1.2Ghz for $609 or DP 867Mhz for $739

[neonart]

What do you guys think?

I'm scamming a QS 733 from my shop and I know those 733's were not the best performers because of low L2 cache, etc. So I'm upgrading it so I don't loose performance compared to my current setup. (See below)
I personally love the idea of dual processors and think duals are better for my use. I run lots of apps to do many things at once, like rip while I surf and do Illustrator, or burn, surf, email and iMovie. I rarely crunch huge files.

But I'd really like to know what you guys think about those choices. Both are Powerlogix with 2MB L3 per processor. (2 on the 1.2 and 4 Total on the DP867) What would you get adn why?

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

with all that multitasking i would go for the duallie. both cpu set ups will be great. the faster single for a gamer the dual cpu for someone that loves to do many things at once. I have the 733 with no l3 and its been a great machine but will admit for hardcore games it is slightly lacking. i have bumped it to 800 which helped a little. go check out yesterdays inside mac gaming site for a review on cpu upgrades on a g4 500 dual that they used as a base machine and then did g4 800 and 1 gig upgrades. they also have a review of a dual 867 in the hardware section for some great reading and good luck my fellow quicksilver user.

 

[neonart]

Thanks! That IMG article was very cool. It was nice to see real numbers that were believable and useful.
You always see: The new 13.5 Ghz was .03 seconds faster scrolling through a WebMD diareah page. Huh?

 

[gotohamish]

Originally posted by neonart
Thanks! That IMG article was very cool. It was nice to see real numbers that were believable and useful.
You always see: The new 13.5 Ghz was .03 seconds faster scrolling through a WebMD diareah page. Huh?

It's diarrhea. But them as I've never even hear of WebMD it might be a totally new word to me!! I'm not being it's just one of those words people should spell!

If it makes you feel any better, I used the Safari "Check spelling as you type" thing as I wasn't sure either!

 

[HasanDaddy]

$609???

Where are these prices from??

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

OWC- dont you love competition and to think we now have 3 companies making upgrade cpu cards. I love it.

 

[neonart]

Originally posted by gotohamish


It's diarrhea. But them as I've never even hear of WebMD it might be a totally new word to me!! I'm not being it's just one of those words people should spell!

If it makes you feel any better, I used the Safari "Check spelling as you type" thing as I wasn't sure either!

I thought I did spell check it! Damn. I hate mispelling the punchline!
Safari spellchecker is not too hot. It wont continue to spell check all the time like mail. You have to activate it every time.
Oh well, back to CPU's and diarrhea.

 

[praetorian_x]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
OWC- dont you love competition and to think we now have 3 companies making upgrade cpu cards. I love it.

Really, considering you can pick up a Pentium 4 2.8GHz for ~ $380 and a Athlon XP 2800 for just over $400, the upgrade market for macs is pretty silly. It *is* getting less silly however. I have an g4 400 AGP (unfortunately, it is an early rev, so it won't accept a dual upgrade, although, with its 100 mhz bus, its not clear a dual would be much good), and I've been following the upgrade market closely.

With the older macs and the slower bus, it seems that the amount of level 3 cache is paramount. This gives me hope that, when the 1.4 7457 g4's coming out at, one would hope, around $800 (for a single proc), there will be a "fast enough for a while" upgrade on the market.

Still, considering that the top end Athlon and Pentium come in at just over $600, the upgrade environment for macs is pretty sad. After all, we are all rich, exclusive mac owners, with all sorts of disposable income to send down to poppa steve, right?

Cheers,
prat

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Originally posted by praetorian_x


Really, considering you can pick up a Pentium 4 2.8GHz for ~ $380 and a Athlon XP 2800 for just over $400, the upgrade market for macs is pretty silly. It *is* getting less silly however. I have an g4 400 AGP (unfortunately, it is an early rev, so it won't accept a dual upgrade, although, with its 100 mhz bus, its not clear a dual would be much good), and I've been following the upgrade market closely.

With the older macs and the slower bus, it seems that the amount of level 3 cache is paramount. This gives me hope that, when the 1.4 7457 g4's coming out at, one would hope, around $800 (for a single proc), there will be a "fast enough for a while" upgrade on the market.

Still, considering that the top end Athlon and Pentium come in at just over $600, the upgrade environment for macs is pretty sad. After all, we are all rich, exclusive mac owners, with all sorts of disposable income to send down to poppa steve, right?

Cheers,
prat

the post is about a single or dual upgrade for the mac ! He is not asking anything about a crappy wintel upgrade! And no not all mac users are rich snobs just everyday people who know and use a better platform and now we have more then before.

 

[praetorian_x]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
the post is about a single or dual upgrade for the mac ! He is not asking anything about a crappy wintel upgrade! And no not all mac users are rich snobs just everyday people who know and use a better platform and now we have more then before.

You will note that I mention x86 only to compare and contrast with the current state of macintosh upgrades. Yup, "we" (I suppose I fall into that category, I have a mac, an XP, a w2k and a Linux boxen) do have more choices. However, we should not let that blind us to the fact that, as usual, the x86 world has far more variety, far better costs, and far more competition.

I would hope that my middle paragraph, where I comment on the L3 caches importance in the older powermacs, which are hindered by an even-slower-than-the-usual-dog-slow FSB, and suggested that the 7457 g4s may eventually present a better deal was helpful. To expand:

Powerlogix, as rumor has it, will be offering a 7457 g4 at 1.4 ghz at some point in the next, say, six months. This will have an expanded L1 cache as well as a 4 meg (!!!) l3 cache. It will also be produced under a new process, and should run cooler than the current chips.

