Power Mac G5 - Quad, upgrade options

[LAHegarty]

Bought myself a Power Mac G5 Quad, you know the PCIe one, something keep drawing me back to them.

What are my upgrade options?

- SSD?
- Graphics?
- Raid card, ect?
- Whatever you can think of...?

Also software essentials? (Other than TenFourFox)

I'm running 10.5.8 at present.

 

[dustinschings]

Did you search for "G5 Quad Upgrades" anywhere? I feel that this system is quite popular due to it being the best PPC made, so there is a LOT of talk on the net about upgrades.

-SSD, get one with good onboard Garbage Collection
- Graphics, go for a GeForce 7800 for fastest, Quadra FX4500 for performance/price value, or a GeForce 6800 for a good card at a good price.
-RAID card, I am not too familiar, will have to look it up or wait for someone else to answer.
-Go watch The PowerPC Hub's last video series he just wrapped up. He maxes out a Quad G5 quite nicely!
-Software, see here: http://ppcarchive.dyniform.net/software.html

 

[Orizence]

I would recommend one of the older Intel SSDs that are natively Data 2, and for graphics id recommend the Radeon X1900 as it seems to be the best for some gaming depending on the game. As far as PCI-E Raid\Sats cards I have been on the hunt for a bootable one for a while and cant seem to find one.

 

[LAHegarty]

Did you search for "G5 Quad Upgrades" anywhere?

Yes, here and Google but it's nice to hear from you'all too. Thaks for the link, I will also check out the PowerPC Hubs videos.

I'll try one of the SSD's I have here first, though might just get a pair of VelociRaptors and raid 0 them up for retro fun.

 

[bunnspecial]

Graphics, go for a GeForce 7800 for fastest, Quadra FX4500 for performance/price value, or a GeForce 6800 for a good card at a good price.

This isn't quite the case. The FX4500 is faster than the 7800GT, although it is a workstation card and not a gaming card.

For all out speed, though, the X1900 is the best although unfortunately they can be difficult to find.

The low end card is the Geforce 6600. It's not a bad card, but there are much better options for not a lot more money.

 

[dustinschings]

bunn is right. I was rushing a bit, and didnt want to go into more details, sorry. That said, watch that series from PPC Hub, he maxes his out and is able to watch 4k videos!

 

[Orizence]

For all out speed, though, the X1900 is the best although unfortunately they can be difficult to find.

He could always flash a X1900 or X1950. If anyone needs I could also dig up my X1900 roms that I used to flash my X1900XT 256mb edition.

 

[bunnspecial]

He could always flash a X1900 or X1950. If anyone needs I could also dig up my X1900 roms that I used to flash my X1900XT 256mb edition.

That is true. I should do a ROM dump of my card, although I'll have to defer to someone else(like @LightBulbFun) if it could be used as-is or if it needs to be reduced.

 

[Orizence]

That is true. I should do a ROM dump of my card, although I'll have to defer to someone else(like @LightBulbFun) if it could be used as-is or if it needs to be reduced.

They are all usually the same I flashed three cards and they all had the same rom size (X1900XT 512, 2 x X1900XT 256, X1950). Sometimes all that needs to be done is the DEVID changed and thats about it. There was two places to do it I just cant remember where. But I should still have my modded X1900XT, X1950XT, and possibly the original X1900GT rom.

But at the end of the day, unless you have some super odd revision it shouldn't need to be reduced, and unless its flashed to another X1900GT the rom cant quite be used stock without a few modifications.

 

[LAHegarty]

Could I flash this card 'VCQ FX 4500 X2-PCIE' to work in a G5?

 

[Orizence]

Could I flash this card 'VCQ FX 4500 X2-PCIE' to work in a G5?

No, I dont think you could flash an X2 to work, I'm pretty sure you're stuck with a single GPU card.

 

[0248294]

Other than what you mentioned, and RAM, any hardware upgrades left are really only for more special uses. I mean, one could install a high end compatible audio card for audio production, or a SCSI card for interfacing with SCSI devices, but those things might be useless to you if you're not planning on doing stuff like that. So, the question is, what do you want to do with your PMG5?

 

[LAHegarty]

So, the question is, what do you want to do with your PMG5?

Facebook.

But really, a bit of everything, video/music production, web browsing, heating my house, etc.

And I like to spec my computer out because I find it enjoyable.

I have a few really nice firewire sound cards already so I'm not looking for an internal card atm, as for SCSI card I didn't need one I'll use an SSD internally and firewire 800 drive externally.

