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Fellow Dual G5ers...

Interestingly, I ran some Xbench test and my scores were in the mid-tier of Dual G5 owners listed on the Xbench test, with a score ranging from 180-185.

I then tested it with the performance set to "highest" (which causes my power source to be unbearably noisy - like a field full of crickets) and my number jumped to around 197.

Finally - I did a test and removed the 512MB of Apple RAM and just left in my Hyperspeed 18004memory RAM (2GB worth). The scores were almost the same and averaged out to around 198 - except for one thing. The overall CPU score jumped about 20 points.

What do you guys make of that? Why would removing memory cause the CPU to perform better? Could it be that Apple's memory is slower than mine and the difference is causing a system lag?

Interesting. I will wait a week and see if Panther fixes it.

Joe
 
Joe ,
Just curious what HD and Graphics card you have in your sys ??

I put my setting on highest and no noise dif ?? maybe a touch in the fan speed noise but hardly noticed
I read some articles that some had bad power supplies that were been changed out ???
forgot where I read that but might be a thing to look at


chances are the memory is a touch faster ?? maybe it has a Cas 2 or 2.5 rating over the 3 that my original memory was

basically in theory going to a faster cas speed can help a bit sometimes 1-3% but not much over that
Good memory is a bit quicker and also usually more stable

also if you have one that is slower it will usually pull the better memory down to its level so to speak ;)


now what I am still curious if the timings are locked down some how and if we put in pc4000 will we see a gain ??
thinking of ordering some and trying to find out

also sometimes going with single banks over double sided banks ??
I am coming from a PC world ;)
so I might be a bit off in my thinking on the Mac side
but in a sense puters are puters
a good cas article here
http://www.sysopt.com/articles/latency/
 
Yeah,
I think not everyone is suffering this noise problem. From speaking to Apple - they said that the sounds were "normal" but that they will be offering a replacement in November. Apparently some have gotten them already - I was told I had to wait until November and Apple Stores would have them.

To make it clear - the noise I am complaining of is not fan noise. It is electrical noise, beeping, screeching, chirpping and zapping noises. They are constant.

Trust me - if your machine had it you would notice it. It's very annoying.

All I have to do is scroll a webpage and the entire time it is scrolling it makes the sounds. When I stop scrolling, it stops. You can imagine how much sound it makes when I am doing something heavy duty in Photoshop. Like a parade of tiny robot crickets.

I just hope that they do the installation for me for free. I can tell by their "well, the noise is normal but if you WANT to change you can" tactic that they are going to charge for the upgrade.

I hate when companies skimp on the details - cheap memory and lousy powersupplies.

Oh - and I have the two Maxtor 250GB Serial ATA drives, build to order. One of those is giving me some trouble too. But, I just zeroed all of its data, so hopefully it will start acting right. I'm going open the G5 tonight and make sure that the ATI card and the serial connections are all seated correctly.

Joe

Joe
 
sounds like the noise sucks for sure then
guess I dont have it but wonder what the new PS are like??
better or ???
hmmmm

just curious what video card you has as my slow stock 160 HD gets about a 181 on xbench and noticed those with faster timings are on the 9800 cards and better drives

I want to wait until the new raptors come out and throw two of them in there ;)

excited about the new toy though ;) best built box in the world I must say ;)
 
It is an incredible box, everytime I pick it up and open it I am just floored by the design, inside and out.

I am using the ATI 9600.

What are these Raptors you speak of?

Joe
 
allready answered ;)

but they are not for everybody as they are a bit more noisy
also are less storage for the buck the current 37 gig is about $120
but you get a fast drive that is beating most scsi units the second gen of these coming out soon I hope ;)
will have a 74 gig version but will have tcq and fluid bearings ;)
so will be the drive to have at least for a while ;)
hehehehe

head over to http://storagereview.com/ and scroll down a bit there is a bit of info on the next ones coming out ;)

there is a test on the current ones also
good site to read about HD info etc...
 
ok those scores are crap. My DP1G does 120-130.
You DPg5 should be doing around or above 200. The scores are against a dual800 cube.

call apple and say:

listen here, this is the nineth time i have had to cal you and put up with your f***ing cr*p about my machine. I hate to be mean but i will not put up with substandard products from your company. How can i be expected to reccommend this machine to both my friends and IT department if my own machine doesnt run well without sounding like you put a canary in my powersupply?

Then when reception transfers you through to hardware troubleshooting repeat without the swearing, and in a calmer voice.
 
benixau ;)
heheheheh love that post

I agree scores should be above 200
I think when 10.3 hits we will see the above 200 as the norm on the 2x2
also getting rid of the slow drives that are in there will help also

just my thoughts ;)
 
Originally posted by benixau
ok those scores are crap. My DP1G does 120-130.
You DPg5 should be doing around or above 200. The scores are against a dual800 cube.
Click to expand...

