[twistedmojo]

So, I've got this Sawtooth G4/400 MHz laying around, and I've been using it for IM, web browsing, and other basic stuff. However, it's rather slow, and I'd like to do some Photoshop and audio work on it.

Here are the current specs:

Sawtooth G4/400MHz "AGP Graphics"
Mac OS X 10.3.7
100MHz Bus
512MB PC100 RAM
60GB 7200 RPM Maxtor HD
Original Radeon Mac Edition AGP 32MB (tried over-clocking it, no GUI benefits, which is where it matters.)
and an Airport card, if that makes any difference.

I know the major options as far as hardware upgrades go are:
- More RAM. I think the max is 1GB with PC100, but I could be wrong.
- New graphics card. An 8500 or something would probably make the GUI run a whole lot better.
- Processor upgrade. I'm iffy about this. It'd probably make my Linux/NetBSD endeavors more difficult, which I'd like to avoid.
- Better hard drive. Getting an SATA or SCSI card, and 10-15k drives would probably make this thing purr.
- Over-clocking the bus. I know this is possible, and I've been considering it. I've read reports of an increase to 133 bus speed, and 500MHz processor, and noticeable performance gains, at least in benchmarking. Plus, I'd be able to use PC133 RAM.

And as for the software end, I've been considering a few things:
- Kernel recompile. I'm not sure how big this would be, but if I could customize it, and compile it with the right flags, I imagine I could get some boost.
- Partitioning. I've also read reports on people adding a swap partition, or a swap/OS partition, so I imagine this could have some serious gains. Especially if coupled with a faster hard drive on a separate bus from the ATA HD.

Basically, please help me figure out what would give me the best performance boost for my money. Any other ideas for boosting performance are welcome. Also, does anyone have any experience with the kernel recompile or swap partition/drive? I'm intending on trying both in the near future, so any tips would be appreciated.

(EDIT)
Oh, I forgot to add a couple of things.
1)I will NOT be gaming on this machine. The graphics card therefore becomes something OS X can offload the GUI onto. I don't use anything else that would be boosted from it (Photoshop, for instance, is all processor/floating point stuff, if I recall correctly).
2) I do a lot of compiling on the command line, so performance improvements in that department are always welcome.

[reader50]

RAM can go to 2 GB on this machine. You can use PC133, but it will run at PC100 speeds - probably at CAS2.

You can experiment with moving the swap to it's own partition with Swap Cop.

The Mach kernel isn't like the current Linux kernel, extensions are loaded (and unloaded) dynamically rather than at compile time. But if you want to experiment with it, you can get the kernel source from developer.apple.com/darwin/ or look into OpenDarwin.org.

It sounds like a CPU upgrade would give more boost to your intended uses than a GPU upgrade. Upgrade cards using the 7455 or below should not need a custom firmware, just the latest Apple firmware for your machine. That was the case with my Sawtooth's 7455 CPU upgrade card.

I'll let other prople comment on the other possible upgrades.

[twistedmojo]

Originally posted by reader50:
RAM can go to 2 GB on this machine. You can use PC133, but it will run at PC100 speeds - probably at CAS2.

You can experiment with moving the swap to it's own partition with Swap Cop.

The Mach kernel isn't like the current Linux kernel, extensions are loaded (and unloaded) dynamically rather than at compile time. But if you want to experiment with it, you can get the kernel source from developer.apple.com/darwin/ or look into OpenDarwin.org.

It sounds like a CPU upgrade would give more boost to your intended uses than a GPU upgrade. Upgrade cards using the 7455 or below should not need a custom firmware, just the latest Apple firmware for your machine. That was the case with my Sawtooth's 7455 CPU upgrade card.

I'll let other prople comment on the other possible upgrades.

I figured that recompiling the kernel wouldn't give me a huge speed boost like on Linux, however, I've seen what setting processor specific compiler flags has done for Firefox, and a couple other applications, and it seems like setting the right ones could do at least something for me. I'm assuming that unless the OS X installer auto-detects your processor, and installs the corresponding kernel, that Apple provides a generic compile for PPC architecture. Eh. It's worth a try.

Also, about the CPU upgrade. The reason I want to avoid it(aside from the Linux/NetBSD adventures) is that I don't have a lot of money to spend, RAM I can get for free/cheap (connections), hard drives are transferrable (and also easy for me to get my hands on), and the graphics card I think wouldn't be very much if I ebayed it.

Now, the thing I could do to really see a performance boost would be to run some type of *nix other than OS X, properly configured so I avoid OS X's overhead and superfluous UI (I love it, but this computer doesn't ).

[LeeG]

I have a sawtooth "AGP" at 500 Mhz - I have done quite a bit to it:

- Increased RAM to 1Gb (OSX loves the ram)
- Added a second internal HD (7200)
- Added a flashed PC Radeon 8500
- Swapped the DVD Rom for a Superdrive

Running 10.3.7 - the machine is surprisingly useable - web, IM, itunes/ipod, office, some gaming (even WC3), and even some iMovie/iDVD.

I have been running into a wall however when I do iMovie, and especially iPhoto - the machine crawls sometimes.

Its hard to say from my experience which upgrade did the most, I know you don't want to game, but WC3 was not so good before the 8500.

I think making the 7200RPM drive my boot drive and the 1Gb ram has helped the most, but I have a 1.4Ghz G4 upgrade card shipped and on its way (due to arrive 12/28) - I think that will make the most difference.

I have been eyeing the upgrades for a while, and this one is less than $400 - much less compared to what I would spend for a 20" iMac or low end G5 tower to replace my current tower.

If Ram is free for you - load it up. I don't think you'll get much of an improvement with a 10K drive vs a 7200, but I could be wrong- good luck-

Lee

[chris v]

- Processor upgrade. I'm iffy about this. It'd probably make my Linux/NetBSD endeavors more difficult, which I'd like to avoid.

I put an OWC 1.25 GHZ upgrade card in my Sawtooth, and the process was utterly transparent. So long as you don't go with one of the CPU upgrades that requires OS X and a firmware upgrade, you should be fine, there. It seems like it's just the newer, low-powered 7447 chips that constrain you OS-wise. A 7455 CPU probably wouldn't behave any differently than the 7400 the machine shipped with.

[dfiler]

I'm driving a dual 450 gigabit ethernet.

But...

It's been upgraded with a flashed radeon 8500, 2gigs of ram, a pair of 120GB 8mb cache drives, and most recently... a dual 1.4 gigadesigns card. All of these upgrades run as perfectly as the stock equipment so you've got quite a few options.

The processor upgrade should be indistinguishable from the real thing as far as software is concerned.


I've even been eyeing a radeon 9800 in order to take full advantage of the goodies in 10.4.

All in all, this machine has had an impressive lifespan and should remain useful for at least another couple years.

[reader50]

Originally posted by twistedmoj
...
Now, the thing I could do to really see a performance boost would be to run some type of *nix other than OS X, properly configured so I avoid OS X's overhead and superfluous UI (I love it, but this computer doesn't ).

Try this, it's free. Set your Login Options to "Name and password", then log out. Log back in as ">console", no password required. When you need the GUI back, 'exit' or 'logout' works fine.

[twistedmojo]

Originally posted by reader50:
Try this, it's free. Set your Login Options to "Name and password", then log out. Log back in as ">console", no password required. When you need the GUI back, 'exit' or 'logout' works fine.

Very funny. Going with that train of thought, I could modify the boot script to not launch any of the GUI related resources, and boot to a bash shell, or a properly configured X11 server. But at that point, I may as well run Darwin, and here I am installing another OS (well, sort of), and I may as well go with something else.