Case Study:
Glorious, isn't it. (Click the picture to see its glory full-size)
Don't be getting all Betty Crocker on me as the machine has nine years of dust so we get the dust off it, don't we. Hopefully compressed air will be sufficient for that.
Memory:
In the lower right are circuit boards onto which additional RAM can be installed. This is all the RAM for the system as there is none hard-wired anywhere else. There are eight DIMM slots and the maximum RAM for this machine is 32 GB.
Plan: the machine currently has 4 GB of installed RAM. Increase that to 16 GB.
Cost: about $115 (much cheaper if used on eBay)
Storage:
The existing disks are Western Digital WD5000AAKS with 500 GB capacity. The maximum disk capacity for the machine is two terabytes so two more drives can be added. That's an optional improvement at about thirty dollars each but there's no particular reason to do it right now.
Plan: increase disk capacity to two terabytes
Cost: about $60 or so
Note: Apple's position is the machine will support no more than two terabytes. Others say that's rubbish.
Video:
The existing video card is an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256 MB RAM. The card is so old that Final Cut won't even run on it. You can see the state of it in the pic. It's a surprise anything runs on it.
Plan: replace the video card, possibly with Apple ATI Radeon 5770 1 GB
Cost: $149 (used on Amazon)
Processors:
The machine currently has two dual-core 2.66 GHz processors.
Possible plan: replace them with two quad-core Intel X5355 2.66 GHz processors
Cost: about $50 (used on eBay)
Display:
The machine uses a 23" Apple monitor but it was happier when it had all three legs.
Gee whiz plan: Upgrade the display to a 27" Samsung monitor
Cost: about $350 at PowerMax
This is hardly a top-drawer monitor but you're not spending $1000 or more on it either. It should provide adequate value.
This is not my machine but rather a case study.
The MA356LL/A was the fastest thing Apple built in its time. For less than $350 the machine can be in better shape than it ever was as the video card will be much improved; increased memory will greatly benefit Second Life and ultimately Final Cut Pro when that is installed; with FCP installed, the additional processor power will be important as will the need to populate the remaining two disk bays.
You couldn't even buy an iPad for $350 so I'm calling it good value even if it's an old machine. Maybe the power supply could fail but there's no reason to replace it otherwise.
If you want to get a bit more spendy then replace the monitor as this will still only bring the cost to about $700 which is less than half the cost of the new used iMac. The upgraded case study machine will be faster than the iMac but it has the liability that it is not possible to upgrade the software beyond certain limits. Right now the machine runs OS X Lion and that's as far as it can go. The upgrade to the processors may permit it to go up as far as OS X Mavericks but it's unknown if they will support Yosemite.
Thank you for participating in the worst pun of my life.
Glorious, isn't it. (Click the picture to see its glory full-size)
Don't be getting all Betty Crocker on me as the machine has nine years of dust so we get the dust off it, don't we. Hopefully compressed air will be sufficient for that.
Memory:
In the lower right are circuit boards onto which additional RAM can be installed. This is all the RAM for the system as there is none hard-wired anywhere else. There are eight DIMM slots and the maximum RAM for this machine is 32 GB.
Plan: the machine currently has 4 GB of installed RAM. Increase that to 16 GB.
Cost: about $115 (much cheaper if used on eBay)
Storage:
The existing disks are Western Digital WD5000AAKS with 500 GB capacity. The maximum disk capacity for the machine is two terabytes so two more drives can be added. That's an optional improvement at about thirty dollars each but there's no particular reason to do it right now.
Plan: increase disk capacity to two terabytes
Cost: about $60 or so
Note: Apple's position is the machine will support no more than two terabytes. Others say that's rubbish.
Video:
The existing video card is an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256 MB RAM. The card is so old that Final Cut won't even run on it. You can see the state of it in the pic. It's a surprise anything runs on it.
Plan: replace the video card, possibly with Apple ATI Radeon 5770 1 GB
Cost: $149 (used on Amazon)
Processors:
The machine currently has two dual-core 2.66 GHz processors.
Possible plan: replace them with two quad-core Intel X5355 2.66 GHz processors
Cost: about $50 (used on eBay)
Display:
The machine uses a 23" Apple monitor but it was happier when it had all three legs.
Gee whiz plan: Upgrade the display to a 27" Samsung monitor
Cost: about $350 at PowerMax
This is hardly a top-drawer monitor but you're not spending $1000 or more on it either. It should provide adequate value.
This is not my machine but rather a case study.
The MA356LL/A was the fastest thing Apple built in its time. For less than $350 the machine can be in better shape than it ever was as the video card will be much improved; increased memory will greatly benefit Second Life and ultimately Final Cut Pro when that is installed; with FCP installed, the additional processor power will be important as will the need to populate the remaining two disk bays.
You couldn't even buy an iPad for $350 so I'm calling it good value even if it's an old machine. Maybe the power supply could fail but there's no reason to replace it otherwise.
If you want to get a bit more spendy then replace the monitor as this will still only bring the cost to about $700 which is less than half the cost of the new used iMac. The upgraded case study machine will be faster than the iMac but it has the liability that it is not possible to upgrade the software beyond certain limits. Right now the machine runs OS X Lion and that's as far as it can go. The upgrade to the processors may permit it to go up as far as OS X Mavericks but it's unknown if they will support Yosemite.
Thank you for participating in the worst pun of my life.
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