Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

A "Hotrod" Digital Audio

bunnspecial

bunnspecial

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 3, 2014
8,358
6,498
Kentucky
I can't take credit for this project, but I'm proud to have it in my possession. Member @ptdebate put this one together and I was able to buy it from him.

The key upgrades are

1. Newertech Single 2.0ghz Processor

2. Sonnet(bootable) SATA card with 1TB WD Blue drive

3. Flashed ATI FireGl X3(X800XT)-the first of these that I've seen work in a Digital Audio.

I've had this computer a week or two, but finally got around to spending some time playing with it this evening.

From the outside, it looks like an ordinary graphite G4 tower

IMG_1800.JPG


Inside is a different story

IMG_1801.jpg


I got a couple of 23" Cinema displays in the mail today. Until I can get another PSU in(ordered), I'm making do with one. BTW, these are phenomenal displays, and the X800 really makes it sing.

IMG_1805.JPG
 
  • Like
Reactions: tevion5, LightBulbFun, eyoungren and 1 other person
Nice G4, thanks for posting pictures. Does it have a 7447 or 7448 CPU? It would be neat to see how it benchmarks. There have been a few threads on here like openmark, etc. Like your title says, that's a hotrod...
 
Thats a sick DA. Better than my QS, although I hope to get a dual 1.0GHz soon. Some more RAM is in store and I'm watching a 9600 Pro.
 
Im pretty sure being 2Ghz it would be a 7448 a Nice thing about the 7448 is they have a Full 1MB of Full speed (CPU speed) L2 cache on the CPU die
 
Not bad :)

Since my G5 had the PSU die and I removed most parts, I've wondered about sticking the flashed FireGL X3 into it, also looked into some of the CPU upgrades, the machine runs smooth as butter on Leopard at 1.5GB RAM, now I've also got a few SSD options for it, benchmarks would be interesting :)

If I can ask, where did you get your flashed ATI card from? I think mine can from applemacanix, but it could push OpenMark while overcloked beyond 20,000, on the dual 1.8GHz G5. Nothing seems to beat a good G4 for reliablity though, so I've kept it, plus the G5 with drives and memory/GPU removed and stores. Might stick a new PSU into it anyway one day, since the rest of the board capacitors seem fine.
 
Michael Anthony said:
Not bad :)

Since my G5 had the PSU die and I removed most parts, I've wondered about sticking the flashed FireGL X3 into it, also looked into some of the CPU upgrades, the machine runs smooth as butter on Leopard at 1.5GB RAM, now I've also got a few SSD options for it, benchmarks would be interesting :)

If I can ask, where did you get your flashed ATI card from? I think mine can from applemacanix, but it could push OpenMark while overcloked beyond 20,000, on the dual 1.8GHz G5. Nothing seems to beat a good G4 for reliablity though, so I've kept it, plus the G5 with drives and memory/GPU removed and stores. Might stick a new PSU into it anyway one day, since the rest of the board capacitors seem fine.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure where he got it.

I know I have one I flashed myself that refuses to work in a DA or QS, but is fine in an MDD. Several others on here have either bought pre-flashed cards or bought the cards and flashed them with the same result.

The card in this system is the only one I've personally encountered that would work in a DA, but again I don't know the source.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: LightBulbFun
Yeah I have seen the 60X thing before on other CPU upgrade I also find it interesting that for the most part system profiler will report the CPU by its market name G3 G4 G5 etc but I have seen a few cases where it gets reported by its real name like Tiger on my G3 Beige system Profiler says PowerPC 750 and there was a G5 7,2 on ebay a while back and leopard system profiler in the shot said PowerPC 970... (also regarding my G3 beige tiger etc call it Gossamer but most other G3 Beiges running OS X say powermacG3 or so in machine model... so i wonder what thats about)

IMG_0043.JPG
 
LightBulbFun said:
Yeah I have seen the 60X thing before on other CPU upgrade I also find it interesting that for the most part system profiler will report the CPU by its market name G3 G4 G5 etc but I have seen a few cases where it gets reported by its real name like Tiger on my G3 Beige system Profiler says PowerPC 750 and there was a G5 7,2 on ebay a while back and leopard system profiler in the shot said PowerPC 970... (also regarding my G3 beige tiger etc call it Gossamer but most other G3 Beiges running OS X say powermacG3 or so in machine model... so i wonder what thats about)

View attachment 574522
Click to expand...

To tag onto that. "About This Mac" calls it a G4.

I need to get Tiger on some OWR Macs and see what it says :) . I'm really itching to try it on a 604e as we discussed, but I haven't had the time. I need to get a second HDD in my 9600 to try it(I'm hoping my most recent batch of 80 pin adapters will play nicely). It will be really interesting to see if Tiger recognizes/uses both processors in the 9600.
 
bunnspecial said:
To tag onto that. "About This Mac" calls it a G4.

