[cspuryear]

So I've got a 1.25 GHz 20" iMac G4 with an 80gb drive and 768 mb of ram. It actually works great for everything I do: iTunes, Browsing, email, iPhoto, iMovie and iWeb. HOWEVER, It's starting to get a little slow w/ just the 768 mb of ram.

My question is whether I just rip out the ram and upgrade both the internal and "user" accessible slots so that it has 2gb's total for better performance, or should I use my $600+ in Apple Store Gift cards to get the latest and greatest iMac?

Thoughts?

[mduell]

A G5 might be worth upgrading, but it's time to put a G4 out to pasture.

Take a look at the refurbs, you can get the 20" 2.4 last-generation for $1099.

[imitchellg5]

If it's good for your current needs I would just upgrade it. However, seeing as you have $600+ of Apple gift cards, why not get a new one ? It would make a good second Mac as it is.

[hab]

Buy a new machine if you can afford it. I kept an 800 MHz G4 that I lived with until last fall's roll out of Leopard on the Al iMacs. The increase in performance in my new machine is astounding especially with any application that has photo/video aspects (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, etc.) Life is too short to wait for the progress bar to creep along your screen. You will not be sorry.

[Koralatov]

I’m a bit unhinged on the subject of G4 iMacs, but I say upgrade it. I upped mine from 768MB to 1.25GB after I installed Leopard, and the difference was very noticeable. Whilst it’s true that an Intel will absolutely spank a G4, the G4 is more than adequate for medium/light usage. I surf the net, IM, email and watch video on mine, and it does it flawlessly. Whilst the new iMacs are unquestionably in a totally different league power-wise, they really can’t match the G4’s neck and jaw-dropping design…

[steve626]

The problem is that software will soon leave your older Mac behind. For instance, your G4 iMac (even with more memory) meets the minimum requirements for most but not all the components of iLife 08 and also doesn't meet the Aperture minimum requirements. It barely qualifies for Photoshop Elements latest version. The G4 is the slowest processor allowed for the latest version of MS-Office (2008) but its performance will be quite slow.

As for the esthetic appeal of the iMac G4, I'd keep your old one but go ahead with the fastest newer computer with as much memory as you can manage. Within 3 years it too will be beginning to not meet newer software requirements but with the G4 that will happen much faster. I have one of the early (2001) G3 iMacs (Indigo) and my wife likes to use it still, but she is mostly doing email and web browsing (Office 2004 works ok on that iMac but it is not fast enough for Office 2008). I'd keep the older iMac (as we are doing) until it breaks down as it really is a part of history, but I think the wiser course for running modern day software is to get a new computer.

[cspuryear]

Thanks everyone for their input. I think you are all right in the sense that the iMac G4 is at the bottom of the ladder when talking about the minimum hardware requirements these days......

[idykenano]

gift cards= new imac
I made the switch from g4 to intel recently and I felt a big difference, especially with (as stated above) ilife, office08, and graphically intense things.
If you can afford it, keep the g4 imac around as a spare computer, awesome looking dvd player, sweet living room stereo (cover flow would be amazing here), print server... the possibilities are nearly endless. i personally have held onto my 450mhz (*ashamed*) g4 powermac since I bought my macbook and it functions well.

[analogika]

There is NO WAY IN HELL I would let that beauty go if I were you.

Get a new Mac when you can afford to, but *don't* let the old one go.

At least, I know that if I would, I'd regret it forever.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by analogika 

There is NO WAY IN HELL I would let that beauty go if I were you.

Get a new Mac when you can afford to, but *don't* let the old one go.

At least, I know that if I would, I'd regret it forever.

Quoted for truth. I will never, ever, ever get rid of my G4 iMac; there really, really is nothing quite like it. When the internals crap out, I’ll install a Mac mini in the innards to keep the spirit alive.

Sad to say, I’m really rather in love with the G4 iMac…

[Eriamjh]

Any Intel iMac will STOMP your G4. I say you should buy new.

However, you should keep that beauty for something. The G4 iMac is a work of art and deserves to be treated that way. Use it as a digital picture frame in the kitchen or just another fine place. No one will recognize it as a computer if they are PC users.

[gooser]

while i agree with steve, the software solution as i see it is simple. continue to use older software.

[Jon Young Music]

I've actually been going back & gettin all the old Macs i could never afford when I was younger. My first new Mac was my MacBook Pro 2.16/3GB RAM....now I have an iMac G4 17", iMac G3, PowerMac G4, iBook G3. They're just fun to mess with and when I'm tied up working in Pro Tools or something I can hop on the G4 and get on the net real quick.

It is a little rough going from the Intel to a G4 or even worse, a G3 but I still love them all lol! I'd say definitely get a new one if you can. You can always grab some more RAM for your G4 later on.

[CreepDogg]

FWIW, I'd buy as well with the gift cards.

I have a 17" 1GHz G4 - and sadly at this point it's put away in the box. It no longer reads or writes DVDs (I think a software update along the way fried the DVD capability - CDs still work fine), and I found out after it was several years old that its Airport slot is inoperable (had wired Ethernet until I moved a few months ago when the $29 wireless card looked like a good option...). And with the DVD thing I was unable to install Leopard...

Still, I haven't been able to bring myself to get rid of it, even though my white 20" C2D smokes it in every way performance-wise. Because of that, I just haven't been able to find a good use for it...

[PB2K]

Once you've used newer macs you are most likely to avoid the imac g4 most of the time. I got a free emac which I thought was really cool, but in reality it was too noisy and slow compared to my 20" G5 imac.

[sek929]

As a proud parent of a C2D 20" iMac I can say with much certainty that you would benefit greatly from a new Mac.