[Nobody]

I am considering upgrading my Sawtooth 500mz G4 to either the single 1gz or the dual 800mz upgrade. They are both about the same price.

Which one would you reccomend.
I do a lot of photoshop, a lot of ripping of cds; the rest is you typical email, websurfing and word documents.

Any thoughts?

[ 10-10-2002: Message edited by: paulzoom ]

[WannabeSQ]

I was thinkin the same thing for my sawtooth G4 500. If I were you id get the dual, cause you mentioned photoshop, and photoshop lives for dual processors.

I am still undecided, I do regular computer stuff, email, ichat, surfing, but i also play games, and do Pro Tools editing in my spare time.

I cant decide if I should try to sell my 500 to get a new duallie, or get the 1ghz single, or the 800mhz dual. Are there any benchmarks out yet comparing them?

[iSpice]

Photoshop will definitely benefit from two microprocessors.

Btw, is any of you guys willing to sell his old CPU (Yeah, only the CPU-module!), I need a Sawtooth-CPU images/icons/wink.gif

[Nobody]

For the things you've talked about, the dual will probably do you better - iTunes will rip mp3s quicker, and Photoshop will zip through filters quicker as well.

Not much else in the classic Mac OS is enhanced for dual CPUs, but if you do decide to move up to OS X, the twin processors will make a difference.

Rick

btw, we have benchmark results of the two low-end machines in the November issue (which should be on newsstands now - the main image is 'Jaguar Secrets,' with the Jag X logo). The dual 1.25Ghz model wasn't shipping when we printed the review, so the results there are preliminary.

[ 10-14-2002: Message edited by: Rick LePage ]

[Nobody]

Does anyone have any preference between the Sonnett vs the Powelogix upgrades? Any major differences?

[WannabeSQ]

i doubt there will be much (if any) difference between the 2 companies, both use the same amount of cache.

I am still undecided, I do a lot of multitasking (i.e. always running itunes, internet explorer, ichat, mail, ical, etc, lots of apps) I think that would benefit from dual processors in OSX.

But I also play games, and only Quake III and maybe a couple others support multiple processors. Games would be better for the single Ghz, right?

Id like to see some benchmarks between all of the powerforce upgrade cards in varioius tests, like photoshop, iTunes ripping, games, multitasking etc. That would greatly help my decisionmaking.

[Nobody]

I just found out that my Sawtooth won't accept the dual processors so I guess the decision has been made for me.

Here is how you tell (take form Powerlogix website):

From
OS X:
1.
Copy and paste the text below into the Terminal window.
ioreg -l | grep -A 12 'uni-n@'
2.
Press return.
3.
Look for the text similar to "device-rev" = <00000008>
4.
If the result is 7 or greater your machine is dual-capable.
From
OS 9:
2.
Boot your system using MacOS 9.1 or 9.2.x. You cannot use an earlier version
of the OS for this test. (In any event, even single processor G4/7455
are not compatible with anything prior to OS 9.1 so an OS update is required.)
3.
Run Apple System Profiler (2.5.1 or later.)
4.
Choose New Report from the File menu.
5.
Select 'System Profiler' and 'Hardware Overview' check boxes. Click OK.
6.
When the report window appears, click on the 'Text Document' radio button.
7.
Verify your Mac model name is PowerMac G4 (AGP Graphics)
8.
Verify the last line in the Hardware Overview section. If it reads "uni-n:
7" or greater your PowerMac is dual compatible. Anything prior to
7 is not compatible.

[Nobody]

Okay, so in this QS 2002 800MHz, I got a value of 00000011. If that means that my machine is dual processor capable, where can I purchase it and how will I install it?

[Nobody]

You can go to otherworld computing, or go to pricegrabber.com and od a search for Powerlogix and you should get a match for the dual processor upgrades with a list of merhcants. Installation is pretty simple; you can get instructions from accelerateyourmac.com. or from the manufacturer. It usually involves removing a few screws, and replacing the entire motherboard. Good luck.

[WannabeSQ]

cashbo, if you have a quicksilver, dont buy one of these. These are for sawtooth and gigabit ethernet, with the 100mhz bus. The 133mhz bus ones should be out soon.

My computer according to the terminal thing says im a 00000007, so i guess im good to go.

Im still undecided, dual processors are good for multitasking, but not games, and i want to upgrade both, warcraft3 gets really choppy with a lot of stuff on screen.

[Nobody]

I saw the ones that are for QS 2002. Do you really think it would be worth it to go from 800MHz to Dual Processors? I was thinking of doing that along with the GeForce4 Ti...but then I am up at about 1590.00

[WannabeSQ]

it really depends on what you want to do with the computer. If you do a lot of things at the same time, than dual processors would benefit you, if you do one thing at a time, i wouldnt bother upgrading.

Check how much computers like yours go for on ebay, with the money you were gonna spend on upgrading you might be able to gete a whole new dual ghz

[WannabeSQ]

my last post wont show up......

[edit] now it does [/edit]

[ 10-18-2002: Message edited by: WannabeSQ ]

[WannabeSQ]

Well, OWC has the duals in stock now, I guess its a matter of time until someone buys one and can do some benchmarks. Im starting to lean toward the dual, because in a dual 500mhz vs single 1ghz most osx tests were pretty close. Impressive for dual processors I think.