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Jordan · Jun 28, 2005, 06:36 AM

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

After what seems like forever, I have finally updated my desktop. Have had 2 PowerBook updates since the last desktop update.

Am switching from 867 screaming Mhz's in my PowerMac G4 to a faster than lightspeed dual 2.7Ghz G5.

Now the big question is, what am I going to do with all this speed????

The G5 is at least a week away from delivery so I've got a week to work out what tests I can do before and after to get that warm comfortable feeling you get when you know you've bought something good. Anyone got any suggestions?

Here's one:

Push the power button and try to make a cup of coffee before it's booted up. (At the moment I can grind the beans, boil the water, milk the cow and still have time to casually walk back to see the login screen pop up.)

Bought it over the phone from Apple and at the end the sales guy said, "Congratulations, you now own one of the fastest personal computers on the planet."

As Homer Simpson might say... mmmm... speedy.

Jordan

Randman · Jun 28, 2005, 06:52 AM

How you have enough ram to make it work.

buggsuperstar · Jun 28, 2005, 08:16 AM

Originally Posted by Jordan

Now the big question is, what am I going to do with all this speed????

Donate some of it to science.

Jordan · Jun 28, 2005, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by buggsuperstar

Donate some of it to science.

Very funny buggsuperstar!!!

buggsuperstar · Jun 28, 2005, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by Jordan

Very funny buggsuperstar!!!

aww... cmon Jordan... I'm sure you could spare one teeny weeny processor.

After all... you have 2...

Jordan · Jun 28, 2005, 08:28 AM

Originally Posted by buggsuperstar

aww... cmon Jordan... I'm sure you could spare one teeny weeny processor.

After all... you have 2...

Yes, even one processor is more than 3 times faster (in clockspeed at least) than my current machine!!!

buggsuperstar · Jun 28, 2005, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by Jordan

Yes, even one processor is more than 3 times faster (in clockspeed at least) than my current machine!!!

enjoy your speed demon, mate.

Todd Madson · Jun 29, 2005, 05:19 PM

My G5 dual 2.5 doesn't give me time to blink when I boot it before it's up and running.

Fun things to do:
-Run Seti at home and see how many blocks you can produce in a day.
-Run classic and see classic apps run faster under emulation than most regular old Macs.
-Run all the apps that slowed down your machine before at bruising speed.
-Download the HD quicktime trailers and actually watch them at full size and no jerkiness.
-Run X-Plane with graphic settings full up and take the japanese anime plane into outer space and
gaze in awe at the simulated aurora borealis.
-Run XBench and laugh at the results.
-Run a really old version of Xbench and REALLY laugh at the results (says my G5/2.5 dual rates 413!)
-Run all the software synths and plug-ins you have SIMULTANEOUSLY and watch the machine go
"I can do more than this."
-Try to run 48 tracks simultaneously (audio), then 64. Then 128. Go nuts. 256?
-Pull off the metal side and gaze in at the innards in the plastic shell and laugh like a maniac.
-Go to your system preferences and pull up your desktop wallpaper and watch them populate
the display instantly instead of 10-15 seconds like on my old 400 mhz machine.
-Do things like exporting files in quicktime that used to take minutes, watch it take seconds.
-Scroll in iTunes and watch how fast it is. Watch searches come up instantly.
-Enjoy the speed of the SATA drive. You'll notice it being a bit faster than your normal IDE drives.
-Then install a 74 GB 10000 rpm drive and really notice the speed (a great boot disc for sure).
-Burn an obscenely large DVD-R disc and laugh like a maniac (the laughing is important).
-Pull up your iPhoto library and notice that most operations are instantaneous.
-Notice the spinny beachball of doom.....much less than you would normally.
-Put in more than 2 GB of ram and... (wait for it) laugh like a maniac.
-Find an old version of Seti at Home (the 2.x version) and the demo block and watch it
render it in something like 40 minutes instead of 5 hours and cry that they didn't stay
with that level of science.
-Download all of the ATI Mac demos at the ATI site and watch with awe the real-time
rendering demos. They're pretty cool and the screen savers in particular are really eerie
and cool.
-Load a ton of apps at the same time and watch them all load at a time it would take your
old Mac to just load one.
-Run some G5 optimized Photoshop filter and grin.
-Go into energy preferences and set the machine to slowest speed to note....it's still faster
than most.
-Get really irritated with your 2 and 3 ghz Pentium machines at your job because they're
so much slower than your G5 at home.

I'm sure there's more.

Jordan · Jun 30, 2005, 09:02 AM

Wow Todd!

That is a pretty hefty list! Can't wait to try them all...

