alfonsojon

Q: Working on a supercharged G4. Looking forward to any advice!

Hi, as some of you may or may not have known, I'm currently on a quest of sorts to supercharge my G4. I love my Power Mac G4, and I'm a *huge* hardware geek. As a result, I'm looking forward to tinker with this Mac and squeeze every ounce of performance out of it! Given my love for hardware (preferably budget friendly!), I've decided to upgrade it in the most cost efficient way, while trying to get the best hardware possible.

 

So, this thread is mainly for the following -

- Provide a resource for other G4 owners looking to upgrade while not killing their wallet

- Get advice from the community

- "Log my quest" and keep constant updates when something changes.

 

So, as of the time of writing, here are my specs:

 

PowerMac3,6 (FW800, dual 1.42GHz G4)

- Mac OS X 10.5.8

- ATI Radeon 9000 (overclocked, still mediocre)

- Two Seagate IDE HDDs (500GB, 200GB, 7200 RPM each)

- USB 2.0 PCI card

Apple Cinema Display 23"

- 1920x1200 (from 2002, wow!)

- IPS (correct me if I'm wrong)

 

Upgrade Wishlist:

- Apple ADC to DVI/USB/AC Adapter (~$25 - $75 on eBay)

- SATA II PCI-X card, must be bootable and 3Gbps! (~$25 - $?? on eBay)

- SATA II 500 GB HDD @ 7200 RPM (already have one!)

- ATI Radeon X800XT Mac Edition (~$79.99 on eBay)

- A quiet 120x120x38mm fan (Where can I find a good and cheap one???)

- Original Apple Pro Speakers for the Power Mac (I have the iMac G4 ones, they don't reach my desk )

 

Hopefully this is a useful resource to anyone looking to modify their G4 MDD/FW800 without going too far into the hardware modifications (the circular saw and soldering kind). I'll see how cheap I can get, while getting killer performance.

 

By the way, if anyone has a suggestion as to where I can obtain something from the wishlist for a low price, or knows of a better alternative, please do let me know!

 

Cheers!

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

Posted on Jan 9, 2015 3:41 PM

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Q: Working on a supercharged G4. Looking forward to any advice!

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  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Jan 10, 2015 6:56 AM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 8 (35,039 points)
    iPad
    Jan 10, 2015 6:56 AM in response to alfonsojon
    - A quiet 120x120x38mm fan (Where can I find a good and cheap one???)

     

    Check out Vantec Stealth. I used some of their fans when uprating the cooling in a highly upgraded Beige G3 and didn't want to add to the already loud concert the Beige produced (think "WW2 bombers flying through my office!"). They were only a little more coin than the cheap fans that come in bulk, yet have full airflow and rotation markings on the case and came with a proper Molex splitter/adaptor so I had no wire splicing/soldering. Made a much neater job.

  • by Glen Doggett,

    Glen Doggett Glen Doggett Feb 3, 2015 5:11 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 4 (1,863 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 3, 2015 5:11 PM in response to alfonsojon

    alfonsojon wrote:

    ... I'm currently on a quest of sorts to supercharge my G4... trying to get the best hardware possible...

     

    Upgrade Wishlist:

    - SATA II PCI-X card, must be bootable and 3Gbps! (~$25 - $?? on eBay)

    - SATA II 500 GB HDD @ 7200 RPM (already have one!)

     

    I think the fastest read/write hard drive performance you can get would be a hardware striped RAID-0 card, like the ACARD AEC-6880M, although it is a slower ATA-133 interface, a hardware RAID can match or better the performance of a single drive SATA in a G4, I have used both in my MDD.  I am not sure if there is a comparable hardware RAID SATA PCI card that would be compatible with the G4, does anyone know of one?

     

    I am pretty sure that if you had a hardware SATA raid with SSD's you might actually go back in time, kind of like putting instant coffee in the microwave.

  • by Glen Doggett,

    Glen Doggett Glen Doggett Feb 4, 2015 9:26 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 4 (1,863 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 4, 2015 9:26 PM in response to alfonsojon

    Here's another suggestion, after you finish swapping out parts in your machine, you might consider adding some fresh thermal paste to the CPU spots at the heatsink contact point.  I noticed that after I had replaced my PSU and added some hard drives that I was overheating under CPU load fairly quickly, when watching a YouTube video for example.  The CPU would rise quickly and the fans would kick in, but apparently too late and I would either get the "you must restart your computer" screen or it would just lock up.  I think when you open and close the machine several times, and move it around, you may lose some of the thermal contact between the CPU and heatsink.  Anyway, after doing some work in the machine, and thinking this might be what is going on, I added some fresh thermal paste to the CPU at the heatsink contact points and screwed in the heatsink nice and tight, and now the temperatures remain within normal range.  I can even disable the CPU Nap feature and after several minutes of heavy load the max temp is around 60 deg C.  Before it would climb to 69+ and lock up requiring a forced shut down.  It had been quite a long time since I had put thermal paste in there, so maybe it was due, but I think the actions of opening it up and working on things may have caused some settling in the heatsink contacts so the heat was not dissipating effectively.  Just something to consider if you notice temperature issues after you have been working inside the machine.  Good luck!

