cpu upgrade dual or single

[J.B.]

i'm using dp 4.5 and i am looking to get my mac466mhz g4 tower up to speed with a cpu upgrade and some other things.

does dp utilize a dual processor in any way or would a single be just a effective?

thanks

[emulatorloo]

i'm using dp 4.5 and i am looking to get my mac466mhz g4 tower up to speed with a cpu upgrade and some other things.

does dp utilize a dual processor in any way or would a single be just a effective?

thanks

dp utilizes double.

However at this point I do not think you can justify the cost of an dual G4 upgrade vs purchasing a core duo mac mini or a core 2 duo imac.

You simply will not get the performance out of a dual g4 upgrade for the price you will pay. several years it was a cost effective way to get a boost, but not anymore.

do a search around here for imac or mac mini. The intel core 2 duo consumer machines give a lot of bang for the buck w DP.

do also a search for g4 upgrade. There are several threads on each.

JMHO -- YMMV

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[johnnytucats]

It all depends on what he's got in his tower. If he's already maxed out his RAM, stacked a couple of big ATA drives in there, using a PCI audio interface, or whatever, it may be worth his while or at least a wash to just upgrade the CPU.

The dual CPU upgrades for that G4 work very well with DP.

[wvandyck]

However at this point I do not think you can justify the cost of an dual G4 upgrade vs purchasing a core duo mac mini or a core 2 duo imac.

You simply will not get the performance out of a dual g4 upgrade for the price you will pay. several years it was a cost effective way to get a boost, but not anymore.

do a search around here for imac or mac mini. The intel core 2 duo consumer machines give a lot of bang for the buck w DP.

do also a search for g4 upgrade. There are several threads on each.

JMHO -- YMMV

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This is probably the most sensible advice.

But, there was a time three years ago that I needed a dual boot system and was on a tight budget. I was able to upgrade in stages: add new ram to the max, add a sata controller and seagate drives, and finally installation of a gigidesign dual 1.8 GHz (No longer manufactured. I think they have a dual 1.3GHz) The sum total of all of the above upgrades could have purchased me a respectable dual G5. But, the enhancements to the G4 were substantial with the only limitation being very limited capacity to run VI.

Recent good fortune has allowed me to obtain a Mac Pro with a huge improvement in capacity to run VIs. But the G4 is still around and very much a capable audio tracking and editting machine.

I also enjoyed the "getting under the hood" aspect of upgrading my machine.

But sentiment aside, the prices of dual core intel iMacs are very accessible. One could even suggest getting a Mini to start off with, then network the Mini ( as a Mach 5 v2 processor ) to a more powerful machine when budget allows.

[Don T]

Hello,
I'll jump in here. I just upgraded my G4 DA 733Mhz with the Newertech dual 1.7Ghz. It uses the new 7448 processor. I ran extensive speed tests between all of the upgraded G4 towers we have here at school. The DA runs blazing fast. I had 12 VI's running in a project with 70% cpu (buff=512 24bit 44.1khz). The 7448 seems to run read/writes faster as well. Rendering a 1.9GB imovie segment for audio playback in FCP took a mere 2:37. The G5 dual 2.7 Ghz machine took 2:12. The Giga dual 1.33Ghz took 8:19. The Powerlogix dual 1.2 ghz (7455) took 7:07. The Sonnet dual 1.2 (7447) took 4:51. The PL 7455 and Giga 7447 both exhibited a 60% FW slow down when Dp was open (324 card) under OSX 10.4.8 but not under 10.3.9. The Sonnet and the Newertech didn't much care which OS it was running. I estimate that the Newertech and our G5 dual 2.0 run within 10% of each other most of the time. I'm sure under some circumstances the FSB of the G5 will show much better.

On edit: The G3 PL 900mhz rendered the iMovie segment in 7:26

The DA has 1.5GB of CL2 ram, 250GB & 400GB 7200 ATA HD's, FW800 card, motu 424, ATI 9800 pro video card.

