[G4] Need advice for a fixer-upper

[Kevin Walsh]

Howdy folks,

This past summer, I acquired a G4 tower from a windows
junkie.  He gave it to me free of cost, he just wasn't
fond of it.  I appreciate that someone of his
persuasion was so enlightened to give Mac a shot but
can see why he was so turned off.  The ATA drive is
only 10 GB and there was only 512 MB of ram.  I've
been stepping up the memory, currently at 896 MB, and
have been supplementing the lack of hard drive space
with an external firewire drive.  I'm about to tack
the major necessary steps to enhance the computer's
performance and would like some feedback for any of
you experts.  Below are the upgrades I'm looking into
and i would like to know "could I", "should I", and if
so "how do I" on each issue.  First the specs: Power
Mac G4, AGP Graphics (Sawtooth, I think) / 1 CPU,
type: 2.9, 400 MHz / firmware 4.2.8f1 / AGP: Rage
128Pro / OS X 10.3.9

New internal ATA drive - I think something around 40
gigs is adequate for me.  I'm considering keeping the
10 GB drive in there (why not) but loading the OS on
the new larger drive.

Second Processor - is it possible to add another
rather than replacing it, what could work?

New video card - or is the one in there fine?

OS upgrade - with the proper upgrades, could 10.4 or
even 10.5 be installed?

I appreciate any wisdom y'all might provide.  I'm new
to the list and have already benefited from the
archived discussions.

peace, Kevin


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