wizrad of drivel
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Upgrading a G4 iMac - Stupid Question Amnesty Please

So I've been looking into buying a classic (old) Apple as a starter product, to learn about Mac and to use as a media library to use with my iPod Classic (which is my only Apple product so far and I love).

 

I was thinking of buying a Clamshell iBook G3 in Graphite because I liked the style so much but since looking into in I think that bearing in mind its memory and usability and the limited effect any upgrades might have I've decided that something a little more current might be better.

 

I then looked at a G4 iMac, again partly because it looks so good, it really is a modern icon, and I have agreed to buy a iMac G4/1.0 15 inch "FP" (USB 2.0)

 

I should point out that my experience of Apples is limited to just my iPod and my technical upgrade knowledge is limited to just upgrading my iRiver's battery and memory by following some instructions, so good at learning and following instructions, beyond that iffy!

 

It has only 512 RAM which I think will be the first thing I upgrade but from looking to guides on the web and YouTube I think I can handle that in that its just a case of using the expansion slot in the base and then swapping the larger RAM with the stick deeper in the base.

 

So that being okay (I think?)

 

I want to upgrade the hard drive from its present 80GB to something a little bigger to dump MP3s (which are propably already near to the limit of the G4's capabilities) and I've been looking at a 500GB upgrade which should be future proof for what I have in mind, which is to use it as a music and film jukebox.

 

So I was looking to install a Western Digital 500GB Blue 7200rpm 16MB SATA 6Gb/s as an upgrade.

 

Aside from the swapping of the hard drives physically I don't know too much more about what I might have to do, I think I can hand the unplugging and plugging in part but after that I am pretty clueless

 

So I am a little worried if I plow on mindlessly to do this I might end up with a non-working G4, can anyone advise me as to what I will need to do?

 

I know this sounds like dreadful newbie behaviour but I think these upgrades could be really great and mean that a beautiful G4 will go on to years of love and constant use, any thoughts? Particularly I want to know if this system will need more done to it to work with my WiFi?

 

Thanks, Wizard

iBook

Posted on Jan 6, 2013 2:43 PM

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wizrad of drivel

Q: Upgrading a G4 iMac - Stupid Question Amnesty Please

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  • by wizrad of drivel,

    wizrad of drivel wizrad of drivel Jan 7, 2013 3:20 PM in response to rccharles
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 7, 2013 3:20 PM in response to rccharles

    Hmm I like the sound of that, so in other words I might be able to take apart the iMac, disconnect the CD/DVD drive and connect the new blank HD in it's place, clone from the old HD to the new one, power down, unplug the two HD drives, replace the old HD with the new cloned drive, replace cd/dvd drive and proceed to reassemble?

     

    ... all the time being sure to apply lashings of heat sink paste

  • by britny,

    britny britny Jan 7, 2013 5:54 PM in response to wizrad of drivel
    Level 1 (125 points)
    Jan 7, 2013 5:54 PM in response to wizrad of drivel

    a little bit of heat paste, not lashings of it. i think the imac you are looking at would be perfect for what you want to do. with the ports on the bottom and to the rear you could hook up an external firewire drive, slip it on the floor or under the table as someone else suggested and never see it. no wires in view if your imac is to the rear of the table. i also have an imac g4 in my living room and use it most of the time to play music through my stereo. wireless keyboard and mouse and no visible wires. i also have toast and use it to copy cd's and makes cd's from vinyl records. that and a few games is mostly what i use it for. much more useful selection than that graphite clamshell you were talking about earlier. wgat would i do? get a 1ghz user replaceable memory stick from other world computing and not bother to go deep inside it. it appears that other world computing still has some ata hard drives.

  • by britny,

    britny britny Jan 7, 2013 8:07 PM in response to wizrad of drivel
    Level 1 (125 points)
    Jan 7, 2013 8:07 PM in response to wizrad of drivel

    i hope you're not planning on buying that one in fayetteville, tennessee because it's kinda "misadvertised".

  • by wizrad of drivel,

    wizrad of drivel wizrad of drivel Jan 8, 2013 5:53 AM in response to britny
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2013 5:53 AM in response to britny

    Hahaha no I'm not looking to buy that - I'm in Ireland, but that one in fayetteville does sound intriguingly 'shady'.

     

    Funny enough with only a few days to go another G4 iMac has cropped up on a local site, its a little dearer but it does have a set of working Apple Pro Speakers and the faster 1.25Ghz processor (may even be slightly larger screen, not sure on that) I'm thinking of going for that one rather than the one I have been looking at.

     

    But would that be too mean a thing to do to the seller of the 1.0Ghz G4?

  • by britny,

    britny britny Jan 8, 2013 6:09 AM in response to wizrad of drivel
    Level 1 (125 points)
    Jan 8, 2013 6:09 AM in response to wizrad of drivel

    well the 1.25 has slightly better specs all the way around and will burn dvd's but the two models are very similar. the 1.25's come with either a 17" or a 20" screen and i think the 20" one somehow just doesn't look right. the 15" will burn cd's faster than the one with the superdrive but the 1.25 should import them a little quicker. take your pick. you are wise to limit your choices to the late 2003 models with usb 2.0 and it sounds like you're doing that.

  • by wizrad of drivel,

    wizrad of drivel wizrad of drivel Jan 8, 2013 6:23 AM in response to britny
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2013 6:23 AM in response to britny

    Well unfortunately the 1.25Ghz has gone!

     

    Still have the 1Ghz in place though, just need to find a pair of Apple Pro Speakers from somewhere...

     

    To eBay!!

  • by rccharles,

    rccharles rccharles Jan 8, 2013 10:21 AM in response to wizrad of drivel
    Level 6 (8,486 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    Jan 8, 2013 10:21 AM in response to wizrad of drivel

    Another way of installing...

     

    1) Ubuntu linux 6.06 on bootable cd

     

    2) ethernet cable connection to laptop.

     

    3) set up shared folder on laptop

     

    4) boot from cd

     

    5) Access shared folder.

     

    6) from terminal enter a unix command similar to :

    create

    dd if=/dev/disk0s10 bs=4096 | gzip | dd of=~/disk0-s10 bs=4096

    restore

    dd if=~/disk0-s10 bs=4096 | gunzip | dd of=/dev/disk0s10 bs=4096

     

    run disk utility to adjust disk size.

     

    --------------------------------

    bare bones USB hd connector.  Will not be able to boot from external hd, but good for data transfer.

     

    http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?MfrId=0&CatId= 3770

     

    -----------------------

     

     

    for PPC

    tenfourfox -- It's a port of the latest FireFox to run on older hardware and software.

    "World's most advanced web browser. Finely tuned for the Power PC."

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

    alternative download site:

    http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37761/tenfourfox

     

    Robert

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