I finally upgraded the old Quicksilver. Sure, it used to run at 733 MHz but after discussing with Mr. Barrett the merits of upgrade cards, I choose the PowerLogix PowerForce47 G4 1.6 GHz.
We’ve now got a somewhat respectable G4 Mac. This was much cheaper than a new/replacement Mac (which I can’t afford anyway) and since the Intel-based Macs will probably be out by mid-2006, why bother replacing it now? Not to mention the fact that it’s got 1.5 Gig of ram, a DVD drive, multiple hard drives, a second video card, and an extra USB card…
Any downsides? Well, the install was not simple. Luckly, I had stumbled upon a nice write-up recently, so it wasn’t a total nightmare. (I did take about a dozen attempts though, involving putting the card it, taking it out, messing with the open firmware, and installing software…) In the end, I think it was well worth it.