1.6 PCI G5 question

WGoins88 said:

Hey guys... new here with a question.

I'm looking to pick up a G5 tower at a good price. It's a 1.6 PCI model...my question is, Can I upgrade the processor daughtercard without a problem, or will it simply not work? If I am able to upgrade it, what is the maximum it will handle? Any help is appreciated with this... This will be a decent tower for me as I don't do anything extreme, just internet, streaming videos, iTunes, etc., I'm just looking to get this eMac off my desk.... it's too big.

Thanks!

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Im not sure if those can be upgraded, if they can, the maximum is probably a Single 2.0G5 or possibly an early Dual 2.0 G5, however I suspect you may have to replace the entire insides to get those to work, as I know the Dual G5s had a different RAM configuration... Its more likely that for the cost of the Single G5 and the stuff required to upgrade will exceed the cost of just getting a Dual 2.0 G5 straight off now. (Any G5 is a step up from your eMac however, and makes for more desk space). I know for certain you wont be able to go past 2.3Ghz, as the faster machine all had a different fan config as the CPUs used a LCS.

WGoins88 said:

Hmm.. well even if I can't upgrade it, it's no big deal. I'm certain even the 1.6 G5 is FAR quicker than my 1.42GHz eMac mainly because of the G5's upgraded architecture.

Heck I use my eMac on a daily basis without a problem.. I even have a 2nd monitor hooked up with the screen spanning doctor installed so I have an extended desktop.

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Id get the 1.6G5, it should easily fill your needs and provide a slight boost from your eMac (Despite it being 2 years older, shows the difference between consumer and professional machines...)

though the Processor can be taken out, you can not swap it for another G5 Processor, for several reasons, there was someone here in the forum that asked exactly the same question regarding an 1,6GHz G5...

yes the PowerMac G5 1.6 is slighly faster the the eMac 1.42 ,average about 150 geekbench points , mainly caused by the higher busspeed 800mhz vs 167mhz ,should improve things in terms of streaming video from the web a bit but dont expect wonders from the G5 1.6
after all the differences are not huge , both use the same ram ok the PowerMac can take with 4GB double what the eMac can take , but the eMac conters with the better , because newer graphicscard which is actually only the downclocked version of the later PowerMac G5's ati 9600pro

It's possible to swap the 1.6ghz CPU for a 1.8 or 2.0. It's tricky to find the ones that will work. You will also need to do a thermal calibration afterwards, otherwise your fans will rev 100%.

For the price of the upgrade, I don't think it's worth it unless you have the parts laying around to test it out.

It will be a little faster than your eMac and you can install 2 SATA hard drives as well as upgrade to 4gb of memory. Better GPU is also something that can be upgraded.

You won't be playing any hi-def video but basic SD video and web browsing like you described will be alright.

the 1.6 PowerMac g5 should be able to play up to 720p youtube videos just alright without dropping frames i mean 1080 p is sometimes even for a more modern intel Mac a bit of a struggle (the ones with gma950)
i could play 720p (flashplayer)videos on my iMac G5 1.8 just fine apart from the fans spinning like they did want to create a little tornado but thats more a problem of the design of the iMac with not much room to cool the G5 processor inside as efficient as a PowerMac can

upgrading the gpu could be a problem as the 1.6 and early dual 1.8 PowerMac g5 have a pci slot which only offers 3.3 volt and 33mhz so other cards that would fit are rare , there had been conversions on offer for pci-x cards of later models , but i have no idea if you can still trace these conversions, but even if ,there is still the 33mhz speed limit of the pci bus, and likely not cheap
like the upgrade to a 1.8ghz processor ...not cheap and not just plug an play

another thing there had been some kind of rack for inside availabe to fit another 3 s-ata harddrives inside which makes a total of 5 harddrives can be fitted inside see here(additional sata card needed )

All early '05 and older G5's used AGP graphics cards. Who wants to use slow PCI graphics cards? . Sell your crappy FX5200 and buy a ATI 9800 Pro. Make a few bucks too if you buy a PC card and flash it yourself.

ups totally forgot the early g5 did still use agp graphic cards and only the mid and late models used pci-x and pci express
but then i would swap for the ATI Radeon X800, instead of the 9800 , but the 9800 would already be a big improvement over the original
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra,, but you need to find a Mac edition card if you want avoid flashing the card as the x800 is not really easy to find as Mac edition and the radeon 9800 might be more friendly to the wallet

but before you start spending hundreds of dollars , use the PowerMac as it is and see if you are happy with it , you might not need a upgrade at all
i for example only upgrade parts in my Mac's if i get offered the parts at a price where i just cant resist