[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


Just an update for anyone else with a slower machine and considers upgrades.

I upgraded the Graphics card to a Radeon 9200 ( a new and converted PC 
one that was on eBay.)  Works fine and made some differences... Really 
made a difference in Graphics oriented stuff (you don't say) but not 
that great a diffence to the interface itself... menues no snappier etc. 

Next was upgrading the OS.  Had Panther available as my wife now has 
upgraded to Tiger on the LapTop.   This has made a big difference that I 
wasn't expecting at all to the performance of the machine.  Everything 
feels snappier today.  I had no idea this would make much of a difference.

Think I'll hold off on the CPU upgrade for now :)

-Adrian