[G4] Processor upgrade advice

[Richard Smykla]

Chris,

I also picked up a single-processor Sawtooth (450) a couple of years 
ago with similar upgrade notions. I took the route of swapping in a 
dual-450 from a gigabit model. I assume you're aware of the Uni-N 
chip revision limitation on early G4s?

<http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso?-database=faq.fp3&-layout=FaqList&-response=answer.faq.lasso&-recordID=33673&-search>

and <http://www.powerlogix.com/support2/notices/pfdualg4100/>

Make sure your G4 can handle a dual before making your purchase. NO 
problems noted in my case - although the machine didn't feel 
appreciably faster for single tasks, there is a very noticeable 
difference when you start multi-tasking. No slowdowns unless you 
*really* tax your system. And big improvements in programs that take 
advantage of multiple processors and Altivec.

That said, I think the best bang for the buck here is to go for the 
1.25 upgrade.

My experience?  I recently sold my maxed-out Sawtooth (which was 
running Jaguar 10.2.8 very well when sold) to buy a friend's 
Quicksilver dual-800. A respectable move up in performance, I gained 
a superdrive, but I left behind my Radeon 8500 (great card!) for the 
stock nVidia 2MX (not nearly as nice) and my max RAM went from 2 to 
1.5 GB. It wound up costing me about $300 for the switch, and I'm 
happy with the result, but in retrospect I may have been better 
served with a (single) processor upgrade (even though I've become 
spoiled by the advantages of duals). Third party dual processor 
upgrades are still too pricey for my tastes; buying a used dual seems 
the better route if you're willing to weather the hassle of 
selling/buying/swapping drives, etc. . .

Prices have begun to drop on the previous generations of G4 duals. A 
dual-1G Quicksilver recently went for a $1000 on one of the swap 
lists I follow (also see eBay), though the MDD duals are still 
priced too high to compete with the entry level G5. The QS boxes 
probably offer the best performance for your money in that price 
range, IMHO. If you do an upgrade, hold on to that Radeon . . . also 
remember that a QS can use the same RAM modules as your Sawtooth if 
you used PC133 for your previous memory upgrades. . .

Whew. Interested to hear which way you finally go on this . . .  good luck!

Rick

>Hi all,
>I've been thinking of a processor upgrade for my Sawtooth G4/400 and see
>that single processor upgrades have started falling in price. e.g. OWC has
>1.25 Gigadesign processors at $389; I've even seen G4/800 processors below
>$200. As the new dual processors have appeared, I expect these prices to
>fall even more.
>
>I got the Sawtooth, used, at a very good price and I have upgraded most of
>the innards: combo drive replaced the DVD, Radeon 8500 replaced the Rage
>128, big HD, lots more RAM - all at very good prices. Let's say I've put
>about $750 into it overall.
>
>Selling it used I'd get a lot less than that, but some parts I could carry
>over to any new Mac I bought. The G4/1.25 is still being sold at around
>$1200 (here in Europe), which is a pretty good deal.
>
>Another option is a used Mac. e.g. I've been in contact with a guy selling a
>Dual G4/450 with 1GB RAM and a Superdrive for $600-650.
>By the way, how would that Dual 450 do in Panther? I don't have a need for
>blazing speed in high performance Altivec applications, but I want something
>that runs OS X with at least the speed of OS 9! (My current G4/400 is a dog
>in X).
>
>My needs: as I said, a Mac that can run Panther fast for another year or
>two. No special application needs.
>
>So, the options are:
>1) keep Sawtooth and add G4/1000-1250 processor for price in $300-350 range.
>2) used Dual G4/450 (also more upgrade options down the road): price around
>$600-650 (*has Superdrive): move Radeon 8500 to Dual, resell Sawtooth for
>??? 350-400? so maybe net price of around $300
>3) new G4/1.25 for $1200 (*net price after selling Sawtooth + Radeon = 750?)
>
>Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks,
>Chris
>
>
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-- 
Rick Smykla
rsmykla at verizon.net