Power Mac G4 OS software maximum upgrade version.

Nothing you put in your PCI slots will make your processors faster. You may be able to find a PCI (NOT PCIe!) card that would allow you to install SATA drives, on eBay or the Low End Mac swap list. That would let you install larger hard drives. But you should not spend ANY money on this machine. And forget about using it for internet access and browsing; even with TenFourFox, it will be painfully slow.

Tiger would be a better option than Leopard.

This would be one of the two last models of the PowerMac G4, and these can run OSX 10.5.8 'Leopard'. However this is no longer available from Apple - possibly you may be able to obtain a set of the install disks from a third-party retailer or a site like Ebay, however be careful - you need the retail versions, not the disks which came with a specific machine.

Leopard is very old, and many applications won't run on it. Web browsing is likely to be extemely tricky with many sites simply not working (it's bad enough in Snow Leopard).

You may be able to upgrade RAM (memory chip to max) or other details and hope for some better usefulness.

IF this identifies as PowerMac G4 (FW 800) then things seem congruent. ~ If so, details are as follows:

Introduced January 2003

Discontinued June 2003

Model Identifier PowerMac3,6

Model Number M8570

EMC 1914

Order Number M8839LL/A (1.0 GHz), M8840LL/A (dual 1.25 GHz), • M8841LL/A (dual 1.42 GHz)

This can be upgraded to 2.0 GB RAM. 2.5v, unbuffered, 8-byte, nonparity 184-pin DDR SDRAM

Better hard drive options to include SSD upgrade may allow better performance. Look to the

OWC replacement for ATA/PATA hardware storage drive as they used to stock them for Mac.

The software upgrade is not enough, consider the hardware also in the base line upgrade configuration.

Tiger is one of my favorite Mac OS versions. I still have a couple of functioning older Macs (two MDD G4s, a Sawtooth, and a Smurf with a G4 processor upgrade). I tried Leopard on the MDDs, but found Tiger to be better suited.

Tiger - 10.4 - will run on a G4 and it's quite a good system. Snow Leopard is 10.6 not 10.5 (that's Leopard) Leopard will run on a G4 (though Tiger is probably better); Snow Leopard won't, it requires Intel.

All of them will be limited, particularly where browsing websites is concerned (Snow Leopard won't even let you post here).

Most of us who still find the occasional need to use our beloved G4s use a browser called TenFourFox. It is a port of late versions of FireFox so web sites don't reject it for being an out-of-date browser. It is regularly updated and secure.

TenFourFox is offered by some really dicey download hosting sites that will load you up with adware so it is important to get it ONLY from the developers' site here:

http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

The Downsides:

1) it is SLOOOOW. It is not the browser software but the fact that almost no websites code for PowerPC processors any more, so everything takes a long time, even on a fast internet connection.

2) No video plug-ins. don't plan on watching any videos. You can use some FireFox extensions but not the ones that allow video viewing.

There are bits and pieces of yester-year information that may help

the aging or antique PowerMac G4 work a bit better, as such..

Thermal paste should be replaced (correctly, clean old out first)

every few years according to some vintage users who have tried.

And those extra PCI slots may not have a whole lot of use if you

cannot get the last products that may have supported them.

LowEndMac has some vintage info and hints in articles from 2003.

http://lowendmac.com/2003/power-mac-g4-firewire-800/

Some upgrade PCI cards were not available to run in G4 and of those

who suggested these may work in G5 series, a percentage were lacking.

Selective searches may reveal the names of hardware upgrade bits

and some faint trails as to where to look to see if any more exist.

One of several choices to seek older links to these, was found here:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=PCI+cards+PowerMac+G4+FW800&t=ffsb&ia=web

A few PCI card items I've seen listed include USB2.0, and FireWire variants.

Others may not do much, such as auxiliary processor cards, w/ slower CPUs.

And most of my older G4 or before vintage gear has either hardware failure

or no reasonable excuse at present to enter them into cue to refurbish now.

(I did find the TenFourFox -G3 version- an adequate and quick performer in

first edition MacBook1.1 coreduo 1.83GHz w/10.5.8; 7200-RPM HDD, 2GB RAM)

I doubt you'll be able to get a compatible copy of Chrome, but it probably wouldn't be much better. Modern web sites use a lot of programming which olde broswer don't understand.

It's years since I used I used Leopard, but GarageBand, iMovie, iDVD and the DVD player should all work though they will probably be very slow by modern standards. I can't answer for the other two. But if you don't already have old versions of any of these programs you won't be likely to get them now.

I used them for an audio interface and a USB interface (not provided by default at the time), but I can't remember if I did anything else - I don't think so. I don't know what else was available but I doubt anything you do there will make it run faster or cope better with difficult apps or website - the slots are more for peripherals.

I have to say I wouldn't be inclined to throw money at a computer this old. Whatever you do it's not going to work to modern standards, and you don't know how long it will last. That said, I still use a 2008 iMac for audio work (to free up the main one) and I have one of those dome-shaped G4 iMacs, bought in 2004: it still works but won't do very much. If you're lucky they can have a surprisingly long life (but I still wouldn't throw money at old ones).

Are you suggesting to use it instead of FireFox, or as an extension of it?

Sorry to be late coming back. FireFox hasn't run on PowerPC Macs since FireFox v3 I think--they are now at v66. TenFourFox is a separate app considered a "fork" of FF, using the underlying engine but backwards-engineered to run on an obsolete processor. FireFox extension like add blockers will run on 10-4Fox but you don't need extensions for 104Fox to work.