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adamfilip

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 13, 2003
841
1
burlington, Ontario canada
Im trying to decide what to upgrade on my G5. I dont have too much to play with but i have narrowed down my choices

MY current setup is a
G5 1.6
1280mb RAm
74 Gig Raptor
Geforce 5200 64mb

My options..

Upgrade to 2gb of RAm
Add a second Raptor and RAid em!
buy a Ati 9600 or a PC converted 9800 video card

what would you do?
 
if you feel the need to upgrade anything, i'd swap your video card, or add another hard drive for raid.

2gb of ram is pointless unless you use absolutely huge files (which would require the 2nd hard drive first, making me assume you do not use huge files).
 
well its a good machine.. not a dual.. and if i had to buy a machine now i would get a dual 1.8.. because thats what is out

but to say that i shouldnt upgrade just cause its a 1.6 makes no sense.

the same could almost be said to new dual 1.8's since they have only 4 memory slots.


It may only be mustang and not a porsche.. doesnt mean a mustang cant be improved..

anyways... regardless if i should upgrade.. i want too..
 
I would change the video card and add a second hard drive if it were mine. I see no need for more memory at this point. I would love to have your computer. It is a fine machine, so enjoy ;)
 
yeah, for it being the lowest-end G5, its still a great machine. you got a good amount of RAM in it already, so unless your working with heavy video editing, I wouldnt worry about adding more ram.

i'd say get a second hard drive. you can always use more space.

I would say upgrade your video card, but only if you think its necessary. are you playing any games? that would be a question to ask yourself before upgrading.
 
thats the problem. i feel like i could use everything.

Im learning motion.. and its pretty slow. a new video card would help
i do heavy photoshop work aswell more ram would help

I just want dual raptors. :)
 
well for motion and photoshop work, you really could use all of these things.

the graphics card will increase the longevity and performance of your computer the most noticeably, this would probably be the first thing i would upgrade. a 9800 se would be a good investment as it's unlikely you would need more power, and it's going to be one of the last generations of AGP graphics, so it will last the life of your system.

a negative to the graphics card is it's "recycle-ability". your next machine will have a better graphics card, so this card won't have a further use, then again your G5 will be around indefinitely. let's face it, even at 1.6 ghz and a signle processor, that is one powerful computer.

the HD space is also pretty necessary especially in Motion and heavy PS'ing work. i find anything under 250GB to get pretty cramped pretty fast (i use Apple Lossless audio and store DVD's on disk, combined with multimedia work, space is a premium). the first thing i would do is max out the storage space and raid them for performance.

RAM is the only iffy one. 1.2GB of ram is alot, no matter the theoretical 1^64 GB limit or 8 GB practical limit. You will only notice a boost in performance when you're using some huge files, and multitasking at the same time. The RAM would be the last thing I'd worry about.

I'd upgrade the HD now, it can be used in your next machine.

Wait for the price on the 9800SE to drop (around time 6800 is widely available). Then upgrade to the 9800SE or equivalent.

RAM can wait until you really feel the need. Next machine's ram will most likely be of a different type.

didn't mean to imply your G5 is crap, just that you got the shaft thanks to apple's marketing. it happened to everyone who got the MDD's, and it most likely just happened to me when i bought my Rev. C powerbook. it happens to everyone. im still considering upgrading my G4 (until G5 tops 3+ or G6), so...sorry if i rained on your parade.
 
adamfilip said:
thats the problem. i feel like i could use everything.

Im learning motion.. and its pretty slow. a new video card would help
i do heavy photoshop work aswell more ram would help

I just want dual raptors. :)

I have essentially the same machine... I went with the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro SE 256MB... a bit pricey but it has been WELL worth it.

RAIDING raptors huh? Maybe I'll look into that.... :)
 
Converted2Truth said:
Did you RAID 0 the drives? I'm thinking about doing the same thing... should increase read/write two-fold, right?

I added the second drive into the G5. I formated the drive and it works great.
 
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