Mac Video Boards and CPU upgrades

[ChilBear]

I have a 2002 G4 that has a failing video board and have decided to upgrade the video board extending it's life.

Has anyone replaced their video boards in their G4s and can you give me some feedback so I can buy correctly? I use a 22" Viewsonic on a G4 Quicksilver with 1.5 GB RAM, 867 pprocessor and 120GB WD drive (7200 w 8MB) with 10.3.9. Video Board is stock from original purchase.

Video refresh (mostly using Quark) is the main problem. I am seeing lots of spinning beachballs during page makup when building plate flats. Some I have talked to said they think it is the video board needing replacment.

While we are on it, how about processor replacements? Any success stories to pass on? If I rebuild this G4 I might as well give it the once over and buy a few more year till the INTEL years arrive. I have been looking at many on eBay and wonder.

[Cory]

with the amount of money you will spend to upgrad the video card and processor, AND the potential problems, you might just want to look for a refurb G5 or somethingn similar...

I've never been to big on upgrading my mac. The inflated prices you pay for 2nd rate video cards is ridiculous.

Anyway, if you still want to do some reading, I would suggest this site

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

great resource! their user database is awesome.

[Lammy]

I've been thinking of doing the same to my B&W G3. The problem is by the time I buy memory, video card and a newer processor I'll only be as good as a high end G4 and have spend about as much as for a mini or a G5 iMac.

[pix3lphr3ak]

the "spinning beachball" is not caused by video card, it is caused by the processor/ram/harddrive having a struggle. your asking a honda civic to perform like a mercedes. buy a new g5 or a used g4 mirror door dual 1.42 (id just go for the g5).

to anybody with video card replacement questions...

we recently replaced all the monitors in hour shop with apple 23" hd cinema displays. we have a quicksilver g4 that had an agp video card that didnt have the correct dvi interface. i called up cdw, there are basically no agp cards out there for mac with an agp interface still in stock. so i had to go with a pci card, which scared the hell out of me, with windows its a total nightmare to do this.

however, with apple it was as simple as powering down swaping it out powering up and life was good. if your going to do this replace the card with the same brand ati = ati or nvidia = nvidia. althought im 99.9% positive the quicksilver only shipped with ati graphics.

as far as your logic board, id buy a new powermac before i replaced a logic board any day.

[Joe]

I've replaced the CPU on two 400 mhz G4's with the Sonnet 1.2 ghz CPU upgrade. It's a piece of cake and gave us a few more years of use out of a couple of older G4's. They ran about $300 a piece. Almost as much as the Mac mini but still worth it.

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/ma...atrix_ppc.html

[Lammy]

This weekend I broke out the calculator and priced things out.

G4 mini 1.42 Ghz w/ 80GB HD and 1GB of ram and a superdrive = $842

Upgrade to my B&W G3: Sonnet 1Ghz G4 card, 2x256MB for 1GB of total Ram, 160GB HD, Radeon 9200 128MB video card = $737.

Though maybe not exactly equal the G3 will be compareable to the mini with more space and more Vram for less money. Looks like this may be the way I go esspecially since I can buy all the upgrade parts over time and the mini I'd have to pay for it all up front.

[ChilBear]

Well I surfed as Cory suggested and asked a few. It is a coin toss. So I bought an ATI 9600 Pro w 256MB onboard. I hate throwing things out so I will keep the case and rebuild as Lammy suggested over time.

Now on to a hunt for a used G4 upgrade but no rush. One piece at a time.

[Lammy]

I'd go new for the CPU. Warrenty and tech support in this matter could be priceless down the road. Drives, ram and PCI cards if cheap enough used are worth a shot.