• Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2794 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    Quote:

    amigamia wrote:
    Hey Everyone,

    I would like to know what everyone thinks about which apple computer I should keep for my morphOS. I currently own an

    -iBook G4 with 1.42Ghz and 2GB RAM and 60GB HDD
    -PowerBook G4 1.67Ghz with 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD
    -PowerMac G4 MDD with dual 1.25Ghz Proc, 1GB Ram and 128GB HDD. (With an NVIDIA Card but I would need to update that to an ATI to host MorphOS)

    Which one would you choose and why?


    I would keep the PowerBook and the G4 MDD PowerMac, and do what I did, find a single G4 1.25GHz CPU module for the MDD PowerMac, and over-clock it from 1.25GHz to 1.5GHz. This gives you a single core, single CPU G4 system that is the same speed as the fastest G4 MacMini, but with all the expansion room and great case design of the MDD PowerMac. I believe that some people have even over-clocked the 1.25GHz G4 to 1.67GHz, just like the clock rate of the fastest stock G4 PowerBook models, but that is slightly more work, and has a higher risk of burning up the CPU, or causing it to fail earlier, than if you only over-clock to 1.5GHz. The over-clocking to 1.5GHz was a very simple 5 minute solder job of removing one component, that even I accomplished very easily, and I have not soldered much since 1972 to 1974, during my High School electronics classes.

    If there was not such a big difference in clock rate and "potential" processing power between my dual 2.7GHz G5 PowerMac, and my single CPU 1.5GHz G4 MDD PowerMac, I would get rid of the G5 for the following reasons:

    Less noise from case fans (I replaced the stock fan for the CPU/heat-sink, with a "Silent" type fan)
    Less power consumption (don't know the exact numbers, but will check with Amp meter some day to find out)
    Less heat produced (2x-G5s at almost 2x clock rate of 1x-1.5GHz G4 probably makes 3 to 4 times the heat)
    No liquid cooling (no worrying about leaks onto the main board and/or PSU, killing the system)
    Easier/Quicker case access (love the fold down case door with all the expansion slots easier to access)
    More exterior drive bays (I have a DVDRW & ZIP optical drives accessible at front exterior of the case)
    More interior drive bays (four interior 3.5=inch hdd bays, double the number for the G5)

    Even with the almost doubled clock rate of the G5 PowerMac, I don't think it runs anywhere close to twice as fast for running MorphOS software, and I am tempted to sell the G5. The G5 does have the advantage of using SATA for the hard drive controller, so it is easier to find and use modern hdd's. There are other advantages on the G5 PowerMac models, including more modern USB standard (I think), and Firewire 800, instead of 400 (IIRC), but MorphOS support for Firewire seems limited, and there aren't many Firewire products, even for when you want to run MacOSX, or Linux. On the topic of running MacOSX and/or Linux, this is where the Dual 2.7GHz G5 is going to blow the single 1.25GHz G4 out of the water, but my opinion is that if MorphOS users want to run Linux, they most likely will have one or more x86/x64 systems to run Linux on that will do the job much better and faster. The G5 also has a faster, more recent AGP slot for getting more performance out of the video cards, even if the same video card is properly modified to work in the G4 PowerMac, by taping certain traces on the card edge connector.

    Anyway, you don't have a G5 PowerMac, but my point in bringing it up is, unless you absolutely have to have the fastest possible PPC MorphOS experience, I would suggest to anyone that they NOT purchase a G5 PowerMac for running MorphOS, when they already own a MDD G4 PowerMac, and/or the 1.67GHz G4 PowerBook, which will do almost everything that the G5 PowerMac can do, while running MorphOS. Wait for the x64 port of MorphOS if the fastest speed is important to you.
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »26.08.16 - 05:13
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