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Feb 4, 2015 9:53 PM in response to Glen Doggett
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Feb 4, 2015 9:53 PM in response to Glen Doggett

    Great advice as usual Glen!

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Feb 6, 2015 5:56 AM in response to Glen Doggett
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 6, 2015 5:56 AM in response to Glen Doggett

    This is lovely advice. I came to the same conclusion not long ago, and it is SIGNIFICANTLY quieter and stabler. Any other MDD owners reading this, be sure to reapply thermal paste!

  • by kahjot,Helpful

    kahjot kahjot Feb 9, 2015 6:50 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 4 (1,337 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 9, 2015 6:50 PM in response to alfonsojon

    I was getting hard freezes on a MDD G4 that I bought on eBay a few years back. I was going to replace the logic board, but got no further with taking the system apart than removing the heatsinks. The thermal paste looked like the floor of death valley, cracked, flaky, dry. Easy fix.

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Feb 10, 2015 5:51 AM in response to Glen Doggett
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 10, 2015 5:51 AM in response to Glen Doggett

    I think I'll stick with SATA, given that I already have one hard drive and would not like to purchase more. The SATA II card should still be faster, given that it is on the PCI-X bus, not just PCI. Please correct me if I'm wrong about the performance aspect.

  • by WayneStewart,

    WayneStewart WayneStewart Feb 10, 2015 5:21 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 1 (88 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 10, 2015 5:21 PM in response to alfonsojon

    I have a SSD connected to a Sonnet Tempo SATA card in my MDD. It feels pretty fast but I've never done benchmarked it. I did compare a 300gb ATA drive with a 1.5tb SATA drive on my SATA card. The 1.5tb SATA drive was about twice as fast as the ATA drive. I'll benchmark the SSD as soon as I can and get back to you.

  • by Glen Doggett,

    Glen Doggett Glen Doggett Feb 10, 2015 11:56 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 4 (1,863 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 10, 2015 11:56 PM in response to alfonsojon

    I think the G4 MDD has PCI slots, so while the PCI-X cards should be backwards compatible, the longer card will spill over the slot but it will still work, they will be limited to the slower PCI bandwidth in your machine.  I get about 100MB/sec peak read/write speeds with SATA-I on the 2-port Tempo SATA PCI card from Sonnet (same as SeriTek 1S2), and I wonder if SATA-II could even get much faster through the PCI slot.

     

    FYI - here are some benchmarks in an older model G4 Sawtooth:

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

    sadly, the author has not been active in the Discussions for quite a while.

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Feb 12, 2015 8:58 AM in response to Glen Doggett
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 12, 2015 8:58 AM in response to Glen Doggett

    My G4 MDD has PCI-X slots, it is about 1.5x larger than a standard PCI slot (with more pins). Is it still limited by the PCI bandwidth?

  • by WayneStewart,

    WayneStewart WayneStewart Feb 12, 2015 1:35 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 1 (88 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 12, 2015 1:35 PM in response to alfonsojon

    I didn’t have much time last night but I tested a 300gb Seagate on the G4s ata133 interface and a 120gb Crucial SSD on a Sonnet Tempo SATA card using Xbench

     

    The 300gb drive

    uncached write - 58.56 MB/sec

    uncached read – 56.71 MB/sec

     

    120gb SSD

    uncached write – 103.12 MB/sec

    uncached read – 77.14 MB/sec

  • by Glen Doggett,

    Glen Doggett Glen Doggett Feb 13, 2015 9:11 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 4 (1,863 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 13, 2015 9:11 PM in response to alfonsojon

    I am honestly not that familiar with all the different revisions of PCI over the years, but I thought the PCI-X designation was introduced in the second round of G5 models, and may look similar but it operates on a faster bus speed.  The G4 MDD has 64-bit PCI slots, which are twice as long as the older 32-bit PCI slots.

  • by alfonsojon,

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Feb 19, 2015 8:32 PM in response to Glen Doggett
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 19, 2015 8:32 PM in response to Glen Doggett

    To be quite honest, I had no idea there was a difference! I need to do some research then .

  • by alfonsojon,Solvedanswer

    alfonsojon alfonsojon Feb 19, 2015 8:37 PM in response to alfonsojon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 19, 2015 8:37 PM in response to alfonsojon

    I was reading here, and it gets very technical, so can someone explain the difference between PCI-X and full-length 64 bit PCI? They look to be the same, and I have not found anything that says otherwise... yet, I'm convinced they're different somehow. Thanks!

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