Yes, I know, these are rarely machines that ever see major upgrades, but I've been on the warpath to have the best one of these impressive machines as I can get, and they simply do not sell what I'm looking for most of the time. So I made it myself.
Now, you might be wondering, what about this is upgraded? Well, when I got the system, it wasn't a dual 1.25 GHz system. But, with the help of @r6mile I was able to get my hands on a Dual 1.25 G4 board. This did start out as a single 1.25 GHz system, and you my be wondering "why did you feel the need to upgrade that?" Well, for one, most of the eBay sales cost about the same, so I figured, if I can't get what I really want, why not aim high? And for another, the single 1.25 GHz G4 didn't feel like enough on Leopard. Honestly, I kind of hoped it would.
However, the dual feels a lot better. The system actually has a chance to idle. Even Leopard Webkit doesn't eat all of the cpu, all the time. What doesn't surprise me is that the system runs warmer. The single ran at a cool 45c, while the dual, a slightly warmer 56c. From what I've been able to gather, this is an ok temperature for this system, but if I ever do get that dual 1.42 GHz board, I'll probably want the coper heat sink to go with it.
But at the end of the day, while this is just a "feeling" test right now, it already feels faster in the most demanding operating system I have to offer it. It really does seem like the best way to get a better experience with a PowerPC Mac at this point is to use a faster processor, or throw more cores at it.
Also, minor note, from what I've been able to gather, this 1.25 GHz dual board was probably from a FW 400 model, making it quite at home in this one.
Another note, there's almost no documentation on how to do this kind of swap, the best I was able to find was a comment on iFixit and even it was only partially complete. That probably has to do with the fact that there was almost no aftermarket cpu upgrades for the G4 MDD.
Now, you might be wondering, what about this is upgraded? Well, when I got the system, it wasn't a dual 1.25 GHz system. But, with the help of @r6mile I was able to get my hands on a Dual 1.25 G4 board. This did start out as a single 1.25 GHz system, and you my be wondering "why did you feel the need to upgrade that?" Well, for one, most of the eBay sales cost about the same, so I figured, if I can't get what I really want, why not aim high? And for another, the single 1.25 GHz G4 didn't feel like enough on Leopard. Honestly, I kind of hoped it would.
However, the dual feels a lot better. The system actually has a chance to idle. Even Leopard Webkit doesn't eat all of the cpu, all the time. What doesn't surprise me is that the system runs warmer. The single ran at a cool 45c, while the dual, a slightly warmer 56c. From what I've been able to gather, this is an ok temperature for this system, but if I ever do get that dual 1.42 GHz board, I'll probably want the coper heat sink to go with it.
But at the end of the day, while this is just a "feeling" test right now, it already feels faster in the most demanding operating system I have to offer it. It really does seem like the best way to get a better experience with a PowerPC Mac at this point is to use a faster processor, or throw more cores at it.
Also, minor note, from what I've been able to gather, this 1.25 GHz dual board was probably from a FW 400 model, making it quite at home in this one.
Another note, there's almost no documentation on how to do this kind of swap, the best I was able to find was a comment on iFixit and even it was only partially complete. That probably has to do with the fact that there was almost no aftermarket cpu upgrades for the G4 MDD.