[awcopus]

Here's a question. I own a dual 1.42GHz G4, but unfortunately, it's got a Radeon 9000 graphics card and that means I can't run MOTION, which I need to run to stay competitive in my business.

So, all of a sudden I'm seriously considering a G5... BUT... whereas I have 1 terabyte of online storage in my Dual 1.42, I can't install more than one extra drive in a G5, topping out at 250GB.

I considered getting a Radeon 9800, but the one that works with my machine doesn't work with my dual ADC-drive 23" HD Cinema Displays. (Thanks, Apple, by the way, for introducing and promptly dropping the ADC format.) Though I would be able to drive one of the ADC monitors using the DVI-ADC adapter, the card would put a lot of stress on my computer's power handling, which is pretty much maxed out by all of my internal HDs.

So, my question is: has anyone out there any ideas about the feasibility of connecting a G5 directly to a G4 using gigabit ethernet? Has anyone done this? Would I be able to access the data on my drives fast enough for real-time playback? Also, of the available Dual 2.0 GHz G5s, there seem to be some with the 9600 and some with nVidia 5200, and my question is: which performs better for 2D acceleration? Gaming is about the last thing on my mind right now.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[webb3201]

I am not sure about the drive throughput and if you will be happy running lots of data over ethernet. One thing you may not be aware of that could help is this product from Wiebetech.

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/G5Jam.php

They let you add two more drives to your G5 (internally) for a total of four. This may be a good solution for you.

k

[reader50]

Get the Radeon 9800 Retail, connect one of your ADC displays using your existing DVI -> ADC adapter, which should supply the display's power via a wall plug rather than from your G4. If your adapter doesn't do this, you can get another that does.

Connect the 2nd ADC display to the Radeon 9800's VGA port using VGAtor, a VGA -> ADC adapter. This adapter also supplies the display power via a wall plug.

If you go the G5 route, it is possible to put more drives in using 3rd party solutions. The G5Jam will work, but is the most expensive and least flexible solution. For a more complete list of available internal HD solutions, see this thread.

[awcopus]

My thanks to both of you for your thoughts and for pointing out these options for equipping a G5 with more HDs. Though it irks me to have to spend SO much more money to get expandability that came standard in my current Mac, it is heartening to know that solutions are available.

In consultation with Apple, I have learned a few things:

1) The nVidia 128MB ADC/DVI Gforce Ti card will NOT work with Motion. Just won't do it. Has something to do with its implementation of openGL not being current.

2) The Radeon 9800 DVI/VGA would be a possible solution EXCEPT for the fact that it would push my Mac pretty hard on the energy front given the four 7200 RPM HDs I am running along with two Superdrives.

3) Gigabit ethernet SHOULD enable me to access the data on my G4's internal drives from a G5 with plenty of bandwidth headroom. But I've yet to encounter anyone who is actually doing this (though I found a vendor that offers solutions like this.. APACE).

4) The Firewire 800 implementation of my dual 1.42 G4 is apparently excellent for video editing, whereas the G5's Firewire 800 implementation is problematic because of some kind of inconsistency in IO throughput caused maybe (and ironically if it's true) by its high speed BUS speeds (!?).

For now, given the ridiculous wait times on G5s and what I consider to be the excessive price for the new machines (especially given the extra money I have to spend on RAM and HDs to make one functional for me), PLUS the reports that Motion doesn't run that smoothly even on the new G5s.... I'm taking a chill pill and staying focused on getting my work done WITHOUT Motion, which I will be returning tomorrow.

[OreoCookie]

Serial ATA disks top out at 400 gig currently. If you don't want to invest that much (they are twice as expensive per gig as 200 gig ones), then you can still consider FireWire enclosures for your current drives.

[reader50]

The Radeon 9800 will run hot mostly in certain games. I doubt Motion will push the 3D circuitry as much as top-end games do. As for HDs, they do not use as much power as people seem to think. I suspect you'd be fine with the Radeon 9800 and the DVI/VGA solutions.

If you are still interested in the G5 solution, you can RAID by adding a pair of FW800 PCIX cards with 1-2 drives on each card, this will work fine. Place one card in the PCI-X 133 slot, the other card in one of the PCI-X 100 slots. The FW800 write speed issue on the G5 only affects the onboard FW implementation.

Clarification regarding the FW800 issue. The G5 will capture to RAM and export from RAM via FW800 just fine. However, when writing to external FW drive(s), the G5 is much slower than G4 PowerMacs that came with FW800. Since digital video is normally large enough that it must be captured to RAID, this puts the G5 into a crunch. Only two internal drives without 3rd party solutions, and the onboard FW800 comes up lame for this very duty. With 3rd party help, you can work around either solution, but Apple really should fix both issues. The G5 needs better internal expansion, and the onboard FW800 write-to-disk issue needs to be fixed.

[awcopus]

Thanks again, folks.

The G5 is back-ordered for over a month, and Motion's 1.0 release is buggy. Maybe when availability of current G5s is immediate and Motion is more mature, I will make the jump. I think it would be smart to wait for the current G5 line to be updated and then try to grab a dual 2.5 at a lower price. I can wait on this... though something tells me the next PowerMac update isn't going to be for a good long while given the fact that the dual 2.5 is only now starting to show up in very limited quantities.

I WILL, however, be purchasing ATI's RADEON 9800 card (the one that comes with ADC and DVI and 256MB of RAM), as this may be the last card made with ADC and that's important to me (in light of my 46 inches of ADV-driven Apple HD Cinema real estate). I will unpack it when I eventually upgrade to a G5... or sell it then. I have no doubt that it will hold its resale value in light of the number of people out there with ADC monitors who will wish that they had purchased it.

[reader50]

Please note that the Radeon 9800 with 256 MB is supposedly G5-only. In fact, it will work in a G4 if you tape over one of the pins before plugging it into a G4's AGP slot.