[G4] Upgrade of old G4/400Mhz/OS X-Jaguar?

[O'Brien]

On Sun, 02 Sep 2007 12:12:43 -0400, Fast Primes wrote:
> I'm a Windows XP user that just got an old Mac with the following specs:
> 
>     -     400Mhz processor
>     -     running OS X 10.2/Jaguar?
>     -     384 meg ram--expandable to 1.5 gig via 4 slots of PC100 SDRAM mem.
>     -     10 gig drive--7 gig free
> 
> The machine seems to work fairly well--however it's frozen up on 
> occasion, sometimes with the revolving "beach ball". Is this 
> because of memory constraints or should I upgrade the OS to 10.3 or 
> 10.4?
> 
> Can the processor be upgraded to a faster one via some third party 
> solution? Are new Intel CPU boards available?

You can upgrade the processor, but it might make more sense and be cheaper to just buy a different used Mac. You could get an 800 or higher for probably what an upgrade would cost -- and it will likely already have more RAM and a bigger HD, and it's much better (I think) to have an original processor machine than an upgraded one. I recently bought an 867mHz Quicksilver with 1Gig of RAM and a 120 HD for $300, including the OSX.4.x DVD. This was a real bargain, but you can find some good buys out there. Plus, you can sell the 400 for $50-$100 or so. That's what I'd do.

I doubt that a new OS will help the freeze. Maybe, you could try doing a clean install of the OSX.2.x, or find a good deal on OSX.3.x (Panther) which will let you use a newer browser and maybe other things. You don't mention what apps you are using on this Mac. The RAM could be a problem, and the HD which is tiny. You might add another 256M of RAM or more and say an 80-120 HD. I wouldn't add too much RAM to this old Mac unless I could transfer it to another Mac later. Again, look around and you'll find a newer, faster used Mac with more RAM and HD for probably less than upgrading this Mac would cost.

Or, you could just play with this Mac as-is for awhile, and when you discover how great Mac is buy a Mac Mini or some other newer/new Mac -- depending on how upgradable you like.





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O'Brien