[noah330]

Hi Everyone,
I just returned to the Mac world after about 10 years working almost exclusively on a PC. I do mostly digital audio work and although I love my old Quadra 650 dearly, I just bought a G4 Quicksilver to run ProTools 24|Mix on.

ProTools will run on a PC, but I know it runs better on a Mac and since I use a dual 2.5 G5 at work, I figured now is as good a time as any to get back into Macs!

First Question:

I bought a G4 Quicksilver 733Mhz machine. It has 512MB of ram. I am going to max out the ram to 1.5GB.

I know the RAM is 8ns PC133 SDRAM. Will standard Kingston RAM work in this machine or does Apple have its own spec for this?

Second Question:

I plan to throw away the hard drive the machine comes with. I have a pair of brand new Maxtor 160GB ATA drives. I am assuming these will be ok in the G4?

Third Question:
The person I bought the G4 from (ebay) mentioned that the mobo could accept a dual processor. Something tells me that if I buy another 733 Quicksilver processor it won't just drop into an empty slot like on a PC.

How would I go about doing this? Would it be more economical to just buy a 1.8Ghz processor upgrade from galaxyhp.com (395.00)? Could I upgrade to a dual CPU from a company like Galaxy?

Fourth Question:
I only need to use the machine to run ProTools (which uses external DSP cards for processing) and I plan on getting a version of Office to run on this machine as well.

The version of ProTools that I am going to run only works on OS X 10.3.4 (Panther). I need to find a copy of this older OS. Does anyone know of a supplier of back software or is this available from Apple?

Fifth Question (last one):

I need a DVD drive in this machine. Will any standard PC style dvd drive work or do you have to buy a special mac drive? I am thinking any one will work because my G5 @ work's drive appears to be a Pioneer.

Thank you very much for any/all help. I look forward to learning from all of you.

[Ji Eun]

ebay should have your copy of panther, the others.... dunno.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by noah330

First Question:

I bought a G4 Quicksilver 733Mhz machine. It has 512MB of ram. I am going to max out the ram to 1.5GB.

I know the RAM is 8ns PC133 SDRAM. Will standard Kingston RAM work in this machine or does Apple have its own spec for this?

Apple likes RAM that adheres closely to the JDEC spec standards. It's best to buy RAM rated for a Mac, and you will get sticks that work in just about any PC. You'll be needing 512 MB sticks, here is the ramseeker page for your model. On the other hand, if you have some 512 sticks sitting around already, try them first. If they work, fine. But they may recognize as only 256MB each.

Originally Posted by noah330

Second Question:

I plan to throw away the hard drive the machine comes with. I have a pair of brand new Maxtor 160GB ATA drives. I am assuming these will be ok in the G4?

They will work fine, but will format up as 128 GB drives, with about 20 GB of space unreachable. See our PowerMac Storage FAQ thread for the details.

Originally Posted by noah330

Third Question:
The person I bought the G4 from (ebay) mentioned that the mobo could accept a dual processor. Something tells me that if I buy another 733 Quicksilver processor it won't just drop into an empty slot like on a PC.

How would I go about doing this? Would it be more economical to just buy a 1.8Ghz processor upgrade from galaxyhp.com (395.00)? Could I upgrade to a dual CPU from a company like Galaxy?

Dual processors on the G4 are implemented using a CPU card with two CPUs on it. There is only one processor socket on the motherboard. You can find a good selection of G4 upgrade cards for your system here. A dual CPU card will make OSX more responsive, but they also cost more. Why not try your system with the native 733 card before making a decision? Admittedly, after using a dual 2.5GHz G5, you are going to notice how much slower a 733 single G4 is. Sorry.

Originally Posted by noah330

Fourth Question:
I only need to use the machine to run ProTools (which uses external DSP cards for processing) and I plan on getting a version of Office to run on this machine as well.

The version of ProTools that I am going to run only works on OS X 10.3.4 (Panther). I need to find a copy of this older OS. Does anyone know of a supplier of back software or is this available from Apple?

You can get legal copies of earlier OSX versions from Other World Computing. They currently offer Panther for less than $50.

Originally Posted by noah330

Fifth Question (last one):

I need a DVD drive in this machine. Will any standard PC style dvd drive work or do you have to buy a special mac drive? I am thinking any one will work because my G5 @ work's drive appears to be a Pioneer.

Drives are somewhat iffy, some work, some work but won't boot, etc. The safest bet is to get a Pioneer in the 107-A07 through 109-A09 range. The 110-A10 is newer, and well supported under Tiger, but may not be as compatible under OSX 10.3. Newegg has a good selection of Pioneers to choose from for about $50.

[Lateralus]

FYI: The Dual 1.8GHz G4/7447A upgrade from GigaDesigns is on sale at SmallDog for $495, $200 off.

Link

[Captain Curt]

I installed 1.5 gb of viking PC133 ram into my g4 quicksilver 733 and have been very happy that I did. Using a grounding strap when your installing ram is cheap insurance. Notice that 8ns is the minimum speed for the ram. PC133 (7.5ns) is the best. I've been happy using a LaCie firewire external DVD drive with my quicksilver Mac. I loaded tiger using it. My LaCie worked fine when I was using Panther with toast 6 titanium. The external firewire port on the back of the drive is very handy, putting a firewire port near the front of the mac. You may want to wait until after you install the ram to decide about the dual upgrade. The extra ram may give you enough speed. Good luck.

[SSharon]

A great place to check if a DVD drive will work for your exact setup is xlr8yourmac.com

[d.fine]

Haha, Welcome Back!! Looks like you pretty much got every question answered! Make sure to post some pics of your setup (if you want ofcourse) in the PM picture thread

[noah330]

Wow- Thanks a lot for the speedy and well-informed answers! I appreciate this more than you know.

Once everything is up and running I will post some pics.

Thanks Again!
Noah

[OreoCookie]

You can put larger harddrives into your Mac, but you would have to buy a PCI (parallel) ATA adapter. If you need help with that, we'll assist you.