G5 Upgrades?

[Arv3n]

Hey all,

I got this old G5 Power mac a few months ago, and it's pretty cool. I want to max it out, however, and make it fly. I'm wanting it to be my main computer. I have a netbook for portability, 360 slim for gaming, and now this power mac as my desktop. i also have an alt custom built gaming pc but i rarely use it.

it currently has, um...

Dual 1.8 GHz PowerPc G5 processor (this is the june 2004 model for those wondering)
2gb ddr sdram
A soon to be fresh install of tiger.
148.92 gb hd
HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082B optical drive
geforce fx 5200

i know for sure i want to upgrade to leopard, and so ill need to buy a dvd. im pretty sure ill jsut get it off ebay and spend the $80 or whatever it costs for it. i want 4gb of ram which as i understand is the max for this model. i just have a few questions:

can i upgrade the processor?
is the optical drive a super drive or combo drive? its slow burning dvds
is a video card upgrade worth it?
and will an ssd work on this? which one should i get? (from macsales or not)

if i can ill just buy most of the stuff off ebay used as it should be cheaper, and, well, the computer is used. so.

thanks guys.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

I just bought the exact same Power Mac, I don't have it yet, but should sometime next week.... I'll answer that I can anyway.

i know for sure i want to upgrade to leopard,

Yeah I've found Leopard to be a big step up from Tiger as far as usability and productivity goes, much more modern.

i want 4gb of ram which as i understand is the max for this model. i just have a few questions:

Correct, it has 4x RAM slots which seem to only be able to take 1GB of memory each, compared to the faster models of Power Mac which had 8x RAM slots.

can i upgrade the processor?

From what I understand, the CPU is mounted on a daughtercard, so theoretically it may be possible, but I don't know of anywhere that sells new G5 processors. Generally if you want a faster G5 CPU, you'd buy a faster G5 computer, but it won't really make a huge amount of difference since there is only so much a G5 can do.

is the optical drive a super drive or combo drive?

It's a Superdrive

is a video card upgrade worth it?

Only if you're going to be doing things that use it (gaming etc), if you can get your hands on a NVIDIA 6600 cheap though I would anyway, and the NVIDIA 6800 Ultra should be quite powerful.

 

[Nameci]

Nvidia 6600 is a PCIe not an AGP. The fastest would be the ATI 9800 for an 8x AGP.

 

[Tucom]

Nvidia 6600 is a PCIe not an AGP. The fastest would be the ATI 9800 for an 8x AGP.

That's actually false, with all due respect...PSIKE! Nah, JK good sir, but it's false as the fastest AGP Pro 8x GPU the older G5's can take are the Nvidia 6800 Ultra and the ATI Radeon X850XT, and I think some flashed PC cards, but the two aforementioned would eclipes the 9800, though the 9800 is still far faster than any stock GPU the G5's came with IIRC.

 

[zen.state]

That's actually false, with all due respect...PSIKE! Nah, JK good sir, but it's false as the fastest AGP Pro 8x GPU the older G5's can take are the Nvidia 6800 Ultra and the ATI Radeon X850XT, and I think some flashed PC cards, but the two aforementioned would eclipes the 9800, though the 9800 is still far faster than any stock GPU the G5's came with IIRC.

The GF 7800 would smoke a 6800 or a R 9800 wouldn't it? Those are still available in AGP also.

Edit:

These benchmarks show that the 7800 is indeed faster than the 9800 but it doesn't include 6800 numbers.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

You can upgrade to dual 2.0GHZ processors but tricky to find ones that are compatible with your motherboard. Also you will have to do a thermal calibration with the new CPUs with the Apple Service Diagnostics discs.

The upgrade will hardly be noticeable. 7800 and 6800 are still pretty expensive but 9800 are cheap, especially if you can find a PC version and flash it with a Mac rom.

Any SSD will basically work as long as it's SATA. You will also need a 2.5">3.5" HDD caddy.

 

[Tucom]

Correct banter aside it was for that an Nvidia 7800 or 6800 Ultra will leave the lesser powered 9800 Pro in the dust, or at least beat it by a significant amount.


So yeah, I thought that was clear haha.

 

[UnitedAlliance]

can i upgrade the processor?

Impossible.

is the optical drive a super drive or combo drive? its slow burning dvds

All PM G5 models shipped with a dvd burner.

is a video card upgrade worth it?

Yes. The stock card is extremely slow.

and will an ssd work on this?

They work with all computers.