[X4U] [OT] Processor Upgrades

[Adrian Stubbs]

Jim Soriano wrote:

>
> On Sep 1, 2005, at 10:21 PM, Adrian Stubbs <stubbsz at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Thinking about upgrading my Sawtooth 450 G4.  It really seems worth
>> getting an upgrade but I wondered what your opinions would be.
>> Apparently mine is compatible with Mutli-processors but the price and
>> the lower clock speed of these Dual Processor cards makes me wonder if
>> a) it will be slower and b) it will be more expensive.
>
>
> <snip>
>
> Hi Adrian:
>
> Over the past 5 years I've gradually upgraded my wife's single  
> processor 500Mhz Sawtooth (a rare beast) and she has been thrilled  
> with the results.  It's a very robust platform that responds well to  
> incremental improvements.  She's a graphic designer doing a lot of  
> with with the complete Adobe suite.  The operating system has  
> generally kept pace with Apple's upgrades from OS 8.6 through 9.x up  
> through 10.3.9.  We haven't yet converted this machine to Tiger as  
> she's been on production deadlines for the last 6 months...
>
> First improvement:  More RAM.  The system has had 1.5GB since late  
> 2000 and it is the single most valuable upgrade you can make.
>
> Second improvement:  Upgraded graphics adapter to ATI Radeon 8500  
> AGP.  We did this while she was still running OS 9 and it made a huge  
> difference in Photoshop performance.
>
> Third improvement:  Upgraded the hard disk to 120GB IBM (Hitachi)  
> 7200RPM Deskstar.  The extra space was absolutely required, the extra  
> speed was not really noticeable.
>
> Fourth improvement:  Upgraded to an original Apple dual 500Mhz  
> processor.  We did this around the same time as installing OS 10.2  
> (we never ran Puma on this machine), and without a doubt dual  
> processors make OS 10 run SO much better than a uniprocessor.  It was  
> certainly faster than the 800Mhz uniprocessor TiPBG4 that I was using  
> as my daily machine at this time running Jaguar.
>
> Fifth improvement:  Upgraded to PowerLogix dual 1GHz processor in  
> late 2004.  I found this for a good price as a discontinued model at  
> OtherWorldComputing (OWC).  We're still using this configuration  
> today, and its performance is so good that we have no interest in  
> upgrading to a G5 anytime soon.  The performance running OS 10.3 is  
> noticeably better than my current machine, a 1.2GHz uniprocessor  
> iBook G4.
>
> Planned sixth improvement:  If all goes well, over the weekend I'm  
> going to install SoftRaid and put a second 120GB Deskstar in the  
> system as a mirrored drive.  We've actually had it installed for a  
> while as a clone drive for backups, but that's suboptimal for our  
> application.
>
> I expect that this will be the last upgrade for this workhorse of a  
> system, unless I can find a screaming deal on a >1.7GHz dual G4  
> processor module.  In most cases I've successfully eBayed the  
> replaced component to defray the costs of the upgrade, so my total  
> upgrade investment over the past 5 years has been < $1000.  Hope this  
> insight helps you with your decision.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jim

Thanks Jim. 

I have 768 Megs of Ram... I'll check out prices,,, and a 9200 AGP card 
via Ebay is on the way.  Jury is still out on the lower g multi vs the 
much higer g Single processor.  

Panther can indeed be had cheap so that'll be next.

-Adrian