Best way to speed up my Quicksilver

tigerwoods99tigerwoods99
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
what do you would be the most cost effective way to upgrade my Quicksilver?



1 GHz DP G4

512 MB PC133 RAM

80GB Seagate IV Barracuda (OG hard drive)

160GB WD Special Edition Caviar

160GB Samsung SP1604N

Pioneer DVR-104

GeForce4 MX 64 MB

M-Audio Revolution 7.1

OS 10.2.8







i'm probably gonna get a 512 MB stick of ram (around 40 bucks). also i wanted to replace the fan because its really noisy, anyone know of any fans and the process? i use my computer for audio apps (cubase) basic use like web browsin and light graphics work. dont really play games so graphics card will probably stick.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    mr. sgmr. sg Posts: 19member
    I'm a fellow Quicksilver-er looking for more speed...



    While I have already maxxed out my ram and added a cpu upgrade over the last 2 years. I'm curious what other things I can do to speed up my aging Quicksilver 2001, without spending (ofcourse) a lot.



    What is the benefit of an ATA/133 or SATA harddrive, if I were to add one via PCI, over the stock ATA/66 bus on the Quicksilver? Is it noticable? Even worth it on a 33mhz PCI slot?



    And since I'm here, how much would a new video card increase (if any) performance?



    This seems to be my last option to tide me over. I thought I was going to be able to get a G5 if the upcoming rumors were true, but instead, I decided to pay off some credit cards. Now it doesnt look like I'll be able to afford one until tax / bonus time next April.



    Quicksilver 2001

    1.47 GHZ (upgraded from 733 MHZ)

    1.5 GB Ram

    2x 120GB HD (Stripe RAID) on ATA/66 bus

    NVidia GeForce 3 64mb

    Mac OS 10.3.9



    Thanks for any insight.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    semi-flysemi-fly Posts: 35member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr. SG

    I'm a fellow Quicksilver-er looking for more speed...



    While I have already maxxed out my ram and added a cpu upgrade over the last 2 years. I'm curious what other things I can do to speed up my aging Quicksilver 2001, without spending (ofcourse) a lot.



    What is the benefit of an ATA/133 or SATA harddrive, if I were to add one via PCI, over the stock ATA/66 bus on the Quicksilver? Is it noticable? Even worth it on a 33mhz PCI slot?



    And since I'm here, how much would a new video card increase (if any) performance?



    This seems to be my last option to tide me over. I thought I was going to be able to get a G5 if the upcoming rumors were true, but instead, I decided to pay off some credit cards. Now it doesnt look like I'll be able to afford one until tax / bonus time next April.



    Quicksilver 2001

    1.47 GHZ (upgraded from 733 MHZ)

    1.5 GB Ram

    2x 120GB HD (Stripe RAID) on ATA/66 bus

    NVidia GeForce 3 64mb

    Mac OS 10.3.9



    Thanks for any insight.



    I dunno, your QS is pretty pimped - upgrading to a ATA133 drive + controller will help, although you won't see massive performance gains - if your doing video-intensive work (I use photoshop / DVD studio pro) moving up to a 9700 / 9800 will help speed things along. Overall, I'd say a dual proc CPU (2x 1.6-ish ) upgrade would probably net the higest performance gains, though your going to invest $400.00-600.00 for somthing that quick. Personally, I feel that I've gotten the most out of my QS and I'm saving my $$ for an intel-based Mac.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    rara Posts: 623member
    Upgrade to Tiger.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    mr. sgmr. sg Posts: 19member
    Quote:

    Originally posted bysemi-fly

    I dunno, your QS is pretty pimped - upgrading to a ATA133 drive + controller will help, although you won't see massive performance gains - if your doing video-intensive work (I use photoshop / DVD studio pro) moving up to a 9700 / 9800 will help speed things along. Overall, I'd say a dual proc CPU (2x 1.6-ish ) upgrade would probably net the higest performance gains, though your going to invest $400.00-600.00 for somthing that quick. Personally, I feel that I've gotten the most out of my QS and I'm saving my $$ for an intel-based Mac.



    My processor should hold me over fine. I already paid $450 for it last year, and I cant see dropping in another $400-$600 into this machine. I do a lot of photoshop / illustrator / indesign work, and imovie stuff. My GeForce 3 is still an awesome card, I think I'll just stick with it. Believe it or not, the Doom 3 demo is actually playable on my rig. Not great, but it isnt a slideshow.



