While this may be true, the beige g3s do have some advantages over the
B&Ws, namely the additional front panel expansion, AV capability, and
the easier to modify/less packed internal structure (i.e. hard drives
can be placed in unused PCI slots, cooling is easier to work with
upgrades, etc.). These factors are sometimes important to those working
with media, especially, and the additional hard-drive expansion and
front-panel expansion did not reappear until the late-model g4s.
On May 12, 2005, at 3:18 AM, Unsupported OS X wrote:
------------------------------
In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: Roger Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Upgrades for project studio
Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 01:53:58 -0500
No Peter, It isn't simplistic. Simplistic is thinking a processor
upgrade will make a $30 beige a good box for todays software.
The G4 500 has not been that cheap until very recent months. $150
won't make it more than the sows ear; The beige has to have a video
card and ATA card to make it even a shadow of the B&W. It does not
have firewire or even USB. The beige is often flaky when subjected to
upgrades; stability varies greatly from one box to the next with or
without upgrades. The beige has been a useful Mac but was never as
trustworthy as the PCI boxes or the B&W and the other towers that
followed. It is much easier to install OSX on the old PCI Macs than
the beige; I doubt there is much more than half of them that will
install 10.3 even using XPF.
As you point out, even now the processor alone is $150 and it makes a
$200 B&W box a steal (you can really get the B&Ws for $70/$130).
Spend the money on something that will run your software. Use the
beige as a PS print server and it will save you the money of
upgrading your very expensive PS software to OSX. They are also good
to run SCSI scanners in OS9.
If you must use it, I think the best road for the beige is a $60 G3
450 or 500 zif. Maybe a used ATA66 so you can use a good drive. Save
the money for another mac.
Roger Harris
On May 11, 2005, at 8:39 PM, Peter da Silva wrote:
Do not spend more upgrading than the computer is worth at the present
time.
Hmmm.
I think that's a bit simplistic. If you have a computer worth $50
and you can upgrade it for $150, or you can spend $300 on a new
computer, you're better off with the upgrade.
Until fairly recently that's the situation we were in with Beige
G3s. A B&W G3/300 would set you back $300 (and a Sawtooth G4 was
even more), but a G4/500 ZIF for your G3 would cost $150.
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