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      CommentAuthorChinchilla
    • CommentTimeJan 19th 2008
     
    At work they’re doing a clearout of all the macs and going totally going PC based (I know, time to change jobs) the bonus to this is I‘ve managed to get hold of a half decent G4 which might save me from having fork out for a new mac or at least for a little while longer.

    This is the spec:

    Machine Model: Power PC G4
    CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
    Number Of CPU’s: 2
    CPU: 867 MHz
    L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
    L2 Cache (per CPU): 1MB
    Memory: 512 MB
    Bus Speed: 133MHz

    and it’s running OS X 10.3.9 at the moment at a noticebly faster speed to my G4 400. thats been maxed out with RAM.

    I’m wondering what might be the best thing to do regarding upgrading to Leopard, I know 867 MHz is the minimum
    requirement that apple recommends for running Leopard, but has anyone here got a similar spec machine to me and
    any issues with the speed of it ?

    Would it be better just upgrading to Tiger ?

    Also would you add a second HD in this one and maybe install the new OS on that so I could always revert back.

    and lastly the fan seems a lot noiser on this machine, wondering if it might be on its way out or if it needs to be more powerful.

    cheers anyone
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      CommentAuthorMcKs
    • CommentTimeJan 19th 2008
     
    those things were notoriously loud. Apple even had a recall where they would exchange the jet engine loud fan for a slightly less noisy one, but even then it was annoyingly loud.
    As for the HD, I'd just put in the HD you have in your other G4 (watch the jumper settings). I'd not want to invest any money in a G4 machine, to be honest. Also if you do upgrade to a more modern machine, you won't be able to use that HD in the new machine because they are on different, faster, interfaces now. (I suppose you could put it in a firewire/usb case though)
    Leopard actually seems faster than Tiger on my PowerBook 1.33Ghz. If you can get more RAM (512 really does not cut it for Leopard) performance should be acceptable, but stick with Tiger if you stay on 512. Don't they have more Macs going out that you could 'borrow' some from..?
    • CommentAuthorBiff
    • CommentTimeJan 19th 2008
     
    The only machine with a dual 867 is in fact a MDD machine, so the fan was probably never replaced. At this point, you pretty much have to deal with the noise. Fortunately, the MDD supports large drives (LBA48), so you don't have to worry about 128 GB being seen like you have to with the first generation quicksilver and earlier.

    You really don't want to put any money in this. You really don't. Intel minis can be had for as low as $430 USD. DDR2100 RAM is starting to get expensive as you can't be guaranteed of backwards speed compatibility (EG, DDR2700 RAM doesn't typically work in a DDR2100 system), so unless you can scavenge more from other machines, this may get pricey.

    You can always partition one drive and install different OSes on each.

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