How do I speed up my Dual G4/867?

[Rapunzel]

I've got a Dual G4/867 with 768MB RAM and would like to speed it up.

Manly 2D tasks (finder stuff) are too slow.

I hope to get a speed boost with 10.3 but think about buying a new grafic card and installing a raid system.

Is it worth buying for example an ATI 9800pro card for 2D tasks? I'm currently using a GeForce 4MX.

Is it worth installing a (MacOS X) raid system?

Thanx for any input.

[Zammy-Sam]

I supposed right now you are using 10.2.8
Well, a better 3d card will speed up your quartz-extreme engine that can help in 2d as well. A raid-system is not really needed. I have a raid-system on my peecee, but the only time I feel the speed is when I copy files within the disc. I would recommend you to put some more ram into your dual G4. That should have the strongest effect

[Arden]

The best solution is adding more RAM. The riskiest is overclocking your processor. A better graphics card won't get you much more performance than you've got right now, as will (or won't) a RAID.

Check out this post I made a while back about how to turn on window buffering. This may get a little bit more out of your system, or it may make you think you're using a 2.5 Ghz G5 (though I doubt it ). Also increase your network connection bandwidth if you're not on dialup.

[Rapunzel]

Thx for your replies. I'm gonna get another 256MB RAM and wait for 10.3 (I'm running 10.2.8 right now).

But I wonder that a ATI 9800 card won't speed up 2D tasks...

[Arden]

It will speed them up some, but not a whole lot. A 9800 would have a much bigger impact if you do a lot of 3D rendering or hardcore gaming, but for Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Final Cut Pro, etc. you'd be better off getting more RAM or a processor upgrade if you want to shell out the money.

I also recommend you double the amount of RAM you buy to 512 MB, minimum, depending on what your needs are. What do you do, anyway (Photoshop, video editing, etc.)?

[Zammy-Sam]

the ati 9800 will cost you lot of money. Rather pick a slower one such as 9600pro and use more money on ram.

[Vard]

Arden.....

I read you other post about window buffering and wanted to know a little more about it. What does it do? Today, I hope, I am receiving my (new to me) used G3 500 B&W for use in a music studio. I have been a little concerned about OS X on it and have been thinking of ways to get the max perfomance out of it.

Here are the specs on the system:

Blue and White Apple Macintosh G3
500 MHz Sonnet Encore CPU
1 GB Memory
20 GB ATA 100 Hard Drive
ATI Rage 128 Graphics Controller
SIIG ATA 100/133 IDE Controller
4X CD-R Drive
Mac OS X v10.2.2 and 9.2.2 Preloaded
2 Firewire Ports
2 USB Ports
10/100 Ethernet Port
1 ADB Port
Internal Sound In/Out

We're not going to be doing much besides running Protools and surfing the net. That's about it. Oh yeah, and Konfabulator--my brother says Konf. is what he expects from a computer...he's weird.

Any other suggestions on how to speed it up. And yes, Panther will be added by the end of November as I hear it does good things for G3's.

Thanks,
Eddie

[naodx]

10.3 will speed things up for you, atleast it seemed to be faster both on my 667 powerbook, and my dual 1 gig MDD.

Here are a couple of links from xlr8yourmac.com where he tests both the ATI 9700 & the 9800. Granted the 9700 was retail only, but in those tests he does show a little bit of 2d testing (and of course, gaming comparisons as well.)

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G5/Dual_g...800_tests.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...OEM/index.html

More ram in your system will always help. Depending on how long you plan on keeping this system, I would buy ram modules in 512MB sticks if you can afford it. If you planned on keeping the system for a while, you could upgrade in 512 increments until you hit 2 gig, without 'wasting' ram modules. There are several places to buy ram, my favorite is crucial.

Looking on thier website they have pc2700 512 sticks for 85.99 and pc2100 for 88.99. Your machine uses the pc2100, but the pc2700 would work in your machine as pc2100.