I only get a total Xbench score of 170 on my Dual G5 (with Energy Saver set to Automatic): 144 on CPU, 180 Thread, 312 Memory, 190 Quartz, 170 Open GL, 203 UI, 107 Disk.

But trust me, this machine is A LOT faster than that. I wouldn't use XBench scores for anything that matters - it's notoriously inconsistent and unreliable across processor cores. The scores are basically meaningless when trying to compare a G5 to a G4.

However, on the same G5, my understanding is that the XBench scores go up quite a bit on Panther vs. Jaguar (something which actually seems to be reflected in reality, since everyone says that Panther is faster than Jaguar).
 
Originally posted by benixau
call apple and say:

listen here, this is the nineth time i have had to call you and put up with your f***ing cr*p about my machine. I hate to be mean but i will not put up with substandard products from your company. How can i be expected to reccommend this machine to both my friends and IT department if my own machine doesnt run well without sounding like you put a canary in my powersupply?

Then when reception transfers you through to hardware troubleshooting repeat without the swearing, and in a calmer voice.
Click to expand...

Make a personal showing, and force them to give you a replacement, upgrade, or refund.

Don't lose your nerve though if you go in though
 
Originally posted by lem0nayde

All I have to do is scroll a webpage and the entire time it is scrolling it makes the sounds. When I stop scrolling, it stops. You can imagine how much sound it makes when I am doing something heavy duty in Photoshop. Like a parade of tiny robot crickets.
Click to expand...

I get a similar noise when I have my speaker AMP turned up quitre loud. Like you this only happens with my computer when I scroll. This is only a problem with the computer doesn't happen with the CD player of Tape deck when the volume is turned right up and no music is playing. Hence it's not a problem with the power supply, but one with the sound card. Chances are the issuses you are having are with the sound system in the computer.


No pic this time 'Rower_CPU' Better start writting more replys and threads. No hard felings.
 
Re: Noise

The fans make a big noise, and you can confirm its electrical vs fan noise by stick your fingers into the power supply fans and stopping them :eek:

And it seems to be a problem with the duals, which have the uprated supply.

Here's a post containing the sound.
Originally posted by Scott Ogilvie1 on Apple Discussions

ok, another little update here on the ongoing saga of me having a huge design project with a deadline quickly closing in and spending 10 hours a day in front of my G5, getting pounded by the darn OBN to the point of wanting to pull my hair out. at night, like right freakin' now, for instance, it is the worst.

I was thinking of a better way to explain it when i realized i have a mic on my powerbook, and so i recorded the machine for 5 seconds of OBN nastiness. of course, the mic is poor and the noise is hard to record well, but this will certainly give you an idea:

(option-click this, and save to disk) http://prairiefiredesign.com/OBN.m4a

of course there is no way a recording can give you an idea of how 'loud' something is, since it is all relative, but here are a few of my experiences:

a) louder than my quicksilver dual 1Ghz (and much more annoying)

b) can be heard at night from at least 15 feet away.

c) can be heard over the phone.

d) two people have asked me 'what's that noise?' when walking into my office.

through these forums and the macnn forums i have found a handful of people who all describe the same exact symptoms and many who do not. this leads me to believe this is a real problem, one that we are going to have to push apple hard to address or else end up going insane.

some people have said that those of us with OBN are babies or whiners, but these people clearly don't have the OBN ringing in their ears 24 hours a day. all of us can attest that the sound is loud, penetrating and rigorously annoying, and certainly evidence of a defective product.

sadly, i am so busy that i have postponed dealing with apple until i am done with this project (i couldn't bring the computer in for repair anyway until i am done) which will be on the 14th. i am hoping by then, some progress will be made in having apple recognize this problem.

that is it for this update. has anyone else talked to apple about this?

t.o
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by Powerbook G5
That must be inaccurate, because my 1.25 GHz G4 gets CPU scores of 149-154 without a sweat.
Click to expand...

Yes, that was exactly my point (XBench does not produce consistent, accurate results across CPU families).
 
Re: You responded

Originally posted by manitoubalck
The point is that the problem wont fix itself, and apple wont call you and ask how are things going. YOU have to take the first step
Click to expand...

