Macworld: Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues ...

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5 Replies Last post: Aug 24, 2004 7:59 PM by NC37

PM9600

4 posts since
May 13, 2004

Aug 23, 2004 2:06 PM

Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues

I have the thing installed and running under 9.2.2. It works okay and seems stable, but it takes just about as long as my old Newer G4 400 to complete SETI@Home work units (between 15-16 hours). I know S@H is not optimized for G4, but everything being equal, shouldn't it shave a few hours off what the older G4 400 upgrade could do (usually about 16 hours)?

It's in a PM 9600 and I used the latest Sonnet software (2.0.3). Is an hour to a half hour improvement the best I can hope for with this upgrade?

lemac

868 posts since
Jul 24, 2003

1. Aug 23, 2004 8:44 PM

in response to: PM9600

Re: Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues

Well, the problem with the 7300-9600 series computers, the RAM and system bus are still very slow. Upgrading the processor is great and all, but you got other problems to worry about. Good news though, the G4/700 works great with interleaved RAM while the Newertech G4/400 may have issues. Interleaving RAM should help a little. You didn't mention how much RAM you had either, so it's possible you just don't have enough. Don't expect miracles from your 9600, but you can probably get some more power out of your 9 year old machine

ALG

855 posts since
Jul 16, 2004

2. Aug 24, 2004 1:26 PM

in response to: lemac

Re: Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues

I am looking at upgrading a 9600/233 to a G4/700 it currently has 512MB of memory in it but I plan to up that to 1.5g. My question is will the 50MHz bus handle a FW card in one of the PCI slots after this upgrade. The reason being I need to add some major additional HD space. I am already running an external drive tower with 6 SCSI drives. I do not need the drive speed if I can get by with a 120-200g FW external drive as it will be used for storage most of the time.

Please help me understand the draw backs and the possibilites of this upgrade. I need to try and squeeze another year to 18 months out of this machine. Upgrading to OS X is NOT an option. This machine runs Media 100 and it is not compatible with OS X. This is a university machine that does video/audio commerical editing for onair broadcasts.

lemac

868 posts since
Jul 24, 2003

3. Aug 24, 2004 5:10 PM

in response to: ALG

Re: Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues

Both IDE and Firewire have known issues with the "G2" machines due to the slow PCI and system bus. Most issues involving video editing and audio work. However, I will say that I had no problems with with my 7600 and a ATA 133 card. Under your situation, I would rather go for a DVD burner to store your data. It would be more reliable then a hard drive if the only purpose is back up (Firewire and IDE are both fine solutions). I would stick with SCSI for the video work regardless of which upgrade path you choose.

PM9600

4 posts since
May 13, 2004

4. Aug 24, 2004 6:34 PM

in response to: lemac

Re: Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues and SETI@Home

The RAM is interleaved, and one only needs about 32MBs of free RAM to run the OS 9 SETI@Home client (if I remember correctly - more RAM will not make it proccess any faster). I'm more impressed that my old Newertech G4 400 upgrade card can pretty much keep up with a Sonnet G4 700 Mhz card - at least with SETI@Home work units. I'm also understandably bummed that the Sonnet upgrade has only shaved about one hour off the time it takes to proccess these work units. Is the 15 hour figure in line with the results others have acheived with the G4 700? If that's the case, I'm glad I didn't cough up the extra $80-90 for the 800Mhz card.

NC37

259 posts since
Jan 11, 2003

5. Aug 24, 2004 7:59 PM

in response to: lemac

Re: Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues

One lil note: DVDs and CDs do degrade overtime if not stored properly so if you have critcal data that you can't afford to loose. Make sure you treat that DVD very good.

If you are happy with your SCSI drives and just need more storage i'd really consider just going with a FW external drive. Just read up about any potential issues before you buy.

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Aug 23, 2004 2:06 PM

Sonnet G4 700 Speed Issues

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