Am practicing the laugh now but it really isn't the same on a 867Mhz machine. Will check for improvement on the new one when it arrives!!!!

d.fine · Jun 30, 2005, 10:52 AM

Yea, its a pretty amazing machine, once you get to know all it can do for you. Enjoy!!

I like to do CPU instensive stuff while playing iTunes and listen at how it doesn't miss a beat.

Jordan · Jul 12, 2005, 05:02 AM

Okay - this is my last post on my G4!!

My Dual G5 2.7Ghz arrived today!!!

The big black box is sitting next to me dying to be opened.

This will be my last post from my current machine. Thank you G4, you've served me well....

Back soon on the G5.

Jordan · Jul 12, 2005, 06:40 AM

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

I can't believe that I didn't realise that there was no ADC port on the new G5. My 22 inch ADC is my only display and I have a shiny new G5 that I can't do anything with.

I guess the only option is to order an ADC to DVI adaptor from the Apple store. $179 Ouch!!!

Grrrrrr....

Jordan

phantomac · Jul 12, 2005, 08:18 AM

Is there no place in Melbourne to pick up such an adaptor more quickly? Even in the lowly state capital I'm living in you can buy those in at least two stores.

herbsman · Jul 12, 2005, 10:57 AM

is the adc->dvi adapter that much? i thought i saw one for around 20-30 bucks from doctor bott?

phantomac · Jul 12, 2005, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by herbsman

is the adc->dvi adapter that much? i thought i saw one for around 20-30 bucks from doctor bott?

He needs a DVI->ADC adapter. That one's more expensive as it contains a power supply, iirc.

Todd Madson · Jul 12, 2005, 04:46 PM

Wow. Talk about access denied.

Kyros · Jul 12, 2005, 08:00 PM

What it's really telling you is that you need to get a 30 inch monitor from Apple to keep it company.

OogaBooga · Jul 12, 2005, 10:45 PM

You can still turn it on and "listen" to how fast it is. The laugh like a maniac.

But at that point, you will be a maniac.

riverfreak · Jul 13, 2005, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by OogaBooga

You can still turn it on and "listen" to how fast it is. The laugh like a maniac.

But at that point, you will be a maniac.

You could always SSH in, or use VNC or Remote Desktop if you wanted to use the GUI. Ah, but I suppose it would be difficult since those services are not enabled or even installed by default!

Jordan · Jul 13, 2005, 07:46 AM

Originally Posted by OogaBooga

You can still turn it on and "listen" to how fast it is. The laugh like a maniac.

But at that point, you will be a maniac.

Well, I'm back now. $179 lighter but now I'm smokin!!!!

This is soooo FAST!!! Letters are appearing on the screen before I actually type them......

MWAH HA HA HA HA (Maniacal laugh)

I've done some of the things on Todd's list already. Of course, I would get everything going the very same night that 24 is on!!! Season 4 too

Now I have to run in at the commercial breaks to play with it.....

I must say that I am EXTREMELY happy and anyone else who is thinking about upgrading (but was turned off by the Mactel announcement) should definitely do so. It is worth it!

I love the feel of a new Mac. Xmas came early this year!!

buggsuperstar · Jul 13, 2005, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by Jordan

This is soooo FAST!!! Letters are appearing on the screen before I actually type them......

Jordan · Jul 13, 2005, 08:07 AM

Hee hee hee.

Updated my signature. Now it's official. It's mine!!!!

OogaBooga · Jul 13, 2005, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by Jordan

Well, I'm back now. $179 lighter but now I'm smokin!!!!

This is soooo FAST!!! Letters are appearing on the screen before I actually type them......

MWAH HA HA HA HA (Maniacal laugh)

I've done some of the things on Todd's list already. Of course, I would get everything going the very same night that 24 is on!!! Season 4 too

Now I have to run in at the commercial breaks to play with it.....

I must say that I am EXTREMELY happy and anyone else who is thinking about upgrading (but was turned off by the Mactel announcement) should definitely do so. It is worth it!

I love the feel of a new Mac. Xmas came early this year!!

I'm in a similar boat. I got a DP 2.0 right on June 6th with 1.5gb of RAM and can't find anything to do with all this speed. I have no graphics/video editing skills, so that's out of the question. I do like making music, but I rarely stress my iBook G4 doing that - much less a DP PowerMac (unless I'm using GarageBand which is a killer on performance).

So... I start thinking I should have gone with the 20" iMac. Doh! The screen would have been much better than this ancient 17" CRT and it's still a fast computer. But then I remember one thing:

I can upgrade the PowerMac. I'll have much more fun getting new video cards, hard drives, etc over the years that buying a computer once and basically sticking with it for 4 years. The Dual Processors will prolong the life of the machine, keeping it's performance up to grade even after a couple years. I just wish I would have bought the Rev. A DP2.0 so I could have already been enjoying this baby for two years!

