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Gifted dp 450mhz g4
- Thread starter cw48494
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I'm going to assume that your dual 450 is a Gigabit Ethernet, as I don't think that particular configuration came in anything else.
The nice thing about these is that they can take 2gb of RAM(some later G4 towers deleted one RAM slot and thus maxed at 1.5gb). Get 4x512mb sticks-they're cheap now, and will really help the performance of the computer.
The GPU is-unfortunately-somewhat limited due to the 2x AGP slot in this system. Fortunately, if the computer is in base-model form still, it likely has a Rage 128, and virtually any card you install will be an improvement. If you want to run OS X exclusively-and in particular Tiger or Leopard-you will greatly benefit from a card that supports Core Image. Offhand, the only cards I know of that will work in a 2x slot are the nVidia 6200 and the Radeon 9800. The 6200 is only available as a flashed card.
If you want to retain the ability to boot OS 9 natively(i.e. not in classic mode) you don't a Core Image card as you will have no hardware acceleration. In that case, I'd suggest either a GeForce 4MX or a Radeon 9000. Both of these are roughly equivalent in performance. They are also inexpensive and readily available. They also work decent under OS X. Just as a caution, if you go with the 9000, be sure to install the correct extensions for it in OS 9 before installing the card. The GeForce 4Ti is the "king" of OS 9 graphics cards, although it's tough to find and can be expensive.
If your single 400 is a Sawtooth(AGP Graphics) all of the above also applies to it.
If, however, the single 400 is a Yikes!(PCI Graphics) your options are a bit more limited.
First of all, you can only put 1gb of RAM in these. 512mb sticks work perfectly fine, but are read as 256mb.
For the GPU in a Yikes, your "official" options above the Rage 128 that most shipped with are the Radeon 7000 and the Radeon 9200. The 7000 is generally easy to find inexpensively and will give a significant performance advantage over the Rage 128. The Radeon 9200 is tough to find(at least the Mac version) but is a great card.
Alternatively, a flashed GEForce 5200 will give you Core Image support. I have one Yikes! set up with this card along with the matching graphite 21" Trinitron CRT-this is a great combination.
The nice thing about these is that they can take 2gb of RAM(some later G4 towers deleted one RAM slot and thus maxed at 1.5gb). Get 4x512mb sticks-they're cheap now, and will really help the performance of the computer.
The GPU is-unfortunately-somewhat limited due to the 2x AGP slot in this system. Fortunately, if the computer is in base-model form still, it likely has a Rage 128, and virtually any card you install will be an improvement. If you want to run OS X exclusively-and in particular Tiger or Leopard-you will greatly benefit from a card that supports Core Image. Offhand, the only cards I know of that will work in a 2x slot are the nVidia 6200 and the Radeon 9800. The 6200 is only available as a flashed card.
If you want to retain the ability to boot OS 9 natively(i.e. not in classic mode) you don't a Core Image card as you will have no hardware acceleration. In that case, I'd suggest either a GeForce 4MX or a Radeon 9000. Both of these are roughly equivalent in performance. They are also inexpensive and readily available. They also work decent under OS X. Just as a caution, if you go with the 9000, be sure to install the correct extensions for it in OS 9 before installing the card. The GeForce 4Ti is the "king" of OS 9 graphics cards, although it's tough to find and can be expensive.
If your single 400 is a Sawtooth(AGP Graphics) all of the above also applies to it.
If, however, the single 400 is a Yikes!(PCI Graphics) your options are a bit more limited.
First of all, you can only put 1gb of RAM in these. 512mb sticks work perfectly fine, but are read as 256mb.
For the GPU in a Yikes, your "official" options above the Rage 128 that most shipped with are the Radeon 7000 and the Radeon 9200. The 7000 is generally easy to find inexpensively and will give a significant performance advantage over the Rage 128. The Radeon 9200 is tough to find(at least the Mac version) but is a great card.
Alternatively, a flashed GEForce 5200 will give you Core Image support. I have one Yikes! set up with this card along with the matching graphite 21" Trinitron CRT-this is a great combination.
So you probably have a Sawtooth or a Digital Audio. Lots of options.
The Radeon 9800 Pro (128mb) is about the best you can get as far as a graphics card. Be careful though as there was a G5 card that won't work in a G4. You're looking for the retail Mac version. ATI released a later special edition card with 256mb but they are rare.
You can also try a Fire GL, which is a popular card here. They are a couple of eBay vendors that sell them pre-flashed for you for about $70. They are known to work in MDDs and generally in the model you have.
