At 9:10 PM -0600 1/30/06, Matt wrote:
I have recently found that the older iMac that I have can run Panther, and
that some Ram I had laying around would fit into it. After making these
upgrades, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked using a Mac. I'm a
PC/Windows guy but I have always had respect for Macs since I worked for the
local school system and got to deal with them on a daily basis. I would like
to get a G4 tower to use with a Mac/PC compatible mouse and keyboard along
with a USB KWM switch so that I can have a Mac and a PC on my desk. I can't
outright afford to pick up a G4 all together so I'd like to buy it in parts.
A case now, a motherboard later, that kind of thing. My question is this, is
there a list of part numbers somewhere, or an online resource so that I can
get some information as to what parts will work with others? For instance
I'll need to know what CPU will fit in what motherboard, and what
motherboard will fit in what case, etc. and preferably not an "Offical Apple
supported" hardware list. Its my understanding that apple may have put out a
computer that ran from 350Mhz to 500Mhz, but you can put a 550Mhz, or a
600Mhz in it and it will work just fine.
any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
-Matt
A lot depends upon two factors: what will you be doing with this
machine, and what is your budget. (read: are you a power hungry
gamer or otherwise have a need for serious speed, or will you be
happy with a pretty snappy machine, and just how little money are you
willing to spend?
First thing to do would be to look at some of the retail resale
machines, for instance see LowEndMac's G4 deals page at
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/deals.html There's also a 'profiles'
section on that page which will give you a little background on some
of the machine types if you're not familiar.
Expect that you can get them cheaper on the LEM swap list. Or even
Ebay. There are a lot of decent machines out there for reasonable
prices.
For instance, I'm waiting for a 350 mhz sawtooth to arrive that I
paid about $165 for on the LEM swap list (and of course there have
been several others for $10 or $20 less since I sent the check off).
I'll put in some RAM, a big hd which is in my current workstation,
and upgrade the processor and have a pretty nice machine for around
twice that. And a workable machine until I get the processor I want
at a good price. Or when I find my bank account can handle a new one
from macsales.com.
I also picked up a dual 450ghz a while back for around $330. They're
probably less now.
My point is you can get something that works now and can later be
upgraded to much faster speeds.
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