$300 ... what do i do?

serranoserrano
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
im on a b&w g3 400, overclocked to 450/radeon/rage128/256/13gb/17"b&w display. i play games, do music, burn cd's, a little photoshop, os x, write papers, crunch seti, dreamweaver ...



i have set aside 300 to help make this computer last me a while longer- here are the two options i've come put with, which would 'enhance' my computer experience the most?



up it to 1gig ram and add an additional 17 inch blue and white display to run of the extra rage128

<img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />



or



throw in a zif g4500- i dont do a lot of heavy altivec work, and most games arent really altivec aware (although will the xtra power help out my radeon?)- will there be decent improvement with only a 50mhz boost? <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



i'd appreciate some experienced input

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    Go with the 1GB of RAM and the monitor. Those upgrade cards aren't worth the money. Maybe one day when there's some over 500MHz, but right now they definately aren't worth it.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    corvettecorvette Posts: 561member
    How about you get a bigger hard drive and some RAM. You can get a gig of RAM probably and still have money to buy a 40 gig ATA drive.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    Save the money.

    I don't upgrade computes except for RAM, because htey fall behind the curve too fast. Save up $2000 and buy the lowest level Pro machine and a modern monitor.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,016member
    Buy a wild night with a whore.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by SDW2001:

    <strong>Buy a wild night with a whore.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yeah. That's the best suggestion you've gotten so far.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    [quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

    <strong>



    Yeah. That's the best suggestion you've gotten so far.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    The best suggestion should be to donate this money to ALL OF US
  • Reply 7 of 15
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Leonis:

    <strong>



    The best suggestion should be to donate this money to ALL OF US </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yep. Sounds good
  • Reply 8 of 15
    enderender Posts: 353member
    ... anyway...



    The best advice here is to not upgrade anything except to the minimum amount of RAM that will allow you to work efficiently (i.e., without VM turned on in OS 9 and at least 50 MB of headroom).



    Anything else (unless you are out of storage space, or something dies completely) is not worth the money. You will be better off in the long run using your computer until you can't stand it any more and then getting the most powerful system you can afford to take you through the next leg of your computing journey.



    I've always figured 3-4 years is a good life of a computer. Any less and it gets very expensive, any longer and you start becoming less productive. Of course, your circumstances alter that somewhat. If money isn't much of a problem, or if even a small increase in performance will reap huge benefits, then getting a new system yearly is not out of the question. If the machine isn't being taxed regularly, it might have a longer effective life.



    I upgraded my desktop from a 5260/100 to a G4/500 DP a year ago last July, and my laptop from a Wallstreet 266 to a Ti PB 500 last January (and Apple replaced it with a 667 a couple weeks ago due to some defects - thanks Apple). I figure I'm good for at least 2-3 years on both machines (laptops seem to have shorter effective lives, for whatever reason).



    -Ender
  • Reply 9 of 15
    enderender Posts: 353member
    Of course, if you are bent on spending that $300, I would suggest you bump the RAM by 512 MB and get the 17" display. I run a 17" CRT Apple Studio Display on an AGP OEM Radeon (the ADC one before the LCD came out) and a 17" 'Graphite and Ice' Apple monitor on a PCI Rage Pro.



    I feel that two 17" monitors is more useful than one 21" monitor -- of course, if I could manage the Apple Cinema Display, I would do that in a heartbeat. You will not regret getting a 2nd monitor.



    For a reference point, I got the Graphite & Ice monitor off of eBay for $200 after shipping. Perfect condition, though the guy forgot to ship the power cord (didn't matter, I have a bunch sitting around. I didn't bug him about it).



    -Ender
  • Reply 10 of 15
    macaddictmacaddict Posts: 1,055member
    Keep in mind that a lot of upgrades you can take with you on your next computer purchase. Just be sure to buy PC133 RAM etc.



    I took my Voodoo2 card from my old computer, and plan to take my 24X CDRW drive, 512MB RAM, and 80GB HD with me onto my next computer.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    sizzle chestsizzle chest Posts: 1,133member
    Buy some RAM and a bigger FASTER hard drive, and spend the rest of the money on beer and Swank magazines, and you will be most happy.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    aphelionaphelion Posts: 736member
    [quote]Originally posted by janitor:

    <strong>im on a b&w g3 400, overclocked to 450/radeon/rage128/256/13gb/17"b&w display. i play games, do music, burn cd's, a little photoshop, os x, write papers, crunch seti, dreamweaver ...



    i have set aside 300 to help make this computer last me a while longer- here are the two options i've come put with, which would 'enhance' my computer experience the most?



    i'd appreciate some experienced input </strong><hr></blockquote>



    3rd Option: AAPL opened @ $21.40 today. Buy 12 shares @ $256.80 and 128 MB RAM for your current Apple. Hold AAPL stock until this time next year. Sell the stock and your current machine and buy a new iBook.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    sebseb Posts: 676member
    That "extra Rage 128" is pretty much useless to you.



    It will only fit in the same PCI Slot it was in originally. It won't fit into a regular PCI slot.



    So, there goes the extra monitor option. Besides, do you really need an extra monitor? Dunno, just asking.



    Otherwise, the RAM and HD upgrades seem the best. Or the stock purchase.



    Or, of course, you could *almost* get an iPod.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    enderender Posts: 353member
    Any PCI graphics card will fit in any PCI slot. The 66 MHz slots are the same as the 33 MHz slots and any card will work in any type of slot.



    -Ender
  • Reply 15 of 15
    sebseb Posts: 676member
    Actually Ender, that's not always true.



    The stock ATI Rage128 card that comes in his B/W G3 won't fit in any of the other PCI slots in the same B/W G3.



    Crack one open and take a look. The grooves in the PCI slots and the groove on the card just don't match up. You'd have to put the card in backwards or something.
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