Mac Forum / General / Hardware / April 2007

Hei Andy

Instead of sending two posts, I here put in a couple of general comments
to your orig. posting.

There are two scenaries here.
1. Upgrade your existing equipment.
2. Buing a newer second-hand model

To '1'. If you have fx. a 400-733mhz PowerMac G4, whic is filled with
RAM, disks, ekstra PCI etc., it might be even cheaper to upgrade your
machine with a Duyal G4/1,6-1,8ghz processor. - A processor like fx.
GigaDesigns Dual G471,8ghz or a PowerLogix PoerForce47 Dual G4/1,8ghz
will suite into any older G4AGP model from 400 to 1ghz. AND - with these
processors you still will keep the possibility of booting in OS 9.x.

But if your computer is a model with nearly only standard configuration
(256mb RAM, 30gb HD and nothing else), a CPU upgrade isn't advisable.

To '2'. If your computer is a std. model without any adds, it's better
to buy fx. the Dual 1ghz, which you mention. The price you mention is
very, very fine. - And you can probably sell your own for half the price
you must give - $2-300AUd.

The difference in performance to fx. an old G4/400mhz compared with a
Dual G4 is enormous - at least 5x the G4/400mhz, - and if your machine
even is a G3, the benefit will be even as high as 8-10x with a Dual G4/1ghz.

You mentioned a MacMini 1,42ghz up against the Dual 1ghz. Here I'd say
that you will get much more in the Dual 1ghz than in the MacMini. My
experiences are that the full-size architecture in a common tower model
is much, much better than in the MacMinis. Alone the differences in the
types of harddisks - 2,5" in the Mini towards the std. 3.5" in a tower.
The 3.5" disks is stronger and more reliable in use. OK, the 2,5" disks
might be good in connection with an external 3.5" disk, where you use
the internal 2.5" for the system, and the external for work.....

A 'Sawtooth' is the name of the first generation G4 models with AGP
capability. G4/350mhz, G4/400mhz, G4/450mhz, Dual G4/400mhz.

I have had two G4/400mhz AGP Sawtooths, which I have upgraded to a
Single G4/1,4ghz and Dual G4/1,4ghz. These two 'oldies' from 1998 indeed
have done great jobs. And performance against my old Blue&White
G3/900mhz (PowerForce45 upg. card) was incredible - apprx. 4-5x to the
Single 1,4ghz and apprx. 8x to the Dual G4/1,4ghz in performance.

And here I presume US dollars and not Australian? - Even this price is
cheap, but it hasn't got much memory. And to make this one work best,
you must have at least 1gb of memory added, maybe also a bigger disk of
160-250gb, and then it isn't cheap, but market price.

In a way you can't say that a G5 'fits' into the line here. The G5
technology is so much different than the G4 that it is a 'stand-alone'
series...

But - roughly said, - if we rank the G4s / G5s in generations, you could
place them this way.

1st: - G4 350mhz and 400mhz PCIGraphics - non AGP architecture nickname
'Yikes'
2nd: - G4 350mhz, 400mhz, 450mhz, Dual 400mhz - AGP architecture -
nickname 'Sawtooth'
3rd: - G4 466mhz, 500mhz, 533mhz, Dual 450mhz - AGP architecture -
nickname 'GigabitEthernet'
4th: - G4 500mhz, 533mhz, 667mhz, 733mhz, Dual 500mhz - nickname
'DigitalAudio'
5th: - G4 733mhz, 867mhz, 933mhz, Dual 800mhz - nickname 'QuickSilver'
6th: - G4 933mhz, 1ghz, 1,25ghz, 1,42ghz, Dual 1ghz, Dual 1,25ghz, Dual
1,42ghz - nickname 'MDD'
7th: - G5 1,5ghz, 1,8ghz, 2ghz, Dual 1,5ghz, Dual 2ghz - don't recall
the nickname...

These are only the main models. There are variations inbetween each
generation of models. But there are only 4 different generations of the
CPU itself - the PCIGraphics, AGP, DigitalAudio/QuickSilver and the MDD,
where the G5 CPUs architecture is quite another technology...

The two upgrades I mentioned above from GigaDesigns and PowerLogix
infact is the 4th generation of G4 CPUs, which originally were meant for
what became the G5, because Apple chose to switch to another delieverer.
You can read more about these processors at www.gigadesigns.com and
www.otherworldcomputing.com.

