[G4] upgrading a G4 Digital Audio

[Eric Wood]

My experience with upgrading the Digital Audio G4 is as follows:

I replaced the original, horribly slow G4 cpu with 1.6 GHz dual CPUs,
and that particular upgrade is only known to have issues with Mac OS 9's
extensions for multiple CPUs. OS X and Linux both have no problem with
that upgrade. As for cache, that will pretty much depend on the type of
CPU you install. You might also get the option to try and overclock the
cache. I don't like overclocking ever since I had an overclocked G4 in a
Yosemite tower that died. Spending the extra money for the faster CPU is
likely worthwhile.

My CPU upgrade did require a firmware update prior to actually
installing the new CPU. I also had the issue of having to get a
different firmware update installed before I could get the
vendor-specific one done. Be sure to follow directions carefully for
that process to avoid killing the Mac. Botched firmware will pretty much
make that system a doorstop (or footstool?).

I replaced the original optical drive ultimately with a Samsung
DVD/CD-writer. I had an LG drive that didn't work correctly with Mac OS
X's power management - had to disable hard drive sleeping.

I replaced the original Rage 128 AGP with a Radeon 9800 Pro, and it's
been wonderfully fast.

As for hard drives, I installed a SATA card for Macintosh.

So at this point, my DA is very much upgraded and working beautifully. 

On Mon, 2007-09-24 at 13:41 -0700, John Niven wrote:
> --- MKL <mkl18 at pobox.com> wrote:
> > I recently aquired a G4 Digital Audio 733 mhz 
> 
> > The original CD/DVD  installed unit is possibly
> > worth upgrading
> 
> I don't have a DA, I have earlier GigaBit models. But
> LEM specs 
> 
> http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g4-133.shtml
> 
> say that the G4/733 includes a SuperDrive CD-RW/DVD-R
> drive (2x DVD-R, 6x DVD, 8x CD-R, 4x CD-RW, 24x CD) so
> if it's working I'd keep it.
> 
> > I am told some later G4 DAs did not have power
> > supplies How would I find out if mine has one or
> > not?
> 
> I think you missed something in that conversation -
> all computers have a power supply so no worries there.
> 
> > I have the maximum amount of RAM  so this is OK  but
> > the cache issue is a bit vague for me Is there
> > something that can be improved inthis area or better
> > managed?
> 
> Again LEM says the 733 has 1 MB L3 backside cache. I
> actually have a 733MHz cpu in my work AGP overclocked
> to 800MHz. It does not have an L3 cache. So the small
> 256Kb L2 is all it has. I run Tiger, browser, email
> and M$ office apps on this machine and find it fast
> enough.
> Depends what you want to do.
> 
> > I have the standard 60 or so gig IDE drive and a
> > couple of SCSI drives Could I replace one of the
> > SCSI
> > drives with a newly aquired ULTRA320  10000k drive
> > even though it isnt ULTRA 320 ?
> 
> If you have a couple of SCSI drives, they must be
> connected to a PCI SCSI card. Which card is it? How
> big are the drives? I like SCSI drives. They can be
> faster than your ATA/66 hard drive. To fully use your
> Ultra 320 would probably require a new PCI card (like
> a ATTO UL4S). These are still silly prices (at least
> for a LEM budget :-). You can use a matched pair of
> SCSI drives to form a striped RAID 0 array which will
> speed up the array access (double if you have a dual
> channel card). Most of my machines do this (with ATTO
> UL3D cards). You can then put the os and apps on the
> RAID array, and use your big ATA drive for data,
> backups etc.
> 
> > If I upgrade the processor with say an xclr8 
> > booster
> 
> I'm not in favor of spending lots of money on CPU
> upgrades. Why not just buy a better Mac? I keep my
> G4's going because I want to run older (paid for) apps
> that won't run on more modern Macs. It's just cheaper
> that way.
> 
> BTW do you own the OS install disks? If I was going to
> spend any money I'd make sure I have the ability to
> cleanly load the OS and any other apps I would use.
> 
> Cheers,
> John
> 
> 
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