The review referred to above is at:

http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/view.php?ID=208

As is plain to see, l3 cache is crucial for the g4. Unfortunately, they didn't test a dual upgrade agains the single upgrades, so we don't have any numeric comparison. My gut tells me, however, that the dual proc will largely be wasted on an older g4 with a 100/133 bus since the FSB will be all choked up. Given that fact, depending on how infuriatingly slow the machine currently resizes iPhoto windows, you may want to wait until the 7457 upgrades are available. Otherwise, your money spent to perceived speed increase ratio may be disappointing.

Cheers,
prat

 

[MisterMe]

Originally posted by praetorian_x
....

Still, considering that the top end Athlon and Pentium come in at just over $600, the upgrade environment for macs is pretty sad. After all, we are all rich, exclusive mac owners, with all sorts of disposable income to send down to poppa steve, right?

Cheers,
prat

Oh, really now. For $400, I recently upgraded my computer with the fastest G4 upgrade available. That was not just a processor, but a daughter card which included the cooling fan. And what's more, it runs all of my $10,000 worth of software, which no Pentium or Athlon can do.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

thanks for the clarificattin praetorian x i thought you were another mac basher. yea L3 does make a significant difference.

 

[neonart]

Originally posted by praetorian_x
I have an g4 400 AGP (unfortunately, it is an early rev, so it won't accept a dual upgrade, although, with its 100 mhz bus, its not clear a dual would be much good), and I've been following the upgrade market closely.

I agree with most of your post, but duals do make a solid difference. I upgraded my single 500 to a dual 500 and found a VERY noticeable difference. iTunes when from ripping a 47 min cd in 6:28 to 4:24 and max rip went from 8.5X to 13X. VPC 5 startup time went from 1:14 to 0:48.
So even with the 100Mhz bus duals can help noticeably. Besides, on the QS the bus is 133, which is just a bit better.
But at $609 that single 1.2Ghz is very tempting!

 

[praetorian_x]

Originally posted by MisterMe
Oh, really now. For $400, I recently upgraded my computer with the fastest G4 upgrade available. That was not just a processor, but a daughter card which included the cooling fan. And what's more, it runs all of my $10,000 worth of software, which no Pentium or Athlon can do.

Sadly, no, you didn't. Assuming you mean the single 1 ghz upgrade from either Sonnet or Powerlogix, until just very recently, that went for between $600 and $700. When Gigadesigns came out with thier option at ~$550, it sparked a price war, and powerlogix has recently dropped its price on the 1 ghz upgrade to $499.

However, at this point, single 1.2 Ghz upgrades are available from both Sonnet and Powerlogix in the $600-$700 price range.

And I have to point out that powerlogix has had its dual series of upgrade cards available for a while now, with the dual 800 @ ~ $700 and the dual 1 ghz @ ~ $850 (These prices have recently dropped substantially due to competitive pressures). These have to be "fastest g4 upgrades available," and there is no way you got them for $400. If I remember correctly, a few months ago the dual 1ghz was going for over a grand. (I stand by my claim that a dual processor upgrade is going to choke on the 100/133 FSB and, therefore, will not be worth the additional money.)

Yes, yes, we all know x86 can't run MacOSX. (Well, it *can*, but steve won't give it to us.) Fine. But we shouldn't be blind to the fact that the upgrade options on that side (especially on the Athlon side, which has used a consistent socket design for a long time now) are much, much better than ppc now offers. Still, despite my doom and gloom, things are getting better. Here's hoping the 7457's arrive soon and arrive cheap.

Cheers,
prat

 

[praetorian_x]

Originally posted by neonart

I agree with most of your post, but duals do make a solid difference. I upgraded my single 500 to a dual 500 and found a VERY noticeable difference. iTunes when from ripping a 47 min cd in 6:28 to 4:24 and max rip went from 8.5X to 13X. VPC 5 startup time went from 1:14 to 0:48.
So even with the 100Mhz bus duals can help noticeably. Besides, on the QS the bus is 133, which is just
But at $609 that single 1.2Ghz is very tempting!

I think that a dual @ 500 mhz with a decent l3 cache is probably going to feel a lot better than a single 500 mhz because, at that speed, a 100/133 bus isn't totally saturated. Throughput is going to become more and more of an issue as the processors get faster and faster. This is why, on the PC side, a 1 ghz P-III on a 133 bus doesn't feel appreciably faster than a 500 mhz P-III, until you throw DDR into the mix, in which case you can feel a huge difference.

Of course, for me, it's a moot point, because I have an early rev AGP, and can't upgrade to a dual even if I wanted to, so perhaps I am just trying to make myself feel better... ;-)

Cheers,
prat

P.S. One thing to consider about upgrades is that you are basically giving money to the upgrade company and moto (that dirty, evil company), rather than to apple. So, in some sense, you are taking money away from future apple development. *I* don't really care so much, but some other people might.

 

[ryme4reson]

Old Proc

So if I upgrade my 933 single proc with a 1.2 DP or something, what can I do with my 933? Can I sell it? I would be interested in upgrading if I could get a couple hundred for my 933.

 

[neonart]

Re: Old Proc

Originally posted by ryme4reson
So if I upgrade my 933 single proc with a 1.2 DP or something, what can I do with my 933? Can I sell it? I would be interested in upgrading if I could get a couple hundred for my 933.

I'll give you $200 for your single 933.