Just bought a g4 on ebay, info needed please!

Question

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=013&item=230029836724&rd=1&sspa gename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1
That's a link to the page.
I just won the g4 -it's a 400mhz processor, and I was wondering what it would entail to upgrade it. How much will it cost, how difficult is it, and can I do it myself?? Also, how does the 512 mb of ram work on that computer? Should I upgrade, or does it seem to do ok how it is?? Any suggestions?

Answer 1

fishie:
Welcome to Apple Discussions. Is this your first Mac? Many useful replies so far. Read each one again; and maybe again. As Thomas says, take you time, run it a few weeks first. Muck about these Discussions and use search terms, like 'graphics upgrades', 'video upgrades', 'memory upgrades', etc etc. Or just read every post in this area (Expanding your..G4). Click on the Apple>About This Mac>more info ... you'll see exactyly what you have.
It's nearly unanimous here that memory is the first upgrade one should do. It's also nearly unanimous that we don't buy memory off ebay. Search the posts for several recommendations on vendors. One search that's a minimal starting point is, 'Costa'. You'll read/learn more than enough about RAM. My G4 does great with 768MB. If you want to really keep your costs down, buy one stick of 256MB; or if you can swing it, one stick of 512MB. Open the computer and look at the stick you have. If possible, but not required, buy the same type (e.g. same CASS latency).
As also stated, one can spend enough to have what one thinks is a G5. But it wont' be a G5. You can CAREFULLY look for a 700mhz CPU for instance on ebay. Same for maybe a GeForce FX5200 graphics card (I did both and I'm very happy with it 6mos later; and I only did that because I wanted to run XPlane; for a total of about $150). You can get bigger/better CPU's and graphics cards but it depends on what you want to spend. So, unless you want to do gaming, think about sticking with what you have for your processor and graphics cards. As stated, most any brand monitor will work; watch for specials at retail stores.
Back to basics. We may or may not be able to get full funtionality out of Leopard with out older Macs. But you'll have to have an Install disk, at the least to run Disk Utilities periodically or OS reinstall very infrequently. IF you're gonna keep the G4, get a Tiger DVD. The DVD is not machine-specific as far as I know (someone correct me if I'm wrong please). You can also get an OS9 disk fairly cheaply, but it should be universal, not Emac for instance. If you value all those 'free' apps that you're getting, you need another HDD on which to backup those apps. There's a free utility called Carbon Copy Cloner which will copy everything to the new drive. (If you sell the G4 you can keep the HDD.) Those apps might need reinstalling in the future and you don't have installer discs for them. New DVD RW-type drives are fairly inexpensive but your DVD ROM/CD-RW should suffice.
You G4 is fairly easy to get inside and do upgrades. Get a wrist ground strap from Radio Shack and use it when delving inside the machine.
Seldom mentioned are a couple books you can buy (Amazon): 'Mac OS X The Missing Manual' (Tiger edition), 'Using Mac OS X Tiger', something like 'Mac Bible' (I forget the actual title).
Summary: use the machine a few weeks; read a lot of posts; get an OS Installer DVD; add RAM; maybe buy a book; another HDD; later you can think about other upgrades.
We think you'll love your Mac; good luck!
David
PS: These are all just MHO from working with my G4 and I welcome any corrections.