Upgrading PowerMac G5

[gangst]

Hi,

Posting to clear up a few questions I have.

Firstly, I plan to take on the task of formatting and reinstalling the important stuff on my Mac. I have had it coming up to 3 years and it is getting a bit long in the tooth on start up and is not as nippy as my brothers new MacBook. The PowerMac has two 500GB hard drives which came with it when purchased from Apple. Since purchasing I have always had 'Macintosh HD' and 'Hard Drive 2'. I am now considering setting these up in a RAID format so 'Macintosh HD' will show up with 1TB rather than 500GB. Is this worth doing or is it more 'sensible' and 'accessible' to have the two hard drives?

Secondly, my PowerMac has 4GB RAM. I am planning on upgrading to 8GB or more. Currently I have 4GB in 1GB DIMMS. Can I use 2GB or 4GB DIMMS alongside my existing 1GB DIMMS, or should they all be the same size.


Thanks for any helpful replies.

 

[AppleNewton]

3 Years without a reinstall?
If so, not too shabby, haha.

I'd say go for the RAID solution definitely, it will feel a bit more snappier and quicker.
Since you want the full 1TB of RAID, if you go with RAID0 I'd definitely a 1TB back up drive in addition to it aswell.
In the event a RAID0 fails, all data is lost.
Raid1 just mirrors the 500 to the other 500, which may be a decent option for you however mainly for back up purposes.

Otherwise RAID0 is incredibly fast, and having a back up drive (external eSata, or FireWire drive/enclosure will ensure you have the best possible options for your RAID set up regardless of which one you go with)


As for the Memory, if I recall correctly;
4-Memory slots = total of 8GB of memory
8-Memory slots = total of 16GB of memory

so you should be safe, as long as theyre the same type and speed.
It doesnt matter the size of the individual sticks, as long as theyre paired properly.

I think i had 2x512, 2x256 (IIRC) and 2x1GB in my G5 1.8 Single-CPU




hope that was helpful =)

 

[gangst]

Thanks for the reply.

I didn't realise it was such standard practise to reinstall. I have only upgraded from panther to tiger and then to leopard and they have never been clean installs.

I hope performance is well improved then.

 

[slu]

The iMac in my sig has never had a re-install. Just an upgrade to Tiger. And my wife's G4 Powerbook has never had a re-install either.

And I agree that a RIAD0 would be a performance improvement, but an external back up is a must, as it should be for everyone though.

 

[AppleNewton]

Yeah reinstalls arent really necessary alot (only when some files get corrupted or something etc), but i tend to fresh up the system every year and half or so, but thats just out of habit.

and like slu said, regardless of RAID, a critical backup of your system/data is crucial.

 

[gangst]

I am tempted to go with the RAID0 setup, do I need any hardware for the computer to do this?

The only thing putting me off is investing in a 1TB back up drive. I have never really made backups of my files, but I understand that I should.

EDIT: When I say hardware for my computer, I mean do I need a RAID card or something like that to make a RAID0 configuration?