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Are PowerMacs Compatible with Generic PC Hardware?
linux_penguin asks: "Recently I've been interested (as is everyone I suppose) in OS X. My girlfriend is currently studying desktop publishing, and is using Illustrator, PageMaker etc at tech. I'm thinking of buying her a powermac. This will allow her to study at home, and give me a chance to have some fun with OS X when it finally comes out. I've looked at the pricing of these things, and there appears to be large price jumps from one model to another, with only minor changes in spec. Not only that, but their monitors are *so* expensive... and thoughtfully, a large jump in spec. I thought it might be better to buy a mid-range powermac with no monitor or accessories, and upgrade it myself. My question is, is this a feasible thing to do? Do Macs support standard SVGA monitors? I know it supports USB devices, but could I upgrade the H/D, RAM or whatever with off-the-shelf components?"
Apple does mark up their bundled RAM and HDs alot. You can save alot just by buying the low end machine upgraded with whatever CPU you want. Make sure when you buy the RAM to check that the speed is 2, 2, 2. I've seen more than one person buy el'cheapo RAM from the dealer on the corner and get stuck with crappy 3, 3, 3 RAM.
I'd recommend getting the Apple ZIP drive (if you want a zip drive) because it comes with the translucent bezal. If you don't specify the zip drive and you buy a generic zip from somebody you are just going to have a beige zip drive in a blue case...
The Studio Display monitors are worth every penny. With monitors, what you pay is what you get. If you get the cheapo $600 19" you are getting a bad monitor (but if you don't care, more power to ya). Studio Display's use ColorSync to give you a much better picture. The only other monitors that match the quality of an Apple monitor are the professional Sony FD Trinitron, Radius, etc, which are priced just as much (sometimes more). This one is your call. If you have the money, its a very good monitor.
The internal modem slot is proprietary (their are third party modems, but I don't think any of them fit in that slot). If you need a modem, the best one you can get is Apple's. If you don't need one, don't get it.
To sum it all up. Click the BTO button. Select whatever CPU you want, the ZIP drive, and the modem. Everything else buy from a quality third party dealer.
All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
Pretty much everything is cross-compatible any more.
On the hardware level, you can use SVGA monitors, IDE (ATA/66 even) hard drives, PC100 memory, PCI cards, perfectly fine. The one catch *may* be drivers. This is of course not an issue with hard drives, memory, and the sort. But many other peripherals such as the video card do need separate drivers. Unfortunately, ATI has the best cards for the Mac at the moment, but that is changing. 3dfx and (supposedly) nVidia are in the process of bringing support to the Mac.
Looking at the Apple store screen, pretty much everything is a DIY thing. I'll go through it with you. A current G4 gives you these choices:
CPU - Buy it now, it'll be pretty damn expensive to upgrade
RAM - Horribly expensive. get 64 MB, put your own PC100 into the remaining slots
Hard Drive - A little expensive, you can put an IDE drive in these machines pretty easily.
Monitor - Unless aesthetics mean *that* much, buy your own and pay half as much.
Zip - buy from Apple if you want it to look right - only the pre-builts come with the proper bezel for Zip installation.
DVD/CD - I really don't know. Should be compatible with standard ATAPI drives.
Video card - Well, you're stuck with the ATI card. Enjoy it. You should be able to upgrade later.
SCSI - If you want SCSI, go ahead. It's a decent price, and comes built for you. 3rd party options exist also. (such as Initio and Adaptec)
Modem - Apple has a special connector for this, so for an internal modem this is your option.
AirPort - These are VERY cool. For one machine though, there's no point.
Warranty - Don't bother. You probably won't need it.
Hope this helps a little,
-Smitty
± 29 dB
The hard drives are usually IDE, although some high end models may still be using SCSI. Video output is SVGA. Slots are PCI and AGP. I don't recall what type of memory it uses, but third party memory modules are a LOT cheaper than getting it through Apple.
IIRC, there are drivers for the Voodoo 3 for Mac... NVidia is supposed to be releasing Mac drivers soon too I think...
-JF
MrJoy.com -- Because coding is FUN!