Messages

1

Tech / Swap optical drive for HDD?

« on: February 24, 2013, 10:04:52 AM »

QUOTE(Paddy @ Feb 24 2013, 01:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The bus for the optical drives on that machine is ATA-3, which is 16MBps, which is dog slow. The hard drives are on an ATA-100 bus (100 MBps). While the hard drives are backwards compatible, I really don't think you'd want to use that pokey slow bus. (FW 400 is 400MBps in ideal conditions, just for comparison purposes, and SATA drives are anywhere from 1.5GB/s to 6GB/s - a HUGE difference)

I also wouldn't rely on something that is starting to show failure in SMART status. Even if you move it, the damage may well be done (and may in fact have nothing to do with its current position).

I'm also not sure that the cooling for the optical drives is anywhere near the same as the cooling for the hard drives. Optical drives don't tend to get hot the way HDs do, so I don't know that moving the existing drive would help and in fact might make the situation worse. Heat rises, and all that...

If it was me, I'd get an external FW drive enclosure, put a new SATA drive in it, and use that. It would be forward compatible should the G4 croak, and should be considerably more reliable than an aging PATA drive. Hard drives do fail eventually and the older they are, the more likely they are to fail.

No i wouldnt want to use that slow bus at all, i was just concerned as the drive was showing signs of failure (According to SMART status) in temperature sensing areas, but for all i know that could mean the temperature sensor of the drive itself has gone. I removed the unused optical drive anyways, at least that might give a bit more airflow.

Besides, the system isnt used for much. Maybe the odd old game or two, video editing (Screenflow may be slow, but it gets the job done! ) and as a media system for watching videos and the occasional internet browser use.

I do plan on a FW enclosure soon when i get some cash together since theres a 500GB SATA HDD sitting on desk in a custom setup i did from an old IDE enclosure, could use that with the Powermac too.

Thanks for the information  

2

Tech / Swap optical drive for HDD?

« on: February 23, 2013, 06:39:16 PM »

Hey guys,

Was going to add this to my last topic but was irrelevant to it, as some of you may know the PowerMac MDD's had some overheating issues. Seems Apple didnt place the fan in the right spot so heat seems to stick around in the case, this is a problem for the hard disks positioned right in front of the heat sink, and upon checking SMART status, that particular drive is showing failure in the temperature areas so i am simply wondering if its possible to remove 1 of the systems optical drives (I have 2, 1 superdrive and 1 regular CD-ROM drive) with the hard disk in question?

I cant really see a problem but i dont really want to try it until i can find a solid answer, just incase the power supply is going to give more (or less) to the power connectors in the optical bay area that could potentially damage the hard disk.

Any information is appreciated.  

3

Tech / PowerMac G4 Graphics card question

« on: February 23, 2013, 11:47:54 AM »

QUOTE(Paddy @ Feb 23 2013, 05:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, Jim, the screenshot was hosted elsewhere - but the image was embedded full-size, so yeah, it was doing nasty things to the browser window! I downloaded the file and re-uploaded it as an attachment, extreme, so now it looks a whole lot better.

(The board system won't let you post an attachment that shows up full-size in a post that big!)

Ahh thanks for that.  In future i'll be sure to shrink any images down to a suitable size  

4

Tech / PowerMac G4 Graphics card question

« on: February 23, 2013, 10:53:18 AM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Feb 23 2013, 04:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BTW, there are several keyboard combos that let you take screen shots of something less than the entire screen. shift-command-4 springs to mind... A 1600 pixel wide image, even when reduced 80% make a huge image on the TS boards. Many of us never use 'full-screen' mode so we end up having horizontal scroll bars because the image is so wide. I have my Chrome window set to around 1500pixels but still have a horizontal scroll bar. The whole screen is still not available for viewing an image at TS because of the ~200 pixels along the left-hand side and whatever borders a theme may insert.

Xairbusdriver, AKA: Self-appointed TS Window Width Monitor and Chief Complainer

Whoopsies! My apologies about that, i did shrink down the 2nd image i wanted to link but it never showed up. But thanks for the reminder to shrink images in future, hehe.  

5

Tech / PowerMac G4 Graphics card question

« on: February 23, 2013, 08:35:56 AM »

QUOTE(Paddy @ Feb 19 2013, 02:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know why you think you'd need to remove pins from it, or that it's not compatible with the G4. ATI/AMD list it as compatible, but see notes from xlr8yourmac below. Also, it has 256MB of video memory, not 128 according to the website, though I see a 128MB version on eBay. It is not compatible with all G4s though - you should tell us what model G4 this is for (might want to add that to your profile as 3,6 includes a number of different models: http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-looku...ds=PowerMac3,6) From the looks of it, your model is NOT one of the incompatible ones.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9600/rad...cmac/specs.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/9600_mac_pc_edition.html

I suspect that the best deals are to be found on eBay, but here's a new one through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/ATI-Radeon-9600-256M...=pd_sim_sbs_e_2

One on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-RADEON-MAC-960...=item1e76d50f9d

Apologies for the late reply, seems im not getting emails informing me of a reply even when i selected to when i first posted.


Anywho, this is definitely a 128MB card. Since it was listed as being for the G5, and of 8X AGP speed, i taped the pins and it works smoothly in my G4.
A pic of the system profiler is below.

Link with system specs wouldnt load so i just typed em below so if anyone stumbles accross this with same question + same system as me, they'll know it works

Power Mac G4
Identifier: Powermac3,6
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Processor Speed: 1.25GHz
Number of physical CPUs: 1
L2 Cache: 256kb
L3 Cache: 1MB
Memory: 1.75GB DDR PC2700
Bus Speed: 167MHz
BOOT ROM: 4.4.8f2

6

Tech / PowerMac G4 Graphics card question

« on: February 19, 2013, 02:02:53 AM »

Hey guys!

I have been looking around for a Core-Image capable graphics card for my PowerMac G4, and i have found a few, i have my eye on one specifically but theres a small hiccup.

The card im looking at is an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, it has 128MB video memory, Dual DVI ports, and is of course capable of Core Image

The Hiccup? Its listed as being for G5 systems, its also 8x AGP and not 4x AGP which my PowerMac G4 is.

Now, as far as i can tell, my system will take the card as long as i force it down to 4x AGP by taping (or permanently removing) pins 3 and 11 on the back side of the card.

Does anyone know if thats all i need to do or if there is anything else involved?

Any information is appreciated.