Power Mac G4?

Installation & Configuration Mac OS X
#1

I’ve got a line on a Power Mac G4 450 (SawTooth).

Any reason why I should be concerned about using it with my FirePod and Ardour?

I’m currently a Linux user, and have been looking to get a Mac, and I simply can’t beat the price ($80).

My main worries will be about HDD throughput, as that seems to be the only place I run into problems with my Linux box.

Is the 450 processor enough for audio work? Needs run to around ~25 tracks and light plugin usage.

I suppose worse comes to worst, it should be OK for tracking, but I’m still concerned about playing back 25 tracks while recording another.

#2

Thanks for the response!

So maxing the RAM and adding a dedicated HDD were already on the list.

What if I grab one of those processor upgrades to, say, 1.6 or 1.8 ghz? Will the motherboard bus(ses) perform to match?

I figure the worst case is it is simply my portable tracking machine, and I can do all my DSP work in Linux if necessary.

#3

it’s kind of a stretch to expect that from a G4 of that pedigree. it’ll definitely help if you max the RAM and pop in a dedicated harddisk for your ardour projects. minimize the plugin usage. that’s what’ll really get you into trouble.

#4

i’m not really sure what to say about processor upgrades. a while back, i tried a powerlogix 7447 @ 1.7GHz. i got sent bad upgrades three times. finally, i ended up with a working CPU. unfortunately, powerlogix has been slow in releasing updates to their ‘CPU Director’ software that controls various functions of the upgrade. basically, every time a new point version of OS X is released, it breaks the software. the CPU still works, but you don’t get the power/heat management. to top it all off, several pieces of (very important) software are unstable when using the upgrade. hydrogen (drum machine app) constantly crashes. i also had problems with ardour crashing when using plugins after the upgrade. unrelated to music, but safari is less stable after the upgrade, too.

worst of all, no PPC linux will boot with the upgrade. at least not ubuntu, debian, or yellowdog.

luckily, that particular mac is not my only machine. maybe i’ve just had bad luck. and, i will say that when things do work, the machine is pretty fast.

at the end of the day, though, my linux boxes do a much better job. i don’t even have any super-fancy hardware. my main machine is just a simple athlon xp 2000. my ardour projects usually run anywhere from 16 to 30+ tracks. my athlon machine handles beautifully.