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Upgrade single G5 to dual possible?
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Cute, but no that's not what I meant.Originally posted by jxyama
yes, if by "upgrade" you meant getting another PowerMac with another single G5 in it. now you have dual G5!
this kind of "upgrade" is not readily available on the PC side either, not at the desktop level.
A friend is about to purchase a new Mac(I've been pushing him that way). He doesn't want to lay out massive cash as he's still pretty firmly in the PC world.
Main issues: Wants at least the 20" screen, so all of a sudden, the new iMac is a possibility, the old ones weren't.
Wants to do home photo/video editing. I realize the iMac is enough, I use the original iMac for my photo/video and it's fine. That said, if I was buying today, I would buy a G5 as I think the price difference is worth the extra life you'll get from the machine a few years down the road. So, I think the best move right now might be the old 1.8 at $2099 due to PCI-X and 8gb max ram, and he asked if he could upgrade in the future to dual. I think the new dual 1.8 is extremely tempting, as he was leaning towards the old 1.8 +20" display, and thus he would be "upgrading" for $100 compared to two days ago
We'll ignore the fact that it's $400 at today's prices...
i know it's not the "upgrade" you meant.
sorry if i sounded mean or sarcastic. but the answer stands... it's not possible. so your friend will need to decide what kind of investment he wants to make for the longevity...
dual is not very useful unless you will be using dual processor aware programs. if you were thinking iMac will do the job for you, i'd think a better investment would be to get the 23" monitor.
the discontinued single 1.8 will be on sale now, no?
sorry if i sounded mean or sarcastic. but the answer stands... it's not possible. so your friend will need to decide what kind of investment he wants to make for the longevity...
dual is not very useful unless you will be using dual processor aware programs. if you were thinking iMac will do the job for you, i'd think a better investment would be to get the 23" monitor.
the discontinued single 1.8 will be on sale now, no?
yup, $2099, like I said above, and I think that's the right move.Originally posted by jxyama
i know it's not the "upgrade" you meant.
sorry if i sounded mean or sarcastic. but the answer stands... it's not possible. so your friend will need to decide what kind of investment he wants to make for the longevity...
dual is not very useful unless you will be using dual processor aware programs. if you were thinking iMac will do the job for you, i'd think a better investment would be to get the 23" monitor.
the discontinued single 1.8 will be on sale now, no?
But thanks for the info, I'm just trying to create another happy switcher.
The OS is optimized for two processors, but there are not many programs that are. I think that is what jxyama is trying to get at...
The only way to upgrade a single to a dual is with a complete new motherboard, tell you friend to wait a few weeks and new faster g5's should be coming and i wouldnt even doubt a G5 imac showing itself in the next few months and a faster new emac. consumer line needs a lot of help and Big Steve knows this.
@Dont Hurt Me
Why do you think so (only way single->dual is a complete new motherboard)?
I'm no technician, but there a fittings for a second CPU-Card on the motherboard of the singel G5 1.8Ghz.
AND, why should PowerLogix say so, if it isn't.
Greetings! - and please excuse my bad English
disdoph
Why do you think so (only way single->dual is a complete new motherboard)?
I'm no technician, but there a fittings for a second CPU-Card on the motherboard of the singel G5 1.8Ghz.
AND, why should PowerLogix say so, if it isn't.
Greetings! - and please excuse my bad English
disdoph
With the new design of the G5s each proc has it's own bank of memory and a dedicated channel for each proc to it's own memory bank. The Single 1.6s and 1.8s only have 1 bank of memory. The Dualies have 2 banks. Now unless they are putting a seperate memory bank on the actual dual proc card then it isn't possible. I'm fairly confident that there isn't a second socket for a second proc on any board other then the Dual 1.8 and Dual 2.0.
If their will be a Dualie upgrade it will be unlike anything we have today with the G4s
If their will be a Dualie upgrade it will be unlike anything we have today with the G4s
Nope, WRONG... the G5s do not have dedicated banks of memory to each CPU.
All the G5s are SHARED dual channel DDR, the SP G5 1.6 has 2 banks/pairs of dual channel DDR (4 DIMMs slots) while all the rest have 4 banks/pairs (8 DIMMs).
And all these slots are share via the U3 Memory controller to the CPU module's dedicated FSBs.
Right, there isn't a second socket for the 2nd processor, unlike the G4s the G5 each have a dedicated FSB to the U3 Memory Controller -- then out to dual channel DDR memory, and the Hypertransport PCI slots with passthrough to the Keylargo 2 I/O chip.
Since the single lacks the socket, one would need to be added -- which is a lot of soldering and chances to mess up the motherboard.
If all of them need pairs of DIMMs and say 128-bit memory bus, then they're all dual channel.
Take a look at ...
http://developer.apple.com/document...Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G5/PowerMacG5/index.html
There's a ....
And a bunch of details....
Memory bus: The main memory bus is 128 bit 333 MHz or 400 MHz. For more information, see Main Memory Bus.
... which basically is saying dual channel, since regual DDR memory is 64-bit.
G5 Upgrade
I just talked with apple and those who have a G5 1.8 single do in fact have the ability to upgrade to a dual processor version....it's simple. Purchase (from an authorized Apple vendor) the additional G5 processor module along with the fan, plug them in and PRESTO you're in business. By the way, the single 1.8 G5 comes complete with a dual memory bay configuration. Now the only trick left is to find an authorized Apple dealer who will sell you the parts.
I just talked with apple and those who have a G5 1.8 single do in fact have the ability to upgrade to a dual processor version....it's simple. Purchase (from an authorized Apple vendor) the additional G5 processor module along with the fan, plug them in and PRESTO you're in business. By the way, the single 1.8 G5 comes complete with a dual memory bay configuration. Now the only trick left is to find an authorized Apple dealer who will sell you the parts.
Thank you SunBaked for your words of wisdom.
If after 6 months you are still oblivious to the most "basic" inner worings of the G5 then something is truely wrong. If you want a dual Proc Desktop, where each proc access's its own memory, buy an AMD Opteron system, with a Tyan motherboard.
Note: read my quote.
I think dual processor is totally worth the money if you use more than one app at a time. The OS will distribute tasks across both processors. Even when you're really beating on your machine, it will still feel nice and responsive.
Also(see "Core MacOS X and Unix Programming"), to take advantage of multiple processors you simply need to multithread your application. Once you multithread your app, the OS will distribute the threads across multiple processors.
There are a lot of apps out there, besides the finder, that are multithreaded. It can be advantageous to multithread even if its not to take advantage of multiple processors.
crackpip
Sorry, but this is not correct.
Single Proc G5s might have only 4 DIMM slots, but there is no reason why 8 DIMM slots can't be utilized. Both processors do not have dedicated DRAM slots that each uses.
The difficulty in 'upgrading' a single processor G5 system is that the socket for the second processor just isn't there. And its a pretty delicate thing to put on that you can't just solder it on.
PowerLogix could do a trade-in, where they trade you a motherboard with 2 sockets, while you give them your motherboard with 1 socket. But, in essence, you have just traded your single proc computer for a dual proc computer.
Mac upgrades is done only one way. eBay the old computer and use the money to get another one.