G4 upgrade and AKAI DPS 24

[Tim G]

Hi,

I am considering upgrading our family's unwanted G4 for use in my music studio.
I am currently using an AKAI DPS24 to track on and am hoping to mix on a version of protools in the mac.

I have been checking out the upgraded processors from giga designs (Single 1.8GHz 47A AGP)
I am guessing this is the first step...are there others to consider...(successful with PTLE?)

my mac is G4, OS9, 400 Mghz. ethernet model...all stock. 40 gig HD, 64mb ram etc.

my Akai has a scsi system so I am hoping to also get a scsi card for the mac to get the tracks into PT.

how much ram? cache? not sure on these either. (pretty dim on computers in general!)
what version of PT for OS 9.2? or will I need to upgrade OS also?

any advice or info on what I will need would be appreciated. thanks in advance.

-Tim

[b mcgibney]

I'm using the sonnet dual 1.3 processor. Much better performance than the stock 733 qs.

B

[mindnoise]

HI,

froma email I wrote lately:

>
> I have recently acquired a setup similar to yours. I'm curious. did you start with a sawtooth and add a Sonnett dual? I have their 1.2 single processor. didn't know you could run the dualie.

I added the Sonnet by mayself on my aging 1999 G4.

BE CAREFULL what Sawtooth you have. If you have AISC Uni-North Rev.3 chip or lower like my 1999 G4 does, you CAN NOT run Dual CPUs

see http://www.sonnettech.com/publicfile...uet_2g_add.pdf
This will apply to ALL G4 with the specific Uninorth chip!
No Matter what.

And be sure to invest in some Arctic Silver V or Ceramic thermal compound. The thermal pad of the custom CPU heatsink won´t cut it and youre are more likely to fry your CPU (content dramatized)

so far

-stock up your RAM (1 GB that should be enough if you move OS X, even more)
- the latest Version for OS 9 is 5.2.1 plus the 32 Track beta update.
- there are some ATTO UL2D cards floating on ebay for really cheap money
if you move to OS X a UL3S or UL3D is needed, since the UL2D/S won´t work
on OS X as far as I know.
-the small Adaptec 2930 is also nice but Adaptec is known to hog the PCI bus and
the DualChannels as well as the bigger once sould be avoided.


so far

regs

[Tim G]

thanks guys..

I tried testing my mac and NO uni N revision shows up at all on the ASP report...so I don't know if my mac will support a dual processor or not...

I'm leaning towards a single processor anyway cause of $$$

If I upgrade to OS10 and get the latest version of PT will it run OK on my G4 with a single processor upgrade...if so, how fast do I need to go with the upgrade? will 1.3 do it? faster the better? or is it overkill?

also trying to figure out the buss speed of my G4? how do I find it?

thanks again.
-Tim

[mindnoise]

HI,

my System runs fine (see Sig.), so 1.2 to 1.4 GHz will work smoothly, I guess.

I tried testing my mac and NO uni N revision shows up at all on the ASP report...so I don't know if my mac will support a dual processor or not...

thats strange but I can´t help it for now.

If youre satisfied with PT under OS9 there is no need to sweat for OSX.
AS PT5.2+OS9 is rockstable with the best performance ratio.

regs

[Tim G]

Hey Regs,

If I opt to stay with OS9 and an older version of PT...will all plugins work? are the new ones usually compatible with OS9 and 10? are there enough that work with 9 to keep me happy for a while?

ps. haven't used a plugin in my life....yet.

thanks.
-Tim

[Tim G]

Hey Regs,

If I opt to stay with OS9 and an older version of PT...will all plugins work? are the new ones usually compatible with OS9 and 10? are there enough that work with 9 to keep me happy for a while?

ps. haven't used a plugin in my life....yet.

thanks.
-Tim

[M.Brane]

A few thoughts from a fellow bottom feeder:

I too have a 400 mhz Gigabit Ethernet G4, and an 001. I recently installed a gig of RAM for a total of 1.62 GB. Other than that, and having 4 drives (2 on a Tempo Trio) it's stock. PTLE 5.1 in 9 runs great. Haven't tried the 32-track beta. Haven't needed that many tracks yet.

I have been using 6.4 in 10.3.9 for mixing, and light tracking with success. The additional Dynamics/EQ III plugs are a step up from the standard OS 9 plugs. The Bomb Factory stuff has proved to be mostly useless. They are free though.

I have a dual 1.6 GigaDesigns processor on the way. Once that gets here I think there'll be no more need to have 9 installed.

After the Giga comes SATA. SCSI is good, but you get more storage per $ with SATA, and the thinner cabling is much better for airflow inside the case. Keeping things cool inside the box is critical for the long-term.

If I was starting from scratch I'd go for a newer G4, but I got this one dirt-cheap from a trusted source so I don't mind throwing money at it to make it do what I need it to do. Judging from a lot of the posts I've read here I'm happy to be stuck at PTLE 6.4/Panther rather than suffer the headaches of PTLE 7/002/M-Box.

[Tim G]

A few thoughts from a fellow bottom feeder:

I too have a 400 mhz Gigabit Ethernet G4, and an 001.

M,

Are you currently running your set-up on the stock 400mghz processor?

I mentioned above...

I tried testing my mac and NO uni N revision shows up at all on the ASP report...so I don't know if my mac will support a dual processor or not...

is there an alternate way of telling if my Mac will accept a dual processor?



-Tim

[M.Brane]

Yeah I've been running with the stock 400mhz chip. My Giga DP is here now so not much longer.

This Mac had the firmware updated to Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1 by the previous owner (a Mac network admin.) and I did check the UniNorth version so it's good to go with the dually. This page may help you figure out if you can do the dually.