Need advice on upgrading my mac

[Dragonfly_X]

Hi again.

Iwant to upgrade my mac. So far i know the cpu upgrade will be possibile but i want to upgrade my graphics card to. Do i have to get a mac spesific card or can i buy any AGP graphics card up to 128MB(I think that's the most i can take) an slot it in?

And what about ram, does that have to be mac spesific also? :-?

[fordfan753]

I think RAM will almost certainly be Mac specific, but I don't know about the graphics card...

[Dragonfly_X]

I think RAM will almost certainly be Mac specific.


Thought so. :-|

[king_arthur]

Thought so. :-|

Frankly speaking, it isn't worth the cost however, if you really want to play with your new toy, here (http://eshop.macsales.com/) is where you should be looking.

They have RAM and everything you may need for boosting the power of your old mac.

As I said, I would rather be looking into eBay for something more recent.. :-)

/P

[ssam]

which mac is it?

if it is an imac, then about all you can do is upgrade the ram and hard drive. if its a powermac tower then you can do much more.

there are processor upgrades of some macs.

modern macs use fairly generic ram is the memory adviser at http://www.crucial.com/uk/ to find out what type.

http://www.lowendmac.com/ and http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ are good resources.

be aware though that just because you put 1 gb or ram, 200 gb hard drive and a 2 ghz processor in a 5 year old powermac, the mother board and various other components wont speed up. more ram however usually gives a noticable improvement.

[DJ_Max]

I think RAM will almost certainly be Mac specific, but I don't know about the graphics card...
No, not really. Any generic RAM with the correct pins and type will work. It's like buying RAM for any other computer.

Upgrading your CPU is possible, but not recommended, since iMacs are meant to be very expandable. Hence why Apple refers to iMacs by their processor. Also, listen to what ssam said.

[beansbbq]

No, not really. Any generic RAM with the correct pins and type will work. It's like buying RAM for any other computer.
Upgrading your CPU is possible, but not recommended, since iMacs are meant to be very expandable. Hence why Apple refers to iMacs by their processor. Also, listen to what ssam said.

The G3 PowerMacs can be found on Ebay for less than a hundred dollars. I was lucky enough to get one in town which negated the shipping charges.
Some owners realize that the older SDRAM is expensive, but some do not. The individual parts are worth more than what these things are selling for. My .02

[jdp]

I was recently at a college auction where Dell Optiplex GX110s with 512MB PC-133 were selling for $10 each. The pair of DIMMs in each one is worth $43.50 on ramseeker.com. The 800MHz CPU is worth some change too. Parts are worht much more than a whole machine.

As for Mac upgrades, yes, they do generally take standard RAM. The old PCI PowerMacs (pre-G3) took 5v FPM DIMMs, like Sun Ultras, which though uncommon in the PC world, is standard RAM.

[king_arthur]

As for Mac upgrades, yes, they do generally take standard RAM. The old PCI PowerMacs (pre-G3) took 5v FPM DIMMs, like Sun Ultras, which though uncommon in the PC world, is standard RAM.

This is true and it isn't.

As for all RAM upgrades, you MUST fulfill the specification set for that specific computer.

If they don't, nothing major will happen but you'll be able to use only a part (mostly half) of the physical memory. Pretty much the same as would happen with a PC motherboard.

OtherWorldComputing are a good place where to buy new RAM for Apple macs, which work according to their promises.
I installed a 256 MByte RAM expansion in one slot of my Wallstreet which, according Apple specs could host only 64 Mbyte!!!

It's a real specific field of knowledge and you need an expert.
However, buying wrong RAMs won't damage your computer.

Only your budget :)

/P

[DJ_Max]

Like I said, there is no special Apple RAM needed. Just buy RAM that's the correct specs.

[beansbbq]

I think RAM will almost certainly be Mac specific, but I don't know about the graphics card...
Here is a link to DV Warehouse. They do a good job about breaking the memory types out by Mac model. So long as you know what machine you have, you should be fine.
DV Warehouse (http://www.dvwarehouse.com/categories/253_248.html)