[octavist13]

Has anyone bought a processor upgrade for an old G4 (Sawtooth) AGP Graphics? I know a lot of companies are making them, but I was just wondering if it's even worth the expense and if they really perform.

[IonYz]

I've upgraded my Digital Audio Dual 533 to a single 1.33 GHz chip. It was faster with most everything. Scrolling webpages especially which I do a lot as a web designer.

With the introduction of Mac mini however, the processor upgrade companies are going to take a hit. Unless your truly invested in expensive PCI cards and 4+ drives you'd be better of getting a Mini. The frontside bus hit and money spend on an upgrade is too much compared to just picking a Mini up.

My Cube is still running its original 450 G4, but I'll most likely pickup a Mini and delegate my Cube as a headless server instead of upgrading it.

[Luca]

I agree with IonYz. If your Sawtooth has other upgrades already, like a video card, larger hard drive, new optical drive, and so on, then a processor upgrade would be a fine way to improve your already capable machine. But if your computer is basically stock, with a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, a small hard drive, not much RAM, and the stock video card, then you'll be spending way too much to upgrade it to the level that the mini is at right now.

[usurp]

i was planning on upgrading my Digital Audio G4 733mhz, to a Sonnet tech 1.4Ghz single chip. Was gonna cost me around 400$. But now with the mini here, i am just gonna pay a bit extra and get the $599 1.4ghz G4 mac mini and turn my current mac to a server since it takes 4 drives. It will also be my secondary computer incase my wife needs to do some work.

My mac is stock except for the 3 drives which add up to 240GB. I have a Geforce 2 mx in my mac, 1gb ram, cdwriter that doesnt read dvds and burns at 8x.

only major downside of the mac mini is the lack of USB ports. I have a digital camera, bluetooth usb thingy, keyboard, mouse, pda and flash drive. mac mini has only 2 usb ports so i will most probably get a usb hub later on.. or maybe i can just keep my mac mini for web browsing and email. have the other mac for my media like mp3s, images and stuff. that way my cam and ipod go to the old powermac freeing up some ports on the mini..

[IonYz]

Originally Posted by usurp only major downside of the mac mini is the lack of USB ports. I have a digital camera, bluetooth usb thingy, keyboard, mouse, pda and flash drive. mac mini has only 2 usb ports so i will most probably get a usb hub later on.

Belkin offers this USB2 hub which I'd recommend to anyone. Seven ports; five on the back, and two sticking straight up for flash drives (iPod shuffle anyone?). Only problems is a large, heavy power brick with two wires.

Used it at work for my Cube to hook up; a USB2 CanoScan scanner, Graphire^3 tablet, Floppy Drive, Fujitsu MO, Printer and flash drive.

[octavist13]

The only problem I see with the mini is the fact that it doesn't have any PCI slots, which I will need for my Pro Tools Digi 001. I could get a mini and just dedicate my G4 for Pro Tools, but then I'd have to buy another monitor. I don't know, the mini would be a lot more appealing to me if it was expandable. Can you even add another hard drive to one? I know you can get the 80 GB upgrade or whatever, but it doesn't look like it has enough room to have 2 hard drives in it.

[Brad]

FireWire!

Get some cheap, high-capacity IDE drives and some FireWire enclosures and you're set to have some much better storage with that Mini.

[octavist13]

Thanks for the input guys! I really appreciate it. I'm still torn on what to do though. If I had the newer version of the Pro Tools hardware that is firewire I'd go buy the mini today, but that's not the case so I just have to figure out what to do.