Hey has anyone on here purchased or is thinking of purchasing Sonnets Duet CPU upgrade to their MDD Power Macs? I am heavily interested in buying either the dual 1.6 or the dual 1.8, both with 512KB of L2. But I have not read a single review on one yet. I'm wondering about performance gains, esp. comparing a dual 1.25GHZ G4 with Sonnets upgrade and seeing what the gains are when you lose the MDDs L3.
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Sonnet MDD G4 Upgrade!!!
- Thread starter TyleRomeo
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Ick. Sonnet.
God, does their support SUCK.
They refused to do anything about one of their G4 upgrades that a resistor popped on it and caught on fire, ruining the CPU and the logic board.
It probably wont be a huge increase, but a modest one.
God, does their support SUCK.
They refused to do anything about one of their G4 upgrades that a resistor popped on it and caught on fire, ruining the CPU and the logic board.It probably wont be a huge increase, but a modest one.
Not really worth it.
You lose the L3 Cache.
I e-mailed the Bare-Feats guy that makes the benchmarks and he told me that a dual 1.25-1.42 would be the same as dual 1.6 1.8 because of the L3 Cache lost, so he never made a benchmark of it.
You lose the L3 Cache.
I e-mailed the Bare-Feats guy that makes the benchmarks and he told me that a dual 1.25-1.42 would be the same as dual 1.6 1.8 because of the L3 Cache lost, so he never made a benchmark of it.
Yeah but I mean someone must have bought it. Even since its Sonnet and even losing the L3. Not everything takes advantage of the L3. Powerbooks did just fine after they lost their L3 and doubled the L2 with the 7447s. I just want someone's honest review of the real life performance and instalation.
I would like to know this too!!
Sonnett so far provided always good service to me and I also got e-mails back. I think the upgrade would be great for sure. Unfortunatley I have a dual 1,42 Gig that runs like a Porsche so I really don't want to change anything right now. My Raptor is installed finally and I think I have the worlds fastest G4 now - why the hell sonnet didn't do a G5 upgrade 2,5 Gig ??????
However, if you have a 1,25 or smaller it would make sense to do the 1,8gig dual. You know what, advertise your 1,25 dual CPU on E-bay for 100 US$ then your investment wouldn't be that high....
Sonnett so far provided always good service to me and I also got e-mails back. I think the upgrade would be great for sure. Unfortunatley I have a dual 1,42 Gig that runs like a Porsche so I really don't want to change anything right now. My Raptor is installed finally and I think I have the worlds fastest G4 now - why the hell sonnet didn't do a G5 upgrade 2,5 Gig ??????
However, if you have a 1,25 or smaller it would make sense to do the 1,8gig dual. You know what, advertise your 1,25 dual CPU on E-bay for 100 US$ then your investment wouldn't be that high....
Sonnett so far provided always good service to me and I also got e-mails back. I think the upgrade would be great for sure. Unfortunatley I have a dual 1,42 Gig that runs like a Porsche so I really don't want to change anything right now. My Raptor is installed finally and I think I have the worlds fastest G4 now - why the hell sonnet didn't do a G5 upgrade 2,5 Gig ??????
However, if you have a 1,25 or smaller it would make sense to do the 1,8gig dual. You know what, advertise your 1,25 dual CPU on E-bay for 100 US$ then your investment wouldn't be that high....
Hey even with a dual 1.42 you can get the dual 1.8 upgrade with OWC and they will give you a $225 rebate if you send them your old 1.42G4 to them. So its only $375 for a dual 1.8 and then you could really have the fastest G4.
To answer your G5 question, sadly the IBM chips are almost impossible to upgrade for any sort of profit, that's why no one has offered a G5 upgdrade.
Another reason why I would love to read a review is the new chip that sonnet uses the 7447A is newer than the 7455 that is standard in all MDD G4s. Although the 7455s have the 2 MB L3, there were lots of reviews how the chips didn't support the DDR ram in the mac and therefore actually didn't double the bandwidth from 1.3GHZ to 2.7GHZ. If the Alum. Powerbooks which had the 7447s inside were able to use the DDR ram properly than I would think this would also help the Sonnet Powermac MDD CPU upgrade and help even the playing field for the loss of the L3. I know someone out there bought this upgrade. Please write back.
