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Level 1

10 points

Maximum Possible upgrades for PowerMac G4 MDD

Ok, I think I am about to try to upgrade an MDD past anything anyone else has done. I looked up the maximum possible overclocking for my dual G4 1.25 GHz cpus, and apparently it can go up to 2.67 GHz. It would be AMAZING to have a G4 this fast. And I have seen water cooling systems in MDD macs, and I'm looking for someone to build one for me. I am found a SATA II RAID card, and I think I am gonna get 4 x 2TB SATA harddrives. This would mostly be a server for my dorm and to run BOINC on. Has anyone done this before? I have looked to see if someone else had done modding like this, but I couldn't find anything. I am trying to find someone to make and install the watercooling system, and maybe do the overclocking too.

I got my overclocking info from this page: http://bitsandpieces.info/Multipliers.htm

and the water cooling idea from this page: http://www.s155158671.websitehome.co.uk/watercoolyourmda.html

sata raid: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115033&nm_mc=OTC-Froogl e&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Hard+Drive+Controllers+/+RAID+Cards-_-HighPoint+Technolog ies++Inc.-_-16115033

and maybe a firewire card: http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-130821-FireWire-Design-Sismo/dp/B001MWHI0A

Has anyone upgraded one of these like this before? How do you think the overclocking will go?

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Dual G4 1.25 GHz, GeForce4 Ti 4600

Posted on Feb 23, 2012 12:06 AM

29 replies

Swampus

Level 2

180 points

Feb 27, 2012 6:52 PM in response to Broseph123

Broseph123 wrote:

What about RAID with two solid state drives? can i do that? would i be able to boot off it?
With this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124014

I don't own an SSD, but I'd suspect that a single SSD would saturate the PCI bus. I suspect that there would be diminishing returns with a RAID.

I agree with Japamac to stick with Firmtek cards. Or Sonnet (Firmtek cards sold under a different name).

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Feb 27, 2012 8:57 PM in response to Swampus

a single SSD would saturate the PCI bus.

Yes.

Also, available PCI controllers are only SATA 1. This furthers the cap on performance.

SSD is the fastest drive option ,though faster than mechanical performance options, I suspect newer Velociraptors or even 2 TB WD Black drives would be similar in performance:

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/F93FC8E5-EB42-4287-BEC2-B50A6BE C8DF1.html

Broseph123 Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 28, 2012 4:56 PM in response to japamac

PCI has about a third of the bandwidth of PCI-X, right? I have PCI-X ports, which can Get up to 1 GB/s right? The solis state drives I am now looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226168

aren't that fast, and i only want two of them in RAID 0. The speed of two of these in RAID is only 560 MB/s right? If i understand this right, then the PCI-X bus should be plenty fast for a pair of these SSDs in RAID 0.

Broseph123 Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 28, 2012 4:59 PM in response to japamac

Also, is there a place where I can find instructions on flashing AGP video cards for use with powermacs? I want to get a BFG GeForce 7800GS, which I heard is the best AGP card that people have gotten to work on a powermac.

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Feb 28, 2012 7:33 PM in response to Broseph123

If you are still talking about a G4 MDD, then you have PCI, not PCI-X.

You will NEVER get 560 MB/s in a G4.

You'll never get 560 MB/s in a G5.

120 MB/s in a G4, maybe....

As far as flashing, start with the Mac Elite and follow up with Strangedogs.proboards.com.

The 7800 GS MUST be the 5.70 BIOS. The 5.71 WON'T work.

Broseph123 Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 28, 2012 8:18 PM in response to japamac

-_- That is frustrating. the pci bus has slots that look like pci-x... *** Apple???

Well That *****. I am already getting 110 MB/s with my 3 of my Seagate Cheetah SCSI harddrives in RAID 0. That *****! The slots look like PCI-X, but they are really PCI... Even the System Profiler says that i only have a pci bus... That really *****! Here I was thinking I could upgrade my old PowerMac to be unbelievably fast for its age... Its still pretty fast for its age though.

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Feb 28, 2012 9:56 PM in response to Broseph123

Its still pretty fast for its age though.

Yes, and with the right software can still do a great job.

A single SATA 2 or SATA 3 SSD connected to a PCI SATA 1 controller will give you as fast a drive as is possible.

OC the CPUs to 1.5 GHz and you will have a smokin' 7455 processor pair.

Max the RAM with 2 GB, add a flashed Geforce 7800 GS and you will have a maxed out MDD.

Add other PCI cards and optical drives for flavor, then, enjoy.

Broseph123 Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 28, 2012 10:13 PM in response to japamac

The Geforce 7800 GS realy is the fastest video card right? Not the ATI Radeon X850 XT?

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Feb 28, 2012 10:39 PM in response to Broseph123

The X850XT OEM can't be used, and flashed PE versoins only output VGA.

The fastest Radeon card for a G4 is a flashed FireGL X3. Flash it with a X800XT ROM.

Drivers for the X800 in Leopard are better than the Geforce.

As to which is faster, it is a toss up. But in Leopard, the Radeon is likely a better choice.

You do need to OC a bit to get the max performance out of the FireGL/X800. It is a couple of pipelines short, but is a fast card.

In Tiger, the Geforce works really nicely.

Broseph123 Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 1, 2012 4:59 PM in response to japamac

So, since the PCI bus is so slow, can i use an an external SSD through the built in Firewire 400 as my boot harddrive?

Broseph123 Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 1, 2012 8:16 PM in response to japamac

I'd like to use this hard drive enclosure with firewire 400: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/551634-REG/Macally_G_S350SUA_G_S350SUA_eSA TA_FireWire_400_and.html

with this hard drive in it as the harddrive that i boot from: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233223

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Mar 1, 2012 10:10 PM in response to Broseph123

since the PCI bus is so slow, can i use an an external SSD through the built in Firewire 400 as my boot harddrive?

Although you can use a FW400 connected drive as a boot drive, FW400 is far slower than PCI.

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Hard_Drive_Benchmarks.html

A PCI controller to a SATA or eSATA connected drive is the fastest.

The following is the cheapest, entry level card (supports boot due to Firmtek controller):

http://www.amazon.com/Sonnet-Technologies-TSATA-SATA-Adapter/dp/B0000DZFJI

Jun 21, 2012 5:39 PM in response to Swampus

I actually have a powermac g4 mdd 1.25 single core modded to 2.0 ghz via a water cooler that was originally in my amd gamming rig. I have to say that it really is probably better if you have an infinite amount of money just to get a sonnet cpu (http://reviews.cnet.com/processors/sonnet-encore-st-g4/1707-3086_7-31512211.html). you can score one on ebay for around 100+

If you have a powermac g4 mdd with ddr ram i would advise to try to get the final model, specifically this one- http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/specs/powermac_g4_1.42_dp_mdd. html

message me if you have any questions as ive worked on this type of thing before.

Jun 21, 2012 5:54 PM in response to Swampus

Then all you would have to do is swap out your processor to von from the final model of the powermacg4 mdd. I did that and acheived 2ghz dual with a l3 catch. They fit fine into a powermac g4 mdd single 1.25 ghz model.

"The Apple Power Macintosh G4/1.42 DP (Firewire 800) features dual 1.42 GHz PowerPC 7455 (G4) processors each with the AltiVec "Velocity Engine" vector processing unit, 256k "on chip" level 2 cache, and 2 MB of DDR SRAM level 3 backside cache. It shipped configured with 512 MB of RAM, a 120 GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive, a 4X DVD-R/CD-RW "SuperDrive", and a 4X AGP ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM. AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth 1.1 were available by custom configuration."

Maximum Possible upgrades for PowerMac G4 MDD