Mac upgrade

[bwillstead]

I am currently using a 800MHz G4 w/ 1.5GB RAM as my main work horse. We are starting to get larger files from our customers and I'm starting to run out of hard drive space.
I'm thinking of purchasing an external drive to house my working art files, but I'm not sure if it will bog down my processing speed.
I'm already bogged down a little when I'm working on multiple files, so I don't want to go any slower.

[mattbeals]

As long as it is FireWire 400 or 800 and 7200 RPM you should be fine. You could look into getting an external SATA card and drive. But at that point you might as well look into a MacPro...

I have a 500GB Western Digital MyBook FW400/USB 2.0 drive that I use on my Mac and PC. It's a 7200 RPM drive I think. I also have a dedicated LaCie 160GB FW400 drive that is 7200 RPM that I backup my PowerBook to. There's definitely a big difference between 5400 and 7200 RPM drives.

[bwillstead]

Thanks for your input, Matt.

[pmkprog]

Watch for deals on Fantom Drives from Club Mac.
I have one and it has been working great for me.
I would also suggest start an archiving system using DVDs and using the DiskcatalogMaker application to track the DVDs.
This has been a good and inexpensive system that I am using.

[mattbeals]

Any time you order something computer related give my friend Scott Booth at JDM Infrastructure a call (866.647.JDMI). Think of it as CDW but without the problems... http://www.jdmi.net is the URL, it's a bit lacking publicly but once you're registered you're good to go. He's competitive. He's pulled a few miracles for me that CDW, Mac Mall, Mac Zone and others couldn't. If he can't get it, it just isn't available to get anywhere.

[bwillstead]

Bought a G5. Problem solved!