 

[bunnspecial]

Facebook.

But really, a bit of everything, video/music production, web browsing, heating my house, etc.

And I like to spec my computer out because I find it enjoyable.

I have a few really nice firewire sound cards already so I'm not looking for an internal card atm, as for SCSI card I didn't need one I'll use an SSD internally and firewire 800 drive externally.

I'm glad that you don't need SCSI.

Finding a G5-compatible PCI SCSI can be...interesting...to say the least. I just bought what I think is about the 7th or 8th SCSI card for my PCI G5. I have high hopes of it working, as I ALMOST got the PC version of the same card working.

With PCIe, you have an even bigger battle on your hands. I've not found any conclusive reports of a particular model of PCIe SCSI card working in a G5. Most of the suggestions I've seen are quite expensive, so I've just settled for the fasted PCI/AGP G5 for my SCSI needs.

 

[LAHegarty]

Re: Garbage Collection.
How do I know if my SSD has 'Garbage Collection' on an unbranded SSD?

Finding a G5-compatible PCI SCSI can be

Yeah, it's a shame there weren't a few more generations of PCIe G5's then there would be more supported hardware and more choice out there.

 

[bobesch]

If you're havy-using TFF make sure to set the "browser.sessionstore.interval" to a much higher interval. Otherwise TFF (or Firefox) will update the current browser-session very frequently with draws speed from the whole system and stores up to 1-10 GB data per day onto your hard drive/SSD
You can change settings by:
about:config
browser.sessionstore.interval (15000=preset)
I increased the interval for my Firefox/TFF-browsers to 3600000 = 1h
https://www.servethehome.com/firefox-is-eating-your-ssd-here-is-how-to-fix-it/

 

[LAHegarty]

Do we know of any SATA2 cards that work and boot with G5 PCIe?

 

[MagicBoy]

Sonnet did one : http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_e4i.html

 

[LAHegarty]

It's not a bootable card, though. http://www.sonnettech.com/support/charts/tempocards/index.html

 

[LAHegarty]

If you're havy-using TFF make sure to set the "browser.sessionstore.interval" to a much higher interval. Otherwise TFF (or Firefox) will update the current browser-session very frequently with draws speed from the whole system and stores up to 1-10 GB data per day onto your hard drive/SSD
You can change settings by:
about:config
browser.sessionstore.interval (15000=preset)
I increased the interval for my Firefox/TFF-browsers to 3600000 = 1h
https://www.servethehome.com/firefox-is-eating-your-ssd-here-is-how-to-fix-it/

WOW, Just changed to the advised 1hr and it's now way more responsive on my PowerBook G4. Super helpful, thank you
@bobesch

 

[macmee]

Where did you find it to buy if you dont mind me asking?

I've been watching ebay for probably the past 2 months and I haven't found any quads there, mostly DP 1.8Ghz

 

[LAHegarty]

Where did you find it to buy if you don't mind me asking?

I found it on eBay UK. My advice would be to keep looking and a lot of the time the seller WILL NOT write in the title that it's a quad Power Mac so check the description and also look at the sellers photos, look out for the grey antenna (Grey strip on the left) and 3x USB ports (Bottom right) rather than 2x this will indicate DDR2 model. (Photo for reference)

 

[Mileham]

This isn't quite the case. The FX4500 is faster than the 7800GT, although it is a workstation card and not a gaming card.

For all out speed, though, the X1900 is the best although unfortunately they can be difficult to find.

The low end card is the Geforce 6600. It's not a bad card, but there are much better options for not a lot more money.

Does the FX4500 require flashing

This isn't quite the case. The FX4500 is faster than the 7800GT, although it is a workstation card and not a gaming card.

For all out speed, though, the X1900 is the best although unfortunately they can be difficult to find.

The low end card is the Geforce 6600. It's not a bad card, but there are much better options for not a lot more money.

Does the FX4500 need to be flashed? I have a Quad I'd like to upgrade as well, but I have no Windows box to flash with, as I understand the process.

 

[LAHegarty]

Does the FX4500 require flashing

If you can find one made for Power Mac it will not require flashing.

Otherwise, look here for flashing guide -
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/flashing-a-pc-nvidia-quadro-fx-4500-for-use-in-a-g5.1991875/

 

[Mileham]

If you can find one made for Power Mac it will not require flashing.

Otherwise, look here for flashing guide -
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/flashing-a-pc-nvidia-quadro-fx-4500-for-use-in-a-g5.1991875/

Thanks -- I may try this. Looks like Mac-ready ones are selling for about $90.