[BkueKanoodle]

I just came into posession of a G4 Sawtooth (450 mhz)

Wanting to see what I can do with this thing, I picked up on a 1ghz gigadesigns card, radeon 900 video, 2 80 gig drives, DVD-rw (pioneer) and some more ram. I was expecting a speed increase, but this is Amazing.

I've got the gigadesign OC at 1.2, and its purring like a kitten. Compared to the 1 ghz pb I owned in the past and my current 12 inch pb this thing screams.

I'm getting overall Xbench scores on this of 120 on average.


In any case the reason I posted was to tell any contemplating the upgrade from gigadesigns, get it. For under a 1000 I've got a machine that will go toe to toe with a new 1 ghz model from apple.

As a side note I bought these parts a while back when a new g4 1 ghz with SD and similar specs, still cost about 2300. I'm not sure if the upgrades have dropped in price since then, but definitely worth checking out.

[LeeG]

Thanks for the info, I am currently pricing out upgrades, the powerlogix (on their site) is 369 for the 1.2 (not overclocked), and it LOOKS like a more solid unit (with a longer track record) though I have heard some complaints...

Glad to hear the speed increase was noticeable!


Lee

[cgc]

I have a Sawtooth 400MHz (AGP) and put a Radeon 8500 in it. Next thing is to get the Gigadesigns 1GHz which I hear is tested by the manufacturer to run at 1.2GHz, some actually run at 1.3GHz. Check out http://www.xlr8yourmac.com for lots of great info.

[typoon]

I got the Sonnet 800 MHz Upgrade and you can notice the upgrade from my old 450 Processor. Well that and I guess 896 megs of RAM helps too.

[Jack-iMac]

yeah, nice.

[Komisar]

someone needs to give me a direct link to whatt i need to up my g4 400mhz sawtooth to a 1ghz or the owc 1.5 thank you and exactly what needs to be done... cause i dont know what is good or not

[tr]

Originally posted by Komisar:
someone needs to give me a direct link to whatt i need to up my g4 400mhz sawtooth to a 1ghz or the owc 1.5 thank you and exactly what needs to be done... cause i dont know what is good or not

check out the xlr8yourmac.com database of owner's cpu upgrades and the cpu upgrade reviews. lots of good info, as there are good comparisons on the various manufacturers upgrades.

i also have a sawtooth 450, and i'm still saving up for that upgrade. already have a radeon 8500, 120gb hd. 1.5gb RAM, DVD-R drive...i know once i get that processor upgrade, this machine will rock.

tr

[Komisar]

well the think is i dont know if its a "sawtooth or a yikes" its a 400mhz model i just dont know which one if someoen can point out how i can tell i would appreciate it

[Lateralus]

Sawtooth machines have an AGP slot. Yikes! machines do not.

[Link]

The easiest way to tell if a machine is a yikes or not is to open it. The most obvious thing about machines with AGP slots (sawtooth and later), is that the video card will be sitting on a brown (or green) socket.

Yikes G4s don't have that socket. There's a few other differences though such as heatsink shape and the fact that yikes machines, like the G3s, have the processor on a ZIF socket (the way most PCs have their processors mounted) instead of on a card.

[Komisar]

I dont know what an agp slot i guess my true ... itllegence shines through now where is it can u show me an image of it?

[Lateralus]

No offense, but if you don't know what an AGP slot is, then planning to upgrade your processor probably isn't something you should be thinking about.

[Komisar]

yeah ill just get myself a g5 wen the time comes... i dont know that much bout desktops im a huge laptop fanatic i know everything bout em...... thanks for the help and advice anyway

[bstone]

I might be able to recommend a bit as I also have a Sawtooth (400mhz). I have done the following:

1.5GB RAM (3x512 with one slot unfilled)
PCI ATA/133
120gb HD 7200rpm 8mb buffer (attached to the ATA card)
Pioneer 106d CD/DVD-RW drive
Radeon 8500 128mb video card

The ATA/133 card really made a difference. I have just received a QS 2002 800mhz G4 processor and will be putting it in there in place of the 400mhz G4 very soon. It's OCable to 933.

[David Lee]

For anyone considering buying aa CPU upgrade, I too can highly recommend the GigaDesign brand. I have a 800MHz w2MB backside cache model (Cheap!) that runs stablely with no problems, and little heat, at 900MHz. This, while certainly not the fastest upgrade available, is completely viable for also any normal task, most work related tasks and even some video work. If you are doing 3D rendering, spend more money. But if you do word processing, use Powerpoint or the like, open lots of dictionaries (I translate at work) or the like, any speed about 800 or above make Panther purr. We also have a Digital Audio 466 that feels comfortably fast running Panther. There is a huge difference between a stock 400, 450 or even 500 Sawtooth and the 800 GigaDesigns upgrade! Like other posters, the scenerio here is enhanced with a ATA 133 PCI card and an IBM 120/8MB cache HD and 1.28GB of RAM. These machine have a lot of life left, may be able to wait even until the third generation G5s arrive before it becomes obvious that a further increase in power is required. I certainly am not held back by this machine as it is, doing what I do with it.

