Getting the Most out of a Dual 1GHz ?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I?m finally doing the GIANT upgrade



From: PowerCenter Pro 210Mhz

with a G3 400Mhz XLR8 CPU Card

VST Firewire/USB PCI (crap) Card



To : Dual 1GHz (on it?s way!)



My work is mostly Animation

-3D and Stop motion

Main Apps

After Effects 5.0 ( soon upgrading to 5.5)

PhotoShop 6.0 (soon upgrading to 7.0)

Strata Studio Pro 2.5.3

(don?t laugh It works for my needs,

but I might upgrade to Maya (big$)

or Strata 3D 3.x when its OSX ready)



I?m now ready to invest in upgrades for my 1Ghz box



My Question to you all is, if you had a 1Ghz tower to invest in,

What upgrades would you make, in what order, and why?



I just bought 2

21 inch

CTR Hewlett Packard Monitors A4576A

(1920 x 1440 Sony Trinitron tube

$350 CDN each



Thoughs?

Sell the GeForce4MX Card and get the Ti Card or Radeon 8500 ?

Ram- CL2 or CL3 ?



I almost bought a Dual 500Mhz but waited for DDR Ram <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> then 800 MHz

just can't wait for the DDR-G5



I?m happy with the Dual 1Ghz even if DDR Ram is around the corner again

I?ve enjoyed the board for over a year before the server melt down.

Glad to see the AI world is stable,

even if the ?Future Hardware? game has slowed down

Thanks for your help.



[ 03-17-2002: Message edited by: R-age ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    stimulistimuli Posts: 564member
    CL-2 ram. I prefer eshop.macsales.com for that sort of stuff: cheap, AND cl2.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Cancel order. Wait a few months for the G5 and then wait some more when it doesn't come.



    Just kidding. You'll probably notice a huge speed boost over your previous machine, so besides RAM, I wouldn't add anything to it at all. Software is always a good investment that you can take with you to future machines. I definitely wouldn't touch the video card unless you're really interested in playing games, and even then, it's not enough of a performance upgrade, you should at least skip a generation before you upgrade the video (but only if you plan to keep the machine for a long time -- see below.)



    Really, get RAM and nothing else. If a new and improved DDR MoBo gets released before year's end, you can sell your current machine and get newer one. It should hold its value quite well if you don't let too many generations go by without selling. The difference between the sale of your DP 1Ghz and the purchase of a future machine will probably give you a lot more bang for the buck than upgrading things a piece at a time.



    Depending on what the major 3-D players do for OSX, you might find yourself wanting more power sooner rather than later. It should be exponentially faster than your current set-up, but still, this may proove to be an interm machine for you, so don't throw too much money at it untill you see what Apple does to better it.
  • Reply 3 of 14
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    Again gotta tell everyone that Maya for OSX is NOT MP aware
  • Reply 4 of 14
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    overclock it to dual 1.2 ghz of course
  • Reply 5 of 14
    r-ager-age Posts: 21member
    my dual 1GHz is finally here

    day 1 -so far so good

    The GeForce 4 MX does fash once and a while(i don't like the Flashes)

    i'm going for a ATI 8500 Card

    what's the best ADC to VGA adapter?

    what's the best 2nd internal HDdrive to get (80-100GB)

    i think i'll go with a 1 GB Ram Kit (2-2-2)



    i know maya is not MP ready but Strata 3D is

    as far as OC 1000Mhz is good for now

    i'll be having lots of OC fun with my old PCP 210Mhz with a hardy xlr8 G3 400 CPU card



    but for now i want to beef-up my new Dual 1GHz!



    [ 03-27-2002: Message edited by: R-age ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 14
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    Go for the ATI 8500



    It also comes with a DVI to VGA adaptor so that you can hook up TWO VGA monitors



    I suggest you to look for either Cinema 4D or Lightwave 7....they both are OS X native



    Oh yeah. Upgrade to AE 5.5 asap. The 3D layer rendering is much faster than version 5.



    As for hard drive. I can suggest you every brand BUT IBM. IBM's Deathstar is ranked as the most problematic hd in the market. I had three and they all died within 6 months (one 12 months)



    Seagate makes very quiet drive.



    [ 03-27-2002: Message edited by: Leonis ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 14
    prestonpreston Posts: 219member
    why wait for software



    pirate it!



    just kidding.





    Keep in mind that running your old apps in Classic will still smoke your old system, so I wouldn't feel pressured to upgrade right away



    Pres
  • Reply 8 of 14
    r-ager-age Posts: 21member
    found this at ramjet <a href="http://www.ramjet.com/g42001.asp"; target="_blank">http://www.ramjet.com/g42001.asp</a>;

    is this true?



    CAS Latency:

    For the 512mb PC-133 DIMM for G4, there is no such thing as a CL2 IC chip. Any claim by a manufacturer or reseller that they have CL2 512's is actually false. They are reprogramming the SPD chip on the module to tell the computer that the RAM is CL2, but it is still CL3 RAM, and it will not perform any faster. This is why Apple's spec calls for CL3 RAM in the G4.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    interesting......
  • Reply 10 of 14
    smalmsmalm Posts: 677member
    [quote]Originally posted by R-age:

    <strong>is this true?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    It's not totally true anymore. 2-2-2 512MB DIMMs are in production but I recommend to only buy them from the big manufacturers like Micron, Infineon etc.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    But as far as I know the speed difference between CL3 and CL2 is very very very very tiny.



    I don't think it's worth to spend 50% more of money for less than 2% of gain.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    r-ager-age Posts: 21member
    Cool thanks for the info



    I'll look for a good deal on a Good quality 1GB CL3 Kit

    also i'm going for ATI's 8500 Card at 1/2 price +trading in the Old GeForce 4MX



    then i'll find a solid 80GB HD internal



    buy the way my mouse died, got a new one 24h later (up in canada to boot).



    Thanks
  • Reply 13 of 14
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    I don't know if you know already but ATI is offering a deal to us new G4 owners. If you buy a Radeon 8500 from them you will receive a $150 rebate when you send them your Radeon 7500 or GF4MX card. I might do this, although it might actually be better to get one retail and then put my GF4MX on eBay. that or Im gonna get a GF4 Ti 4400 or 4200.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    r-ager-age Posts: 21member
    ATI 8500 Card

    pros.

    2-VGA- monitors+TV (adapter included)



    OEM GeF 4MX add $32 US Dr. Bott adapter

    for 2 VGA (still no TV)



    OEM GeF 4MX card flashes



    and OEM GeF 4MX for my monitor only goes 1920 x 1080

    not the full 1920 x 1440



    i'm trading my crap OEM GeForce 4MX card

    here in canada they'll give me $229

    I'm sold
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