Dual G5 Trouble
I received my dual G5 system yesterday and began using in a production environment. I loaded After Effects on the machine then started transferring large gig file over the network. I immediately noticed that the transfer to the hard drive was sluggish in comparison to the G4. I then tryed transfering a file to itself just another folder. This as well seemed sluggish. Finally I began a heavy render in After Effect and noticed that it was taking way to long. I tried the same render on the G4 and it rendered 3 times faster. Could there be issues with the new Serial ATA drives that apple it using, or am I the unlucky one that got a lemon hard drive?
Comments
Did you check your network? What speed is the ethernet 10bt, 100bt, 1000bt (not what is it supposed to be- check out the switch/hub) ?
Seemed sluggish? How long did it take, in seconds? When you do it on a G4, how long does it take - the file duplication? What kind of drives do you have on the G4?
How much RAM do you have on the G5?
All these things, and more, play a role in how fast a dupe is made.
Network traffic also plays a role in how fast a file will transfer. If you are using a 100bt hub and others are using the network, they affect how fast your transfer occurs. P'raps this should be a Genius Bar matter?
thanks!
Also, download a copy of Cocktail from www.versiontracker.com, and use it to force the ethernet on the Mac to use gigE, just for kicks.
The copying is very likely an issue with the OS. The hardware is more than capable of taking the information as fast as the HD can send it. Typically, the OS asks for X amount of data, as it determines from its available memory and other in-process business, the HD delivers it to the RAM, then the OS copies it back to the HD.
The HD is pretty much solid regarding it's output speed, but the 10.2.7-G5 OS is very much a hack. A test of this might be to copy the same file using the Terminal or SIngle User Mode.
You'd use the cp command.
I think the syntax is
PROMPT> cp sourcefile targetfile
Yes, those are merely spaces between the command and between the filenames. Please note that the filename should NOT have spaces in the name (just for this test, since unix deals with spaces with funky substitute characters that make typing the filenames a pain.)
When the prompt returns, the copy is done. If this is much faster than the GUI copy, the the OS is the bottleneck.
As usuall, make sure you have a backup hidden away in case your copy screws the pooch in some nearly impossible way.
-- Mark
without the quotes.
Now you'll see an updating list of the processes going on, as well as some information about the RAM.
See if there's anything taking away a lot of CPU % or/and if you're experiencing a lot of pageouts to the harddrive.
Both can bog down a machine to almost zero.
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