Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8: How Upgradable is it?

[TTheInfamous1]

I've been reading a lot of threads on how the dual 1.8 G5 is very upgradable. And I was very unawear of this as well. Or maybe I'm just reading the threads wrong. But within those threads its not too specific except for Memory and Storage.

With that said... How upgradable is it really? I took the leap and bought myself the Dual 1.8 G5 and I'm very happy with every inch of this machine. Not that I'm looking to upgrade anytime soon, but when the time comes its nice to know specifically how much I can actually upgrade this monster of mine. As of now, the only thing I may upgrade soon is Storage.

If any of you with knowledge or experince and any of you Dual G5 users who have done this can comment on this subject, that'd be great. Like I said, its just good to know for the future.

Thanks in advance

 

[TTheInfamous1]

WOW, that many views and no replies...

 

[Avalon]

Maybe because this topic has been discussed a couple of times already...

You can add PCI cards, upgrade the AGP-card, add memory, upgrade the optical drive and put 2 SATA harddisks in it...that's it for the internal upgradability (but you can find most of this information in your manual).

As for CPU upgrades, they are highly unlikely, because the G5 get's it's speed form the FSB (G5 2.0GHz has 1.0GHz FSB, G% 2.5GHz has 1.25GHz FSB) and not through multiplication of the same FSB (for example, G4 1.0GHz, 1.25GHz and 1.42GHz all have 167MHz FSB). That makes upgradability through faster CPU quite useless, as a G5 from a 2.5GHz would run at 1.8GHz in your PowerMac, for example, because of the slower FSB. I already posted a more detailed explanation for this, but can't remember on which thread it was...

 

[coach_z]

not too familiar with the g5's at all...but i think as long as the cpu's arent soldered to the board you'd be able to upgrade those over time...

you can throw in new video cards
memory
hard drive
cd roms of the sort (i do believe)

someone will chime in and give a better post than me...a lot of people may view the post but have nothing to say really
-chris

edit...yea, you beat me to it

 

[TTheInfamous1]

Maybe because this topic has been discussed a couple of times already...

You can add PCI cards, upgrade the AGP-card, add memory, upgrade the optical drive and put 2 SATA harddisks in it...that's it for the internal upgradability (but you can find most of this information in your manual).

As for CPU upgrades, they are highly unlikely, because the G5 get's it's speed form the FSB (G5 2.0GHz has 1.0GHz FSB, G% 2.5GHz has 1.25GHz FSB) and not through multiplication of the same FSB (for example, G4 1.0GHz, 1.25GHz and 1.42GHz all have 167MHz FSB). That makes upgradability through faster CPU quite useless, as a G5 from a 2.5GHz would run at 1.8GHz in your PowerMac, for example, because of the slower FSB. I already posted a more detailed explanation for this, but can't remember on which thread it was...

Being new to this forum and Mac in general, but being a member of many forums I love the ease of a search function so I use it. Alot, lol! But...
I did a search and as I said in the post it wasn't really in detail except for Storage and Memory. Unless I didnt use too many specific searches. Which may have been the case.

I was just curious about other upgrades.
Many thanks for the reply.

 

[ajresovsky]

It is remarkably 'simple', too!

Hey,
I am in a wheelchair(TBI=traumatic brain injured) with dexterity
and perceptual problems and I added gig of RAM myself, having done it
I can attest for it: 'being a piece of cake". ****, the instrc. man. walks you thru it. And there's tons of info and step-by-step info online.
Happy Upgrading!

 

[TTheInfamous1]

Hey,
I am in a wheelchair(TBI=traumatic brain injured) with dexterity
and perceptual problems and I added gig of RAM myself, having done it
I can attest for it: 'being a piece of cake". ****, the instrc. man. walks you thru it. And there's tons of info and step-by-step info online.
Happy Upgrading!

Thanks!

Just by adding RAM it has a walk through? Thats decent. Ive never seen a walk through with adding RAM on a computer.

Umm, don't mean to get in your business, but how did that happen? It seems pretty serious. I hope you're doing well.

 

[TTheInfamous1]

You can add PCI cards, upgrade the AGP-card, add memory, upgrade the optical drive and put 2 SATA harddisks in it...that's it for the internal upgradability

So can I add another internal optical drive even though I only have one bay door in my case?

By looking at it, it looks as if I can. But like I stated above. It only has one bay door on the outside of the case. But inside of the case there is, I believe, another slot for another optical drive. It'd be decent if I could add another one. If not, I would get the external optical drive.

In any event, can I do this with my G5?

Thanks again for the replies.

 

[menace3054]

the g5 can only take 1 optical drive. you can add an external optical drive if necessary. you can easily add a second hard-drive as well.

 

[TTheInfamous1]

the g5 can only take 1 optical drive. you can add an external optical drive if necessary. you can easily add a second hard-drive as well.

Great, thanks. I wasn't sure. by looking at it, it "looked" like I could. Glad I didnt purchase an internal drive.
Thanks.