Segment One -
Simple & Easy Performance Boosts First
Assembled
and Edited by Keith Benicek and
Zack Bryce
July
14, 2003
There is only one thing that I enjoy more than working on, or just diddling around with a Mac G4, and that’s making changes in it. I’ve never been a subscriber to the old adage “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”, that is just not interesting.
The Win PC crowd has the misconception that Mac G3 or G4 Power PC’s are not upgradeable. Oddly enough, while both mass-produced platform types have similar proprietary part limitations such as the mother (logic) boards, power supplies and the physical nature of the cabinet; both can follow familiar paths with RAM, disk drive, CDRW, DVD-R and PCI board hardware upgrades. We Mac users do have one huge advantage over most mass market PC’s, and that’s the ability to upgrade the processor, in many cases 2 fold or more in clock speed. Those chain store Compaq/HP/Sony/eMachine type clones are processor dead-ends. Their motherboards or BIOS is only designed for the processor it originally bears.
Much as we stated in our popular Upgrade a PowerBook G3, Part 1 and 2 article, you really have to decide before starting an upgrade project what you want to accomplish and how much budget you have to complete it. We will try to give you alternatives in products of different prices where possible.
Now you might at some point, especially at the very beginning, want to know what cost justification there is for upgrading, when you can buy a new G4 Mac at those ever dropping retail prices? Well first and foremost, if you have a reliable, perhaps specially configured, it’s paid for and you love your Mac, it’s a good idea. Besides, if you add up all the extras, taxes, shipping and service charges for a new G4 whatever GHz, it may not be as cheap to buy new as you think!
So lets start in with the essential hardware and software upgrades to bring your G4 Mini Tower up to more current levels of operation and usability. Please keep in mind that some of these upgrades can be applied to even older
Macs, such as the G3
B/W versions and maybe even the “Beige” G3’s, however
some may not just as easily. Our test beds, as stated earlier, is the
first AGP equipped G4 known as the “Sawtooth”.
"
Under version
Mac OS 9.2.2, a full 2 MB of RAM can now be seen from the early G4’s."
Gingko Biloba
for your Mac –
Any IT tech that knows his stuff will tell you that the short of a processor
upgrade kit, the biggest performance boost will come from new and more
“premium” fast RAM. Eh, you say? What is “premium”
fast RAM? RAM comes in a few flavors relating to it’s “latency”,
or timing specification and that directly relates to how fast commands
are handled by the RAM.
Slow RAM, like the
cheap mediocre quality stuff that Apple uses OEM in your VERY expensive
new G4 1.42GHz DP Tower is 3-2-2 CAS latency (CL3), we’ve even seen
3-2-3 (CL3.5) in new $2,500 G4 Macs! 2-2-2 (aka CL2) is the fastest RAM
you can buy.
Full House always wins, 2GB
of Premium CL2 SDRAM
Under version Mac OS 9.2.2, a full 2 MB of RAM can now be seen from the early G4’s. We chose our favorite premium SDRAM from Viking Components, a full 2 MB of CL2 for the best possible performance. Specifically, the Viking model number is PC100-64X64CL2 SDRAM, if you want to use the same RAM we did. Benchmarked against the standard Hyundai 3-2-2 (CL3) SDRAM that Apple uses, the Viking SDRAM was 17% faster.
RAM prices have been volatile for the last couple years and may be as low as it gets; buy as much as you can, but remember that the CAS Latency rating is critical.
Putting the best and fastest RAM in your old or new computer is the most important improvement you can make. There's absolutely no point in having a fast engine in your super charged Mac, if you're going to use cheap gasoline! It's the best analogy we can make.
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