

Could you please tell me the following:

1. I know Apple advertises the fact that the upgrade is mostly automatic. Is that really true and how likely is it that unforseen problems will come?



2. What is a recommended hardware configuration for a G4 computer to run OSX? I don't need a powerhouse, but the computer should be able to run Office apps, Photoshop, IPhoto, Itunes without much trouble.



3. Is it worth the trouble (software and hardware upgrades) or is it better to get a new iMAC?



I just don't have enough, so to say, "field experience" with this so that is why I'm asking all of you experts. :-)



Thanks,

Skatman

haxz0r jim duggan

I would say probably 800- 1ghz processor is probably the lowest-end I would consider using at this point for what you're talking about...I'm sure there's some people that will tell you its hunky-dory to use a single g4 400, but i don't believe it.



If it comes down to your friend wanting to upgrade his computer, I would probably just recomend gettingn a new iMac, with the g5 processor in there it's really a heckuva deal

jbl

Quote:

Originally posted by Haxz0r Jim Duggan

I'm sure there's some people that will tell you its hunky-dory to use a single g4 400, but i don't believe it.

I'm one. I run 10.3 on a 500 Mhz PowerBook G4. My desktop is a dual 2 GHz G5 and for office and iTune I hardly notice the difference. There is a definite lag with iPhoto but it isn't too bad. I wouldn't try anything too fancy in Photoshop, but I wouldn't think it is a lot worse than it is under 9. I really don't think 10.3 is that much slower than 9 if you have enough ram.

mr. me

Quote:

Originally posted by skatman

Hey peeps,

my friend has a G4 (non Quicksilver) and wants to upgrade to OSX 10.3.

I know OSX relatively well, although I work mostly with PCs and SGIs, but I don't really know Mac OS9 besides regular user type of things.

Could you please tell me the following:

1. I know Apple advertises the fact that the upgrade is mostly automatic. Is that really true and how likely is it that unforseen problems will come?



2. What is a recommended hardware configuration for a G4 computer to run OSX? I don't need a powerhouse, but the computer should be able to run Office apps, Photoshop, IPhoto, Itunes without much trouble.



3. Is it worth the trouble (software and hardware upgrades) or is it better to get a new iMAC?



I just don't have enough, so to say, "field experience" with this so that is why I'm asking all of you experts. :-)



Thanks,

Skatman

I run MacOS X 10.3.5 on my 500 MHz PowerBook G3 Firewire. I have 384 MB RAM on the laptop. Owing to the better memory management of the newer OS, I find that QuickTime media is faster under MacOS X 10.3 than it was under MacOS 9. I also much prefer the newer OS when I open the raster graphic-laden MS Word files that I receive from my colleagues. I expect to get a new laptop next year to replace my old PowerBook. However, I cannot think of a single application that doesn't perform better under MacOS X than it did under MacOS 9. The bottomline is that you don't have to buy a new computer every week to get your job done on a Mac. Your veteran G4 will do just fine with MacOS X 10.

towel

I third that sentiment. My production machine is still a 600MHz G3 with 384MB of RAM. For daily use, it's hard to distinguish from the Dual 1.42GHz G4s with 1GB RAM that we use as our group workstations. 10.3 purrs very nicely on older hardware.

skatman

Thanks a lot, peeps.

Is there any particularly problematic hardware that I should change out before upgrading?

mr. me

Quote:

Originally posted by skatman

Thanks a lot, peeps.

Is there any particularly problematic hardware that I should change out before upgrading?

If everything is working now, then everything will work after you upgrade your OS.

jbl

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Me

If everything is working now, then everything will work after you upgrade your OS.

Two caveats. OSX loves ram?you should probably have at least 500 Mb?and OSX hates a full hard drive.

mr. me

Quote:

Originally posted by JBL

Two caveats. OSX loves ram?you should probably have at least 500 Mb?and OSX hates a full hard drive.

As I stated before, 384 MB is sufficient RAM. More won't hurt, but you will do fine if that's what you have. As for your hard disk, you should have at least 1 GB free after you install all of your applications and data. If your hard disk is at least 10 GB, then you shouldn't have any serious issues. Of course, more is better.

skatman

Thanks a lot everybody.