Three big G5 questions

[slughead]

I'm planning on being one of the "suckers" who buys a 2.5 ghz (it's an off season so this is when I usually buy my apples)
Ok mainly I have a question about RAM:
I read here that "any old twin package of PC3200 will do", so.. will this do?
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-480&depa=1

Even with my educator discount, when you factor in sales tax I save 79% per MB with this deal!.. provided it's going to work

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My other question has to do with video cards:

With the X800XT AND GFX6800 already out, the 9800XT is now obsolete. However, for mac users it might be the best thing for a while. When will the Apple versions of these cards come out? either one for god's sake.

If it's not for a while, I'll get the 9800XT, if it's soon, I'll get the 5200 and have $340 (educator + ST) extra to spend on a new card.

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Soft RAID:

If I get the 160 gig and buy another 3rd party SATA 160GB 7200RPM drive (guaranteed to be a DIFFERENT make/model), can I link them with soft raid and boot off them?

Also, is it reliable? is it faster? by how much?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I'm planning on being one of the "suckers" who buys a 2.5 ghz (it's an off season so this is when I usually buy my apples)
Ok mainly I have a question about RAM:
I read here that "any old twin package of PC3200 will do", so.. will this do?
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-480&depa=1

Even with my educator discount, when you factor in sales tax I save 79% per MB with this deal!.. provided it's going to work

---
My other question has to do with video cards:

With the X800XT AND GFX6800 already out, the 9800XT is now obsolete. However, for mac users it might be the best thing for a while. When will the Apple versions of these cards come out? either one for god's sake.

If it's not for a while, I'll get the 9800XT, if it's soon, I'll get the 5200 and have $340 (educator + ST) extra to spend on a new card.

---
Soft RAID:

If I get the 160 gig and buy another 3rd party SATA 160GB 7200RPM drive (guaranteed to be a DIFFERENT make/model), can I link them with soft raid and boot off them?

Also, is it reliable? is it faster? by how much?

1. The good news is that most RAM does work in the G5s. The bad news is that RAM with aggressive timings will likely be throttled down to a speed the G5 likes or even cause the G5 to refuse to boot.
2. Until we get an announcement that someone who makes graphics cards has done the engineering work needed to get the x800 to work with Mac OS X's Open Firmware (which usually takes a while), we won't see the x800 in Macs. My advice would be to go ahead and get the 9800XT and upgrade it when the Mac version of the x800 is released.
3. The nice thing about RAID is it isn't very picky about make and model of the drives involved, as long as they're equal capacity - so it should work and be bootable. Reliability and speed for any given RAID array of the same type (0,1,5,etc.) is about the same compared to similar arrays. I don't have any figures for the Mac OS X implementation, since I don't use RAID.

 

[dopefiend]

Ok mainly I have a question about RAM:

just remember, it doesn't support ECC memory.

 

[Sun Baked]

just remember, it doesn't support ECC memory.

Nor does it support...

DIMMs with any of the following features are not supported in the Power Mac G5 computer: registers or buffers, PLLs, ECC, parity, or EDO RAM.

& the SPD EEPROM needs to be programmed.

 

[titaniumducky]

I'm planning on being one of the "suckers" who buys a 2.5 ghz (it's an off season so this is when I usually buy my apples)
Ok mainly I have a question about RAM:
I read here that "any old twin package of PC3200 will do", so.. will this do?
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-480&depa=1

Even with my educator discount, when you factor in sales tax I save 79% per MB with this deal!.. provided it's going to work

---
My other question has to do with video cards:

With the X800XT AND GFX6800 already out, the 9800XT is now obsolete. However, for mac users it might be the best thing for a while. When will the Apple versions of these cards come out? either one for god's sake.

If it's not for a while, I'll get the 9800XT, if it's soon, I'll get the 5200 and have $340 (educator + ST) extra to spend on a new card.

---
Soft RAID:

If I get the 160 gig and buy another 3rd party SATA 160GB 7200RPM drive (guaranteed to be a DIFFERENT make/model), can I link them with soft raid and boot off them?

Also, is it reliable? is it faster? by how much?

Just pick it up from Crucial. It's (comparatively) cheap, it's high quality, it has a lifetime warranty, and they figure out exactly what kind of RAM you need. Just choose Apple, then your machine, then pickup the sticks.

 

[slughead]

1. The good news is that most RAM does work in the G5s. The bad news is that RAM with aggressive timings will likely be throttled down to a speed the G5 likes or even cause the G5 to refuse to boot.

Apparently, the best deal I can find on apple RAM has me playing 25% more for the "works with apple" stamp.. It also ends up costing more than using my educator discount to just buy the RAM From apple to begin with!

I find that timings changes are mostly to make RAM purchases proprietary. I've worked with compaq and companies like that who use strange timings so you won't dare buy 3rd party (even if your warranty is dead). Like we don't spend enough on macs already, they have to nickel and dime us on components!
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I read in the other forum that SoftRAID using different model hard drives on a G5 (he had a 2ghz) can have some problems booting and being stable.. BIG problems .. It would appear that I need to get a hardware RAID controller compatible with OFirmware and two matched drives. Unfortunately that means spending a couple hundred more and I'll end up with an extra drive (a maxtor no less *shudder*).

Of course, I can't afford all that so it also means I'm not going to be running RAID.. at all. And further more, in my experience as a built-from-scratch PC user.. Maxtor blows! Why is apple using their stuff??
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The video card issue is sort of bothersome. Apparently the Radeon 9800 special edition (which apple does not offer) is available for mac and is faster than the regular mac XT. Also, if I downgrade to the FX5200, the $340 I save almost buys the special edition (Macmall: $369), plus I get a *free* FX5200 to stick in my DP800!

So for $29 more, I get two video cards, one of which is faster and has more features than the original.
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BTW I know it sounds like I'm putting down apple a bunch, and honestly sometimes I do get pissed, but I really don't mind buying 3rd party parts, as long as the OEM allows me to do so

Since Apple has sufficiently pissed me off today, I will be putting off my purchase till the end of the month (I need a WWDC to cheer me up )

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Mord]

you cant get the dual 12.5 with a 5200 it would be a downgrade from the 5200 even if it was available get the 9600xt but otherwise get the 9800xt it's by no means obsolete.

what are you using it for? games graphics? the power of the 9800xt is wasted on anything 2d.

what's wrong with maxtor i have a 120GB 7200-rpm HD it's just fine in my cube and quite fast too

 

[slughead]

you cant get the dual 12.5 with a 5200 it would be a downgrade from the 5200 even if it was available get the 9600xt but otherwise get the 9800xt it's by no means obsolete.

Courtesy Tom's hardware:

.

.

.

See that there is what one might call "obsolete." BTW, since we're talking next generation graphics, I included next generation tests, since we don't need the 9800XT to play UT 1 or quake 3, we need them for farcr, doom 3, and UT 2004.

what are you using it for? games graphics? the power of the 9800xt is wasted on anything 2d.

Yes, actually I would like to play games on occasion. Especially since I'm paying about the same for the 9800XT as PC users would pay for the X800. Not to troll, but this is a $3000+ machine we're talking about here

what's wrong with maxtor i have a 120GB 7200-rpm HD it's just fine in my cube and quite fast too

My friends and I have owned 6 maxtor drives over the past 8 years. They are all dead now.

Failure rates on HDs are hard to find anywhere, your best bet is anecdotal. Anecdotally to me: Maxtors are bad.

Also, 5 of my friends work for a subcontractor to HP/compaq, Maxtors are disproportionately found dead (and we're talking about thousands of drives here).