Frank wrote:
> But what to get to replace a SM? I like the iMac but it doesn't have
> expandability. Other Apple towers are really expensive. I don't mind a used
> or refurb unit (mySM was a refurb, so was my Powerbook 180) but I would
> like 1) A G4, 2) good graphics potential (cards will eventually get
> cheap)3) run OSX and 4)some expandability.
Well, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Deckert) beat me to the recommendation
of the Sawtooth- aka a G3 Blue & White. I was going to recommend that or
it's predecessor, a "Gossamer" G3, aka "Beige" which comes in desktop or
tower formation, which is what I'm using and have been very happy with.
These originally sold for $2000 (desktop) and $3000 (tower). The Sawtooth is
a better machine, faster bus speed I think- the beige has 66 mhz and I think
the sawtooth 75 mhz- and will support 2 hard drives- some of the older (rev
1) "beige"'s just support one. It also uses AGP rather than PCI as David
mentioned- better for newer video cards. They both use "zif" (zero insertion
force) processor modules that are very easy to change out and don't require
new software usually. So you can get one that has been upgraded to a G4 chip
or do it yourself. Mine had already been upgraded from the original 233 to
300 mhz G3, and I promptly upgraded to a 400 G3 chip, and overclocked that
to 433. It's much faster than my Starmax upgraded to 260 G3. The tower
models, as in the starmaxes, have room for more cards. The G4 zifs a year
ago were selling for $175-$300 depending on speed (400-550 mhz). You can
sell your old one to recoup some of the cost. You should be able to buy or
put together a Sawtooth G4 OSX machine for well under $1K.
I still have the Starmax and recently put a CD burner in it, and my
17-yr old son has been happily using it to convert borrowed CDs to MP3 files
and then burn them onto CD-R's for his portable CD/MP3 player. He
occasionally does some homework with it too, in his spare time ;) I also
burn CDs with it, and use it as a stereo, as it has good Monsoon speakers
connected.
NickUtah
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