Upgrade options for G5?

[henrus]

does anyone know if you can upgrade the new G5's? that is, can you upgrade the 1.6 Ghz single processor G5 to the dual 2 Ghz version with all of its encumbent bennies? i realize that the 2Ghz has a faster front side bus, has PCIX slots, faster memory and some other differences.

i want to get a desktop mac, but i don't need the top of the line right now (will be using primarily as a server), but i want the option to upgrade to a screamer when a 3 or 4Ghz comes out. does anyone know if you can swap out motherboards or something like that? thanks.

h

[Rower_CPU]

At this point, the G5's motherboard and CPU aren't upgradeable. It is possible that we might see some upgrade options in the future like the current G4 upgrade cards.

[ddtlm]

henrus:

Well the G5 chips are apparently on daughtercards still, so that is encouraging for upgrades. Also, the selectable FSB of the processors suggests that future G5's could be made to work with slower FSB's of current motherboards. However at this time there is no way to know if the upgrades will ever materialize.

As far as I know the single-CPU motherboards have only a single socket and are therefore not upgradeable to dual-CPU's.

[Sun Baked]

You'll probably see replacement CPU modules, but nothing with a single to dual G5 upgrade.

With the new configuration, you also need to physically modify the motherboard -- or swap out the motherboard for a dual processor capable unit.

And it's been awhile since anybody really did any major motherboard surgery to make upgrades like these possible.

[henrus]

ok, cool. thanks for the replies. it's that ongoing question of "when do i buy since tomorrow you're more obsolete." i have a Powerbook G4 15", but i'm having second thoughts of using it as a server since it seems to get mighty hot, and the fan just keeps whirring and whirring.

h

[Sun Baked]

I don't think anybody has benchmarket the SP G5, DP G5, XServes, PowerMac G4 to see what the big differences really are in a variety of network scenarios.

The servers do tend to run better when they have higher bandwidth I/O (FSB, memory, HDs, network, etc).

Even the low end G5 has much more bandwidth than the XServe, just lacks the dual dedicated PCI-to-ATA bridges and the smart Modules.

So there is a chance that the SP G5 1.6 may do quite decently as a server.

The SP G4 1.25 is quite inexpensive and easily upgraded with bare drives. Though the FSB saturates at 1GB/s whether it's a single or dual processor machine -- peak is a bit higher.

The G5 may be able to tolerate a high volume of traffic (due to the higher bandwidth bus) -- most likely, but will require more expensive drive expansion.

[crazzyeddie]

If you just want a server, by all means get a 1.6ghz. Theres no reason for more power and most I/O only uses 1 processor, so a dual machine would make little sense.

[henrus]

thanks, crazyeddie. though actually, i'm planning to have this server be my media hub. that is, i'll have all my cd's burned onto it, my ipod updated through it, and use it to pipe audio to all the rooms in my house wirelessly via 802.11b.

h

[amnesiac1984]

Originally posted by henrus
thanks, crazyeddie. though actually, i'm planning to have this server be my media hub. that is, i'll have all my cd's burned onto it, my ipod updated through it, and use it to pipe audio to all the rooms in my house wirelessly via 802.11b.

h

well in this scenario a g5 is probably almost overkill. But it should be fine