I finally decided it was time to upgrade my aging PowerMac. My Mac at home currently is a Digital Audio Graphite PowerMac with a G4 733mhz processor, 1GB of RAM, 260GB of Hard Disk space, Geforce2 MX and a 8x CD writer. Its a pretty ancient machine but its stable and it has a nice personality. I was stuck between what new Mac to get, I though about getting the soulless PowerMac G5, I have one at work, a Dual 2GHZ G5 and it reminds me of hospitals… it basically lacks character and gives a very sterile feel. Also I would rather wait and get the intel versions that will come out next year. I thought about getting the sleek 20inch iMac but they are very limited when it comes to upgrading. I thought about the 12inch PowerBooks but I dislike them a lot. I have played around and used both my brothers and Nat’s powerbooks and they seem fragile and look PC-ish. The 15inch and 17inch Powerbooks I believe are too big to carry around often and I really also didn’t want my primary Mac to be a laptop.
So, in the end I decided to stick with my current PowerMac except upgrade the hell out of it. I just ordered a Dual G4 1.6ghz chip upgrade from GigaDesigns. I will be upgrading the crappy 8x CD writer to a Pioneer 8x DVD writer (finally will be able to read DVDs on my mac!). I will upgrade the VGA card to an ATI with dual monitor support so I can hookup my extra Sony 17inch monitor to my 21inch Sony monitor I am currently using. I will also get another 160GB hard drive (this brings the total of 4 internal IDE drives, 2 running at ATA66 and 2 at ATA133) since with my recent movie downloads I started running of space. To top things off I will also order a beautiful 12inch Snow White iBook. I had a G3 700mhz iBook a few years ago but it died a tragic death.
This way I will have a total of two Macs. The PowerMac will serve as my primary computer where I will do all my design work on. The iBook will be my secondary computer where I will do all my web browsing on, most probably from the living room. Will take before and after pictures of my PowerMac and posted them here when I am done.
7 replies on “Upgrading my PowerMac”
Macs are beautiful. I disagree with your opinion on the PowerMac G5, Apple keeps on making their designs more …graceful? Also, I own a iMac and although it is limited for upgrading I ordered it custom with all the max upgrades from the manufacturer(except the RAM module, i bought a 1 GB chip and installed it myself…not that easy) and it meets all my requirements 😀 Sadly, I have to use a PC over the summer so I miss my iMac immensely… (Cant wait to see the Intel Macs, Although I find it hilarious that they made the switch)
Hi there Mark
It is a relief to find someone else in Kuwait who uses a Mac. I have thus far enjoyed reading your blog which I stumbled upon while trying to troubleshoot my Mac.
I recently bought an Airport Extreme and am having trouble setting up a net connection on my powerbook. Qualitynet have told me that they do not support independent wifi gear. I have a DSL connection via their Speedtouch USB ADSL modem but am unsure as to how to sync it with my Airport extreme base station(which has a built in modem) and enjoy wifi at home. Any help you can provide would be most appreciated. I can be reached at [email protected]
Massive thanks!
hey Ash, I don’t have an Airport Extreme station but I can tell you it won’t work the way you want it to.
I am guessing you want to connect the DSL modem to the extreme base station so you could have wifi around your house.
what you need to do is what i did, get a wireless router with built in dsl modem. It will set you back KD30 (maybe less) but you will be able to ditch the crappy qualitynet modem and use your own router instead. this way the router will connect to the internet and will give out wifi all over your house. I got a D-Link wirless G router with built in DSL modem for KD30. If you are interested you can get it from “Proffesional Computer” computer shop in Hawalli. Number is 2611660
Thanks for the feedback Mark. I am basically trying to use the Airport base station as the method of wifi delivery. Would it be possible to simply change the USB DSL modem to one that is ethernet based and can plugged directly into the Airport base station, thereby enabling the base station to connect to the internet. At the moment, I dont have any difficulty detecting and communicating with the Base station from my powerbook.
Cheers
an ethernet based dsl modem would set you back kd20 (maybe less) but i don’t know how the extreme base station works. is the base station a router also? if you plug in an ethernet cable with internet to the base station would it send the signal out? if yes then yeah u can get a router with a dsl modem built in that isnt wired and plug it into the base station. but i would sell the base station (which i think are overpriced a lot btw) and pay the extra kd10 and get a wireless router with built in dsl. less clutter and easier to setup..
I agree that the base station like a lot of Apple products is overpriced. My biggest problem is that the base station just arrived yesterday from the States so I am very eager to use it in some capacity. Unfortunately I DONT think it works as a router. I think it merely transmits the wireless signal. Hence I imagine I would need to get a router with the dsl modem built in. Like you said 2 peripherals make for more clutter but at this point its easier than shipping it all the way back for a refund…arghh!!!
Appreciate your help man!
if you don’t want to send your basestation back a refund then you have to get yourself a router with a built in DSL modem. go to hawalli and do some store jumping till you find the best deal. LinkSys are the best, but I have used the D-Link with no problems so far.