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d4nth3m4n · Jul 26, 2004, 08:02 PM

for now though, its just ram and a new HD. I presume that the 120gb limit is in effect for this box, and i found a thread that had a few conflicting answers, in it. so, do i have to buy hardware, or does the hi-cap driver work?

any brand recommendations for a drive?

what kind of ram would it take? SD PC100? its a single 400 g4. thats about all i know. and at the moment it still has 9.2 on it as well. and why can't i find anything larger than 256mb? what is the max ram for this comp.

in the future there are processor upgrades in the works as well, but for now this is about it.

as you can see, im a little clueless here, but hopefully you can help me out.

Thanks!

Lateralus · Jul 26, 2004, 08:08 PM

I have no experience with the hi-cap driver. But in standard operating order, yes, 120GBs is the largest you can put in the machine.

I personally recommend Seagate. Their drives are fast, and very quiet. And as of this week, they come with the longest warranty in the industry. Seagate has bumped the warranty on their drives from the now standard 12 months to 5 years.

PC-100 or 133 would work fine.

The RAM max is 2GBs. 4x512MB.

d4nth3m4n · Jul 26, 2004, 08:16 PM

now i see why they made you a mod. thanks!

Lateralus · Jul 26, 2004, 08:32 PM

No problem.

reader50 · Jul 26, 2004, 11:59 PM

If you get 512 MB modules, be sure to get 512 modules that are recommended for Mac. If you get generic PC133 or PC100 512 modules, they will likely show up either as 256 modules, or fail to work at all.

Lateralus · Jul 27, 2004, 12:05 AM

For example Crucial, Kingston, Viking...

Scotttheking · Jul 27, 2004, 12:22 AM

As someone who has been upgrading his sawtooth, I'd suggest just buying a newer used mac in the dual 1ghz+ range, or getting a new or refurb G5. It'll cost about the same, and be faster.

Turnpike · 06:50 AM

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
As someone who has been upgrading his sawtooth, I'd suggest just buying a newer used mac in the dual 1ghz+ range, or getting a new or refurb G5. It'll cost about the same, and be faster.

I have a Sawtooth 400 (same as OP's folks) and can attest to the fact that major upgrades will probably be a waste of cash, for the most part. If they have use for more drive space, go for it (137 is max per drive I think... formatted, only 128, it shipped with 10). RAM is still a useful upgrade for it, however, and a pretty cheap one. Get them up to a gig if they aren't already there, and if they don't have HD space (or you plan on moving them to X) get a hard drive. I would suggest putting Panther on it. The VERY minor performance hit is nothing compared to how many times they WON'T be crashing with X. Like I said, X on the 10gig drive will be very cramped.

If their apps will work with X and they don't mind, I'd buy a cheap 40 gig drive and set them up. Get them up to a gig of RAM. If they have lots of stored stuff, get a larger drive... if they do any heavy lifting, scrap the whole idea and get a new computer. Use the current one as an internet terminal (if you have the extra monitor to spare), a file/mp3 server, or make a pathintosh clone...

Also, if you find a way to get past that GB limit, please share... I've got disk space I can't use right now without putting more cash into the machine...

EDIT: had wrong HD size...

bbales · Jul 27, 2004, 09:11 AM

Good luck with the upgrade! Mine's not a Sawtooth, but it's similar (400 MZ, purchased in 11/2000).

I got a processor upgrade in March or so and it's made a world of difference. I also got more ram -- am up to 768. As for hard drive space, I have 2 externals. One is pretty much just for backups.

I figure I can now get more months on this machine before upgrading. The processor upgrade really made a difference, though. I was running X on it before then without much difficulty, so I know you can too.

d4nth3m4n · Jul 27, 2004, 10:06 AM

i think just a basic drive and ram upgrade is in order. all the comp is used for is a little office (ms) work and very basic photo editing. what prompted all this was last night when i noticed that there was only 600mb left on the drive. since dad got his cannon g5 in the winter, i figured it was probably time to get a bigger drive.

i think well probably pass on the processor upgrade, but who knows. oh, but panther is a definite. i think im going to partition 40gb of the second drive to host panther. past that, it will just be media storage.

thanks everyone.

d4nth3m4n · Jul 28, 2004, 09:57 AM

update: got a 120gb seagate drive from best buy (dad is a little impulsive... can't wait) but, the ram was pretty hard to find here in upstate NY. it is nice to finally have a backup or my ailing ipod. thing is just going tits up on me.

we did find this in stock in Ithaca here, but i was hesitant about getting it because they have NO return policy. figured i'd ask you guys and see if you knew anything about PNY ram and the aging g4. on the packaging it says "pc133 only" which got me a little scared, and the clueless PC jockeys at the store, but meh.

if this isnt the right stuff, we can always order online.

anyway, thanks again.

reader50 · Jul 28, 2004, 11:30 AM

Lots of error pages on that link, Staples doesn't seem to like uncookied browsers. If it says "PC133 only" it means the module lacks the PC100 data entries, and will most likely not work with a PC100 system like a Sawtooth. This also means the module is not JEDEC compliant, probably because the factory does not want to spend the time/money to test it at PC100 settings.

I've bought my Sawtooth memory from here. Good service, lifetime warranty (purchaser lifetime, not lifetime of the computer or the RAM module), good prices.

Of course, the last time I ordered a GB of RAM from them, the prices were a lot better. At the end of the RAM price slump, I got the modules for about half the current price.

BZ · Jul 28, 2004, 11:36 AM

(read my sig first).

As you can see, I have upgraded my good ole Sawtooth a bit.

I would go with a Western Digital SE edition drive. They are cheap, fast and good drives with 8MB of cache.

Ram, I think you can put either 100 or 133 MHz ram in there. I busted mine up to 2GB (4 x 512MB).

I had a 1Ghz Powerlogix upgrade (with no sleep for a year) and now am much happier with my OWC 1.5Ghz G4.

Remember to throw in a nice new video card, you don't have to go crazy just something with 64MB of ram for Expose.

BZ

Originally posted by d4nth3m4n:
for now though, its just ram and a new HD. I presume that the 120gb limit is in effect for this box, and i found a thread that had a few conflicting answers, in it. so, do i have to buy hardware, or does the hi-cap driver work?

any brand recommendations for a drive?

what kind of ram would it take? SD PC100? its a single 400 g4. thats about all i know. and at the moment it still has 9.2 on it as well. and why can't i find anything larger than 256mb? what is the max ram for this comp.

in the future there are processor upgrades in the works as well, but for now this is about it.

as you can see, im a little clueless here, but hopefully you can help me out.

Thanks!

d4nth3m4n · Jul 28, 2004, 07:07 PM

Originally posted by reader50:
Lots of error pages on that link, Staples doesn't seem to like uncookied browsers. If it says "PC133 only" it means the module lacks the PC100 data entries, and will most likely not work with a PC100 system like a Sawtooth. This also means the module is not JEDEC compliant, probably because the factory does not want to spend the time/money to test it at PC100 settings.

I've bought my Sawtooth memory from here. Good service, lifetime warranty (purchaser lifetime, not lifetime of the computer or the RAM module), good prices.

Of course, the last time I ordered a GB of RAM from them, the prices were a lot better. At the end of the RAM price slump, I got the modules for about half the current price.

ordered. thanks!