I went through a very similar decision. I to have a frankenstien 9600 lotsa RAM, Radeon 7K, ATA HDs, CDRW, etc but only a G3/300 I had read he specs and been sucked in before regarding "massive" improvements - Radeon is classic example - yes it improves video performance but not to a level where 10.2 or higher are (in my opinion) usable in a seriously normal work flow (flame away).
Over here in Aus we get shafted with price of products nearly Aus $800 for G4 800 card, so I wen whole hog and bought a G5 - yes it is a big difference than what you are talkinh but I decided spending money on a half step was going to lead to yet another endless search for more speed (needless to say I bought 2 weeks too early and have "only" a single 1.8).
Too me it all come down to how much you want to spend - I would recommend anything with AGP slot and higher - be careful though as many older G4s are 2 x or 4 x AGP which will become harder to find GPUs for as 8x become the industry standard
My 9600 still lives under my bench, need it for SCSI and connecting to AppleTalk printer via LocalTalk bridge - it's running OS 9.1 again - so your old box will still have some useful life if you need these sorts of services. I have a dual input LCD screen so don't have two screens cluttering desk.
My 2 cents worth.
Seasons greetings.
Simon
On 20/12/2003, at 8:20 AM, JW Holmes wrote:
I am at a decision point with my computer and I was wondering if anyone
might provided me with some information to help in my decision. I
currently have a PM 9600 upgraded with a Sonnet G3/500. I have 740 MB Ram
2 SCSI drives (9 GB each) on ATTO card, and a ATI Rage 128 Video Card. I
run Jaguar (10.2.8), and I am considering moving upgrading to a Sonnet
G4/700 and upgrading to Panther.
My dilemma is this: would I be better off just buying a used PowerMac G4/
500 for ~$450, or go ahead and get the Sonnet G4/700 for ~ $225 and
install it.
Right now 10.2.8 is very stable and I have not had any problems with the
machine. I would like a bit more speed but I don't play games so I don't
need blazing speed. I don't want to spend more than ~ 450 because I have
to buy Panther.
Any opinions would be appreciated.
JW
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