Sonnet G4 upgrade for B&W G3?

[Rupert Flindt]

Hi
Has anyone run DP (and/or Protools) succesfully on a B&W G3 using a Sonnet G4 1Gig upgrade? Or is it a waste of money?? My local dealer claims it won't work at all and wishes to sell me upgrades for my MIDI interface (serial) , audio interfaces (motu 2408 old card), and mac!
Thanks

[inukshuk]

I have a Blue & White G3 that I upgraded to a Sonnet G4 a couple years ago and had to get an update for it to recognise OS X, but don't use it with DP. I don't see why not, but you should send an email to all parties for confirmation "Sonnet, Motu, Apple"

[Helen]

I'd love to hear how this goes. I've got a G3 400 that I'm interested in upgrading and using as a stand alone for a softsampler.

[Rupert Flindt]

Hello Helen
I've looked around and found a few people using Pro tools on a Sonnet upgrade so I've decided to take the plunge anyway and ordered the 1gig G4 at a good (for the UK!)price. I will report back once installed......can't find icon for crossed fingers.

[ellios]

I just upgraded my old 9600 with the Sonnet G4 800 (not 1GHz!) and it is quite simple. But you had to download a freeware called XPostFacto to get that old horse to recognize OSX... So far, I'm running 10.2.8 (as far as I cacn go) a PCI-324, DP 4.12 and very few VIs, I must admit. But the system seems solid so far.

[Timeline]

I just upgraded my old 9600 with the Sonnet G4 800 (not 1GHz!) and it is quite simple. But you had to download a freeware called XPostFacto to get that old horse to recognize OSX... So far, I'm running 10.2.8 (as far as I cacn go) a PCI-324, DP 4.12 and very few VIs, I must admit. But the system seems solid so far.

I was unable to get OSX to work on my 9600 so I'm selling it.
It has a AMIII, SCSI,PCI324,USB cards plus upgraded graphics and the same sonnet 800 if you know anyone interested.

[pinky]

Originally posted by rupert:
Hi
Has anyone run DP (and/or Protools) succesfully on a B&W G3 using a Sonnet G4 1Gig upgrade? Or is it a waste of money?? My local dealer claims it won't work at all and wishes to sell me upgrades for my MIDI interface (serial) , audio interfaces (motu 2408 old card), and mac!
Thanks

I have a 1.4gHz in my 2001 QuickSilver and it runs great. MachFive didn't want to work in version 1.2 and Panther, but with Tiger and the beta MachFive work great.

[motuguy]

Those Sonnet Cards really work.

My MacTechguy installed them in my 8500 and 9500.

He also installed Jaguar in the 9500 using XPostFacto.

The Jaguar on the 9500 runs slow but at the time I was happy with that speed.

[dimensiondk]

the only downside to that 1gig sonnet in your b/w G3 is that your bus speed gets whacked down to 66MHz from its original 100MHz. So there is a trade off for apps (like audio, say) that like a phat bus. I was considering the same for my YikesG4/350 but decided to leave it as is...(not my main rig anyway).
I cant see why it wouldnt work though. You just might not see the proportionate increase in performance that the MHz rating alone would indicate.
Dave
Shivasound

[rsaltmarsh]

Originally posted by ShivaSound:
the only downside to that 1gig sonnet in your b/w G3 is that your bus speed gets whacked down to 66MHz from its original 100MHz. So there is a trade off for apps (like audio, say) that like a phat bus
Dave
Shivasound

Dave? why is that? I looked on the Sonnet sight and of course didn't see much about bus speeds. I have a B&W G3 that I put a Sonnet G4/500 mhz a couple years back and it has worked great with DP.3.11 in OS 9. OS X runs great on it too, but haven't jumped into DP 4.X on it. Afraid I would take a big hit on the track and plug-in count.

[Reuben]

I just wanted to add my 2 cents on the upgrade issue and it's use with DP 4.

I am currently running DP on a PowerMac 8600 with a Sonnet G4 700 Mhz Card installed.
I have 796 Megs of Ram and running OS 10.2.8.
The system bus of that generation of Powermacs is 50 Mhz...pretty darn slow compared to the current macs out there...but it still works.

I installed a combination Firewire/USB PCI card and am currently using the MOTU USB MicroLite (5 in 5 out) MIDI interface with no problems.

I have been able to play 24 stereo tracks out of it (I recorded 1 stereo track at a time though)...it runs slow...but it works! I'm sure if I use the "Freeze Tracks" function, I can get some more headroom...but...my machine was made back in 1996. I think it's time for me to just take it in the teeth and get another mac that will last me another 10 years! To the best of my knowledge the Mac Blue & White has a 100 Mhz system buss (the Biege G3 has the 66 mhz buss)so I think your system performance will be better than what I am running (depending on your RAM of course).

I was very happy with my sonnet upgrade... the XpostFacto patch (needed in order to install OS X on that line of PowerMacs) can be found online at www.macsales.com it's free and it works...getting OS X on my system took some doing because I had some SCSI termination issues to resolve...if you have the patience to get through all that hoo-ha...you'll most likely have the patience with the performance of DP on an upgraded machine.

That's my story. Take it for what it is.
Thanks,
~Reuben

[dimensiondk]

Dave? why is that? I looked on the Sonnet sight and of course didn't see much about bus speeds. I have a B&W G3 that I put a Sonnet G4/500 mhz a couple years back and it has worked great with DP.3.11 in OS 9. OS X runs great on it too, but haven't jumped into DP 4.X on it. Afraid I would take a big hit on the track and plug-in count.

500MHz G4 will still use 100MHz bus. The 1gig upgrades do lower the bus speed. Not sure why they dont offer 100MHzbus 1gig upgrades, but I'd speculate that they do this so they could sell the same card to beige users.
Dave