# G5 or Intel processor upgrade for G4 Sawtooth?



## Lurch_L (Mar 27, 2006)

Anyone know of a G5 or Intel processor upgrade for a Sawtooth G4 Power Mac?

I've been mainly a Windows CPU user for the last few years (I have three of the things). This was originally due to initial lack of OS X drivers for a scanner when a client needed a film image ASAP. But I keep my Mac to check website compatibility and, heck, because I like it. 

I have the original 450MHz processor it came with in September 1999 (I was one of the rare people who got one before they were yanked from lack of supply). It's seeming very slow. I already have 896MB RAM and 120GB of disk drives.

I'd love a less than $300 upgrade to a faster processor. Any ideas?


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

Doesn't exist at all, let alone being uber-expensive.


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

Nope. No G5 upgrades for earlier Macs have ever been produced AFAIK. 
Someone here will remember the technical reasons... 

As far as upgrades under $300 there are a one or two accelerated G4 units that will make the grade such as the Sonnet Encore/ST G4 1.0GHz 2MB cache for G4 (For AGP G4 models only) SG4-1000-2M. Most are $300 - $800

(seriously though -- G5 or intel upgrade under $300? May as well ask for honest politicians and world peace as long as you are dreaming... )


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## Script Kiddie (Jan 30, 2003)

lurch_L you are in the USA, right, so you can get the Encore/ST G4 1GHz upgrade for $199US, or go for the 1.4GHz for $299.
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/pricelist.html#encorestg4


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

As others have posted, no way for a G5 or Intel CPU upgrade. And, I'll go on record as being very surprised if there are ever G5 CPU upgrades _for G5 systems_.

I put a dual 1.3GHz G4 upgrade (2MB L3 cache per CPU) about two years ago. back then it was a cost effective way to squeeze out the longevity of all my other Sawtooth upgrades. But, what with the Mac Mini and imacs with their bang-for-the-buck, the viability of such an investment is questionable. Crunch those numbers!


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## Lurch_L (Mar 27, 2006)

*Crunching the numbers - best G4 Sawtooth accelerator?*

A new Mac mini with single-core processor, 512MB RAM and 60GB hard drive runs $599. An OWC G4 1.3GHz CPU accelerator costs $259. 

Granted, the OWC option doesn't give me the fast memory and system buses, 1 gig Ethernet port (fastest network router I have is 100BASE-TX anyway), or GMA950 graphics. It also leaves me with a machine that's easy to modify and upgrade (although this is the end of the line for upgrading  ).

For a machine I wouldn't use that much, especially when Adobe releases a Windoze version of Lightroom, I can't justify the 600 bucks for a new Mini. 

On to the next question - which G4 accelerator?


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## PosterBoy (Jan 22, 2002)

Plugging a G5 or any current Intel CPU into a G4 motherboard would result in such a performance bottleneck that I doubt it'd be worth it anyway.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

That's a "single core G4"  But if that's all the bang ya need, then it's a good way to go.

For two years, I've had a Gigadesigns dual 1.3GHz G4 in my Sawtooth. Works great. Sleeps well. They do have their single 1.8Ghz (no L3 cache) on sale for US$299.00
http://www.gigadesigns.com/

I'm not up on recent issues with other CPU makers, but Powerlogix was having some porblems quite a while back. They may still need special firmware that would concern me (being broken by anything in the future). OTOH, I gues the days of firmware upgrades or old G4s are long gone. The Gigadesign was plug-and-boot. The Mercury Extremes are also, I believe.

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/cpureview.lasso has an awesome user review database for different upgrades on systems. Check it out.


(other specs on my Sawtooth are: 2GB RAM, 360GB Hitachi striped RAID on an ATA133 card, Pioneer DVR110d dual-layer DVDRW, ATI Radeon 32MB PCI and 64MB Radeon 9000 AGP cards)


EDIT: If you don't know of this retailer, check out other World Computing for upgrades. BIG inventory:

http://www.macsales.com

Also:

http://www.smalldog.com/


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Lucky you...You live in the U.S.
You can get an upgrade quite easily at OWC.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/accelerators/

No G5 upgrades for a G4 though.

