G5 2.7GHz

[rwm]

Killer deal Kaye,

[kaye]

Am always on the lookout for a better FW800 hub/repeater since my G5 has only one FW800 port (bottom right of diagram) and all of my PCI-X slots are populated:


FireWire Direct has an 8-port FW800 hub/repeater (really 7 available ports because 1 port is for connecting the hub to the G5 FW800 port):
NitroAV

I hate to put more bucks into this G5 and the NitroAV is expensive but I may go for it. k

[kaye]

All good things come to an end. Last Saturday, booted up, normal bong, during boot Mac screen showed some strange small rectangles, got to the desktop and now thousands of those rectangles filling the screen and couldn't read anything. Could barely read the shutdown. Waited awhile, booted up, now thousands of rectangles again but now throughout the boot, screen looked worse.

Got on the iBook G4 and Rick and Unclemac said either the 23" Apple Cinema HD Display or the X800XT graphics card with more suggestions about troubleshooting. So I connected the Cinema Display to my GigaMDD and the display was just fine. Haven't been on the GigaMDD for awhile so I spent a lot of time on it just having fun and exploring it in Tiger and the real OS 9.2.2 (not classic).

Monday back to the G5 I found the original graphics card I ordered and the G5 shipped with, an ATI Radeon 9650 Apple version meaning no markings on it to indicate anything but physically it has 2 DVI ports. Installed it, booted to an Open Firmware reset, screen just fine, it rebooted to the desktop, everything just fine. I have ordered another X800XT. k

[kaye]

As of a couple of days ago, I am back to an X800XT for about $300. Working just fine. k

[kaye]

Tested


which is CPU intensive. k

[kaye]

Purchased the FireWire Direct 8-port FW800 hub/repeater (really 7 available ports because 1 port is for connecting the hub to the G5 FW800 port):
NitroAV k

[rwm]

I ran Power Fractal 1.4.1 with it's default settings on my idle iMac 2.66GHz, 2 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB and OSX 10.6.1. The Power Fractal 1.4.1 page did not list SL 10.6.x it said 10.5 was fine.
Anyway Kaye's G5 kicked my butt.

[kaye]

Anyway Kaye's G5 kicked my butt.

Actually pretty close. A tip, as soon as the result shows, refresh with Command-R. In fact you can hold down the Command key and just hit the R key as soon as the result shows. Any better result, save it but then keep going. Eventually you will get to your very best result. How many CPUs does your iMac have? k

[rwm]

Processor - 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

These terms have confused my poor little brain. My iMac's System Profiler says 1 processor...

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

So what is exactly is a core? or is it just like a processor?

[kaye]

I don't have any dual core machines but I'm guessing that 1 processor with 2 cores is like 2 processors. Anybody chime in? k

[ricks]

The move to multiple core appears to be the only way that Intel could speed up a single processor unit significantly. By virtue of multithreading on multi core processors, as opposed to pure up-clocking of the processor speed, they add power. The manufacturing process ran up against a wall on just increasing pure MHz. Kind of stuck in the neighborhood of 3 GHz for a bit here.

The multicore CPU does closely parallel multi-processors. Advantages and disadvantages to each. But fairly close.

Rick

[unclemac]

Yes. Clock cycles was largely over-hyped in the Pentium 4 days. Since then, everybody is moving to multiple cores, and multiple CPUs with multiple cores.

Not quite the same as "real" CPUs, but almost. And not a hype thing really. Apple continues to tweak their OS to fully use cores and CPUs. In the bad old days, multiple cores and/or CPUs were not well utilized.

Take the current MacPros. High end jobs have 2 CPUs, 4 cores each = 8 cores. Lots of gogo, if the OS can divide up work efficiently. Read up on Grand Central if you are curious. Others are going this way too.

Rumor has it, the Apple will incorporate 4 core CPUs in iMacs. Maybe tomorrow, maybe middle of next year. Unless CPUs change completely, more cores are the wave of the future. Look on the bright side......we could be having this discussion.

[unclemac]

And if on cue, along come quad core iMacs.

[rwm]

I just read that.

[kaye]

rwm, Have you tried my tip for refreshing with Command-R? k

[rwm]

Yes, I did. Seemed to have not changed much. Today I restarted, closed all applications but am still only getting 16,916 or 17,192 usually one than the other but nothing that seems to keep getting better and better. I'll check again later.

Power Fractal says it detected 2 processors so it must look at each core similar to a processor.

[kaye]

In Energy Saver prefs, Options, is Processor Performance set for Highest? k

[rwm]

Kaye

You did mean in my System Prefs/Energy Saver options? OR some where different because I see nothing to change Processor Performance in my Energy Saver Options. I never have.

I did try again and got .... 18,029 But it usually hits in the higher 16,000's or mid 17,000's.

[kaye]

Well that's interesting, somewhat lower MFs but also lower time to complete (Elapsed Time) than my G5. Yes I meant System Prefs/Energy Saver options. Too much I don't know about these multiple core machines. k

[kaye]

My APC Back-UPS RS 1500VA is still going strong. No sign yet of it or the batteries giving out. Same for the APC Performance SurgeArrest 11 outlet (PF11VNT3). I have an extra SurgeArrest just in case. But the batteries situation leaves me unhappy. APC no longer sells the batteries and wants me to upgrade to another current model. Nice and expensive, $250 from them, or about $190 from Amazon.

So I went here Cyberpower and liked what I saw. Back to Amazon and they had it for total $144 including shipping, no tax. Currently it is $170 so wait awhile if you are in the market for one. Greater capacity, smaller size, lighter weight, nice LCD, surge 1080 Joules vs. 340 Joules for the APC but I have the SurgeArrest at 2030 Joules anyhow. Am charging up the Cyberpower to check it is working but may not install it for awhile. k