What's the last thing you bought for your PowerPC Macs?

[Knezzen]

I just got two packages delivered today. One had an Apple branded GeForce 4 Ti (4600) 128mb with ADC and the other a Sonnet Encore/MDX Duet 1.6ghz! Which means I have a great weekend ahed of me 

[mrhappy]

Ah... sounds like fun!! Looking forward to the post installation report!;D

The last things I got was the Logitech wireless trackball, a bunch of SSD's, ide adapters and some drive mounts.

I guess the Apogee AD8000 would count too!

[nanopico]

RAM and a video card for the PowerComputing clone that was so kindly provided to me recently by a user here.

[FdB]

RAM, a USB/Firewire combo card and a small firewire external drive for my DP MDD. Awaiting a SATA pci card from "across the pond".

[geforceg4]

even tho some older-minded people here have talked about not overstressing pci buss when recording audio i still think that the improved data throughput of the sata pci card (over the built in ATA) combined with a MODERN SSD (being so so much much much faster then the old ATA drives from 2001-2003)  is the best upgrade for mac os period in my opinion


you will love it.

[FdB]

"Older-minded" (I am grinning here).

I purchased one of the very first available, 1 Gigabyte external SCSI hard drives & paid $995.00 for it, brand new.

You bet, I'll love the speed and bang-for-buck of SATA drives.

[mrhappy]

I got a chuckle out of that too and translate 'older minded' as WISER!! Haha!

[mrhappy]

I purchased one of the very first available, 1 Gigabyte external SCSI hard drives & paid $995.00 for it, brand new.

My first external SCSI drive was 45MB and cost $1095.00!!!   Maybe I'm a little 'older minded' than you Fury!! Haha!

[ziggy29]

Last PPC-related Mac purchase was about 4 weeks ago; I obtained a G4/400 upgrade Sonnet Crescendo card for my souped-up 7600 project.  I'm still looking for 700 MHz+ ideally but not for the prices I'm seeing now.  Since I got a really good deal on the G4/400 I bought it and it represents an upgrade from the G3/300 I had in there before.  And when I finally find a reasonably priced 700+ upgrade, I'll have a spare or I can sell the G4/400 and shouldn't have a problem getting back at least what I paid for it. 

So far it has 1 GB of RAM (the max it can hold), a PCI Sonnet Tempo HD ATA card with attached 120GB "SSD" (actually an mSATA drive in an mSATA to 2.5" IDE adapter), a combo USB 2.0/FW 400 card (obviously limited to USB 1.1 speed in OS 8/9), Radeon 9200 PCI graphics with 128MB of VRAM (actual Mac Edition from NOS) -- and the G4/400 CPU, under the hood of a 7600/132.  A little more work under the hood and I should be about done.  It won't break speed records but it runs Tiger competently.  It is partitioned to run 7 different systems ranging from 7.6.1 to Tiger and it's one of my favorite old school Mac toys (the other being the G4/550 Pismo I'm using now). 

[DieHard]

even tho some older-minded people here have talked about not overstressing pci buss when recording audio i still think that the improved data throughput of the sata pci card (over the built in ATA) combined with a MODERN SSD (being so so much much much faster then the old ATA drives from 2001-2003)  is the best upgrade for mac os period in my opinion
you will love it.

If you search the Forum I have have outlived specifics in the past of when too many "bus mastering" PCI cards in a G4 can create a problem and cause audio "drop outs" and noise when recording.  With 1 audio card (Recording Interface) and 1 SATA controller, there should be no issues

[Knezzen]

Just finished installing the GeForce card and the Sonnet MDX. Going to take some bechmarks now and compare it to the old Radeon 9000 64mb/Dual 1.5ghz setup.

[MacOS Plus]

@Knezzen:  Would you be able to take a physical length measurement on your Ti card for me?  I want to know how long it is without the extra blank extension part of the PCB.  Supposedly the initial release of that card didn't have the extension and I'm trying to figure out if the 'short' version can be crammed in an Xserve without hitting the CPU heatsink.  I'm still in the market for one even if I have to settle for cutting the 'long' version.  (Obviously I'll still make use of one if it won't fit in the Xserve.)

[Knezzen]

MacOS Plus: Sure, I'll take some mesurements, but they will be in cm and mm. The metric system rules

On another note: The MDD is just as fast (or slow, depending on how you look at it) with the 1.6ghz MDX in place.
The lack of cache is very noticable in benchmarks. The upside is that since the 7447A's on the Sonnet card are much more energy efficient than the 7455's on the original Apple CPU card the machine is a lot cooler, even with the tiny Sonnet heatsink and without the loud Sonnet fan (I removed it).

So if you can find one they are pretty much the same speed as dual 1.25ghz G4's overclocked to 1.5ghz but they run a lot cooler.

I wonder if the stock apple heatsink fits the Sonnet card.... Hum...

[Steve_W]

So I was on the verge of selling my lovely Powerbook as I have some old DJ kit that I couldn't get a serial number for, so I kept it.  Sadly, the battery would only hold charge for about 20 minutes.  I was just randomly looking at Gumtree and bizarrely, 45 MINUTES before I started looking, a lady in Scotland posted that she was selling a battery for the exact model I have, brand new boxed!

So I immediately contacted her and struck up a deal.  £22 paid including delivery!  A lovely lady who doesn't trust the internet, so I had to post her a postal order bless her!

I haven't popped it in yet, but that's my latest purchase.

I am always keeping an eye out for FW800 drives though...

[Knezzen]

Sounds like a sweet deal, Steve_W!

I just couldn't help myself and modified my Sonnet MDX to use the stock aluminium apple heatsink instead of the tiny Sonnet one. Idle temp dropped from 40C to 35C with just switching the heatsink (using the old thermal compound for now).

A really good (and cheap) mod

[MacOS Plus]

MacOS Plus: Sure, I'll take some mesurements, but they will be in cm and mm. The metric system rules

  Fine by me - I'm in Canada afterall!

[geforceg4]

yes us canadians use metric for many years since the 1980s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Canada

[Knezzen]

@Knezzen:  Would you be able to take a physical length measurement on your Ti card for me?  I want to know how long it is without the extra blank extension part of the PCB.

Sorry for the late reply.
Without the extension (end of components): 225mm
Full length of the card: 311mm

[Knezzen]

This just came in the mail yesterday. Just need a SATA card for the MDD and I'm all set

[geforceg4]

u bought a normal Sata SSD from Kingspec?
i would buyy the ATA DOM by them, but the SSD?

why? good price?


personally id prefer a better brand for a normal SSD.
but lets hear the reviews! + the price