Despite all reports, I've bought two cards for my Quicksilver and neither of them will work in this model.
Max ram will be 2GB if Sawtooth, 1.5GB if a DA.
You could also add a SATA card and get SATA drives if you like. There is a guide here in the forums. I bought one for $10, flashed it and my Quicksilver now has two 1TB SATA hard drives. The card I bought allows booting from SATA.
Additional Firewire ports and USB 2.0 is available. Sonnet has a few of these cards out there. My QS has one.
Lastly, CPU upgrades. Finding these are tough. They are scare and they go for over $250 on eBay just for single processors. The range is generally from 1.0 to 2.0Ghz though. Some are duals.
You're looking for Sonnet, Powerlogix, Giga Designs or Newertech when it comes to CPU upgrades.
The Radeon 9800 Pro (128mb) is about the best you can get as far as a graphics card. Be careful though as there was a G5 card that won't work in a G4. You're looking for the retail Mac version. ATI released a later special edition card with 256mb but they are rare.
You can also try a Fire GL, which is a popular card here. They are a couple of eBay vendors that sell them pre-flashed for you for about $70. They are known to work in MDDs and generally in the model you have.
Despite all reports, I've bought two cards for my Quicksilver and neither of them will work in this model.
Max ram will be 2GB if Sawtooth, 1.5GB if a DA.
You could also add a SATA card and get SATA drives if you like. There is a guide here in the forums. I bought one for $10, flashed it and my Quicksilver now has two 1TB SATA hard drives. The card I bought allows booting from SATA.
Additional Firewire ports and USB 2.0 is available. Sonnet has a few of these cards out there. My QS has one.
Lastly, CPU upgrades. Finding these are tough. They are scare and they go for over $250 on eBay just for single processors. The range is generally from 1.0 to 2.0Ghz though. Some are duals.
You're looking for Sonnet, Powerlogix, Giga Designs or Newertech when it comes to CPU upgrades.
Just going to point out the rest of the GPU options for 2X AGP Macs are: the the 9800 series (so 9800 pro LE SE etc) the 9700 series and 9500 series these you have to flash your self there is the Nvidia Geforce 6200 (flashing this one can be tricky if you dont machine a card specific ROM) and then the cheapest option with core image is the Geforce FX5200/5500 witch is an easy flash altho its not very fast card it is quite a bit better then a stock Rage 128... (the fastest 2X AGP card would be a Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro flashed and over clocked some, these where reference cards that had beefed up cooling Ie VRAM heatsinks) http://themacelite.wikidot.com/ati-radeon check this out for some more info on Radeon cards heh
Did you get the Apple factory dual 1ghz?
If so, you're going to find that it runs at 750mhz in the Sawtooth due to the bus speed differences. If it's an aftermarket dual 1ghz, you may find it to be plug and play(esp. if it's Sonnet or Newertech) or you may have to play with jumpers to get it running at full speed(esp. if it's a Giga).
If it's a factory processor, you're going to need to do two additional things
1. You absolutely must have a dual processor heatsink. The heatsink from your GigE would probably fit and work okay, but I'd personally be a bit uncomfortable with it on a dual 1ghz. This is a HOT processor(I have two of them, so can speak from experience) and the factory heatsink for them is substantially larger than the one on the earlier dual systems. I'd really not want to run one without the correct heatsink. In addition, the factory installation had a fan directly on the heatsink-I'd recommend fixing this up also.
2. In anything but a Quicksilver, you need to supply +12V to the 4th screw hole. All Quicksilver processors are designed to use this 4th screw hole for a +12V supply, and the computer won't work without it. You can easily tap an convenient 12V supply in the computer(a Molex HDD plug works as well as anything) but it's a bit more work to install.
3. If you bought a dual 1ghz out of an MDD G4, there's no hope of it working in a Sawtooth.
Just as a small correction, if it's a dual 450 there's virtually no chance it's a DA. Also, I'm not aware of any DP Sawtooths(Sawteeth?).
If you see an dual 450 or dual 500, you can pretty much count on it being a GigE.
The only DP DA I'm aware of is the dual 533.
Thanks Bunn. I'm always on shaky ground when it comes to anything pre-Quicksilver.
Thanks Bunn. I'm always on shaky ground when it comes to anything pre-Quicksilver.
And there's something a bit disturbing about the fact that I can look at the processor configuration and know what it is...