Mac G4 Help

[abash]

Hey All,

I am going to start this off by saying I am not a computer guy, so bear with me.

I have a Mac G4 that I purchased in 2000 to record music. I currently run Pro Tools LE 6.0.1. I love this Mac and it has served me well. People keep telling me I need to upgrade but I really don't want to. Here's my problem. It is recommended to use an external hard drive when running Pro Tools to free up the CPU usage. I am still using the LaCie external hard drive I purchased back in 2000. It has performed valiantly but is start to act a bit glitchy. I need to find another external hard drive that will work with my Mac. A couple of years ago I purchased an OWC Mercury Elite Pro 2TB external hard drive as a backup. It has been working great for backing up sessions but when I tried to use it in place of LaCie while actually using Pro Tools, I keep getting an "increase CPU usage" alert. So....



Question 1: Can someone explain why the OWC seems to be overwhelming my Mac's CPU when the LaCie does not? I included an image with all the info on my computer. I couldn't get it to load vertically. Sorry.
Question 2: Do I need to upgrade my Mac's CPU for better performance? If so, how?
Question 3: Can someone suggest an external hard drive that will work with Mac? OWC no longer makes the Mercury Elite Pro and doesn't even sell an EHD with firewire.

Thanks!

ABash

 

[ajacocks]

@abash my suspicion is that the drives are of significant different speeds. How are the drives attached to the machine? If one of the two drives is attached via USB that will significantly increase load on the system.

If you don't know, this is what a Firewire port looks like:

I'd also suggest adding a second 1GB memory module to your system to max out the RAM at 2GB. Here is a kit that should work.

You can indeed upgrade the CPU in your machine, but it won't be inexpensive. You could buy a processor module like this, but you'd need to install it. It might be better to upgrade your G4 to one with a dual processor module already installed.

I'd buy a firewire drive enclosure on eBay, like this. You can then put any drive you want to into it, including a more modern SATA drive with a SATA-to-IDE adapter.

Good luck!

- Alex

 

[abash]

Hey Alex,

Thanks so much for your response!

My LaCie drive attaches using the firewire port you have pictured. My OWC uses a firewire 800 cable. I assume that indicates a higher speed from the OWC?

Thanks for your other advice. I already ordered the additional RAM. Any idea of how difficult it is to install the CPU upgrade? I am not very techy but I am pretty handy. It never occurred to me that I could build my own external hard drive. Great suggestion!

Can't thank you enough for taking the time to help me!

abash

 

[ajacocks]

Hmm, your Power Mac G4 doesn't have built-in firewire 800. Do you have it attached to the other hard drive? Or, do you have a PCI firewire 800 card?

Here is a link to a video showing how to upgrade the CPU in a Power Mac G4 with AGP (like yours):

How do you upgrade the processor in the Power Mac G4 models? How are the Power Mac G4 processors mounted?: EveryMac.com

Instructions how to upgrade the processor/CPU in the PCI, AGP, and MDD Power Mac G4 models via the ZIF socket and 300-pin daughtercard connector.

everymac.com

- Alex

 

[abash]

Hey Alex,

Here are a couple of pictures showing the hookups on both my computer and external hard drives. As far as I can tell, I do have one firewire 800 port on the Mac. It is what I've been using with the OWC drive. What are your thoughts?

Adding on, apparently I have the MDD, 2003 revision model of G4 that sometimes featured a firewire 800.

Also, I was doing some research on the CPU expansion board and came across this one: https://ebay.us/m/EevW0d

Would this be a better fit for my machine? It seems like it has more capacity.

abash

 

[ajacocks]

Oh interesting! Your inventory photo showed a PowerMac3,3, which is an earlier G4 with no firewire 800. That is odd that the drive is using so much CPU, then. Firewire 800 should be more efficient, not less. I wonder if the drive is failing?

- Alex

 

[abash]

Well, I think part of the problem may have been user error. I opened up the song that had been causing my problems with the OWC drive using the LaCie drive. I started running into the same "insufficient CPU speed" message again, just not as frequently. As it turns out, there were way too many plug-ins being used on that track. I deleted a bunch and the song worked just fine on both drives. So.....

In regards to making my own external hard drive, I should probably get a drive enclosure that has firewire 800 instead of 400?

 

[ajacocks]

Yeah. The performance increase should be measurable.

- Alex

 

[NeXT]

People keep telling me I need to upgrade but I really don't want to

I know in Vancouver there's still quite a few smaller studios relying on G4's and G5's to run their ProTools and even some older Avid systems that need to support the older NLE project files but for the sake of not having to fuss with dongles and DSP cards, as long as the hardware runs and it gets regular preventative maintenance I never recommend upgrading a DAW workstation unless it consistently becomes a problem that your projects are getting too heavy.
Also those MDD systems, I never had much luck with the later top-end dual proc boards as they seemed fragile and we left them alone. One thing other than ram we did do to to help them along was use a PCI SATA card.

 

[abash]

I know in Vancouver there's still quite a few smaller studios relying on G4's and G5's to run their ProTools and even some older Avid systems that need to support the older NLE project files but for the sake of not having to fuss with dongles and DSP cards, as long as the hardware runs and it gets regular preventative maintenance I never recommend upgrading a DAW workstation unless it consistently becomes a problem that your projects are getting too heavy.
Also those MDD systems, I never had much luck with the later top-end dual proc boards as they seemed fragile and we left them alone. One thing other than ram we did do to to help them along was use a PCI SATA card.

Wow! You mean I'm not the only one still using this machine to record. Cool! Thanks for the tip. Yeah, I think I'll start with RAM and go from there. What do you think about upgrading the hard drive to an SSD?

 

[NeXT]

If you leave your machine on 24/7, I'd go for an SSD and save yourself a drive with a billion hours deciding to randomly drop dead.

I did it to an IBM server a few years back where the 8gb system disk lasted 25 years before saying it was done and my weekend was left recovering from a backup.

 

[andy]

I'm confused. Your pictures show a dual 1.25, which is the second fastest Apple configurations offered. The single 1.25 in that link would be a downgrade.

 

[abash]

I'm confused. Your pictures show a dual 1.25, which is the second fastest Apple configurations offered. The single 1.25 in that link would be a downgrade.

Are you talking about the CPU upgrade?

 

[abash]

If you leave your machine on 24/7, I'd go for an SSD and save yourself a drive with a billion hours deciding to randomly drop dead.

I did it to an IBM server a few years back where the 8gb system disk lasted 25 years before saying it was done and my weekend was left recovering from a backup.

I only use my machine intermittently when I actually find time to record. I try to do the maintenance items (verify/repair permissions). Any other recommendations on maintenance?

 

[NeXT]

Other than capacitor PM on the power supplies (the G4 machines were not great for this and they were problematic even 15 years ago) and cleaning/fans they should last forever.

 

[andy]

Are you talking about the CPU upgrade?

Yes, the one in the ebay link is a single 1.25, but the screen shot in the top post shows a dual 1.25. The model label in your other post also indicates a dual 1.25 CPU.

 

[abash]

Yes, the one in the ebay link is a single 1.25, but the screen shot in the top post shows a dual 1.25. The model label in your other post also indicates a dual 1.25 CPU.

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Do you know if I can still upgrade my machine or am I maxed out?

 

[andy]

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Do you know if I can still upgrade my machine or am I maxed out?

The only faster Apple processor is the dual 1.42GHz. There were also some third party upgrades which I think went as high as 1.8-2.0, but they're rather expensive.

 

[commodorejohn]

The fans also struggle to keep up with the very high-speed modules under load; I ended up dropping my MDD back down after it kept shutting down due to thermal alarms.