alfonsojon

Q: I'm looking to supercharge my G4. What are my options?

Hi, I'm the proud owner of a Power Mac G4 FW800, the dual 1.42GHz one. I just had the power supply repaired, and it runs wonderfully, other than it's starting to show its age. I'd like to know what I can do to maximize performance.

 

Here are my slight problems:

- Slower than desired file transfers

- Extremely slow video rendering

- iWork '09 complains about Core Image not being supported

- Minecraft 1.5.2 not exactly playable (~4 FPS, at least 15 FPS desired)

 

I also have the full CS4 Design Premium suite, and I'd like to get better performance out of that.

My budget is around $200, what are my options? Thanks!

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), FW800 1.42GHz

Posted on Dec 2, 2014 3:32 PM

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Q: I'm looking to supercharge my G4. What are my options?

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  • by BDAqua,Helpful

    BDAqua BDAqua Dec 2, 2014 4:45 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Dec 2, 2014 4:45 PM in response to alfonsojon

    Whew, not sure what yo can do on your budget, there used to be PCI SATA cards for the G4s, but impossible to find unless you're patient.

     

    Most the other things are dependent on which graphic card you have.

     

    See japamacs page here on the best AGP cards for G4s & G5s...

     

    http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/4B4B7BA2-7ABB-47F1-87AC-B03D379 42BEE.html

     

    Rated slowest on top, fastest on bottom.

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Dec 2, 2014 6:21 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 2, 2014 6:21 PM in response to BDAqua

    What would be a more reasonable budget? I can save up, it'll just take longer.

  • by Allan Jones,Helpful

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Dec 2, 2014 6:49 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 8 (35,039 points)
    iPad
    Dec 2, 2014 6:49 PM in response to alfonsojon

    Is your RAM maxed out? You can use up to 2GB. The vendor I use has G4 RAM (PC2700) for about US$11.50 per 512MB module.

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Dec 2, 2014 7:19 PM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 2, 2014 7:19 PM in response to Allan Jones

    Good suggestion, but I'm already all maxed out on RAM.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Dec 2, 2014 7:42 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Dec 2, 2014 7:42 PM in response to alfonsojon
  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Dec 2, 2014 7:45 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 2, 2014 7:45 PM in response to BDAqua

    It may sound silly, but I'd like to stick with my G4 for a while. I'd love a new Mac, but I am perfectly happy with what I have. I'll see if I can find a PCI-X SATA card on eBay. That should give me a much needed boost

  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Dec 3, 2014 5:03 AM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 8 (35,039 points)
    iPad
    Dec 3, 2014 5:03 AM in response to alfonsojon

    Doesn't sound silly as I still use my G4 MDD regularly. My company bought it for me in 2003 and I used it until I retired in 2007 when they nicely gave me all the Mac equipment in my office. At home it was my "go-to" workhorse until 2011 when the #1 position was usurped by my quad-core i7 iMac.

     

    The G4 is now up in a spare bedroom where it is still running Adobe CS2 fast and sharing files with our newer Macs, It is the last of the OS9-bootable G4s and is actual set up for triple-boot: OS9; OS 10.4.11; and OS 10.5.8. It has two 250GB drives and 1.75GB RAM.

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Dec 3, 2014 9:30 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 3, 2014 9:30 AM in response to BDAqua

    What would be my best option for an unmodified GPU? I currently have the Radeon 9000.

  • by Glen Doggett,

    Glen Doggett Glen Doggett Dec 3, 2014 8:12 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 4 (1,863 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 3, 2014 8:12 PM in response to alfonsojon

    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technologies/TSATA/

    this is plenty faster than the stock ATA100 IDE interface built into the G4.  I just put one into my MDD, it is almost as fast as the ATA133 RAID0 that I have been using in there:

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACARD-AEC-6880M-True-Hardware-RAID-Ultra-ATA-133-Adapter -for-Mac-/261286212872

     

    for simplicity sake, the striped hardware RAID-0 is not really worth the effort for the slight performance benchmark bump you get, compared to the SATA-PCI card itself.  If one drive in a RAID fails you lose everything, so regular backups are important.  Also, with heat being an issue in the G4, having 2 drives internally doesn't help much.   Routing the ribbon cables inside the MDD is a challenge also.  I got the PCI - SATA card with the plan to migrate to that and remove the ATA133 RAID0 card and drives.  (but I have to replace the power supply first...bummer.)

  • by kahjot,Solvedanswer

    kahjot kahjot Dec 7, 2014 3:02 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 4 (1,337 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 7, 2014 3:02 PM in response to alfonsojon

    Photoshop CS4 is never going to be anything but sluggish on that machine, no matter what you do with the graphics card. InDesign might be a bit better, but I haven't tried it. I had Photoshop CS4 running on a pretty decent G5 for a while, and found it painful to use. CS2 is very functional and a much better fit for your MDD.

