G4 Dual Processor upgrade for MDD

arsis · Post by **arsis** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:14 pm

I'm looking to upgrade the dual 867 processor in my 133mhz bus MDD. Anybody had any luck with this. I found a GigaDesigns dual 1.33 but few reviews from peolpe with a MDD. Thoughts..suggestions?

WSVP · Post by **WSVP** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:53 pm

I'm looking to upgrade the dual 867 processor in my 133mhz bus MDD. Anybody had any luck with this. I found a GigaDesigns dual 1.33 but few reviews from peolpe with a MDD. Thoughts..suggestions?

I just moved from a G4 dual 867 "Windtunnel" to a G5 Dual Quad "The peace and quiet alone was worth the change."

I don't think the cost/performance improvements going from 867mhz to 1.33ghz is worth the investment. There do not seem to be many processor upgrade options for the MDD G4's. I have always felt that Mac based processor upgrades were far too overpriced compared to their performance. The value of a G4 dual 867 currently is about $500-$650 most dual processor upgrades run from $400-$600. Puts you at about the price of at used G5 Dual 1.8 which will substantially out-perform the upgraded G4.

There are examples when a G4 upgrade might be warranted, perhaps if you had PCI hardware that you could not move to a G5 without added cost. In your case however the Firewire based 828 will work on a G5 without any additional cost.

Unless you find a dirt cheap dual upgrade (under $200), I would recommend putting your money into a used G5 Dual and if you need the money sell the G4. Also the price of used G5's are dropping and will probably drop sharply once Apple ships the Mac Pro Towers.

emulatorloo · Post by **emulatorloo** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:23 am

AFAIK giga is the only vendor who offered upgrades for the MDD. I see that giga sells it for 499.00. http://www.macgurus.com has it for 496.00

Sometimes you see MDD processors on ebay

I kinda gotta agree w WSVP -- maybe you ought to sell and move to a used G5 if you can swing it.

If you have PCI cards you need to keep, look at the machines that have PCI-X slots as they appear to be more compatible than the one w PCI slots. (for example, TC powercore says it is ok to run one powercore PCI in the PCI machines, but you can run more than one in the PCI-X machines. Or M-Audio says their older delta PCI cards do not work in the PCI machines, only the PCI-X machines. And of course, some older PCI cards won't work at all in either -- for example Aurora's Igniter card.)

Here is a place that tracks g5 deals - there was a dual 1.8 PCI-X with applecare for 1299.00. If you get 600.00 for your machine, and save 500.00 from not buying a giga card, you are pretty close to being there.

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g5deals.html

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midiw · Post by **midiw** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:10 am

I've done a few processor updates and it was just a waste of money.

eixb · Post by **eixb** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 12:48 pm

midiw wrote:I've done a few processor updates and it was just a waste of money.

as someone else stated, if you have a significant amount of money invested in PCI cards that will not run in the G5's new architecture, then sometimes a processor upgrade is worth it to get you through another year or so. it's never a good long term solution though...

if you still want to do it, then i'd go with sonnet's encore/st g4 duet running at 1.8ghz for $599. they don't seem to be plagued with the problems gigadesigns upgrades have, and they have good support. don't forget, most processor upgrades for the g4 require you to boot into os 9 and run a firmware upgrade - make sure you have access to a boot disk for os 9 if you don't have it installed already for classic. a full install isn't necessary, just a cd should be sufficient to boot from.

if you can move to the G5 arch without losing much in the way of hardware investment, then do it. the additional pci bandwidth, processors, and vastly quieter cooling system is definitely worth it.

Maestro_T · Post by **Maestro_T** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 6:57 am

Would this be the same advice for a dual G4 450(graphite AGP)? I got this for next to nothing and wish to use it for music production etc.. I use PCI cards and want to continue to do so for the immediate future. I'd like to upgrade this machine, but aren't aware of my options. I'd like to do this as inexpensively as possible.

midiw · Post by **midiw** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:41 am

Maestro_T wrote: I'd like to upgrade this machine, but aren't aware of my options. I'd like to do this as inexpensively as possible.

Download Mactracker ( http://www.mactracker.ca/ ) to check out the specs and options available to you for your machine.

Personally I would not spend money on upgrading the processor. I would max the RAM (2GB) and install additional internal hard drives (max 4). You could also remove the zip drive and install a superdrive.

Just my thoughts.

Maestro_T · Post by **Maestro_T** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:56 am

I'm a bit confused. I have a dual G4 450. Will upgrade from 450 to what_ever_the_max it can be upgraded to really not make that much difference?

Maybe I've been reading the comment here wrong. If there wasn't that much of a difference in performance between the processors, what was the point in making other G4 processors?

Please help a mac newbie understand.

emulatorloo · Post by **emulatorloo** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:53 am

Maestro_T wrote:I'm a bit confused. I have a dual G4 450. Will upgrade from 450 to what_ever_the_max it can be upgraded to really not make that much difference? Maybe I've been reading the comment here wrong. If there wasn't that much of a difference in performance between the processors, what was the point in making other G4 processors?

Please help a mac newbie understand.

I think the point is that you have to balance the amount of money you would pay for a CPU upgrade vs the amount of money you would have to pay for a used G5.

Since the only upgrades that exist for the original poster's machine (a dual 867 g4 Mirrored Drive) are relatively expensive and only available from one manufacturer (hence no price competition), then folks were suggesting that he look at a g5 instead.

However you have a different machine and there are lots of options for you.

Now as to improvements, look at this page for some benchmarks where you can compare the machine you have with some of the different upgrades. Maybe this will help you get started at looking at this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/benchmark/res ... fm?gid=111

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on edit -- here is your machine vs some of the 300.ish CPU upgrades:

http://eshop.macsales.com/benchmark/res ... 9&tids=103

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All the upgrades for your machine:

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrade ... ia=&sort=a

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Another good vendor for CPU upgrades:

www.macgurus.com

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A place to look for specials on CPU upgrades etc

www.dealmac.com

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giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:07 pm

I did the giga dual proc upgrade. Flawless is the only word I can use.

But in this day and age, I;d just grab a G5 (1.6 or 1.8 smokes the upgrade)