[kick52]

hi all.

soon iots my birthday, and im going to ask for so i can go crazy on upgrading my sig pm. i want a new fast cd writer and dvd reader (under £30, 60$) and a cheap (under £40, 80$) video card.

i have seen a cd drive in a novatech mag for £20, 40$ and it does exactly what i want, but i dont know if it will work on my mac (reading and writing).

also, i saw an ati radeon 7000 for £20 (use a money converter for $s, in dont think the rest is right) which looked great, but it was the pc version. is there a place i can get cheap mac-compat. vers. of these things?

if i have enough money left over, i might buy tiger, or more ram.


cheers, kick52

[bowwowman]

that pm can take up to 2GB of ram, that would be your most cost-effective upgrade to start. 512mb is the bare minimum for OS X, and you should also move up to 10.4.4 With the added ram, it will run even faster than 10.3

As for video cards, the best one for that machine is the Radeon 8500/64mb. They can usually be found on ebay for ~$40-60. Make sure you search under the Apple section

And check the compatability database at www.xlr8yourmac.com to see if the dvd/cd drive you are looking at is listed as working. 1000's of reports there

[kick52]

thanks!

[DrBoar]

Before you get a graphical card and more RAM get a faster CPU, My G4/400 was upgraded with a ATI 8500 and the only change was that 3D games could be runned in higher resolution.
a 1 GHz (OWC for 195 dollar) or better G4 will make a far bigger improvment than 2GB RAM and a ATI 9800!
The Radeon 7000 is a lame duck slower than the original Radeon and also PCI making it even slower. A very marginal upgrade for a AGP ATI 128 card.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by kick52

soon iots my birthday, and im going to ask for so i can go crazy on upgrading my sig pm. i want a new fast cd writer and dvd reader (under £30, 60$) and a cheap (under £40, 80$) video card.

i have seen a cd drive in a novatech mag for £20, 40$ and it does exactly what i want, but i dont know if it will work on my mac (reading and writing).

also, i saw an ati radeon 7000 for £20 (use a money converter for $s, in dont think the rest is right) which looked great, but it was the pc version. is there a place i can get cheap mac-compat. vers. of these things?

The Pioneer DVR-110D is a very nice Mac-compatible DVD burner; retails for $40 in the states.

Radeon 7000 was a good card 4 or 5 years ago. Look for at least a Radeon 9000 or 9200. Expect to pay 20-100% more for a Mac video card than a PC video card.

[kick52]

thanks for all the info. i might try and get that pioneer from ebay, or somewhere then. (its like £60 here in uk)


there is a dual 533mhz and a 733mhz card in a parts place. would that work in my pm sig or would it just destroy it? the dual 533 is £40, 733 £60. apparently the duals are better at os x so thats what i'd be getting...

[DrBoar]

The 533 and 733 are on 133 MHz bus and the 400 on a 100 MHz bus. If they work at all they keep their 4x and 5.5x bus speed that is 400 and 550 MHz. Shanging the muliiplier inolves soldering SMDs.

[Chito]

There are three kids of upgrades. Good, Fast and cheap. If you choose two, consider the following:
If it's good and fast, it won't be cheap.
If it's good and cheap, it won't be fast.
If it's fast and cheap, it won't be good.