    I just bought an SATA card and 400GB SATA drive from OWC for under $300. We'll see how that goes. I can always use the SATA drive in my future G5 as well!



    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ra

    Upgrade to Tiger.



    Thats one reason I was hoping to get a G5. Seeing as I WILL be purchasing a G5 next year, I think I'll save the $130 and put it torwards one. Panther is getting along quite nicely with my G4.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Throw it off a really tall building, something that has around 35+ floors to get terminal velocity. Then your Quicksilver will truly be quick,
  • Reply 6 of 10
    auroraaurora Posts: 1,142member
    Ati now has a 9600 256 card that will work with Quicksilvers. This would be a much better card then a Geforce3/4mx. Its 200 bucks and is cross platform meaning the card will work in Macs/Pc.

    Step 2 a dual 1.0 isnt all that anymore. I would go for the fastest single upgrade or a dual upgrade if you like to run a bunch of stuff at the same time.



    I have a quicksilver 1.47/Geforce3 but my problem is that adc monitor. Not many cards have Adc, APPLE! thinking different
  • Reply 7 of 10
    netbansheenetbanshee Posts: 74member
    One comment missed so far... you're running only 512mb of ram. Throw another 1gb or so at that bad boy along with Tiger and that rig should sing.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    semi-flysemi-fly Posts: 35member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr. SG



    I just bought an SATA card and 400GB SATA drive from OWC for under $300. We'll see how that goes. I can always use the SATA drive in my future G5 as well!





    Cool! Could you report on performance increases after upgrading to a SATA card? I've got a few spare SATA drives sitting about and I'd like to use one for my QS. Thx!
  • Reply 9 of 10
    mr. sgmr. sg Posts: 19member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by semi-fly

    Cool! Could you report on performance increases after upgrading to a SATA card? I've got a few spare SATA drives sitting about and I'd like to use one for my QS. Thx!



    Here's a quick xbench:



    Before - 2x Seagate IDE 120GB Drives (Stripe RAID)



    Disk Test\t99.28\t

    \t\tSequential\t102.54\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t105.25\t43.87 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t100.14\t41.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t135.76\t21.49 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t82.27\t33.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\tRandom\t96.21\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t126.33\t1.90 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t101.37\t22.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t101.74\t0.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t71.61\t14.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]



    After - Seagate SATA 400GB Drive on SIIG Serial ATA PCI Card



    Disk Test\t121.39\t

    \t\tSequential\t153.47\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t136.01\t56.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t135.03\t55.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t187.82\t29.73 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t167.19\t67.55 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\tRandom\t100.40\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t67.92\t1.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t132.20\t29.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t103.07\t0.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t127.33\t26.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]



    Those numbers seem significant, but doesn't seem like it yet. Im still moving things over and have yet to do any intense Photoshopping on the new drive. I'll post some "real-world" tests when i get everything loaded up.



    EDIT: By the way. Installation of the HD and the SATA PCI card were totally flawless. No firmware needed. It just works.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    semi-flysemi-fly Posts: 35member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr. SG

    Here's a quick xbench:



    Before - 2x Seagate IDE 120GB Drives (Stripe RAID)



    Disk Test\t99.28\t

    \t\tSequential\t102.54\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t105.25\t43.87 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t100.14\t41.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t135.76\t21.49 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t82.27\t33.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\tRandom\t96.21\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t126.33\t1.90 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t101.37\t22.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t101.74\t0.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t71.61\t14.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]



    After - Seagate SATA 400GB Drive on SIIG Serial ATA PCI Card



    Disk Test\t121.39\t

    \t\tSequential\t153.47\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t136.01\t56.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t135.03\t55.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t187.82\t29.73 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t167.19\t67.55 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\tRandom\t100.40\t

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t67.92\t1.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Write\t132.20\t29.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t103.07\t0.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]

    \t\t\tUncached Read\t127.33\t26.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]



    Those numbers seem significant, but doesn't seem like it yet. Im still moving things over and have yet to do any intense Photoshopping on the new drive. I'll post some "real-world" tests when i get everything loaded up.



    EDIT: By the way. Installation of the HD and the SATA PCI card were totally flawless. No firmware needed. It just works.



    Sweet!
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