On Aug 6, 2010, at 7:12 AM, Geke wrote:
1. How tricky is it to put the DA's CPU into the Gigabit? The CPU is the same, but I read that "the location of the CPU card on machines previous to the digital audio would require some modifications to the motherboard/case". (The other way I can manage; I have the Sonnet instructions for putting in the Encore.)
The Giga-Designs processor upgrades were designed from the outset to fit in either processor position: the old position as found in the Gigabit Ethernet G4s or the new position as found in the Digital Audio and Quicksilver G4s. Giga does this by having a two-position processor cooler, and an innovative board layout which accommodates the special need of the Gigabit Ethernet for access to its optical/ ZIP drive PATA channel.
The Giga-Designs processors were also designed for easy changes from a 100 MHz bus machine to a 133 MHz bus machine.
I don't know if Encore offers this same flexibility.
2. What do I gain by this swap? I mean, the DA is a bit newer and faster, but is it worth it, or should I just switch to the Gigabit? - I have already tried the DA's video card in the Gigabit and it works OK; does it make a big difference that the DA is AGPx4 and the Gigabit AGPx2? - The RAM in both computers is PC-133 - Does the slower ATA bus speed of the Gigabit make a big difference in actual practice?
It can make a difference, but that difference is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 minutes to do a complex DVD authoring/ mastering job on a Gigabit Ethernet (100 MHz bus, an slower ATA channel) to 120 minutes to do the same job on a Digital Audio or a Quicksilver (133 MHz bus and faster ATA channel).
In stark contrast, a Shuttle SP35 OSx86 Hackintosh can do that same DVD authoring/mastering job in 12 minutes ... a 10-to-1 improvement in "wall-cock-time", which is certainly one important measure of performance.
I still retain 133 MHz bus G4s for ordinary work (such as web access and Mail.app access, for which a 133 MHz bus and a dual 1.0 GHz G4 processor is certainly satisfactory).
All the "heavy lifting" in my shop is now run on OSx86 Hackintoshes with, variously, 800 MHz to 1600 MHz buses and dual or quad Intel processors in the very high 2 MHz to low 3 MHz range (Pentium Dual- Core E6700 3.2 GHz, but over-clockable to 3.8 GHz to Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz, but over-clockable to 3.4 GHz; however, I rarely operate my processors over-clocked, preferring reliability over excessive stress on the various components).
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