The Verax-Sonnet-MDD Special
Tyler, I may go for an Upgrade, at least I think about it. I have just heard that the M10 Verax cooling kit for the MDD will be canceled soon. I never bought it because of the great heatpipe heatsink that comes with the 1,42 Gig. But I have the PSU Verax which works outstanding.
For the Sonnet Upgrade I wouldn't need the complete slash and Verax told me I could have a remaining kit without the heatsink. That would be exactly what I am looking for. Sonnet Upgrade with super silent verax fans and molding. I'll keep you updated.
Tyler, I may go for an Upgrade, at least I think about it. I have just heard that the M10 Verax cooling kit for the MDD will be canceled soon. I never bought it because of the great heatpipe heatsink that comes with the 1,42 Gig. But I have the PSU Verax which works outstanding.
For the Sonnet Upgrade I wouldn't need the complete slash and Verax told me I could have a remaining kit without the heatsink. That would be exactly what I am looking for. Sonnet Upgrade with super silent verax fans and molding. I'll keep you updated.
I did a 1.8G upgrade on my Quicksilver. There was a slight increase in speed, but many I noticed that the fans just burned out from running so high all the time. The MDDs have a more heavy duty fan, but you might have the same issue.
Yeah the MDD are the same 7455 chips running over clocked. That would explain why they are so damn noisy and have a much bigger fan. The 7447A actually run cooler even at 1.8GHZ than the MDD at 1.25GHZ or higher. I'm really interested if the MDD have full access to their DDR ram with these updated chips or is it linked to the motherboard. I guess we'll find out if someone actually reviews Sonnet's upgrade.
If you're going to spend money on an upgrade, why would you do it to a last generation g4 powermac? I can understand a lowly sawtooth, but I feel that your computer should work just fine at dual 1.2?
Why not put that money towards a used G5 or even an Mac Pro.
Why not put that money towards a used G5 or even an Mac Pro.
I completely agree that its money that can definately be put to better use in a g5 or mac pro and get more bang for your buck. Hell with $600 you can buy a whole mac mini. But that obviously isn't the reason why I would consider buying a CPU upgrade to a MDD g4.
There is something really rewarding with keeping a classic alive. Why do we need to buy a new computer every 3 years. What can we not do with MDD G4 that we can with a Mac Pro besides render stuff faster. If you look at it there are minor things. HD really isn't upon us yet. There are no standard blu-ray or HD-DVD drives that come with macs from the factory. So what's wrong with keeping a G4 lasting 20 years. It like those who collect old macs but they are pretty much useless besides being collectibles. Why not have your collectable be able to run the latest software and Leopard.
another thing that I learned the hard way was that a Mac with a processor upgrade does not really increase in resale value at all. A $400 upgrade will net around and extra $50 when going to sell it. At least for a 1.8 on a 733 Quicksilver. I could imagine that it would be less on a MDD, sadly
alex, you are correct and it has happened. i was on verafax's website and emailed their US sales rep....no longer being offered any longer.
Tyler, to me, it's the bus speed that matters. i can't foresee any significant enough change in processing power going from 1.25 or 1.42 to 1.6 or 1.8. This is the sole reason why I have not upgraded. I'd rather put the $300 (approximately) in the bank and start saving for a new mac pro. but that's just imho
good luck,
Keebler
Just wait
I've heard Sonnet's going out with new MDD G4 upgrade on march, maybe with dual 7458 or 7448, intended for those like me, or you own a dual 1,25-1,42 G4 and don't want put it in the trash. It should be a dual 2,5ghz
or so. You can call me a fool, but I will buy that upgrade.
G4 MDD dual 1,42 2Gb 400Gb Ati Radeon 9800xt 256Mb dual boot, great.
I've heard Sonnet's going out with new MDD G4 upgrade on march, maybe with dual 7458 or 7448, intended for those like me, or you own a dual 1,25-1,42 G4 and don't want put it in the trash. It should be a dual 2,5ghz
or so. You can call me a fool, but I will buy that upgrade.
G4 MDD dual 1,42 2Gb 400Gb Ati Radeon 9800xt 256Mb dual boot, great.
Very interesting. Is this March 2007? I've heard of the 7448, its 90nm and has a 1MB L2 and scales nicely to at least 1.7GHZ. But I have never heard of the 7458. Whats included in that chip and where did you hear this rumor? But if it's true and I could get a dual 2.5GHZ g4, I'd buy one yesterday.
Tyler