Upgrades Vs G5

wancarloswancarlos
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I currently have a G4 Quicksilver 733mhz. I have been looking at G5s but they are too expensive for my wallet to stretch but I could afford one... Just!



There are other alternatives I could venture.



I have been thinking of a G4 processor upgrade i.e. OWC Extreme G4 Dual 1.4ghz chip or equivalent. These cost around ($540) 300 UK Pounds. Also thinking of getting 1.5gb RAM (1gb already) and a 160gb 7200rpm HD. All together this would cost me arround ($829) 460 UK Pounds. A base G5 around ($2,703) 1500 UK Pounds. I only use my mac for games (Civ III, Sim City 4 etc). and general freelance design (DTP & Web) using Quark 6, Illustrator 10, FH Flash dreamweaver MX and Photoshop 7, surfing via broadband. It is a home machine (spare-time) not used as a business machine. I also would like a new GCard what would be a good-buy?



All together I have around ($1,100) 600 UK pounds to spend.



I would just like to squeeze another 12/18 months out of my G4.



If you was me, what would you do?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    I was thinking the same for my G4 533 digital audio. I have two HD, so i will not change them.

    But i consider to change the chip : 540 $ for a dual G4 1,4 seems to be a good deal.

    One GB of RAM is enough : don't waste your money on RAM that you will never be able to use on others computers.





    I am waiting also a good an cheap video card, but i think that 200 $ is to much for a radeon 9000. The prices of Mac video cards are too much expansive especially for old products.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Upgrade! That sucker still has plenty of life left in it. Do a clean install of your OS on your new HD, even if you don't throw in the new 1.4 G4 that thing will still handle what your throwing at it. You can get another year out of it without the new chip, but with the new chip I could see you coming closer to two years (depends on how well you deal with a slower computer). You have plenty of ram, but 1.5 won't hurt at all if you decide to go with that, and RAM is cheep and will up the resale value (should you decide to sell it when it's time is up)
  • Reply 3 of 8
    cybermonkeycybermonkey Posts: 604member
    It may be cheaper to upgrade the processor in the short term but in the long term you'd be better witht he G5. Personally i'd wait for the new product line then get a G5, after all a 64 bit processor,faster bus and serial ATA will still be current in a few years when 64 bit only programmes start emerging. You can always sell yer quicksilver in a snap on ebay to help towards the cost. Think long term, not short.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    sell what you have and put the money towards the G5.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by alcimedes

    sell what you have and put the money towards the G5.



    Ditto. Macs have high resale values. make use of that.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    mac_ken_cheezmac_ken_cheez Posts: 91member
    Upgrade to a dual G4 CPU, and get a dual G5... Best of both worlds...



    Ok, but if you are going the up grade method spring for the Dual CPU card. Photoshop will thank you down the road. If you go for the G5, go for the dual processor model.



    I say go for the upgrade, and then if you can't hold it any longer get the G5 v2. Price wise, the dual 1.2 GHz G4 upgrade is around $600 where as the dual 1.8 dual G5 is a bit more. The future release of the G5 should remain about the same as it is now, only better. The hard part, its 6-8 months out.



    Another idea is to set away some cash for a really nice Christmas gift to yourself.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    oldcodger73oldcodger73 Posts: 707member
    wancarlos your post doesn?t answer one essential question: are you bogging down and finding your 733 too slow for your workload, i.e. do you NEED more speed or do you merely WANT a faster Mac.



    Personally I feel a processor upgrade isn?t worth it unless you?re planning on keeping your computer 2 ? 3 years. Otherwise it?s not cost effective.



    Your 1 GB of ram should be sufficient. SDRAM isn?t cheap now. If you need additional HD space you may want to consider an external firewire drive, it will be great to have when you move to a new computer. An alternate but more hands-on course would be to install another internal HD?here in the US there are some great rebates on internal drives now?and then when you move to a new computer remove that drive and install it in a firewire case.



    Speculation is rampart that the 2-generation G5s will be announced late this month, with probable availability in late April or early May. This might mean that there will be some bargains on the existing 1.6 and dual 1.8s, ones that you might be able to take advantage of with the amount of money you have to work with, if you could sell your present machine. The dual 1.8 would be a sweet machine.



    Good luck.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    pumpkintoshpumpkintosh Posts: 51member
    Either get a Dual Processor upgrade, or look at the OWC 1.33 for $395. My friend bought one of these for his QuickSilver, he has it running solidly at 1.47GHz.



    Can't beat that for less than $400, plus whatever you could sell your original 733 processor for.
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