Apple iMac G4 20 Inch

[oalcock]

Hello All,

 

I am currently getting to grips with Mac, never had much to do with them before but just got an iMac G4 with 20 inch TFT. Aparantley it is only upgradable to 1GB of RAM which I have purchased, and it has Mac OS X installed. Can anybody recommend any upgrades I can carry out to it make it as superdupper as possible?

[Norphy]

Apart from the memory upgrade and an upgrade to OS X 10.5 (Leopard) if it doesn't have it already, there isn't much else you can do.

[oalcock]

Can I still purchase 10.5 Leopard from apple or it this something I will have to obtain (if you know what I mean). Will I be able to use packages on the mac such as garage band and imovie?

[3s-gtech]

You can still purchase Leopard from plenty of stores. The minimum spec is 866MHz as in the PowerMac G4 MDD. Yours should be the 1.25GHz model, so 10.5 it'll install fine, and you can also install 2GB of RAM (DDR).

 

Garageband should work, 08 version. iMovie won't beyond the 2006 version I believe.

[oalcock]

1.25Ghz Processor. Only one slot for RAM, max it will take is 1GB. Also Max DDR memory I can find is 1GB and it wasn't cheap at £24 on ebay.

[rbelson]

You can purchase some legacy software and OS titles from Apple direct. Call them on 08000480408 and they will be able to source this for you.

[oalcock]

Cheers.

[3s-gtech]

1.25Ghz Processor. Only one slot for RAM, max it will take is 1GB. Also Max DDR memory I can find is 1GB and it wasn't cheap at £24 on ebay.

 

There's a cheeky second slot hidden inside It's not a SODIMM, so much easier to find.

[oalcock]

Brilliant, I am guessing this slot contributes to the overall RAM size? Does it still hold laptop size RAM? Is it still DDR or is it DDR 2, or...?

[dayzd]

A hard drive upgrade (PATA) may also pep it up a bit, but that's about all you'll be able to do.

 

If you don't get yourself onto 10.5, the attached PDF helped me to keep my G4 nippy for a while before I retired it (I didn't do everything the document says - you can tweak it to suit your needs).

OS X Tiger - Speed Tips.pdf

[oalcock]

Thanks

[3s-gtech]

"Expandable up to 2GB via one factory installed memory module in a 184-pin DIMM slot and one 200-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot. (officially only 1 GB is supported)". Therefore, the non-accessible (officially) slot is your existing RAM size. That'll probably be a 256MB DIMM, desktop size. All DDR1, 333MHz.

[oalcock]

On system info, it says the current ram is 512MB and there is a 512 stick in bottom. I am guessing the slot inside is left empty? Or does any memory in this slot not register in system info?

[3s-gtech]

Yup, I guess the one inside will be empty then. They're usually populated as standard.

 

This guide should be similar as for yours Replace iMac G4 internal RAM Dimm module (iMac G4 17" 1GHz, or similar)

[oalcock]

Cheers. I only seem to be able to get hold of 512MB in the required memory; DIMM PC100/133

[3s-gtech]

It's PC2700 DDR, not plain SDRAM. Much faster and cheaper.

[oalcock]

Play.com - Buy Computer Memory 1GB PC2700 DDR 333Mhz 184pin DIMM online at Play.com and read reviews. Free delivery to UK and Europe! Would you recommend this?

[3s-gtech]

Yup, and the other slot is Play.com - Buy Computer Memory 1GB PC2700 DDR 333Mhz 200pin SODIMM online at Play.com and read reviews. Free delivery to UK and Europe!

[oalcock]

S**T, just payed £25 for that. Never mind.