Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

G4 Dual or G5 Single processor???

T

Torroni

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 24, 2004
5
0
Hi Guys

I currently own a Dual 1GHz G4 but am thinking about changing to a Single processor 1.8GHz G5. One of the main reasons for this is that I just can't stand the noise from the fans/power supply.

Can anyone offer any advice as to the pros and cons of this swap...will the G5 actually be slower and what affect will it have on system performance?

I look forward to your replies!!! :confused:
 
Torroni said:
Hi Guys

I currently own a Dual 1GHz G4 but am thinking about changing to a Single processor 1.8GHz G5. One of the main reasons for this is that I just can't stand the noise from the fans/power supply.

Can anyone offer any advice as to the pros and cons of this swap...will the G5 actually be slower and what affect will it have on system performance?

I look forward to your replies!!! :confused:
Click to expand...


It would depend on what applications you use. If they are DP aware, then you are better off with your present computer, and of course, a pair of ear plugs. If not, you could probably snag a 1.8 for a low price when the new G5s are released.. which shouldnt be too far off in the future.
 
I think the G5 would be faster. As was mentioned before faster RAM, FSB, etc. You can take a look at Xbench's results comparson site. The dual 1GHz G4 averages in the upper 130's for overall performance. The single G5 1.8 GHz averages in the upper 160's for overall performance, however comparing the CPU tests and memory tests, the gap is even larger.
 
Check out this link: http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/121903/main.html

You will find that the G5 will give you better performance, but just remember that expansion is almost non-existent on the G5 (1 more 3.5" drive) It will all depend on what's important to you. Unless you have CPU intensive tasks, you might not fully appreciate the extra performence of the G5. Although your G4 brings a ridiculous amount of money on ebay, and you can find good deals on single CPU G5s, it is still less expensive to hold on to your G4. If the noise is the only complaint, did your machine qualify for the power supply replacement? That is the major contributor to your noise. My G5 is quiet until you do CPU intensive tasks, then those fans spin up and it is a different machine. Although I'm not 100% sure, is your machine still bootable in OS9? I don't know if that's important to you, because you won't be able to do that in a G5.
 
take a look see that the costs of 1.8's on the deals part of the apple store... verrryyy nice prices... although the stock changes all the time. could have sworn there were dual 1.8's this mornin for a few hundred under the retail, but there's still single 1.8's for 1600... *drools* (this is from the guy who can't afford to get out of his beige and os 9 - so i guess 1600 is actually a lot of money)...

as for expandibility, there's now that company that makes internal solutions for the g5 for hard drive expandibility (g5jam, reviewed on barefeets.com), so as long as you're not bound up by the second optical drive, the 1.8 is a sweet machine - although i'd wait and see if any dual 1.8's show up in the refurbs again soon... cause they had quite a deal on those...

oh, and i need to add the obligitory: if you need to get rid of that dual 1.0, i'd be more than willing to take it off of your hands... i'm so nice i'd even do it for free ;)

matt
 
MKAAKE, thanks for the info on that g5jam. I just said to my nephew " somebody ought to do something with that wasted space". Of course I'm sure they engineered it correctly, but I ran my G5 once without that plastic air baffle, what an awakening. Those fans kicked on full blast, scary. It looks like the aluminum baffle replaces it just fine though. Thanks again
 
I don't think you'd be looking at much of a performance boost by switching to a single G5...a dual, yes. I've mod'ed my Dual 1GHz MDD to be fairly quiet. I replaced a pair of quiet Thermaltake's in the PS, switched out the CPU Delta to a Panaflo M1A and installed a quiet slot fan . Now most of the noise comes from the hard drives. I was even able to run my machine cooler with this setup (57C as opposed to Apple set 60C) without much extra fan noise. Total cost to do this was around $50 plus an hour of time.

But it does really depend on your needs. I do a lot of audio and still have to hold onto a OS 9 bootable machine, plus some new G5's have some weird audio issues that haven't been resolved. Unless you're doing heavy duty audio/video that requires lots of processor time to accomplish tasks, I don't think it would be worth it, especially going to a single proc G5.
 
Wait for the next revision of G5's come out. They are pretty much due next week. You should be able to get a DUAL 1.8GHz G5 as the bottom of the line model which means that it will be a lot CHEAPER!
 
Torroni said:
Hi Guys

I currently own a Dual 1GHz G4 but am thinking about changing to a Single processor 1.8GHz G5. One of the main reasons for this is that I just can't stand the noise from the fans/power supply.

Can anyone offer any advice as to the pros and cons of this swap...will the G5 actually be slower and what affect will it have on system performance?

I look forward to your replies!!! :confused:
Click to expand...

Performance wise, the single 1.8GHz G5 will be generally comparable to the dual 1GHz G4 even in dual processor aware apps...sometimes a bit slower, but sometimes even faster. Remember both your dual 1GHz G4s are sharing a constipated little sub-200MHz front-side bus, while the G5 roams free on a 900MHz FSB, connected up to a dual channel 400MHz DDR RAM subsystem. There is no contest at all for single-CPU applications...the 1.8GHz G5 stomps all over the dual 1GHz G4.

Check out www.macspeedzone.com for dual 1GHz G4 versus single 1.8GHz G5 benchmarks.

If most of the work you do is sitting around waiting for dual-CPU aware applications to finish rendering big graphics or video intensive tasks, then even swapping to a newer single-CPU system which performs roughly the same as your current system on SMP-aware apps might not be a good investment...when you upgrade, you want to see a real performance increase. And you would definitely see that with a dual 1.8GHz system. As everyone else is advising, sit tight...G5 updates are close...and that means cheaper prices on the current lineup, and CPU speed upgrades for the new lineup.
 
G5 or G4

I use a mixture of G4's and G5's at college and out the 2 i have found the G5's to be extremely faster than the G4 just by how they feel. You will also get a longer life out of a G5 becuase it is the latest technology.
My main machine at home is a 1.6 G5 and i find it blisteringly fast it is just great for the audio work that i do.
 
I would only go with a dual 1.8 - unless it's inaccurate, my 1.25 G4 runs right about 10 points shy of the single 1.6's and 1.8's in Xbench tests of three run averages.
 
I think even with DP aware applications the 1.8 G5 would be faster. I don't know where but check benchmarks and the singer G5 would be faster. as soon as i find a benchmark ill post it
 
i really need to read through the whole post before i post... I'm always double posting.
 
I have a dual 1GHz MDD powermac and although a single G5 is probably faster I don't think it's worth the money just yet. The differential isn't big enough for me to upgrade. I don't buy computers just to win some p*ssing contest. When we get well into the mid-2's and 3GHz dual G5s then it definitely becomes worth it.

I've got the replacement power supply/fans in my PM and it is a lot quieter than it was though I'd readily admit it's nowhere near as quiet as a G5
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back