D


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2006)

Also worth considering though with an upgrade vs. a mac mini is that you have a MUCH slower bus, MUCH slower ram and all around way less performance. For example if you benchmarked a 1.5Ghz G4 in your current system vs. a 1.5Ghz G4 in a mac mini the mac mini would do circles around the older machine.


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## Lurch_L (Mar 27, 2006)

*Decisions, decisions...*

You're right about the speed advantages. 

The mini doesn't appear too field-upgradeable when the inevetible faster CPU comes along, or I want more memory. Guess it's a question of speed vs cost. I'd probably get faster disk and memory access, for sure faster number-crunching, and a smaller footprint with a Mac Mini. 

I'm just not sure how much I'd use it.

By the way, thanks to everyone for the friendly replies. You're only reinforcing reasons for why Vancouver B.C. is one of my favorite cities - and Pacific Rim National Park / Tofino one of my favorite places: http://tinyurl.com/r8mcv


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## Kosh (May 27, 2002)

PosterBoy said:


> Plugging a G5 or any current Intel CPU into a G4 motherboard would result in such a performance bottleneck that I doubt it'd be worth it anyway.


As Posterboy says, it's not practical since the bus for a G5 runs at half the speed of the processor and even though you can run the buss at multipliers lower than 1:2, you don't want to do that as you lose performance. The G4's bus can't run that fast. As well, the bus for the G5 is wider than the G4. It's like comparing a 6" drain pipe to a pop straw.


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

hey Lurch have you tried running some optimsing utilities to try to speed up the mac a little, a 450 G4 should not be a total dog with that much Ram.
Try Running Onyx


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

Personally, I'd never put in an accelerator with no cache. 
One of the MAJOR issues with your machine is the slow memory buss. A large cache on the accelerator helps with that. I would go one notch down in the accelerator MHz just to get me some cache...


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

A-frickin-MEN, CanadaRAM. Thing is, the lower clock'd but L3 cache'd G4 7447s are more efficient than the G4 7455 ones that do not have L3. The 47 CPUs max out at 1.3GHz (maybe 1.4 IIRC), but they'll outgun a 1.8GHz 55 in most functions. And you're right; the L3 cache keeps more processes on the chip and off the old architecture. Plus, I think that ALL the 7455 CUs require a custom firmware patch, whereas the 7447 ones do not. The downer is that the 7447 CPUs are becoming rare.

Toying with the temptation of those dual 1.8 7455 CPUs, I called Other World to check on them. Even the salesman, when told that I had a dual 1.3GHz 7447, said I should stick with it. So, as far as upgrading my Sawtooth, I'm DONE.


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## MasterBlaster (Jan 12, 2003)

.


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## HJS (Sep 12, 2003)

Macaholic said:


> A-frickin-MEN, CanadaRAM. Thing is, the lower clock'd but L3 cache'd G4 7447s are more efficient than the G4 7455 ones that do not have L3...
> etc.


Macaholic, you've got your processors mixed up It's the 745x that have L3 cache... and they go to 1.467; often can run at 1.5 or more.
7448's(with L3) might be coming soon-Daystar is already selling one for PBG4's.



mguertin said:


> Also worth considering though with an upgrade vs. a mac mini is that you have a MUCH slower bus, MUCH slower ram and all around way less performance. For example if you benchmarked a 1.5Ghz G4 in your current system vs. a 1.5Ghz G4 in a mac mini the mac mini would do circles around the older machine.


Not true at all; you can install much faster drives in the Sawtooth, and much better video card. Also, the G4 upgrade CPU score(745x series) will be much higher than Mini, since the Mini G4(7447) has no L3 cache.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

HJS said:


> Macaholic, you've got your processors mixed up It's the 745x that have L3 cache... and they go to 1.467; often can run at 1.5 or more.
> 7448's(with L3) might be coming soon-Daystar is already selling one for PBG4's.


Aw FUK! A big fat, sleep deprived brain fart. _Tell me_ that you know that I know that. I researched the crap out of this stuff before getting mine, and I see "7455 (Apollo)" every time I run Xbench (right after every bowel movement).


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