How can I upgrade my Dual 1.25 Ghz Power PC G4

PPC Macs like G4s cannot run S/10.6, 10.5.8 is the highest it'll go, but 10.4.11 is likely the fastest OS on a G4.

Is the RAM maxed out?

What size Hard Drive(s)?

Where is it slow at what?

At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.

Then click on More Info>Hardware and report this upto but not including the Serial#...

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: Mac mini

Machine Model: PowerMac10,1

CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)

Number Of CPUs: 1

CPU Speed: 1.42 GHz

L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB

Memory: 512 MB

Bus Speed: 167 MHz

Boot ROM Version: 4.8.9f1

You can upgrade the RAM/Memory to 2 GB, should help...

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=171&type=Memory

An SSD with IDE adapter would help some, but quite expensive.

CS3 should run on a G4, probably not fast though.

The Internet is totally bloated today, but some help with other browsers...

TenFourFox is the most up to date browser for our PPCs, they even have G4 & G5 optimized versions...

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

I'd avoid version 24 though, as it no longer supports plug-ins like Flash.

http://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/downloads/list

SeaMonkey seems pretty fast also, with many options...

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/

The last version with Mac OS 10.4 and PPC support was SeaMonkey 2.0.14.

The last version seamonkey-for-ppc - 2.26 RELEASE - Mac OS X 10.5.x - PPC.

http://code.google.com/p/seamonkey-ppc/

PROJECT SITE:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/seamonkey-for-ppc

register for updates at the SourceForge seamonkey-for-ppc project page

https://sourceforge.net/projects/seamonkey-for-ppc

Might also look into iCab & OmniWeb versions.

If you can pull the drive out of the MBP, you could at least get to the info with one of these...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-to-IDE-SATA-S-ATA-2-5-3-5-Hard-Drive-HD-HDD-Conv erter-Adapter-Cable-New-/331250999094

It'll get better, just get the 2 GB of Memory 1st. 🙂

Hi Christophfromrockville:

I had (still have) an Audio G4 originally with 400mHz processor and Powermac G4 1.42 dual GHz. An SSD might help and there are adapters for ATA to connect to an SSD. From my personal experience in trying to use an SSD in my 1.42 dual processor G4 with an ATA adapter, it didn't work - my 1.42 GHz did not even acknowledge there was a hard drive. I did have a SATA card in that machine so I tried using the SSD without the ATA adapter - that "worked" just as well - my machine did not "see" the SSD. Out of disgust, I threw in a "bargain" ATA 250 GB hard drive I found on line, installed Tiger OS (the "highest" OS I had for a G4 on disk), and my G4 1.42 GHz was back in service! I tried running the 1.42 GHz machine with 2 gigs RAM and when I ran into problems, called Apple Support. The advice I got was maybe 2 gigs RAM was too much RAM and to go down to 1.5 gigs RAM - and once again, my "problem" was fixed. I also have a 2008 macbook pro running Snow Leopard, 4 gigs RAM, Parallels, & Adobe CS3. The macbook pro's "video card" was a little sparse for some things in After Effects, but my macbook pro was the best computer I had for a long time.

If you can get the hard drive out of your macbook pro, you can buy a "kit" containing everything needed to access the hard drive and transfer your files to another hard drive. Other World Computing carries an inexpensive solution for accessing ATA & SATA hard drives. OWC also has an array of how-to videos and I followed OWC's video on installing a new hard drive in my macbook. You will need OWC's "splunge" tool or some thing like it to take the top with keyboard off your macbook pro.

If you need a computer running Adobe CS3 for your business the hypothetical "best" and least costly $olution might be a new laptop or imac. No matter if you install a faster processor, better hard drive, more RAM, serial ATA card, etc., etc.; you will always have a motherboard with its inherent slower bus speed amongst other limitations. I installed a 1.25 GHz processor in my 400 mHz Audio G4 + more RAM, and yes, it was "faster," but still limited. Instead of 5 minutes to open an Illustrator file, it went down to less than one minute. If you purchased your CS3 direct from Adobe, that would qualify you for a 40% discount for the first year pay-per-month subscription to Adobe's Master Collection.

Good luck; I empathize with your situation. The least costly solution would probably be a clean install of mac OS after you back up your files and install more RAM to your G4. You could also pick up a disk like TechTool Pro's utility or Disk Warrior to check your hard disk for errors.

Bill K

Do you really only have one 60GB hard drive in there? Any Adobe apps I have used, going back to pre-CS versions such as PS 7, InDesign 2 and Illustrator 10, like to have a lot of free disk space for their scratch disk needs. It looks like you have less than 10GB free. That is going to make CS3 bog down tremendously.

You won't find ATA drives worth bothering with anymore, but you can install a SATA card (note: PCI, not PCIe) and a 500GB or 1TB SATA drive. The drive cage on the right, where your current HD is installed, is easier to use with SATA drives, in terms of fitting the cables. PCI SATA cards from Seritek or Sonnet are pretty cheap on eBay. If that seems too complicated, you can use a large FW external drive.

Note that you could give yourself a massive upgrade by buying a first-generation Mac Pro with a nice amount of installed RAM on eBay for $300 or so.