Catch-all PowerLogix Upgrade Thread
So obviously, the dual GHz is a serious ripoff at $1200 and anyone who opts to buy that instead of selling their existing machine and getting a new Power Mac is a knucklehead...
The dual 800 is almost a ripoff, but I can see how some Cube owners would think it pretty cool to have. ...
But really my question is, for those with older G4's - the 100MHz FSB / PC-100 variety, at what point would the single processor upgrades saturate the system, making anymore cycles wasted basically?
I am pretty sure they all could handle the 700 MHz card. But that seems a tall price to pay if you're only jumping a couple hundred MHz lets' say. What about the 800? Would that saturation the original 100MHz / PC-100 systems, or would that work comfortably within that architecture?
I assume the SP GHz model would be overkill for a 100MHz bus and thus really wouldn't peform much better than the 800 MHz model - maybe a couple seconds here or there per operation.
Thoughts / experiences?
The dual 800 is almost a ripoff, but I can see how some Cube owners would think it pretty cool to have. ...
But really my question is, for those with older G4's - the 100MHz FSB / PC-100 variety, at what point would the single processor upgrades saturate the system, making anymore cycles wasted basically?
I am pretty sure they all could handle the 700 MHz card. But that seems a tall price to pay if you're only jumping a couple hundred MHz lets' say. What about the 800? Would that saturation the original 100MHz / PC-100 systems, or would that work comfortably within that architecture?
I assume the SP GHz model would be overkill for a 100MHz bus and thus really wouldn't peform much better than the 800 MHz model - maybe a couple seconds here or there per operation.
Thoughts / experiences?
Comments
[ 09-08-2002: Message edited by: Overhope ]</p>
My main concern is NOISE. I don't want to give up my silent Cube for a lot of noise. Under Jaguar and even 10.1.5, I don't have a speed issue with browsing etc. But in the ripping and rendering I do. So I am contemplating how much noise I have to accept or to put it another way how much silence I have to give up to get that tripple power.
I don't see how the dual 800 is "almost a ripoff". What do you mean? It's only $775 vs. $1700 for the dual 867. I'm not sure there's a thousand dollars worth of more power in the dual 867. I agree with you about the dual GHz upgrade ? 25% more power for 50% more money just doesn't make economic sense. It's priced wrong. Should cost $975 instead of $1200.
I have to tell you that I am seriously contemplating buying the dual 1.25 GHz MDD. BUT only after all the reviews are in. I may even hold out for one more refresh which would be around Spring '03. I'm imagining we'll get at least dual 1.5 GHz by then, maybe even a G5 processor. I just don't know yet. I love the new MDD case ? all that expansion capability. But I don't like all the reports of how loud its two power supply fans are. So I am conflicted.
That's what makes the PowerLogix upgrade look so attractive ? except for the fan noise. I am thinking about running the cube outside its plastic case to increase the air circulation capability. Running a variable speed fan undernieth on low combined with a small desk fan running low into its side might be very quiet. I already have some fan noise from 3 external FireWire boxes for a pair of external hard drives and a CDR drive. So I don't need dead slience. Plus I run the Cube on the floor ? not on my desk.
Bottom line, I'm inclined to do the dual 800 into my Cube @ $775. It'll buy me a little more time before I go for the top of the line PM next Spring ? if I can hold out that long. Meanwhile, I'm loving Jaguar although the "speed improvement" is not that noticible. I think on the 500 MHz Cube that 10.1.5 is about the same speed as Jaguar. Maybe I'm not doing anything that can see the difference yet. The application improvements are great.
I think it's interesting that Powerlogix put that white paper out last week and received such negative reaction from the upgrade market that they realized they had to double their L3 cache and lower their price if they were going to have any chance of competing with Sonett's promises. Boy did they ever see that bid and then double it. Their image in the marketplace has probably changed for the better by about 300% in the space of this last week.
I know I thought the white paper was one of the most blatantly stupid marketing ploys in the history of PR. We have to give the PowerLogix administration a lot of credit for realizing this and completely changing their marketing plan as they "turned on a dime" in no time at all. Whoever orchestrated those changes should get some sort of marketing award for quick change artistry. It is one of the most rapid responses to market opinion I can remember since Coke Classic was born.
[ 09-08-2002: Message edited by: Multimedia ]</p>
Certainly my hard drive makes more of a sound, and my Firewire drive drowns it out altogether, though I may well swap it for the one in the PW kit and see if it's any different.
Purely from a longevity point of view, I'd recommend a fan for all Cubes, but I only really put one in because I wasn't happy with how warm the case was getting with the Geforce II MX video card.
