I need some advice as to what is my best upgrade path.
I have a Quicksilver 2002, 933MHz, with 768MB of memory and ~400GB of harddrive space (two Seagates), running OS X 10.3.9. Hooked to it I have a 21" (or 22") CRT running at 1920x1600 (I love it).
Beside common internet applications I have our digital photo library in there (few thousand pictures in iPhoto) and I use iMovie and iDVD to make DVDs with our home video (from a Sony Digital 5 camera). This is all from iLife 04.
My only complains are that iPhoto is getting slow with all these photos and certain actions in iMovie and iDVD are slow. Multiplexing in iDVD is slow but I usually have that run overnight so this is really not that much of an issue.
Note that I'm not planning on selling the QS if I get a new computer, I'd use that for a backup and storage server.
I have considered several options but I'm not sure which one's I should go with given that I don't need all that much throughput.
1) Get the latest iLife version (wasn't there a huge improvement in iPhoto in one of the releases?).
2) Get Tiger (but I don't thin that will speed anything up, but may be required for iLife?).
3) Get a better video card than the standard GeForce 64MB that is in there.
4) Get some processor upgrade (yeah I know, those frequently don't make sense).
5) Get the cheap Mac Mini and get an external DVD burner in a Firewire enclosure. But, again, I feel they are really too expensive given what you are getting.
6) Get a iMac, but I have a monitor that I like, again, I don't need the latest and the greatest.
Anyone have any comments?
Thanks
IC
Buying a Mac Mini would be a sensible upgrade. You get a new box with warranty, more RAM, a newer version of OS X and the iLife package, much more speed. Check whether the Mini can deliver the analogue video resolution that you require. You won't need a DVD burner -- the Mini has one -- but you may want to buy a USB2 or FireWire enclosure for your old disks. Enclosures have been discussed here recently, so I won't repeat.
I would be hesitant to upgrade to Tiger if you're feeling slow. Unlike speed increase going from Jaguar to Panther, Tiger is much more of a system hog. It really uses a ton of RAM. I would say 1gb is an absolute must for 10.4. I never was a big fan of the Mac Mini. I had one of the G4 models, and it was terribly slow. The Intel ones are okay, but it still uses a slow laptop hard drive, but at least has 2 RAM slots now. If I had your Mac, I would probably up it to 1.5gb or so of RAM, get a faster hard drive, and then go ahead and upgrade to Tiger.
I got some some (5 actually) 512MB PC133 chips on eBay for fairly low price so I'm going to up the RAM and then when Leopard comes out, get Tiger (assuming that I'll get a deal on Tiger then) and iLife 06. That should allow me to squeeze couple of more years out of it.
Thanks
IC