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iGeek · Sep 12, 2005, 01:55 AM

Hey all,

I just bought a used Dual G4 Power Mac system (specs below) and I want to use it primarily to compose music in Garage Band 2. Mind you I haven't even received the system yet (won it in an auction...hope all is well with it

) and I'm probably going to see how well it performs initially to see if I can hold off on the upgrade, but very soon I think I will want to get one of those nifty CPU upgrades. And of course I'll be slapping in another 512 MB of RAM or so.

I've been reading some different forum threads and looking over the available CPU upgrades (and trying to find benchmarks for them grrr

) and I was looking for some advice, so here goes:

-For a program like Garage Band, would L3 cache offer a significant contribution to its performance?

-I'm seen some derogatory posts about PowerLogix for whatever reasons...what things should I be concerned about with them? Truthfully, of the upgrades available for my Mac, the ones that most appeal to me are the PowerForce7447s because of the heat and power saving features.

-I've seen it said that the average performance of a DP system can be expected to be about equivalent to the average performance of a SP with a processor speed of about 60% more than ONE of the DP systems processors (i.e, a DP 1.0 GHz to an SP 1.6 GHz--assuming that all the processors are identical aside from clock speed). What do you think?

-Is Garage Band 2 the type of program that would be able to make good utilization of a DP system?

I've got more but I'll stop there and see what I get.

Waragainstsleep · Sep 12, 2005, 04:18 AM

I suspect you'd be better off buying RAM first.

Lateralus · Sep 12, 2005, 10:11 AM

Uh... RAM.

You should have your computer license revoked for running X on 192MBs, let alone any applications.

OogaBooga · Sep 12, 2005, 12:27 PM

GarageBand loves the RAM. I'd step up to a gig for that program if you plan to do anything serious. The CPU upgrades can wait since you can freeze tracks in GarageBand to give you a little more boost.

bossep · Sep 12, 2005, 01:17 PM

I would buy as much memory as you can afford. CPU-upgrade: go for Sonnet. I bought the 1.2GHz, but you should go for the double one.

iGeek · Sep 12, 2005, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Uh... RAM.

You should have your computer license revoked for running X on 192MBs, let alone any applications.

OK...I specifically went back and added in my intentions of slapping in some more RAM, but I guess I wasn't clear that that is something I will do immediately.

So assuming I have 700 MB+ RAM, how does that change things?

iGeek · Sep 13, 2005, 02:20 AM

Originally Posted by bossep

I would buy as much memory as you can afford. CPU-upgrade: go for Sonnet. I bought the 1.2GHz, but you should go for the double one.

Yeah, I want to get the system to 1 Gig of RAM or better. Can you expand a bit as to why you think Sonnet is the best choice? If I were to get the dual, would Garage Band be able to capitalize on it?

danman · Sep 13, 2005, 07:00 PM

For all the money you plan on spending it would make more sense to get a refurbished G5 1.8 from apple.com, you will probably save money in the long run.

zoroaster68 · Sep 20, 2005, 07:42 PM

I have a dual 1.33 from gigadesigns. I love it. It doesn't seem like it runs anything any faster than one processer though, it just seems like when you're doing osmething taxing, you can still do other things... ie, nothing can really 'choke up' the system.

bossep · Sep 21, 2005, 03:56 AM

Originally Posted by iGeek

Yeah, I want to get the system to 1 Gig of RAM or better. Can you expand a bit as to why you think Sonnet is the best choice? If I were to get the dual, would Garage Band be able to capitalize on it?

Their support is 1st Class. Sonnet is the "Grand-daddy" of updates for Mac, and knows what they are doing.

iGeek · Sep 23, 2005, 03:47 AM

Originally Posted by danman

For all the money you plan on spending it would make more sense to get a refurbished G5 1.8 from apple.com, you will probably save money in the long run.

Currently that would cost me $999 for an iMac G5 1.8. If I got a refurb iMac G5 1.6, I could pick it up for $899 right now. In both cases I'd still have to dish out for RAM, but that is a pretty attractive package. It think Apple dropped their prices a little more within the last week or 2 on the refurbs. Definately something to consider.

iGeek · Sep 23, 2005, 03:57 AM

Originally Posted by bossep

Their support is 1st Class. Sonnet is the "Grand-daddy" of updates for Mac, and knows what they are doing.

Well, that's definately worth considering. I really like what I see technology wise with PowerLogix. From reading a lot of different reviews it seems like the people who received a good product were very happy with the results. OTOH, people that had problems with the product largely seemed to have nightmares dealing with support. I'm pretty savy when it comes to sniffing out answers to problems if the resources exists, but if I were to have an actual hardware problem, not sure I'd want to risk that. We'll see what develops in the short run. The system has supposed shipped, though I'm having problems with the tracking number. When it arrives, I'll be able to see if I need this upgrade right away or not. I ordered 2 512 MB sticks from OWC to throw in, too, so I'll have no shortage of RAM. Guess I'll have to update my profile.

bossep · Sep 23, 2005, 04:14 AM

Originally Posted by iGeek

Well, that's definately worth considering. I really like what I see technology wise with PowerLogix. From reading a lot of different reviews it seems like the people who received a good product were very happy with the results. OTOH, people that had problems with the product largely seemed to have nightmares dealing with support. I'm pretty savy when it comes to sniffing out answers to problems if the resources exists, but if I were to have an actual hardware problem, not sure I'd want to risk that. We'll see what develops in the short run. The system has supposed shipped, though I'm having problems with the tracking number. When it arrives, I'll be able to see if I need this upgrade right away or not. I ordered 2 512 MB sticks from OWC to throw in, too, so I'll have no shortage of RAM. Guess I'll have to update my profile.

Although I have only experience of Sonnet's support, I have to say it must be very hard to find any better. Sonnet is great if you like me don't overclock the cpu. If you want overclock, Sonnet is not for you.

iGeek · Sep 23, 2005, 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by bossep

Although I have only experience of Sonnet's support, I have to say it must be very hard to find any better. Sonnet is great if you like me don't overclock the cpu. If you want overclock, Sonnet is not for you.

LOL Yeah, I don't have any reason to really look at overclocking. The benefits from overclocking are rather inconsequencial, IMO. To have any substantial impact on performance requires significant overclocking, and don't have time to deal with the hassle of making that work. I can only obsess about one thing at a time.

I'll take another look at Sonnet and see what they have to offer.

opengame68 · Sep 25, 2005, 11:00 AM

Also take a look at gigadesigns. When they're having a clearance on older upgrades you can get some really great prices. Top notch email support, and I haven't had any problems. I had a sonnet upgrade in the past, and it was great too.

Go either gigadesigns or sonnet.

But really, the best thing to do is to buy a PRE MODIFIED g4 tower on ebay. Your tower's value on ebay + the price of an upgrade = a LOT more than the price of a premodified faster tower on ebay.

opengame68 · Sep 25, 2005, 06:46 PM

http://forums.macnn.com/59/marketplace/270860/fs-t-powermac-g4-1ghz-1-a/

Make an offer with that dude.