     

    You may be able to find a Radeon 9600 Pro on eBay or through the LEM Swap list.

     

    An SATA card might help some, and lots of HD space will help, too, but not enough to make CS4 happy.

     

    You love your MDD: I can sympathize, because I still have my 2002 MDD 867 and fire it up once in a while to deal with really old files. But your budget of $200 would be much better spent to get a first-generation Mac Pro. For close to that amount, you could get one with a decent amount of RAM already in it, and run Tiger through Lion on it. And you wouldn't be fighting a losing battle trying to coax marginally acceptable performance out of the trusty MDD.

  • by Glen Doggett,

    Glen Doggett Glen Doggett Dec 7, 2014 5:38 PM in response to Glen Doggett
    Level 4 (1,863 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 7, 2014 5:38 PM in response to Glen Doggett

    Here is a picture of my MDD with the ATA133 RAID0 PCI card and a SATA PCI card.  For a high performance striped RAID, you want each drive on it's own cable, hardware RAIDs will only stripe together a pair of Masters and/or a pair of Slaves.  The ATA133 RAID0 card is probably the fastest performance you can get in the MDD with compatibility going back to OS 9.  Not sure if there exists a similar hardware RAID SATA card for MDDs.  But even a single SATA PCI  drive does pretty fast as well.  The on-board built-in ATA66 and ATA100 IDE interfaces in the MDD are much slower than these PCI card options.

     

    See how the pATA ribbon cables have to route over the video card and heat sink, very cluttered.  The SATA cable is much easier to work with.  Here I have two drives in the front bay and just one in the rear bay.  There are two cooling fans stuck to the heat sink to blow into the fins, these nest within the drive bracket in the rear bay when closed.

     

    I am planning to migrate my data to the SATA drive and put another one in the front bay, and remove the striped RAID PCI card and drives, leaving the rear bay empty. 

     

    MDD.jpg

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Dec 15, 2014 1:03 AM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 6 (13,653 points)
    iPad
    Dec 15, 2014 1:03 AM in response to alfonsojon

    I didn't realized you posted twice about your G4 MDD PowerMac.

    I have the the slighty slower 1.25 GHz CPU model and I installed a Mac version/flashed  ATI Radeon X800XT 256 MB VRAM GPU card, I purchased on eBay, into that Mac.

    It wasn't too bad, price wise (I think I paid $125 for that card about 5 years, ago.)

    It's a tight fit where it had to go and runs on the hot side, but I also installed a PCI slot fan into one on my open PCI slots to help compensate for the extra heat.

    That really boosted the video RAM in that Mac and it worked great in my PowerMac MDD.

    In order to use that card in a G4 MDD model, you have to tape off two of the gold connection pins. on the bottom of the card.

    I believe you have to carefully tape off (I used Scotch tape) pins 3 and 11, but I am not sure. I am sure two of the gold connector pins needed isolation by taping over them to have that card work properly in a G4 PowerMac model

    You still can't play/stream 1080p video, but it does much better job with 480 and  720p video content than with the older 128 MB VRAM GPU I previously installed in my MDD PowerMac G4.

    If you can find that GPU card and at a reasonable price, it's a good video upgrade for your MDD. If you have a spare PCI slot, I would, definitely, install an additional internal PCI slot fan to help push out the additional heat that this card generates inside the MDD case.

    Good Luck!

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Dec 15, 2014 3:42 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 15, 2014 3:42 PM in response to alfonsojon

    So, after a bit of research, I've found that a Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS is the best GPU I can get, and I've found one pre-flashed. I'm also going to be giving the CPUs new thermal grease, installing a PCI slot fan, and installing a PCI-X SATA II card with a solid state drive. It should be a lot more buttery after this!

     

    I'll keep you all updated, as this might be useful for others who wish to upgrade their G4s. Thanks for all the advice!

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Jun 11, 2015 11:26 AM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 11, 2015 11:26 AM in response to alfonsojon

    I'm back! After a good bit of research, I've determined that this is the hardware that needs to be purchased, and it will all cost me about $235. Slightly over my budget, but still affordable. I searched for these parts on Amazon; however, there are MANY MANY places on the internet where deals can be had! If you are looking to upgrade your outdated Mac, be sure to visit https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/lemswap for good deals. I'm going to try to order the GPU from a user there, and use Amazon as a last resort.

     

    Here's the list of what will be upgraded or installed:

    * Requires pins 3 & 11 to be modified or taped.

    * Requires a BIOS flash.

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