I was just looking at upgrades for my old G4 tower. It’s still too pricey! I saw an AGP ATI 9800 new for $200, that’s crazy, especially on such an old card a few generations back in technology. On my PC it wouldn’t make any sense to buy- my AGP GeForce 7600 is light years past a 9800 in capabilities and only cost me about 100 USD. I’ll stick to my GeForce 2mx for now. It cost me $30 new and replaced the pokey ATI Rage128 that came with my Mac.
I saw a few used Macs like Quicksilver & Mirror Drive Door models. They’re not that much of a jump over my G4 except in CPU speed. And going for 400-600 USD. Jeez! What are the sellers smokin’? I wouldn’t spend that much for a used 500Mhz-1Ghz Pentium 3 or 4. I paid around $450 for G4 4 years ago!
I thought about the new Intel based models. Problem is my software is for PowerPC, including Adobe CS1 & Final Cut (AGP Mac only), and all my other little apps. I know what emulation is like from the move to PPC after 68xxx processors. Not so hot! So the newer Intel macs really aren’t for me. After all- on our retirement budget a large computer purchase is out, so I keep using my old Mac.
My dad picked up a new AMD dual processor cheapo PC for me for around $500 US last year- it works great, even with Vista Home Premium. I did some tweaking, added a little more memory and got it working the way I like it. It has PCIe slots for video & expansion, something the much pricier iMac doesn’t even have. Nearest Mac wise would be a lower tier MacPro tower at prices I don’t even want know about.
That said, my G4 does OK with Tiger, and for a bit of writing, emailing, & surfing I do on it all is well here 
Erika
Tags: Apple, Mac, Technology
