Hej
Vi har ofte diskuteret både for og imod opgradering af diverse
forskellige computermodeller, - både om det kan betale sig eller ikke, -
og hvad man allerede bør have, for at det kan betale sig. Jeg har jo
selv lige valgt at opgradere min 'El Capitan G3/400' til en G3/900mhz. -
Det er virkelig noget, der kan mærkes!
I denne uge har Otherworld Computing en artikel netop om opgradringer
med en del testresultater. Links er indeholdt i teksten. Jeg synes,
denne artikel er så god, at mange andre bør læse den. Den kan desuden
være en god vejledning til, hvad man skal og/eller ikke skal mht. evt.
opgradering.
mvh. Erik Richard
-----------------------------------------------------------
OWC's ZIP UPGRADE SHOOTOUT 3.13.2004
Since the release of the new Sonnet G4 Speeds, as well as the PowerLogix
G3/900 ZIFs - we've been getting a lot of call for a ZIF comparison test
series. We'll, the first one is now completed. I am sorry to say that we
didn't have any PowerLogix ZIFs to test, but as soon as they have their
production up to speed again, those models will be added. For this first
test, we compare:
Stock Apple G3/500MHz with 512K L2 Cache
OWC G3/300MHz with 1MB L2 Cache
OWC G4/450-533MHZ with 1MB L2 Cache
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=7611-4691> available for $149.99
OWC G4/500-600MHZ with 1MB L2 Cache
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=542-6180>, new product, $229.99
Sonnet G4/700MHz with 256K L2, 1MB L3 Cache
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=9792-8074> available for $297.95
Sonnet G4/800MHz with 256K L2, 1MB L3 Cache
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=9149-9700> available for $339.99
Sonnet G4/1GHz with 256K L2, 1MB L3 Cache
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=5108-6131> available for $479.99
For these testes, Apple OS 10.3.2 was used and the both systems* were
configured with a Radeon 7000 Video Card, Serial ATA Controller w/Serial
ATA hard drive. The Beige G3 memory was maxed to 768MBs (OWC 256MB x 3)
and the B&W maxed to 1GB (OWC 256MB x 4). Once exception is the
G3/300MHz 512K L2 stock test where in both machines the Apple stock hard
drive controller with an Apple stock 12GB drive was used in place of the
Serial ATA Controller/HD.
*Apple only supports installation of up to OS 10.2.8 on Beige G3 Models.
However, with our Xpostfacto support app
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=8183-584>, you can install and
reliably utilize the latest 10.3.x software on the Beige G3. Beige G3 OS
10.3.x support currently require use of a PCI Video card as support for
the Beige's built in video has not yet been completed.
Note: The PowerMac G4 'Yikes' PCI has the same logic board and thus the
same performance characteristics of the PowerMac G3 Blue&White model.
View the test results on our ZIF Shootout page
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=8739-7875>.
So what about them? Well, if you've got either PowerMac G3 model still
running with it's stock G3 processor, any of these G4 Upgrades is going
to make that machine a whole new animal. Just look at the difference
going from a G3/300 just to the G4/533 - it's pretty significant and
even more significant is the gain if only at G3/266MHz or even G3/233MHz
stock right now! It's more than just the speed going up to, with a G4
processor your adding the Altivec processor Engine thats computational
power is used to speed up general functions and graphic display under OS
X as well as utilized by all those applications touting that 'Altivec
Enhanced' or 'G4 required' badge. Further, vs. any stock G3 model
(except the B&W G3/350MHz which has 1MB L2), you're also doubling you
processor cache from 512K up to 1MB or 1.25MB total, which offers gains
of it's own - even with a same speed processor. Bottom line, is that any
upgrade will make a serious difference and how much a difference comes
to how much you are willing to invest for what you need from your Mac.
And before I go on, about memory - if you're running OS X now or plan
to, max that PowerMac G3 memory out! That's the first best investment
you can make. With OS X 10.2.8 or 10.3.x, 384MB to 512MB of system
memory is borderline - going to 768MB (Beige) or 1GB(B&W) is well worth
the investment and worth doing before you upgrade the processor. More
memory = better OS X performance... and doesn't matter how fast your
computer is if you leave it short on memory. You might be surprised the
gain you get just having that extra memory. If you are running OS 9.x,
384MB or 512MB is more than enough unless you are running applications
that demand more... OS 9.x doesn't make the same use of memory that OS X
does (and nor does it require as much, admittedly).
So about those results. You'll notice the Blue and White with the stock
Hard Drive booted faster than all the upgraded systems booting from
Serial ATA. This is because the computer has to take time to first
address the PCI card before it can boot into it. The B&W has a very
decent ATA/33 controller and stock drive performance is very decent with
that. You'll see with the Beige, however, that even with the time it
takes to address the Serial ATA controller - the stock drive still
booted slower as in this case, the faster controller more than makes up
that time due compared to the slower IDE/16 controller the Beige is
equipped with. Once your started up, the Serial ATA(or an ATA/133
controller) is faster than both Apple stock controllers - but there is
more gain for a Beige G3 system than a B&W G3 in terms of doing an hard
drive controller upgrade.
For the most part the actual test results speak for themselves. You've
got nice linear results (faster ZIF, faster results) for the Beige G3...
But what happened with the Quake 3 Test on the Blue & White? To get
their G4/700-1GHz ZIFs working in the B&W and G4 Yikes models, Sonnet
found they had to reduce the bus speed of those computers to the same
67MHz that the Beige G3 bus operates. You still get a significant
processor boost, but that slower bus speed puts the Sonnet's ad a
disadvantage vs our OWC G4s (as well as Sonnet's own G4/500) that keep
that bus running at the full 100MHz. Due to other design improvements
over the Beige, the B&W G3 still attains better scores at all the speeds
- but there isn't as much improvement as there could be if the bus speed
wasn't being reduced. This is most visible in high bandwidth situations
with data flow between the system bus and the PCI bus, like you've got
with the video card.
In conclusion, it's really all up to how much performance you need from
your machine. The largest gain is with that first upgrade step and then
the cost goes up disproportionately to the additional performance
provided. So think about your needs and how much you use the system
you're considering for an upgrade. Upgrading is darn well worth it and
it's just a matter of how much upgrade you need can benefit from. We'll
be adding more ZIFs to the comparison as they become available and our
hope is this information will help you make the best and most informed
decision possible.
Special thanks to OWC's Jamie for cranking through and getting all this
test data and to Paul for staying a little extra Friday night to get
that data into a format viewable online.
The normal Quick Tip of the Week will return next week. See past Quick
Tip topics online in the Quick Tip Archive
<
http://eshop.macsales.com/link.cfm?id=6736-3462>
--
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K.M.L. Denmark by Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC
<KMLDenmark"NO"@netscape.net>
*Music Recording, Editing & Publishing - Also Smaller Quantities
*Software - For Theological Education - And For Physically Impaired
*Nisus - The Future In Text & Mail Processing <
http://www.nisus.com>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~