Upgrade an iMac? Not impossible...
 

Ok, so I was really bummed after hearing about the new <a href="http://www.apple.com/g5/">G5's</a> because I have a 400mhz slot-loading iMac.

However, much to my surprise, there actually is a <a href="http://www.technowarehousellc.com/g4upforslloi.html">company that can get your iMac upgraded to a 500mhz G4</a>.

Does anybody know if this would be worth it for $300? It's a lot for me to plunk down right now (I'm in college...haha), so I'll probably wait anyway, but please let me know!

I would personally vote no. I'm on a 1ghz iMac, while my dad runs a 500 mhz G4. I can noticeably tell a difference between the two, and rarely get on my dad's computer because of it, despite his faster connection. I say you should keep saving your money, until you can round up the 4200 bucks for a dual G5 with Apple display. :P It's up to you though.

I think you'd be better off saving up for an iBook or a new iMac. check the education prices, discount's not huge, but it's something!!

i'd save it until you have enough for a new comp.

I think a 100mhz cpu speed jump wouldn't matter as much as getting more ram. I heard os 9 and 10 are memory hogs, so maybe save $250 and spend $50 on more memory.

My cousin upgraded his Rev A imac to a 600 mhz G3. IIRC there may be higher speed increases if you stay G3. Of course you lack the altivec core which is helpful to apps that use it.

I say save your cash though, things in the new Panther that use the quartz extreme portion of video acceleration probably won't work with that Mac's video card.

Things like Exposé are real nifty with the quartz extreme. If you save for a bit you can get the older G4 towers for cheap.

I'd also keep an eye on Zones/MacWarehouse/macmall and the like. They have inventory they're gonna need to clear out.

9 no. X though like XP is. 256 is min, save yourself the trouble and just get 512.

oh, and dude, I second everyone in just save your cash for a new system. the 100Mhz will show little difference.

thanks everybody; yes, further support that I save my dough for a <a href="http://www.apple.com/g5">G5</a>.

In the excitement I didn't think about 1) the video card, and 2) the system bus, so an upgrade for $300 wouldn't make too much sense.

Regarding mention of memory, yes, memory definitely matters. I had 256 for OS X a while back and then packed this baby with 1GB...made a big difference. This has always been true since the original Mac 128...more RAM = good!