Calling all G4 Experts!

[pinto79]

Hey all.

Just for clarification purposes, my main computer is a Late 2012 Mac Mini (Yosemite) and my main portable is an early 2008 MacBook (Lion).

I am a bit of a collector and have a couple of PowerMac G4 towers around for tinkering and a few other things. This question relates to one specifically.

I have a 2003 PowerMac G4 MDD. It's not the FW800 one, its the last one made, model # M8570. It's a single 1.25 GHz, 2GB Ram and a 250GB hard drive. It runs 10.5.8 and it a nice machine for the few things I do with it, mostly Photoshop, since I own Adobe CS.

What I'm not finding any answer to online is what I'm hoping some of you here might know. There was a Dual 1.25 model available, and I have located a dual 1.25 processor board for a song, but I can't find anywhere if the logic board is the same on both single and dual models. What info I have been able to find seems to suggest that there is a chance that they are, but I would like to know definitively.

My hope is that it would just be a processor board and heat sink swap and carry on.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Trevor


Edit: Also, if anyone knows if the dual 1.42 GHz CPU board from the FW800 model would be the same compatibility as the Dual 1.25, I may consider extending my search... Thanks!

 

[harryb2448]

From memory you could do this with the later FW800 model. Really what advantage do you hope to gain? The only programs that can use the Dual Processors are those especially written for that purpose. There will be no speed hump, and only a very minor bump going from 1.25 to 1.4, and be aware some DP went from 2MB cache to 1MB. Have a read of this:-


http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1345308

 

[pinto79]

From memory you could do this with the later FW800 model. Really what advantage do you hope to gain? The only programs that can use the Dual Processors are those especially written for that purpose. There will be no speed hump, and only a very minor bump going from 1.25 to 1.4, and be aware some DP went from 2MB cache to 1MB. Have a read of this:-


Upgrading a 1.25Ghz June 2003 MDD to a Dual Processor? - MacRumors Forums

Thanks for that thread. What I'm hoping to gain is just a bit of a speed boost for the photoshop stuff I do and just trying to gain a wee bit more responsiveness and a bit less "Click and wait"...

Thanks for your insight!

 

[harryb2448]

Takes some reading but this article may help pinto79:-

http://lowendmac.com/macdan/03/0324.txt

If you like PPC machines, best imho was the late 2005 Dual Core 2.3GHz model. Better than the 2.5GHz as it was liquid cooled with associated problems of leaks etc. And SATA was faster than IDE and the system bus speed rocked over the G4, and combined with the 16GB memory capacity wow!!!

 

[pinto79]

Takes some reading but this article may help pinto79:-

http://lowendmac.com/macdan/03/0324.txt

If you like PPC machines, best imho was the late 2005 Dual Core 2.3GHz model. Better than the 2.5GHz as it was liquid cooled with associated problems of leaks etc. And SATA was faster than IDE and the system bus speed rocked over the G4, and combined with the 16GB memory capacity wow!!!

I do like PPC machines. I'll check out that article!

The last of the G5s are interesting for me, but selection where I live is limited. There are lots of the 2003/4 models, but the 2005s just don't show up...

Edit: I also REALLY like the G4 tower look...

 

[pm-r]

I have exactly the same MDD Mac, sitting under my wife's desk right now and not in use, but for all your upgrade questions you'll probably find all the answers and more at:
Apple/Mac/OS X News, Tips and Tech Articles - xlr8yourmac.com

Good luck.

 

[pinto79]

An update for those who are interested.

I got my hands on an MDD FW800 model with the Dual 1.25 GHz configuration. The Power Supply is dead and I'm guessing that the Ethernet doesn't work as a previous owner installed a DLink Ethernet card...

I found a video showing how to remove and replace the Processor Board, so I tried it.

I now have a Dual 1.25 MDD. With 2 GB of ram and the fastest IDE hard drive I had lying around I have a decent little machine. It's quite a bit faster than it was. At least it's more responsive/snappy and smoother overall.

The donor machine had the same Radeon 9000 video card as my original machine, so I put it in my Sawtooth (G4 AGP) machine and gave it a much needed graphics performance boost.

I also pulled the processor board form the Sawtooth to have a peek... maybe I can find a dual 500 for it...

Thanks again for your help guys!

 

[dtravis7]

Well done and glad you got it all working. I still have my Digital Audio I upgraded to a 1.8Ghz G4 with Radeon 9800 Pro. Not bad for what it is!