CPU upgrade advice needed. cache related question..

While I share your passion for keeping things going, at some point you have to move on. I did this with SCSI years ago...will do with with FW at some point

I recently took a QS from a 733 (no L3) to 933. That to me was as a good value. After that, there was just too much diminishing returns in how much you are outlaying for a CPU upgrade and what you can buy on the used market.

You can get QS units with DPs, MPs, heck if you are patient a G5 for a few hundred dollars on flea-bay.

Bit more then that and you have CD2 Minis for sale.

If you are dead set on the upgrade, then its a hard call between the two CPUs. The 7448 chip is a bit different micro-architecture so the behavior of the L3 size is not as with the older 7447 chip.

Unless you can benchmark it with your exact programs/needs all you have to go off of is other benchmarks.

I would wager a small amount of money you would see diminished returns going from 1.5 to 2.0 simply because of the other system level bottlenecks start to add up: unless the code was tight and could stay on CPU, the extra Mhz won't really be felt.

- b

 

Well if you would like to go uber geeky about it you could modify a dual 1Ghz Quicksilver G4 CPU for that Sawtooth. You would need to run a 12volt lead from the power supply and solder on a DIP switch to change the CPU multiplier since the QS runs on a 133mhz bus.

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/33/6915-quicksilver-cpu-sawtooth.html
http://powermac-g4.com/g4quicksilverclockup.html
http://homepage.mac.com/josephk/G4_mod.html