FYI

Don

[larryf]

I've got the Core 2 Duo iMac, and I love it. You can throw a lot at the new iMac and not even get close to the edge. As I type this, I have a project playing back with twelve Kontakt instruments and four convolution reverbs, and one of those instruments is a Sampletekk gigabyte piano. Playback is as smooth as a baby's butt, and that's everything streaming off the same external hard disk at once. But definitely get a RAM upgrade if you decide to go this route. Two gig is the minimum.

[dogBoy]

Just make sure your G4 is able to use a Dual Processor.
I didn't, mine wasn't.
I returned the dual processor and had to pay a restocking fee.
OWC had a little program to run to check if your G4 is capable.

[odarellmc]

i did this with my g4 400mhz, upgraded to a dual 1.3 from powerlogix, im running dp 4.61, BFD, and reason 3.0. hte upgrade was a total waste of money, save your money and buy a new intel machine. once u start you start using vi's the 100 mhz front bus speed will bottleneck everything. trust me SAVE YOUR MONEY AND BUY A NEW INTEL MACHINE. search the site for my prior posts to see how this worked out for me and people were giving me the same advice im giving you but i did not listen.

[jeronimo]

Hello,
I'll jump in here. I just upgraded my G4 DA 733Mhz with the Newertech dual 1.7Ghz. It uses the new 7448 processor. I ran extensive speed tests between all of the upgraded G4 towers we have here at school. The DA runs blazing fast. I had 12 VI's running in a project with 70% cpu (buff=512 24bit 44.1khz). The 7448 seems to run read/writes faster as well. Rendering a 1.9GB imovie segment for audio playback in FCP took a mere 2:37. The G5 dual 2.7 Ghz machine took 2:12. The Giga dual 1.33Ghz took 8:19. The Powerlogix dual 1.2 ghz (7455) took 7:07. The Sonnet dual 1.2 (7447) took 4:51. The PL 7455 and Giga 7447 both exhibited a 60% FW slow down when Dp was open (324 card) under OSX 10.4.8 but not under 10.3.9. The Sonnet and the Newertech didn't much care which OS it was running. I estimate that the Newertech and our G5 dual 2.0 run within 10% of each other most of the time. I'm sure under some circumstances the FSB of the G5 will show much better.

On edit: The G3 PL 900mhz rendered the iMovie segment in 7:26

The DA has 1.5GB of CL2 ram, 250GB & 400GB 7200 ATA HD's, FW800 card, motu 424, ATI 9800 pro video card.

FYI

Don

dude, those 7448 upgrades are expensive............

[Don T]

Hello,
Yeah maybe so but the performance is 40% faster than 7447 cpu's of the same speed. For me and my already loaded G4, spending $599 on the upgrade was way more doable than $3k-$4k for a mac pro. And, moving away from DP 3.11 was a major jump in capabilities. As I said, the G4 is within 10% of the dual 2ghz G5's we run at school. I can run the same software we run there to keep up with curriculum demands. Now if the school wanted to supply me with a new macpro, I certainly wouldn't argue. As a teacher I already spend enough of my own time & $$$ to support the music program.

[emulatorloo]

7448 review and benchmarks

http://www.barefeats.com/g4up2.html

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[jeronimo]

well... this barefeats benchmarks are not all that inspring...
better put some money on a macmini or imac.

[Don T]

Hello,
They are comparing a single proccessor 7448 (100mhz bus) with a dual core imac. No duh, it better be faster! Look how slow the mac mini video writes are. No faster than My G3. Neither of those options will allow PCI audio. And if your looking to record audio through a FW interface and FW external drive you have a major bottleneck at the single bus. As soon as you want high track counts and processing your are relegated to getting a $$$$$ tower.

[jeronimo]

what interfaces are you using on the G4?

[Don T]

Hello,
Right now the G4 has the 24i & 2408 through a 424 card. I will be putting the 24 I/O in this weekend for a 96khz project.