Hope you can use this for comparison....
Cheers, Erik Richard

Hei Andy

Instead of sending two posts, I here put in a couple of general comments
to your orig. posting.

There are two scenaries here.
1. Upgrade your existing equipment.
2. Buing a newer second-hand model

To '1'. If you have fx. a 400-733mhz PowerMac G4, whic is filled with
RAM, disks, ekstra PCI etc., it might be even cheaper to upgrade your
machine with a Dual G4/1,6-1,8ghz processor. - A processor like fx.
GigaDesigns Dual G4/1,8ghz or a PowerLogix PoerForce47 Dual G4/1,8ghz
will suite into any older G4AGP model from 400 to 1ghz. AND - with these
processors you still will keep the possibility of booting in OS 9.x.

But if your computer is a model with nearly only standard configuration
(256mb RAM, 30gb HD and nothing else), a CPU upgrade isn't advisable.

To '2'. If your computer is a std. model without any adds, it's better
to buy fx. the Dual 1ghz, which you mention. The price you mention is
very, very fine. - And you can probably sell your own for half the price
you must give - $2-300AUd.

The difference in performance to fx. an old G4/400mhz compared with a
Dual G4 is enormous - at least 5x the G4/400mhz, - and if your machine
even is a G3, the benefit will be even as high as 8-10x with a Dual G4/1ghz.

You mentioned a MacMini 1,42ghz up against the Dual 1ghz. Here I'd say
that you will get much more in the Dual 1ghz than in the MacMini. My
experiences are that the full-size architecture in a common tower model
is much, much better than in the MacMinis. Alone the differences in the
types of harddisks - 2,5" in the Mini towards the std. 3.5" in a tower.
The 3.5" disks is stronger and more reliable in use. OK, the 2,5" disks
might be good in connection with an external 3.5" disk, where you use
the internal 2.5" for the system, and the external for work.....

A 'Sawtooth' is the name of the first generation G4 models with AGP
capability. G4/350mhz, G4/400mhz, G4/450mhz, Dual G4/400mhz.

I have had two G4/400mhz AGP Sawtooths, which I have upgraded to a
Single G4/1,4ghz and Dual G4/1,4ghz. These two 'oldies' from 1998 indeed
have done great jobs. And performance against my old Blue&White
G3/900mhz (PowerForce45 upg. card) was incredible - apprx. 4-5x to the
Single 1,4ghz and apprx. 8x to the Dual G4/1,4ghz in performance.

And here I presume US dollars and not Australian? - Even this price is
cheap, but it hasn't got much memory. And to make this one work best,
you must have at least 1gb of memory added, maybe also a bigger disk of
160-250gb, and then it isn't cheap, but market price.

In a way you can't say that a G5 'fits' into the line here. The G5
technology is so much different than the G4 that it is a 'stand-alone'
series...

But - roughly said, - if we rank the G4s / G5s in generations, you could
place them this way.

1st: - G4 350mhz and 400mhz PCIGraphics - non AGP architecture nickname
'Yikes'
2nd: - G4 350mhz, 400mhz, 450mhz, Dual 400mhz - AGP architecture -
nickname 'Sawtooth'
3rd: - G4 466mhz, 500mhz, 533mhz, Dual 450mhz - AGP architecture -
nickname 'GigabitEthernet'
4th: - G4 500mhz, 533mhz, 667mhz, 733mhz, Dual 500mhz - nickname
'DigitalAudio'
5th: - G4 733mhz, 867mhz, 933mhz, Dual 800mhz - nickname 'QuickSilver'
6th: - G4 933mhz, 1ghz, 1,25ghz, 1,42ghz, Dual 1ghz, Dual 1,25ghz, Dual
1,42ghz - nickname 'MDD'
7th: - G5 1,5ghz, 1,8ghz, 2ghz, Dual 1,5ghz, Dual 2ghz - don't recall
the nickname...

These are only the main models. There are variations inbetween each
generation of models. But there are only 4 different generations of the
CPU itself - the PCIGraphics, AGP, DigitalAudio/QuickSilver and the MDD,
where the G5 CPUs architecture is quite another technology...

The two upgrades I mentioned above from GigaDesigns and PowerLogix
infact is the 4th generation of G4 CPUs, which originally were meant for
what became the G5, because Apple chose to switch to another delieverer.
You can read more about these processors at www.gigadesigns.com and
www.otherworldcomputing.com.

Hope you can use this for comparison....
Cheers, Erik Richard