[Luca Rescigno]

Make sure you compare prices for CPU upgrades. Gigadesigns hasn't dropped their prices in months, and consequently some of their upgrades are very expensive compared to other companies. I'd go for OWC if you want an upgrade right now. They're about as cheap as Sonnet or PowerLogix, while also allowing overclocking and providing you with a heat sink instead of forcing you to use the original, many-years-old heat sink.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by Komisar:
itllegence shines through

Are you SURE ?

-t

[Komisar]

I don't know... lol!

[titan44]

I got the OWC 1.2 upgrade for my sawtooth and it has'nt missed a beat, i do a fair bit of redering and such so i runs at full tilt and it's never overheated/froze up/wigged out, I'd recommend it as well. After seeing the post on the ata133 i'm thing i'm going to go that way too.

[cgc]

I just got the GigaSystems 1GHz G4 board and no problems at all. Installation took less than ten minutes and it's noticably faster. This has rounded out my 400MHz Sawtooth machine with:

1GB SDRAM
Radeon 8500
Toshiba CDRW/DVD combo drive
250 MB Zip drive
GigaSystems 1GHz G4
2 HDDs (10GB and 40GB)

Never had any problems with anything. I'll be looking for a USB2 card next...

[bstone]

Originally posted by cgc:
I just got the GigaSystems 1GHz G4 board and no problems at all. Installation took less than ten minutes and it's noticably faster. This has rounded out my 400MHz Sawtooth machine with:

1GB SDRAM
Radeon 8500
Toshiba CDRW/DVD combo drive
250 MB Zip drive
GigaSystems 1GHz G4
2 HDDs (1GB and 40GB)

Never had any problems with anything. I'll be looking for a USB2 card next...

How much RAM?

[Dex13]

My Tower could use a drive like the Toshiba, where did you pick it up?

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by cgc:
GigaSystems 1GHz G4

GigaDesigns*

Originally posted by bstone:
How much RAM?

It's the first spec he listed.

[cgc]

I don't remember where I got it, think I just got from lowest price on bizrate.com Works like a champ and I paid $50 or so. nd don't be fooled by Profiler...this burns CDR CDRW and reads DVD and every CD. Can boot from CD's too. Check out www.xlr8yourmac.com

TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R1312

[chris v]

I'll add myself to the list of happy GigaDesigns owners. My Sawtooth:

1.2Ghz CPU
2 GB RAM
80 & 120 GB internal drives
Radeon 7000.

Purring like a kitten. It was the recent uptime champ at 26 days until we had a power outage last week. This had been an extremely reliable machine, other than one motherboard replacement (bad RAM slot) when it was about 1.5 years old. I think the Sawtooth/Gigabit Ethernet series was the most solid, utilitarian series of Power Macs they ever made.

CV

[THE MAC GOD]

Hmm... I just came into a 400 Sawtooth... And was curious about all this stuff... as I bought this to mod it (And since it has agp) to hold off on a g5. So, what is the FASTEST graphics card you can put in this machine before having to swap out the PS? I know some of the newer video cards do 2x... but, if it can't draw the power it needs, then it obviously can't do what it fully can with the 2x. Also, are there any BTO type MOBOs that you can swap out, or is it all user made. Thanks... i'm looking forward to having fun with this guy.

[THE MAC GOD]

also... are there any wireless G adaptors and such? Also... I've noticed that everyone seems to like gigadesigns upgrades... are they the 'best'. Thanks in advanced.

[traktimino]

The fastest video card you can out in a sawtooth is a radeon 9800 pro. As for wireless g adapters theres airport, or airport exreme, or plenty of other ones that are out there. I definetaly like giga products, they have good performance, easy installation, good service and support, and a nice warranty

[THE MAC GOD]

Well... I have a wireless g router... I put my ibook's airport (b) card into it... but I was curious if you could do a G card somehow into a sawtooth (upgrade or adapter). Thanks for the info!

[Skip Breakfast]

Well... I have a wireless g router... I put my ibook's airport (b) card into it... but I was curious if you could do a G card somehow into a sawtooth (upgrade or adapter). Thanks for the info!

I don't want to flame, but I have to say something about your posts.

Have you considered looking at the networking forum first? Asking questions like yours are fairly unnecessary when this board serves as a resource for that information.

On another note, what's up with the overuse of ellipsis?

[THE MAC GOD]

Originally posted by Skip Breakfast:
I don't want to flame, but I have to say something about your posts.

Have you considered looking at the networking forum first? Asking questions like yours are fairly unnecessary when this board serves as a resource for that information.

On another note, what's up with the overuse of ellipsis?

Yes... however, I haven't found anything that answers my question... if you have a link, please provide it. Instead of creating multiple threads, I decided to create one thread with several issues for one machine.

Also, I like ellipsis... a lot.... ���_��_�_�_�

[Skip Breakfast]

Sonnet Aria Extreme

[THE MAC GOD]

Originally posted by Skip Breakfast:
Sonnet Aria Extreme

Thanks... that's actually exactly what I'm looking for... thank you.

[THE MAC GOD]

So... is the max ram 2gb or 1.5? 4 slots would suggest 2... but i've heard that it can't support that.

[Lateralus]

2GBs in OS X. 1.5GBs in OS 9.

[THE MAC GOD]

Originally posted by Lateralus:
2GBs in OS X. 1.5GBs in OS 9.

Thanks!