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popheader · Sep 8, 2003, 01:18 PM

Ok, I am in a position where I could buy a used dual G4 tower 450 mhz with a gig of ram and 2 hard drives, for 700.00, however it has been used very hard for about 2 ? years in a professional setting. Would this machine be better than an 800 mhz emac? I'm only a home user, with no specific needs for massive power, just want to upgrade my rev. A imac. I have also considered getting a Powerlogix G4 500 daughtercard for 300.00. Can anyone help guide me to what might be the best choice. P.S. Money is an issue

Thanks

tr · Sep 8, 2003, 02:51 PM

used very hard? the only thing that might show some wear and tear are the HD's, but that's an easy thing to replace. i'd go with the tower. you can upgrade the video card, put more RAM, more HD's if you needed to (with an ATA PCI card), and upgrade the processor. and forget about that 500MHz card. for $89 more, you can go to 1GHz, maybe even 1.2:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_XLR8Y...=GIGGC5A1000S2

i'm running a single 450, and my machine runs fine, and i do a lot of photshop, illustrator, and FCP. yeah, it's a little slow, but once i save some cash for a processor upgrade, it'll be fine contender.

i think 700.00 is a pretty good deal for a dual-450.

tr

Back up 15 and punt · Sep 8, 2003, 05:03 PM

I'll secound the tower. I own a dual 450 and I can almost guarantee you that it will have a longer life than the G3 Imac.

popheader · Sep 8, 2003, 08:17 PM

Thanks for the advice, I'm leaning towards the tower. But I am still curious about the powerlogix chip, has anyone had any experience with this ie: compatibility with Jaguar and maybe Panther?

mac freak · Sep 10, 2003, 09:34 AM

I too have a DP450, and for the casual home user who doesn't game much, it's still plenty fast... runs OS X quite well thanks to the dual cpus.

I'll be upgrading to a G5 in the next six months, but more because I "can" than because it's really necessary. The DP450 is a great machine. Can't say the same for the eMac...

tr · Sep 10, 2003, 02:43 PM

Originally posted by popheader:
Thanks for the advice, I'm leaning towards the tower. But I am still curious about the powerlogix chip, has anyone had any experience with this ie: compatibility with Jaguar and maybe Panther?

it should be fine. check out http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/cpureview.lasso
and look at other people's experiences with upgrading their processors in their G4's.

tr

nredman · Sep 10, 2003, 04:02 PM

Originally posted by mac freak:
I too have a DP450, and for the casual home user who doesn't game much, it's still plenty fast... runs OS X quite well thanks to the dual cpus.

I'll be upgrading to a G5 in the next six months, but more because I "can" than because it's really necessary. The DP450 is a great machine. Can't say the same for the eMac...

my eMac is a great machine too

Eriamjh · Sep 11, 2003, 12:57 PM

Buy an eMac.

Kahpoosta Kid · Sep 12, 2003, 08:58 PM

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
Buy an eMac.

He might be happy--but ya got no ability to upgrade dat sucker down the pike.

I bought my kids 2 imacs when they were 450 and 500. My son outgrew the video card in a year. My daughter, in college, will get a new PBook-when they get speed bump on Tuesday.

Emac is a great price-but in a year..I dunno.