PowerMac G4 Dual 867MHz relative speed

L

lil

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Hiya,

Long time since I posted last, been rather busy, anyway...

I'm looking at getting a desktop companion to my PowerBook G4 12" which is a 1.5GHz G4 with 768MB.

I am considering a dual G4 Power Mac as i have yet to really feel my PowerBook G4 is slow (not slow at all in fact!) but definitely don't want to go backwards in speed.

Does anyone have experience of the 867MHz Mirror Drive Door/Dual Optical Power Mac G4s? And also the 1,25/1.42GHz Dual G4s?

What is the performance like? I'd be looking to do every day computing, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Painter, Word, Excel, WWW etc. maybe some iMovie work on occassions.

I understand that I can boost the RAM and HD space significantly, and get a beefier GFX card.

I'm wondering if being a Dual processor Mac at 867MHz will make it at least comparable to my PowerBook G4.

If anyone has any answers quickly, that'd be great and much appreciated as I have my eye on a couple of eBay auctions that end in 3-5 hrs.

Thanks!

Vicky
 
deus_ex_machina

deus_ex_machina


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lil said:
Hiya,

Long time since I posted last, been rather busy, anyway...

I'm looking at getting a desktop companion to my PowerBook G4 12" which is a 1.5GHz G4 with 768MB.

I am considering a dual G4 Power Mac as i have yet to really feel my PowerBook G4 is slow (not slow at all in fact!) but definitely don't want to go backwards in speed.

Does anyone have experience of the 867MHz Mirror Drive Door/Dual Optical Power Mac G4s? And also the 1,25/1.42GHz Dual G4s?

What is the performance like? I'd be looking to do every day computing, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Painter, Word, Excel, WWW etc. maybe some iMovie work on occassions.

I understand that I can boost the RAM and HD space significantly, and get a beefier GFX card.

I'm wondering if being a Dual processor Mac at 867MHz will make it at least comparable to my PowerBook G4.

If anyone has any answers quickly, that'd be great and much appreciated as I have my eye on a couple of eBay auctions that end in 3-5 hrs.

Thanks!

Vicky
Click to expand...

I own the 1.25 DP and my roommate the dual 867MHz. We got ours while we were at the university for graphic design/video production. The dual processors will work to your advantage for rendering times and the case adds for expansion in HDs and GFX cards. Mine had 1GB and I've used it with the entire Adobe suite (PS, Illustrator, Indesign, AE, Premiere) and a slew of other programs. This machine has not failed me once. 3 years without ANY problems. I am in the market for a powerbook for portability. I have the stats to the left and contemplating selling my setup. PM me if you're interested.
 
Avalon

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I had a single 1.25 MDD before, with 1GB RAM and a Radeon 9800 crad. For the normal everyday computing, including a bit of Photoshop, iMovie and iDVD, it was fast enough for me, and still faster than a friends 1.42GHz iBook with 1GB of memory.
Try to get a dual 1.25GHz or 1.42GHz, they have a faster bus speed than the 867MHz and 1GHz, which makes their overall speed better, as on the G4 the main bottleneck is the busspeed.

The only drawback of the MDD, and I think deus_ex_machina will agree on that, is that they are very noisy...I had exchanged the powersupply ventilators and the CPU radiator with the Verax kit...not cheap, but really makes a huge difference!!

www.verax.de
 
deus_ex_machina

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Avalon said:
I had a single 1.25 MDD before, with 1GB RAM and a Radeon 9800 crad. For the normal everyday computing, including a bit of Photoshop, iMovie and iDVD, it was fast enough for me, and still faster than a friends 1.42GHz iBook with 1GB of memory.
Try to get a dual 1.25GHz or 1.42GHz, they have a faster bus speed than the 867MHz and 1GHz, which makes their overall speed better, as on the G4 the main bottleneck is the busspeed.

The only drawback of the MDD, and I think deus_ex_machina will agree on that, is that they are very noisy...I had exchanged the powersupply ventilators and the CPU radiator with the Verax kit...not cheap, but really makes a huge difference!!

www.verax.de
Click to expand...

Overall operation I've gotten used to, but startup on a MDD is akin to a small Cessna taking off ;) The Verax makes a huge diff as I've heard.
 
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There was a dual 867 that went on ebay last night, I bought it :D
I then bought 2GB ram, a couple extra HDDS, a 21" LCD, and an Eye TV for DTT.
Very excited, as I've always liked the MDD G4s.
Just to let you know Vicky, i got mine for £445 for the base unit (and airport card, and extras)
Alex
 
inflexion

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you got a bargin there!!

get the airport sold that will be about £90 back in your pocket
 
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Yeah ive sold a few recently, crazy prices!
Alex
 
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L

lil

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I think I know the one you mean... did it have a Wacom tablet?

Either way I think I am going to sit tight and wait for a Power Mac G4 Dual 1.25 or 1.42 to pop up with a decent amount of memory and hard disk space, whop a USB2 card in and possibly a newer gfx card and let it do its trick.

was certain a Dual 867 would match the PB 1.5 then I'd do so at a drop of a hat.

I have sene good Dual 1.25/1.42s go in the region of £500-£600.

I don't need a display as I recently got a silver Dell 2001FP -- which is a stunning monitor, 1600x1200 on a 20.1" TFT, highly recommended!!

Thanks for all your advice, keep it coming I really appreciate it.

Vicky
 
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Yeah it was the one with the tablet and scanner
It should come today :D
Alex
 
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L

lil

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alexmaccoll said:
Yeah it was the one with the tablet and scanner
It should come today :D
Alex
Click to expand...

Great :flower:

I hope you get tons of use out of it.

I have decided to sit on my hands and do the right thing by me and buy the item that I really want, which is a dual Power Mac G5, with at least Dual 1.8 or prefrably 2.0+...

Just means I will have to wait a bit longer (but only a month or two).

Then I shall be sorted for the next 3-4 years definitely :flower:

Vicky
 

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