upgrading dual 1.8 to ??

[wheely]

hi, new here, i have a dual g5 1.8 and was wondering if its possible to upgrade it, by either purchasing faster cpu or new motherboard... is this possible or at all feesable..

also i bought samsung ram for it, right specs (2 of them) wont work..

thanks in advance.

 

[motulist]

In most cases these days, the cash it'd take to get a significant power upgrade is about the same amount of money you'd need after selling your current machine to have enough dough to buy a brand new machine. And a brand new machine will always be faster and more capable than an upgraded machine.

So in most cases you should sell your current machine and put your upgrade money towards the difference between the sold price and a new machine.

 

[tersono]

I'd agree with Motulist above. Macs hold their value pretty well, so your most economical way forward is to sell the G5 and replace it with a new machine, whether an iMac or a Mac Pro (either will be dramatically faster than your G5)

 

[wheely]

thanks guys. im looking at a dual mac mini 2ghz with 2 gb ram. that will probably be faster than my old 1,8, right?

 

[tersono]

thanks guys. im looking at a dual mac mini 2ghz with 2 gb ram. that will probably be faster than my old 1,8, right?

Yup - other than disk access that'll be about as fast as the 2Ghz iMac I'm typing this on, which leaves our dual 1.8 G5 here at the office in the dust....

 

[MIDI_EVIL]

Please bare in mind, that although you may be upgrading your speed, you are downgrading enormously on upgradeability.

Don't forget the Mac Mini uses laptop HD's and laptop RAM.

What did you originally need the Power Mac for?

 

[motulist]

As long as you don't need PCI slots or very fast disk speeds, then a new low end machine like a mac mini or iMac will almost always blow away a 2 year old high end machine from that era. Plus, there are system mods for the mac mini or iMac that allow them to use the very high speed drives also if you need it. Even after adding in the system modification for the high speed drive if you need it, the modded mac mini will still be a much better use of your upgrade dollars rather than buying upgraded components for an old computer.

 

[wheely]

its for audio applications. i have the main older g5 tower, a 1.8 mac mini, g3 beige, and pc laptop. when i got the g5 i had to upgrade to pci for my audio card. but now im gonna get another mac mini, to build a portable setup like the other mac mini. suppose ill need another audio card.....

anyway, so buying a huge tower is a bit pointless really, cause all you can change in the RAM and HD. thats terrible. I suppose the mac mini is slower by the 5,400 harddisk , right, but otherwise its the same as a tower? i would get it with 2 gb ram.

 

[PMR]

Depending on what display you have you may consider buying an imac.
If you have a cheap monitor, sell everything and go for the imac and forget the hdd and 2gb of ram bottleneck; but if you have an ACD you might consider the mini as an option, since downgrading monitor quality is *****ty.

 

[motulist]

In audio application disk speed is a definite factor to consider. A slower disc will limit your track count (though it'll still probably be high enough for most song recordings) and it will make it take longer to actually begin playback after every time you hit the play button.

If I were you I'd seek out a forum on the web that's dedicated to the particular DAW software you use and ask them there if a mac mini's internal drive will be enough for your particular needs. Also remember that you can get an external drive that'll be more than fast enough for any recording.