Which G4 to buy

[Bill B. Johnson]

In article <YmSPgjx6zsY1-pn2-miJrPKNQ0hog@localhost>,
[email]v1r0b1k@despammed.com[/email] wrote:

> With the G5's coming out, I'm hoping that the lightly used market for
> G4's starts to come within my price range. I'm looking for an upgrade
> over my B&W G3, which I've been quite happy with, but having built in
> CD-RW capabilities as well as the performance boost from the newer G4's
> would be nice.
>
> I'm looking for a machine with SCSI/Firewire & USB capabilites that will
> still boot into OS 9. Any G4 desktop machines that are particularly
> recommended or any to be certain to avoid?
>
> thanks,
>
> kevin

Based upon what I have read in the Mac related magazines like MacWorld and
MacAddict--the best G4 macs are the ones made in 2003 that have dual
processors. I believe all of the tower G4s have slots for cards that allow
owners to install special SCSI cards but I don't know how well they work.
I believe that all of the G4 macs made in 2003 have Firewire and USB
capabilites built in.

[Jerry Kindall]

In article
<billbjohnson555-2207030939170001@pm5-broad-101.snlo.dialup.fix.net>,
Bill B. Johnson <billbjohnson555@nospamhotmail.com> wrote:

> In article <YmSPgjx6zsY1-pn2-miJrPKNQ0hog@localhost>,
> [email]v1r0b1k@despammed.com[/email] wrote:
>

> > With the G5's coming out, I'm hoping that the lightly used market for
> > G4's starts to come within my price range. I'm looking for an upgrade
> > over my B&W G3, which I've been quite happy with, but having built in
> > CD-RW capabilities as well as the performance boost from the newer G4's
> > would be nice.
> >
> > I'm looking for a machine with SCSI/Firewire & USB capabilites that will
> > still boot into OS 9. Any G4 desktop machines that are particularly
> > recommended or any to be certain to avoid?

>
> Based upon what I have read in the Mac related magazines like MacWorld and
> MacAddict--the best G4 macs are the ones made in 2003 that have dual
> processors. I believe all of the tower G4s have slots for cards that allow
> owners to install special SCSI cards but I don't know how well they work.
> I believe that all of the G4 macs made in 2003 have Firewire and USB
> capabilites built in.

Of course, some of them won't boot into Mac OS 9.

My G4/533 Dual will be on the market either this fall or early next
year, depending on how patient I am. %)

--
Jerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/>

When replying by e-mail, use plain text ONLY to make sure I read it.
Due to spam and viruses, I filter all mail with HTML or attachments.

[E-Star]

In article <YmSPgjx6zsY1-pn2-miJrPKNQ0hog@localhost>,
<v1r0b1k@despammed.com> wrote:

> but having built in
> CD-RW capabilitie

I wouldn't worry about this. Burners are dirt cheap now. In fact you
may even want to spring for a DVD-RW if you are upgrading.

[Phil Lefebvre]

In article <YmSPgjx6zsY1-pn2-miJrPKNQ0hog@localhost>,
[email]v1r0b1k@despammed.com[/email] wrote:

> I'm looking for a machine with SCSI/Firewire & USB capabilites that will
> still boot into OS 9. Any G4 desktop machines that are particularly
> recommended or any to be certain to avoid?

What is your budget? IMHO, the used machines are overpriced compared to
what you get with the new 1.25 GHz G4s sold by Apple right now.

If you are planning on only using OS 9, then the single 1.25 sold by
Apple right now is a good deal. If you plan on using OS X also, then the
Dual 1.25 sold by Apple is an even better deal.

<[url]http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/71101/wo[/url]
/qZjGtjlFp2vE22AjpErBeFjMxaX/1.0.7.1.0.5.23.1.0.19.3.1.1.0?44,4>

Just be aware that they can be quite noisy in some cases. Make sure you
get support regarding exchanging the noisy power supply, since Apple
stopped offering the user-installed exchange last month. OTOH, even
older QuickSilvers can be pretty noisy, and they don't even have an
option for quieting them down.

OTOH, if all you want is a little boost over what you have, any G4 w/
AGP will do that.

--
Chicago, IL
Remove "GO" to reply.

[Joe Shimkus]

In article <p-lefebvre-098FE3.19363822072003@reader1.news.rcn.net>,
Phil Lefebvre <p-lefebvre@GOnorthwestern.edu> wrote:

> If you are planning on only using OS 9, then the single 1.25 sold by
> Apple right now is a good deal. If you plan on using OS X also, then the
> Dual 1.25 sold by Apple is an even better deal.

And, if you want a piece of art, these guys
[url]http://www.kemplar.com/apple_cube_ts.htm[/url]
will sell you a Cube with a 1.25GHz G4 in it for US$1879 (more if you
opt for a more capable optical drive).

- Joe "whose asking himself if he wants to spend the money"


--
PGP Key (DH/DSS): [url]http://www.shimkus.com/public_key.asc[/url]
PGP Fingerprint: 89B4 52DA CF10 EE03 02AD 9134 21C6 2A68 CE52 EE1A

[David C.]

[email]v1r0b1k@despammed.com[/email] writes:

>
> With the G5's coming out, I'm hoping that the lightly used market
> for G4's starts to come within my price range. I'm looking for an
> upgrade over my B&W G3, which I've been quite happy with, but having
> built in CD-RW capabilities as well as the performance boost from
> the newer G4's would be nice.

Nearly all of the tower/iMac systems have at least CD-RW capability.

> I'm looking for a machine with SCSI/Firewire & USB capabilites that
> will still boot into OS 9. Any G4 desktop machines that are
> particularly recommended or any to be certain to avoid?

If you need to boot OS 9, then you can't use the most recent models
(the ones with FireWire-800 ports.)

The most recent tower systems that can boot 9 are the
first-generation mirror-drive-door models (867MHz, dual-1GHz,
dual-1.25GHz).

These include FireWire-400 and USB 1.1. SCSI is available through a
PCI card. (Apple's build-to-order SCSI option is an Adaptec
PowerDomain 2930U card.)

If you plan on using a SCSI card with a backup device and plan on
using Retrospect, check Dantz's web site ([url]http://www.dantz.com/[/url]) to
make sure the card you choose is compatible. Not all SCSI cards are
compatible with Retrospect, and not all work properly with both OS 9
and OS X.

I believe that these models shipped with one of two optical drives.
Either a Combo Drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or a SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-RW).

Given that any G4 system will be many times faster than your B&W G3,
you have a lot of models to choose from.

If OS 9 support is not a hard requirement, then you can go with the
most recent G4 towers, which will add FireWire-800 capability. I
don't know what OS 9 apps you need to run, but aside from disk
utilities, most apps run fine in OS X's "Classic" compatibility
environment.

-- David