PowerMac G4 Quicksilver Upgrades

The G4 Quicksilver can be easily distinguished from earlier G4 towers by the change in colour - machines such as the PowerMac G4 Digital Audio are graphite in colour, compared to the silver of these and later machines.

The rounded optical and ZIP bay covers are unique to the Quicksilver range, and were dropped for the later Dual Optical models, which also have twin CD drive bays, as opposed to a single CD bay and a ZIP bay.

There are two types of Quicksilver machines. This page is for the earlier machines, the later models, known as the PowerMac G4 Quicksilver 2002, have some minor differences and are dealt with on their own page.

The easiest way to tell the difference between the two Quicksilver models is by checking the clock speed of the processor (use the Apple System profiler utility). This page deals with 733MHz, 867MHz and dual 800MHz Quicksilvers. The Quicksilver 2002 page covers 800MHz, 933MHz and dual 1GHz machines. NB: There is also a 733MHz Digital Audio PowerMac G4.

Apple's own specifications for the original Quicksilver can be found here.

If you are still unsure you can contact us on 01223 833 412 or by email for confirmation. If you want to upgrade but aren't happy to install the upgrades yourself then we can help. Simply ask our engineers for further details.

The PowerMac G4 Quicksilver has three memory sockets. The machines can accept up to 1.5GB in RAM, in 3 x 512MB modules. These machines need PC133 SDRAM DIMMs.

Any replacement internal 5.25" IDE CD unit will install into this PowerMac, and should work to read data. However, unless there is an Apple ROM on-board the CD unit, the computer cannot be booted from the CD, and the unit will not integrate with Finder burning and Apple software like iDVD. Burning can still be accomplished by third party software such as Roxio's Toast.

Look for the footnotes on any internal drive listed below, to see if there are any issues as described above.

If you want to use a larger hard drive you will need to use a SATA drive and install a SATA controller into a PCI socket. See the expansion cards section at the end of this page for details on available cards.

If you don't want to fit a new hard drive yourself, you can take advantage of the MacUpgrades Installation Service. Add the installation service from the list below to your cart along with your chosen hard drive. We can also clone your existing hard drive onto the new one, simply add the Clone Original Hard Drive service below to your cart.

Once you have booked the service, send your machine to us, we will carry out the work and return it to you. Alternatively, we do offer a Collection Service with our courier, please see here for details.

A range of processor upgrades were made for this PowerMac, but were discontinued several years ago. We have had a few clearence items come through which are sold at a discounted price with a 3 month warranty.

This Mac can have an eSATA controller card added into an expansion socket - allowing it to control an array of eSATA drives.

For an explanation of what eSATA is, please see our eSATA FAQ. To see our full listing of eSATA products, please see the eSATA category.

eSATA products compatible with this Mac can be found on this page - eSATA controllers can be found on in the expansion cards section, eSATA enclosures are with the external hard drives, and SATA hard drives are listed with the internal hard drives.

Your PowerMac G4 Quicksilver has one available AGP socket for upgrading your video capabilities. You also have three 33MHz PCI slots, which can take a second graphics card - however the AGP socket is superior and should be used for the primary graphics card.

High-end graphics cards are useful for 3D applications and games - also a lot of the effects within OSX use the graphics card, so upgrading the card will make your OSX desktop smoother and nicer to look at.

Your PowerMac G4 has four PCI sockets for connectivity expansion. Since the machine was released FireWire 800, USB 2.0, faster internal IDE controllers, faster wireless and wired connectivity, and much more, has become available.

With the use of PCI expansion cards, you can update your machine to use current spec connectivity types. Please note that some cards have an operating system version requirement - see the notes in the table below for any that apply to this machine.

The following keyboards and mice are compatible with this Mac.

Listed below are power supplies, batteries and related products we supply for this Mac.

Listed below are power cables, tools and related products we supply for this Mac.

This Mac can use any of the following external hard drives.