Power Mac G5 Upgrade Advice...?

[Chromefree]

Hi Guys,

I've been using Pro Tools 8 on an old Power Mac G5 (system described below).
My startup drive was not booting so I took it to Apple where they wiped the drive and reinstalled OS 10.5.8. The computer starts up ok but now EVERYTHING is excruciatingly slow. Maybe the old boy is ready to be retired.

Rather than replace the drive I'm considering replacing the Mac (Mac Pro Quad Core?) and upgrading to PT 9.

I'm assuming my cards, audio and midi interfaces need replacement?

I'm afraid I'm clueless as to current products and what I need to replicate my current setup.

Any advice, similar experience, tips on different, more economical ways to go, etc., will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Peter








Dual 2Ghz Power PC
8Gb DDR SDRam
512 L2 Cache
1Ghz bus speed

Pro Tools HD 2
1 HD Core Card
1 HD Accel Card
Appian 2000 Dual Monitor Card
Digidesign 96i Audio interface
Digidesign Midi i/o (discontinued?)

[crizdee]

Hi,

Before you do anything i would put a new drive in the G5 and install the operating system fresh. you might find its all good to go again.

The options are a new macpro and new PCIe cards or keep your PCI cards and buy a Magma PE6R4 Chassis. or maybe find a good G5


Chris

[Craig F]

Midi I/O has 9 drives

I would get a new WD Black HD for a new system drive first also (if it doesn't help, you can use it in the Mac Pro)

I'll assume you don't have the last gen G5 that was PCIe.
Chris's advice is good but depending on what you do HD Native might be an option (you lose TDM plugs but gain not eating up voices to use RTAS on an Aux or after a TDM plug on a regular channel)

[Chromefree]

Thanks Chris and Craig.

I brought the G5 back to Apple today and they said that OS 10.5.8 is probably what's causing the sluggishness, ie, the G5's architecture is old to deal with the much newer OS.

Makes sense, I guess. Now my options seem to be to go back to an earlier OS or move up to a new computer.

I wonder what most Mac users here are using, ie, Mac Pro, Mac Book Pro? Any G5's here still performing well?

Thanks again Gents.

[Styles Bitchly]

My HD rig is powered by a G5. It's over five years old, and still going strong. That being said, I haven't upgraded to a newer Mac because of the price. As soon as I can afford it, I'm going to buy a new Mac Pro. Not necessarily because of performance, but more for the ability to upgrade everything in the future. If they were still writing CS upgrades that were compatible I'd probably stay with this system.

[Craig F]

all Mac Pros here (let's leave it at a lot of Mac Pros)

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by Chromefree

I brought the G5 back to Apple today and they said that OS 10.5.8 is probably what's causing the sluggishness, ie, the G5's architecture is old to deal with the much newer OS.

Hi,

I very much doubt it! many of us have and some still do run Leopard on G5's and they worked just swell. i used a dual 2g G5 for years and it rocked on Leopard and Panther. anyway Panther should work great on a G5 so i would with that!

What version of PT are you using?

What sort of sluggishness are you experiencing?


Chris

[Camilo Orozco]

I am using a Dual 2.5 G5 PPC Mac OS X 10.5.8 along with ProTools 7.4.2 without any problem. Rock solid system.

[Jon_Atkinson]

Originally Posted by Chromefree

I brought the G5 back to Apple today and they said that OS 10.5.8 is probably what's causing the sluggishness, ie, the G5's architecture is old to deal with the much newer OS.

That is absolute nonsense from Apple... Up until 3 months ago I was running a Dual 2.3 G5 on 10.5.8 with no issues at all.
10.5.8 was the quickest and most trouble free OS I had on that machine.

I would definitely look at your OS drive though.... Just a heads-up, on the G5, the cables which the drives attach to can get worn (where they have to be manipulated out to allow for two drives to be seated).... It lead to a few issues for me where occasionally the machine wouldn't boot properly....

Perhaps check that...?

Otherwise, a new drive would be the most sense to try first (you can always stick it in a MacPro if you go that route, as has already been mentioned)

Look at that first before spending thousands upgrading your computer and cards....

That being said, when I moved to a new MacPro, I wished I'd done it years ago!
If you use a lot of VI's it's a massive step up from the G5.

[dtmprod]

Until a couple months ago, I was running a G5 dual 2.7 with Protools 8. Everything was certainly solid. But I was able to pick up a new 2009 Mac Pro they were blowing out at $2k and the latest Magma chassis used for about half price. I couldn't be happier. Currently running PTHD 8.11 and it seems as solid, if not more so, than before. And everything is so much quicker, snappier & responsive. I booted up previous mixing sessions that ate up 80-90% of G5 power due to various RTAS stuff I was running. THe new puter loafs at 20%. I'm sure the new Westmeres would have even more power. I guess you don't realize how much the software upgrades take a toll on the processor speed until you compare to something newer. Don't know about upgrading to PT 9 tho. I still see too many people in the forums having challenges running that version.