Actually, I got the impression that he DID call Apple, etc, no? Hang in there - it sounds like there could be some issue with yours - if it's in warranty or still pretty new, why not take it back and get another (an exchange)? I did this with a Mac years ago.. I also noticed that there were a couple of other posts here for owners of new Duals that had issues as well (not to discredit those who didn't!), which gives me the impression that there's some inconsistency in the manufacturing process. This is why I wouldn't recommend buying a Rev. A of anything in regards to computers, but the G5 is irresistible if you have the $, I know. I bet these things will get ironed out!
 
ALSO, maybe I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the G5's ALREADY had Panther installed! Could it be some sort of beta? Any Info?
 
Originally posted by lem0nayde
Yeah, my fear is that something is wrong. However -- the Apple Hardware Test shows all thumbs up. I wonder if mixing my bought RAM with Apples preinstalled RAM could be the cause. I've mixed RAM brands before with no problem...but who knows.
Click to expand...
I think you may have hit on something here. Try removing just your bought memory and see if you have the same problems with just Apple memory.

I have one of those dual-channel DDR400 systems from Dell (Intel 875 chipset) which takes memory in pairs just like the G5. Well, when I got mine, it only had 256 MB of memory in it (2x 128), and I tried to add two 512MB sticks. They were a slightly different speed so the computer wouldn't operate in dual-channel mode with both types of memory in there. I guess dual-channel chipsets are much more picky about what type of memory they use.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I took out the Dell memory and left my 2 512MB sticks in and everything works fast now.

It wouldn't hurt to give it a try.
 
Originally posted by lem0nayde
What do you guys make of that? Why would removing memory cause the CPU to perform better? Could it be that Apple's memory is slower than mine and the difference is causing a system lag?
Click to expand...
I think it's because when you have mismatched memory DIMMs (different manufacturer or speed) they don't operate at full speed. Apple is probably doing what the PC manufacturers are doing and stepping the speed of the DIMMs down to a "lowest common demoninator", or an even slower speed that both DIMMs can operate at without problems.

This is a common problem with the newer P4s (800 mhz. FSB by combining two 400 mhz. DIMMs). Mismatched DIMMs usually slows your FSB down to 533 (2x 266), which would definitely slow things down.
 
put in my Mushkin stuff with my stock and all was fine ??
cas 2.5 on the Mushkin
on the xbench I went down about 2 points though ???
so might be the memory speed hard to say
think I will try to take out the stock and run the bench with just 1 gig that is good then put in the stock run it see how it is
one prob the stock will be at the 412 the Mushkin will be at 1 gig ??
so that in itself has got to tip it a bit but can look at just certain parts to check the dif
 
Originally posted by VIREBEL661
ALSO, maybe I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the G5's ALREADY had Panther installed! Could it be some sort of beta? Any Info?
Click to expand...
G5s first shipped with 10.2.7, then the second coming of 10.2.8. I guess new orders now will likely have Panther CDs in the box or preinstalled.

Maybe you're thinking of the VA Tech G5 cluster? They've been running Panther beta since they started.
 
Re: ATTENTION fellow Dual G5ers.

1.) Despite a fresh install on a formatted drive and all current updates - the OS seems sluggish, unresponsive and buggy. It appears as though it is not working well with the new chip. Hopefully Panther fixes this.

2.) Vector trouble - the G5 seems to hate vector, particularly fonts. It slows down a lot when accessing fonts in almost every application. I've cleaned and font doctored all of my fonts, so I know they aren't corrupt.

3.) Photoshop, despite the G5 plugin, is having some weird issues with refreshing and, again, type. Images get all strange and pixelated when I use the type tool on them.
Click to expand...

I haven't experienced any of the above. I've got over 250 fonts installed, but I don't know if that is considered a large number of fonts or not.


4.) Plus, is it me - or does it just not seem as fast as you expected? That's not to say it is slow, but the boost from my Dual 867mhz G4 is not what I expected.
Click to expand...

I'm coming from a 466 MHz G4, so it seems plenty fast to me. Although, I will admit that I was not "blown away" by the speed. And of course, the more I use it (and get used to the speed), the less impressive it seems.


5.) The power source thing totally sucks - mine chirps, screeches and whizzes constantly. I've called Apple they say it is "normal" behavior for the power source - but they will be offering power source replacements in November through retail outlets.
Click to expand...

I get quite a bit of regular noise from the HD (sort of a scratchy/grindy sound), although it is not really loud, bothersome, or what I would consider to be out of the ordinary. I definitely haven't heard anything I would call screechy. However, maybe it's just me and my imagination, but I swear that the overall noise level of the machine has risen over the past few weeks. But, my old computer was noisy as all hell, so the noise isn't "loud" to my ears.

My machine:
Dual 2gig G5
1.5 gig RAM
1 150GB Serial ATA Drives
 
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