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wallinbl · Feb 6, 2006, 04:49 PM

I was given a Quicksilver G4 that we acquired in purchasing another company, but were otherwise going to throw away. It's nothing special, (733MHz, 768MB), but it spares me having to convince the wife to spring for a Mac. I can get some more RAM and a bigger HD. If I get a new video card (it's a GF2 MX), do I have to buy a Mac specific card, or will most any AGP card work? We have a number of decent cards around work, and I have an ATI 9600 Pro at home somewhere. Are video cards Mac/PC specific? Can they be flashed or something?

JCT · Feb 6, 2006, 04:58 PM

I have found this site very useful for info on flashing PC-based cards to Mac:

Strangedogs . Just head to the forums and check out the FAQ.

You should definitely be able to improve on the GeForce2 in that QS.

Regards,

JT

wallinbl · Feb 7, 2006, 10:01 AM

I may end up just selling it instead. I had hoped that it wouldn't be so slow, but it seems like launching apps is really slow, and even rendering web pages is pretty slow. I fear loading 3500 8MB photos into iPhoto on it.

JCT · Feb 7, 2006, 10:28 AM

I found that adding a PCI SATA card and a fast hard drive made a *big* difference in performance on my DA.

The other advantage to this approach is that you can move the card and hard drive to a more capable machine if necessary.

Good luck,

JT

kick52 · Feb 8, 2006, 10:50 AM

i would love flashing a cheap pc ati radeon 7000 agp to my mac,

but your link leads to a dog breeding site...

JCT · Feb 8, 2006, 11:16 AM

i would love flashing a cheap pc ati radeon 7000 agp to my mac,

but your link leads to a dog breeding site...

Did you click on the "Forums" and scroll down a little? Card Flashing Forum

The FAQ thread gives all the info you should need. You can also look at Cubeowner, the 7000 is a popular Card to flash for the Cube. I have one in mine.

Good luck,

JT

wallinbl · Feb 9, 2006, 08:48 AM

This machine is a bit slower than I expected. I copied over my photo collection (4800 photos) into iPhoto, and it is practically unusable. Clicking in the scroll bar to scroll down one page takes three full seconds. I know it's an older machine, but the only thing my wife really uses the computer for is email and photos (not editing really, just collecting and organizing).

new newton · Feb 9, 2006, 01:13 PM

If a person can't follow the simple instructions to get to the strangedogs forum, they shouldn't be attempting to flash a video card. Attention to detail is required.

reader50 · Feb 9, 2006, 07:21 PM

If you are working with a ton of photos, the first thing you can do is max out the RAM to 1.5 GB. A faster HD or better video card will help some, but you are almost certainly choking on RAM and hitting the hard drive for virtual memory.

wallinbl · Feb 9, 2006, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

If you are working with a ton of photos, the first thing you can do is max out the RAM to 1.5 GB. A faster HD or better video card will help some, but you are almost certainly choking on RAM and hitting the hard drive for virtual memory.

The PC I have them on only has 512MB. I suppose it's apples to oranges. I've been looking around trying to find some larger PC133 DIMMs, but the 3 256's are the biggest I have.

rhogue islander · Feb 10, 2006, 07:21 AM

I have a 6800GT that I flashed for use in my G5 using instructions from the strangedogs site.

Apart from some early wake from sleep issues, its working great and am very happy with the performance.

For your Quicksilver the best card would likely be either a geforce4ti (4600) or a Radeion 9800 pro.

D0GtheBOUNTYhntr · 05:04 AM

*Meow*

new newton · Feb 10, 2006, 05:40 PM

None of that has anything to do with flashing a video card.

rubytuesday · 05:03 AM

*Burp*

D0GtheBOUNTYhntr · 05:04 AM

*Fart*

kick52 · Feb 11, 2006, 04:55 AM

ok, this has gone off topic...

there is an ati radeon 7000 agp that i might wanna get and flash, but i dont know how i could get that done because my video card at the moment is in the agp slot. unless i can get pre-flashed cards...

new newton · Feb 11, 2006, 06:02 AM

Just read the instructions on the various flashing methods. It's easy.

ReggieX · Feb 11, 2006, 09:42 AM

The 9600XT is the only one that's flashable, no other 9600 variants are at the moment.
Other World has 9600 Pros that have been modded to work in the QS and other G4 models (4x AGP only, obviously) for $79: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/630ATI96G4/

I'd spring for a faster HD as well.

rhogue islander · Feb 11, 2006, 11:02 AM

Just borrow someone's PC, that's probably the best method.

JCT · Feb 11, 2006, 01:24 PM

Just borrow someone's PC, that's probably the best method.

Agreed. It's one of the only reasons I keep a PC around.

JT

kick52 · Feb 11, 2006, 01:29 PM

i dont have a pc i could borrow...

anyway, i think my moneys going to a processor upgrade.1 ghz from sonnet.

new newton · Feb 11, 2006, 02:23 PM

You've got two Macs. You could either blind flash it, or run things via VNC. VNC is very simple.

MORT A POTTY · Feb 11, 2006, 02:28 PM

the Quicksilver is a great machine. don't go for a single CPU upgrade though. go dual, the cost is a bit more but you'll definitely get what you paid for. matter of fact I just sold my dual 1.8Ghz CPU upgrade or I'd offer it to you. I had a Radeon 9800 Pro in mine. great GPU, best they're gonna make for 'em. I'm selling mine but that's in the marketplace so I won't get into it here.

Don't junk the QS. it's a fantastic machine with some fantastic upgradeability. I'd still gladly be using mine had the board not died. first thing though would be upgrade that CPU, then RAM, then GPU, then HD (or HDs and possibly a PCI controller depending if you want SATA or you might stick w/ the onboard ATA if you were lucky like I was to get one of the ones that supported 48-bit LBA thus letting you use the huge HDs they have now).

also you can swap out the optical drive for something much more modern for pretty cheap.

kick52 · Feb 13, 2006, 09:12 AM

the thing is, my imac doesnt have an agp slot.

also, i would love to get a dual 1.8, but that is a lot of money and the most money i'll be getting for my birthday is £150ish

MORT A POTTY · Feb 13, 2006, 02:21 PM

was talking to the thread starter

bt yeah, if you don't have an AGP slot, don't even bother upgrading because it's some old old stuff. I mean you can make it usable, but the cost/benefit of that would be pretty small given that an iMac would outperform it by a large margin in nearly every way for just a bit more. even give you higher capacity in HDs since it supports 48-bit LBA

ReggieX · Feb 14, 2006, 10:03 PM

Originally Posted by new newton

You've got two Macs. You could either blind flash it, or run things via VNC. VNC is very simple.

It's not the blind flashing that's the issue, it's that there are far better tools on the PC side of things for backing up and testing the ROM images.

new newton · Feb 14, 2006, 10:27 PM

But if you've got two Macs and no PC, it's not at all tough to set up VNC. That was my point...