[Eriamjh]

My wife has a Sawtooth 400 G4. It currently has over 868MB of RAM, a CD-burner (she doesn't use DVDs) a GeForce2MX 64MB Twin-View video card (hooked up to a 19in monitor) and airport. It is running 10.2.3 because she never runs SW Update, but could.

She uses her machine for daily email, surfing, some game playing (Sims) and some music processing (MIDI stuff with a keyboard). No video editing ever.

In your humble opinions, would we be better dropping a 1.2 to 1.4GHz G4 upgrade into this old machine for around $450 (powerlogix 1.4 single) or buying a 1GHz iMac. Would the slower PC100 bus be more than offset by the 400MHz speed gain?

She really wants the iMac because it is so cool. But I look at things with a little more logic (and since I won't be using it, I don't want her to get one).

She doesn't need a DVD burner, but wants the 17" version. We would need to get the Airport Extreme card because her machine is upstairs and not wired to our hub. She doesn't need any PCI slots. We would also buy more RAM further increasing the price difference.

So, other than biases about iMacs vs. PowerMacs, does anyone have anything to add, pro or con?

[chris v]

You're talking upwards of 2 grand, or 450 bucks. I say if you're rich, you'll love the iMac. If you're not rich, you'll get plenty of life out of the sawtooth with an upgrade card.

I just put a 1.25 OWC card in a Sawtooth 450, and it feels just about as snappy™ as my QS Dual Gig.
I was really very pleasantly suprised by how easy to install it was and by the performance gain I saw.

The system bus difference is not going to amount to a noticable difference, considering what she uses it for, and you've already got the thing loaded with ram and a reasonably good video card, that'll take advantage of Quartz extreme.

I say go with the upgrade card and spend the difference on a romantic getaway.

CV