If you extrapolate given the baselines using raw percentages, it seems like you could definitely get at an extra 30% boost going from say 500MHz to 800, but not another 20% going from 800 to 1000. It looks like somewhere in between the two speeds the performance tapers off.
Given that PowerLogix will give you $50 to $100 for older processor cards, I am considering the SP 800 and DP 800 - but I'm really hesitant about the dual.
Was the original Dual 800 on a 100 MHz bus, or 133?
[ 09-08-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>
[QB]Was the original Dual 800 on a 100 MHz bus, or 133?
<hr></blockquote>
133, if you're asking about powermacs.
The last PM to use the 100 mhz bus was the Gigabit Ethernet revision, which went from a 400mhz single to 450mhz dual, and 500 mhz dual G4s.
I'm already real happy with the speed of Jaguar (even 10.1.5) on this old Cube. Maybe it's because I maxed out the RAM to begin with. I can't recommend maxing out the RAM of any Mac to gain significant performance and never have to worry about how many applications are open. So I think the dual 800 will be just fine for this winter and get me to an even more amazing MDD next Spring.
Thanks, Overhope, for the heads up on the fan situation. I bought a manually adjustable variable speed 1K-3K RPM two ball bearing Enermax (model UC-8FAB-B) 80mm fan this spring to do the dual 500 Sonnet hack (xlr8yourmac has posted) for which I never found heat sinks to complete. Sure glad that didn't work out. So I am fan ready.
Exactly what is your Panaflow model number? 80mm? Manual Variable Speed Adjustment Dial on a separate cord you can dangle out the vent hole in the top? Dual ball berings? Why did you go with the Panaflow? I got the Enermax idea from the hack tutorial.
I have a GeForce 2MX in my 500 Cube and it doesn't seem too hot to me. I guess I'm going to do the dual 800. You guys talked me into it. I'll bet we can't get them before October.
Well I don't see the point of not going dual. Since OS X is a multiprocessor aware OS there is no point in saving very little money for twice the kick. <hr></blockquote>
That's just it though - I don't think on a 100MHz system bus you would get "twice the kick" from say a Dual 800 vs. SP 800. As best I can tell even the SP 1 GHz model approximates something closer to 900 MHz effective speed, where benchmarks are concerned. There's got to be a bottleneck there at some point...the question is, at which product point?
And it *is* a considerable amount of money for some people. The dual is $350 more than the single (the 800 MHz models I mean).
<strong>Exactly what is your Panaflow model number? 80mm? Manual Variable Speed Adjustment Dial on a separate cord you can dangle out the vent hole in the top? Dual ball berings? Why did you go with the Panaflow? </strong><hr></blockquote>
Okay, as for the part number, it's FBA08T12L, though I can't seem to find a spec saying anything more about bearings than "Hydro Wave" (I suspect this means fluid-filled).
I spent ages trying to source an 80x80x15 fan in the UK and got nowhere, so I followed the recommendation from <a href="http://www.cubeowner.com/faqs/coolingfans.html"; target="_blank">Cubeowner.com</a> and had one sent over from Digi-Key, along with the necessary pins and plug (I wanted a professional-looking installation).
It's the perfect size (as in, it clears the heatsink by about 4mm), but doesn't have any sort of built-in speed regulation. That said, I don't really think it's necessary: this sucker is quiet, so much so that when I spun the hard drive down under OS 9, you couldn't really tell there was anything going on.
I do think it's better to use the handy socket on the DC-DC converter board, since this also shuts the fan down when your Cube sleeps: presto, silent sleep, and nothing else funny happening on the IDE chain's power-supply side.
The only unique thing I did (as far as I know) was to heatshrink the cables for the fan, just to give a bit of extra vibration-protection against the sharpish edges of the fan bracket.
I like that because I can just get one from CDW and if I'm not satisfied with it, take it right back within 30 days. No restocking fees, etc.
And of course, it has the officially licensed Made for OS X logo seal of approval from Apple.
One question, if a product is licensed to wear the Made for OS X badge and Apple endorsed the product at MWNY, is there any chance the Sonnet upgrades will be unofficially supported in their help forums and the like?
<a href="http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_stg4.html"; target="_blank">http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_stg4.html</a>;
Though I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Duet line was upgraded to both 800MHz and 1GHz (or something similar - maybe 800 and 933). Either way, I can't upgrade to a dual because I'm running UNI-N 3 - neither Powerlogix' or Sonnet's dual cards are compatible with this standard.
[ 09-17-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>