Not sure why I'm posting this...I guess I just want to share.
Our home/wife's business computer is a Dual 450mhz GigE machine from 2000. It's been showing it's age especially after loading Tiger and CS2. Looked into and seriously considered getting a 2nd hand or demo G5 machine. Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards for us. Buying a PC wasn't an option because we already have Mac software (not into "borrowing" off the internets) and our monitor is an Apple monitor with ADC.
This is what I did:
1) Added a 2nd HDD as my wife needs to be more conscious about backing up her work. The original HDD died a couple years back and that was a nightmare because she wasn't burning backup DVDs like she should have been. Now she has 80G primary and 120G backup drives. I guess I could spring for a PCI SATA controller card so we could use drives bigger than 120G. For now though, this will be fine.
2) Doubled the RAM to 1.5G (no brainer).
3) Purchased a NOS ATI Radeon 9000 Pro vid card. The new one is 128MB and we were using the anemic 16MB ATI Rage card before.
4) Coolest mod for last. Bought a new dual 1.3ghz processor card by Powerlogix. The swap was super easy. Major difference! Supa fast! Heat doesn't seem to be a problem. The new card has a fan attached to it so the Mac's a little louder now, but not irritatingly so.
She should be able to use this Mac for at least a couple more years barring any unforeseen problems. This computer has been rock solid for 7 years and I expect it to last for a bit longer yet. If I do any more mods I'll probably have to get a power supply with more wattage. But we don't have any peripherals that need FW800 or USB2.0 so that shouldn't necessary at this time.
Anyway, it's still a dinosaur, just not fossilized yet.
Our home/wife's business computer is a Dual 450mhz GigE machine from 2000. It's been showing it's age especially after loading Tiger and CS2. Looked into and seriously considered getting a 2nd hand or demo G5 machine. Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards for us. Buying a PC wasn't an option because we already have Mac software (not into "borrowing" off the internets) and our monitor is an Apple monitor with ADC.
This is what I did:
1) Added a 2nd HDD as my wife needs to be more conscious about backing up her work. The original HDD died a couple years back and that was a nightmare because she wasn't burning backup DVDs like she should have been. Now she has 80G primary and 120G backup drives. I guess I could spring for a PCI SATA controller card so we could use drives bigger than 120G. For now though, this will be fine.
2) Doubled the RAM to 1.5G (no brainer).
3) Purchased a NOS ATI Radeon 9000 Pro vid card. The new one is 128MB and we were using the anemic 16MB ATI Rage card before.
4) Coolest mod for last. Bought a new dual 1.3ghz processor card by Powerlogix. The swap was super easy. Major difference! Supa fast! Heat doesn't seem to be a problem. The new card has a fan attached to it so the Mac's a little louder now, but not irritatingly so.
She should be able to use this Mac for at least a couple more years barring any unforeseen problems. This computer has been rock solid for 7 years and I expect it to last for a bit longer yet. If I do any more mods I'll probably have to get a power supply with more wattage. But we don't have any peripherals that need FW800 or USB2.0 so that shouldn't necessary at this time.
Anyway, it's still a dinosaur, just not fossilized yet.
