Got a G4/400, Where can I go from this? Options

[jce44]

That's it

Max the RAM to 2 GB, and you're flying
Note it'll be noisy by today's standards

The only point I strongly advise you is to use it either in OS 9 or in OS X only, not both and switching. That's the thing that makes them behave crazily.

You'll be able to upgrade the processor later if need be, but by this time, you'll be on macintels. On the drives, it can be made better, but you'll be up and running with this.

There's not very many posts nor much info in MM about processor upgrades (G4) and making music.

One post (replied to by "Newbies", such as myself) says to stay away from a processor upgrade and save up for a new or used G5.... Another, recent post explains that certain Audio Interfaces aren't supported with processor upgrades.

I've got a G4 AGP Graphics Sawtooth, 400 MHz, 1 GB RAM (can add more), original 10GB HD + added 110GB HD. Use (but not often) 9.2.2 OS on the first HD & OS 10.3.9 on the second HD. Added a PCI card w/ 3 USB 2.0 & 1 FW port

My budget is limited. My recording needs are small and mostly personal/ non-professional. But I've got music that needs to be done. 3 piece band w/ guitar, lead & bass, digital piano, vocals. I've been reading these posts for a few months now and trying to figure out-

1. what Audio Interface to buy? < $500.00 (seems that Cubase software is preferred?)
2. and which processor upgrade to go for? (limited 100MHz bus speed)

I changed my mind from the processor upgrade to the Mac Mini last year. That way I'd get the external HD (firewire to my G4) AND a CD burner AND a faster processor, but now they're onto Intel processors... ??

I understand that I also need to add external HD? and I need to get a decent CD (DVD too) burner.

Please, some help here? Can I upgrade my (beloved) G4 and make music?

Thank you.

[lepetitmartien]

Yes XLR8 is not helpful for audio but you can easily see if the upgrade is a pain, or impairs some types of activities (for exemple, anything impairing floating point or altivec should be avoided for Audio).

We have quite a few users happy with their CPU upgrades, it's mainly gigadesign and a few Sonnet (pro tools, Logic users from memory…)

On the dual bot issue, it's a problem only us and TidBits have been vocal on it heavily. Once in a while (Murphy's law at work…) as OS 9 ans OS X don't handle drives the same way (they don't write the same things in the invisible partitions at the beginning of the HD) sometimes, something slip when you boot on the other system. it can be benign (a restart and up you go) to some real hair pulling fights, including some loss of data if the directory is destroyed. Some powermacs are more prone to this than others, there's no written law. For exemple, my G3 BW in a year of dual boot did it twice, and it solved easily thru restarting from the OS X install CD and tell it the start up disk again. My firewire external HD had a much worse time (lost GB of data, fortunately, nothing important) switching between 9 and X. A friend had months of fights with her G4 (though no loss of data, but some serious headache to make the computer start up again in the desired OS…).

The most important thing you can do to prevent most of the problems (but not all) is to have X and 9 on different drives, which is your case; You're lucky and you don't know it

L2 and L3 caches are as L1, memory caches to store data and instructions for the processor. L1 is included into CPU for some time now and is usually at the same speed as the CPU. L2 is on the CPU board, as can L3 and they are slower. L2 is usually half speed, L3 it depends. In size, L1<L2<L3 (cost of manufacturing is exactly the reverse btw). The presence of L3 is only justified when a significant speed up is measured if it is present. As the use, in the end, is to make sure the CPU doesn't run out of data or instructions when needed as it runs way faster than RAM, it's optimized.

Don't be obsessed with L2 and L3, look at the performances in the floating point/altivec zone, and also a little on the way the CPU handles drives (if it's significant).

(mhmmm geeky as hell LOL)