I need to get Tiger on some OWR Macs and see what it says :) . I'm really itching to try it on a 604e as we discussed, but I haven't had the time. I need to get a second HDD in my 9600 to try it(I'm hoping my most recent batch of 80 pin adapters will play nicely). It will be really interesting to see if Tiger recognizes/uses both processors in the 9600.
Click to expand...

it says G4 in the title because I installed tiger on the HDD using my sawtooth got it setup installed xpostfacto etc on it then moved it to the g3 beige heh (I found for me installing from the tiger CD using xpostfacto on the G3 beige directly wouldn't work the DVD would hang at the 10% mark of installing)
 
LightBulbFun said:
it says G4 in the title because I installed tiger on the HDD using my sawtooth got it setup installed xpostfacto etc on it then moved it to the g3 beige heh (I found for me installing from the tiger CD using xpostfacto on the G3 beige directly wouldn't work the DVD would hang at the 10% mark of installing)
Click to expand...

Sorry-I meant that on the DA, the processor is reported as a G4 in "About this Mac" but a 60x in Sys. Profiler.

I'll take a second too to mention that I had it running at a 100% for about 15 minutes last night, and the heatsink remained cool to the touch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LightBulbFun
thats helped in part due to the fact IRC the 7448 is built on a 90nm process like the 970FX heh there are reports of people getting 7448s to 2.4Ghz heh
 
eyoungren said:
A dual 2.4Ghz PowerMac G4 Quicksilver sounds pretty cool. ;)
Click to expand...
I'd get it over a G5 any day. The two things I do not like about the G4s are a) the case isn't 'squared' so other things next to it aren't flush and a) the cable management is horrid.
 
128keaton said:
I'd get it over a G5 any day. The two things I do not like about the G4s are a) the case isn't 'squared' so other things next to it aren't flush and a) the cable management is horrid.
Click to expand...
The thermal design also sucks. A 90º bend to exhaust waste heat, really? Stupid idea, especially if you install more than a standard load of cards.

To me the G5 is ugly, but at least Apple was forced to address thermal design in order to cool the G5 chips.
 
eyoungren said:
The thermal design also sucks. A 90º bend to exhaust waste heat, really? Stupid idea, especially if you install more than a standard load of cards.

To me the G5 is ugly, but at least Apple was forced to address thermal design in order to cool the G5 chips.
Click to expand...
TBH I've never been a big fan of the rounded/polished 2000s look (except for iOS, that was a-ok in my book) so the G4 is a bit up in the air for me in regards to style. The G5 has a sleek, modern look that wouldn't look too out of place anywhere.
 
128keaton said:
TBH I've never been a big fan of the rounded/polished 2000s look (except for iOS, that was a-ok in my book) so the G4 is a bit up in the air for me in regards to style. The G5 has a sleek, modern look that wouldn't look too out of place anywhere.
Click to expand...
Well, to be honest, the Quicksilver is about the only G4 case I like. I think the Yikes, Sawtooth and DA cases are just ugly and the MDD isn't much better. As to the G5, it's always looked like a cheese grater to me.

But everyone is different.
 
bunnspecial said:
...the heatsink remained cool to the touch.
Click to expand...

With CPU Director you can read the temperature sensor on the CPU card. I think the last OS they supported was 10.4.9 though. CPU Director would also tell you if it's a '47 or '48 without taking the heatsink off and looking at the chip.

What does system profiler report for L2 cache?
 
eyoungren said:
The thermal design also sucks. A 90º bend to exhaust waste heat, really? Stupid idea, especially if you install more than a standard load of cards.

To me the G5 is ugly, but at least Apple was forced to address thermal design in order to cool the G5 chips.
Click to expand...

The MDD thermal design is actually a lot better than the earlier G4 towers(whose thermal design really hadn't changed appreciably since the B&W G3). The main case fan sits between the secondary HDD bays and the heatsink. The main hard drive cage is behind the processor(when the case is closed). Thus, the main(largest volume) airflow path is basically a straight shot front-to-back in the case, passing over the hard drives and heatsink. Many(but not all) MDD heatsinks use a lot of narrow fins for more surface area. The dual 1.42 even uses a copper heatsink.

And there, I said something nice about the MDD :) .

There's a secondary fan in the door that buts up against the optical cage-I think its purpose is to get some air circulation through the PCI cards.

Of course, the G5 with its "thermal zones" and bunches of fans really takes thermal design to the next level. IMO, it shows as the computers are quiet when not working very hard but keep things cool when needed. Granted liquid cooling tends to stabilize temperatures, but the processors in my Quad maintain a pretty constant 50ºC regardless of what the computer is doing-the only thing that really varies is how hard the fans blow.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyoungren
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back