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hld1098

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 28, 2005
13
1
Hi y'all, newbie here. Please advice:
I have a 2001 Quicksilver G4 867mhz 896ram, I do some graphic design for my local church using Photoshop, IPhoto, Powerpoint. I feel the computer lags at times. I'm thinking of upgrading the processor, e.g. OWC 1.4mhz and maximizing ram. Or just to buy a new Mac Mini. Help!
 

plinden

macrumors 601
Apr 8, 2004
4,029
142
Can't really give you any advice on this, but barefeats recently did some benchmarks on an upgraded (to 2GHz G4) Quicksilver and showed some nice gains (as fast as or faster than a 2GHz dual G5 in SP applications) - http://www.barefeats.com/kwik.html

The 2GHz G4 upgrade is less than the cost of a mini, and you would end up with a faster, albeit not new, machine.

They also benchmarked the same Quicksilver with a new GPU http://www.barefeats.com/kwik2.html
 

Dont Hurt Me

macrumors 603
Dec 21, 2002
6,055
6
Yahooville S.C.
I have a quicksilver running at 1.4 and we have a mini at 1.42. The quicksilver is much faster in games but thats because of the GF3 video card. The mini if it is going to 64 mb video would be tough to beat even with a upgraded Quicksilver. If you have a kick butt video card keep the Powermac, if not go Mini. Man those things are silent. Plus they use less power. Hope you dont have a ADC monitor. :D
 

XNine

macrumors 68040
Yeah, upgrade the Powermac G4. I just bought a mini, and it really does need a Gig of RAM to keep moving, plus the internal HD is pretty slow. Sure you can upgrade it, but it's not worth it.

I say you get a new superdrive and processor upgrade for the powermac and enjoy your bliss.
 

Lord Blackadder

macrumors P6
May 7, 2004
15,662
5,496
Sod off
hld1098 said:
Hi y'all, newbie here. Please advice:
I have a 2001 Quicksilver G4 867mhz 896ram, I do some graphic design for my local church using Photoshop, IPhoto, Powerpoint. I feel the computer lags at times. I'm thinking of upgrading the processor, e.g. OWC 1.4mhz and maximizing ram. Or just to buy a new Mac Mini. Help!

I had a dual 533MHz Digital Audio (same system bus speed as your Quicksilver) and was considering waiting for a Mini, but instead I upgraded with a SATA hard disk, 1.4GHz OWC G4, and a Radeon 9600 Pro 64MB video card and 1GB RAM.

Now the machine flies, and it is significantly faster than my brother's 1.42MHz Mini due mostly to the fast hard drive and video card.

I'd upgrade the Quicksilver - the OWC processors are very reliable and will cost less than a new Mini. In fact, take my advice and get a SATA hard drive (it will require that you buy a SATA PCI controller card too), as that upgrade alone boosted my computer's speed by up to 10%, not to mention the extra storage space. Coupled with the new processor you'll have a a very fast Mac.
 

Lacero

macrumors 604
Jan 20, 2005
6,637
3
The mini won't make your computer any faster or more efficient. The only reason I see of moving to a mini is if the noise from the G4 is distracting enough.

I don't recommend CPU upgrades alone, simply because you get more value from upgrading the whole computer instead even though the cash outlay is higher.

Forget a CPU upgrade, I would go for another 1 GB to 2 GB of extra RAM. OSX running on 896 MB is cutting it close for graphic design work.
 
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