[indigoimac]

Well anyone used one I wouldn't mind the speed increase and the price is low, but they offer no instructions on their website. Is this a good idea or would a new macmini or emac be absolutely far superior?
Thanks, indigo

http://store.fastmac.com/product_inf...roducts_id=123

[Krusty]

A new (or refurb) eMac or Mac Mini would be far superior for many reasons beyond the chip (system bus, graphics card, USB 2.0, etc etc) but that does look awfully intriguing. $200 for a G4 slot loader. Not too shabby.

[the_glassman]

Originally posted by Krusty:
A new (or refurb) eMac or Mac Mini would be far superior for many reasons beyond the chip (system bus, graphics card, USB 2.0, etc etc) but that does look awfully intriguing. $200 for a G4 slot loader. Not too shabby.

That's just for the G4 upgrade!

[indigoimac]

what else do u need aside from that, when u consider the cost

[Krusty]

Originally posted by indigoimac:
what else do u need aside from that, when u consider the cost

A faster G4 -- many of Apple's standard apps require/recommend a 600mhz - 1ghz processor. 550 would definitely be a nice upgrade from a G3, but it would be woefully slower than even the cheapest eMac. Except for Alti-vec optimized tasks (like converting to mp3), a 550mhz G4 will run a whole lot like a 550mhz G3 for most things.

The system bus on the mini/eMac is 67% faster than on the slot-loader. This is an important measure as it reflects the real speed at which data is shuttled between the machine's various subsystems. Raw processor speed isn't the whole story.

USB 2.0 - lots of USB peripherals these days really take advantage of the speed bump from 1.1.

Graphics. Many of the nifty graphical OS goodies simply will not work on the graphics card in the G3 iMac.

Any optical drive on an eMac or Mac Mini would be far faster and far more flexible than anything on a slot loading iMac.

Almost any monitor you get with a mini would be far nicer than the slot-loader. The eMac monitor IS ALREADY much nicer than the slot loader.

Regardless how reliable your iMac is .. its 5 years old, right ? However you slice it, a new machine will most likely last longer than 5 year old machine.

Your key phrase is when you consider the cost. Well, $200 definitely the cheapest solution ... but there are so many upgraded items in the mini or eMac package, you'd still probably get more bang for your buck buying one of them, IMHO. Believe me, I'm a huge advocate of slot-loading iMacs ... I have one sitting by my main machine right now and think its just one of the best all around machines ever made. But a simple upgrade to a 550 G4 would really be a tiny upgrade in comparison to a machine that is, what, 5 years newer ?

[tr]

another company a while back (powerlogix?) offered the same type of upgrade, only they used a 700mhz G3, which was nice, because it hit that magical "600 mhz or above" processor requirement that a lot of apple software list. while i like this upgrade, since it uses a G4, 550mhz isn't going to do much; i wish they used a faster G4.

tr

[Rev-O]

I was initially intrigued by this, but on further review, I'll hafta pass. My slot loader is a 600MHz G3. Seems like a 550MHz G4 upgrade isn't really an upgrade.