MikeD · Jul 13, 2005, 02:41 PM

I'm thinking about upgrading my MDD DP 1.25 - Will I be able to laugh or is the speed gap that much less???

OogaBooga · Jul 13, 2005, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by MikeD

I'm thinking about upgrading my MDD DP 1.25 - Will I be able to laugh or is the speed gap that much less???

Wait as long as you can. A DP G4 still has a couple years' life in it, depending on what you do. I'd wait until the PowerMacs go Intel, but that's just me.

Or at least wait until the next revision.

Jordan · Jul 14, 2005, 06:37 AM

Originally Posted by MikeD

I'm thinking about upgrading my MDD DP 1.25 - Will I be able to laugh or is the speed gap that much less???

I reckon I waited too long. It's never a good time to upgrade as they will always be releasing new models. You just have to byte the bullet though.

A G5 is sooo much quicker than the G4. Installing the Software Updates just flew.

In fact, sometimes a program has launched before I even finish the double-click!

buggsuperstar · Jul 14, 2005, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by Jordan

In fact, sometimes a program has launched before I even finish the double-click!

Originally Posted by Jordan

Letters are appearing on the screen before I actually type them......

Now that's just double creepy.

You sure the Gremlins aren't in YOUR Mac?

OogaBooga · Jul 14, 2005, 10:37 AM

The problem with all this hype is that once you find something that DOES tax your machine it's going to break your heart.

Try importing clips into a 1080i iMovie project.

MikeD · Jul 14, 2005, 11:14 AM

See, my issue is that my applecare expires in a few months and I think that would really help sell it on Ebay. I don't know many people who would really want to buy an old machine without at least some warranty. I was doing a DV import yesterday (3 horus runtime) and to export it as an mp4 at the same resolution in iMovie, it took about 6 hours! THAT broke my heart to see the computer working so hard at just the one task.

supernovamac · Jul 20, 2005, 04:35 PM

Soon I will be a owner of a powermac 2/2.3 Ghz. And I cant wait to use all that speed. It will be so great to things and don’t have to wory about a slow system. I am going from a ibook 500 Mhz to an Powermac G5. And a 12” monitor to a 24” dell widescreen LCD. The world will look so different now :-)

Todd Madson · Jul 20, 2005, 04:42 PM

I found something that taxed mine, finally: some demo that came on a cubase halion demo
disc that I'd picked up in a store. It ran every instrument it had simultaneously and then ran
a delay and reverb on every instrument. It taxed it to about 50%. Funny.

Madrag · Jul 29, 2005, 04:29 AM

I jumped from a PM G4 400 AGP to a PM DP G5 2.0 and the speed was very noticable!

Now, when I upgraded to Tiger, man! that's a jump from my 'old' G5 to the new one!,
That's a system definately designed for the G5!

So, you can laugh and laugh with all the speed

Geobunny · Jul 29, 2005, 09:45 PM

Glad you're enjoying the speed. I've currently got a Quicksilver 733Mhz single processor which is doing me ok but programming's a bit on the slow side. I've saved up the money to buy a dual 2.7 G5 and it's beginning to burn a hole in my pocket. Is the speed bump really all that noticeable?

At work, I had the exact same G4 as I've got at home, but my boss just upgraded me to a dual 2.5 G5 with 1.5Gig of RAM and I'm not exactly in awe of the speed. During the install, I let the assistant copy all my files and settings off the old computer, is that a likely culprit for my not being impressed?

supernovamac · Jul 30, 2005, 11:25 AM

I have been using my new G5 2.3Ghz Powermac the last two days and I must say going from a ibook with 500 Mhz there is no way back to the ibook. The speed is just heavenly. And I will not regret buying one. But I will upgrade ram.

I love the speed and my new wireless keyboard

MikeD · Jul 30, 2005, 12:29 PM

Well, same goes for me... I have a 2.7 on BTO order supposedly shipping on 8/1/05 Already have my new display, BT keyboard, applecare just sitting here and waiting!

Madrag · Jul 30, 2005, 01:02 PM

Geobunny:

well, after a clean install, the speed is noticable...
I placed the prefs back in their places manually, but I don't think that matters.
a 2.5 is fast and should be.
a 2.7 is even faster

I don't think you'll regret it. As I said before, after installing Tiger, my G5 seems to have "waken up"

Todd Madson · 05:43 PM

Another fun thing to try.

-Create two directories.
-Place Seti @ Home (text unix style version) in one directory.
-Place Seti @ Home (texst unix style version) in the other directory.
-Open two terminal windows.
-Start each of the instances of the Seti @ home client.
-Make sure nap mode is disabled and performance is set to highest in energy saver preferences.
-Wait a day or two and be amazed at how many blocks you generate.

-Both CPUs really help!