[G4] 1.25 MDD Power Suppy Replacement, or ??

[Ronnie Day]

I would buy a new box. I've recently been in the same situation. For
some time I had a Media 100 editing setup in a Dual 1.42/MDD. Over
time I loaded it with 4 internal HDs and two optical drives, plus I
was running a 20 inch (ADC) Cinema Display. Early last year the P/S
died. Rather than replacing the P/S I bought another Duall 1.42, but
made the mistake of just moving all of the drives, etc, to the "new"
G4, which failed within a few months.

I wanted to stay with my M100 setup but have made the decision to move
on to Final Cut so I'm shopping for a Mac Pro. I bought a Mini
recently to begin learning FCS and it's great. Ended up with the
"upgraded" 2.53 GHz model because it would cost more than the $200
difference just to bump the RAM from 2 gig to 4 and install a bigger
HD, plus you get the 2.53 CPU instead of the 2.26.

Apple made a big mistake putting a too small PSU in this series and
there's no easy way to fix it, especially since they choose not to use
off the shelf power supplies. Before I load up a new Mac Pro with
internal devices I'll make sure the PSU can support them or more
likely I'll use FireWire and/or eSATA cards to hang drive arrays
externally.

HTH,
Ron

>
> My beloved 1.25 MDD that I lovingly refurbished 3.5 years ago died last
> week; power supply.  My old 450 is working in its stead, but it's not
> rock-solid like the MDD, teeny hard drives, etc.  Right now I'm booted to a
> FW drive with my fingers crossed.
>
> Question:  Should I...
>
> Replace the power supply ($400) and have my MDD back, but likely have to
> deal with this issue again in 3-4 years?
>
> Or look at a new desktop mac for a longer term (suggestions?)
>
> I need to be able to run OSX 3.9, and up.  I have 4 external FW drives and a
> 23" HD apple studio monitor.
>