G4 Upgrades for FCS?

Folks-

As one guy manacled to the dungeon wall next to the other said, "Now here's my plan..."

Will I be able to run FCS components like Motion 2 in 1.5 GB RAM on my Dual 800 upgraded to a Sonnet Duet 1.8 GB processor upgrade? And an ATI 9600 to replace the Nvidia MX "Twinview" card? Anybody done part or all of this?

- Loren
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Loren,

My Quicksilver 2002 dual 1.0 GHz with a Radeon 9800 Mac Edition runs Motion quite respectably.

I do not believe, however the 800 Mhz machine can be "fooled" into running Motion because it requires a machine that "originally" was 867 MHz. I do know a couple of people have tried and noit succeeded. Motion will not even install even with the G4 upgrade card.

Okay, that's useful to hear. Thanks.

- Loren
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hey, Loren.
this isnt really answering your question, but a bit over a year ago i installed a sonnett to upgrade my old G4 400 to a 1.5G processor.

also added a 100baseT ethernet port
then a FW800 card
new drives
and a dual layer DVD

bit by bit i was changing my old machine into a new one

or so i thought

a few months ago it just stopped working.
i think the processor melted itself!
maybe i should also have installed more fans!

i really hated the idea of throwing my old machine out,
that;s why i kept upgrading it
but with all the money i;d spent i could have bought a really good machine on EBay

that;s my story

nick

[that;s my story ]

And you're sticking to it!

Thanks, Nick.

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Set a Level keyframe with Command-Option K !

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I've continued my research. The big sticking point (other than melting processors which I'm less worried about because the Dual 800 has the necessary fans) is the Motion 2 component.

Sonnett's Tech Support indicates it fielded one or two issues regarding the inability to install Motion 2, merely because the app looks at the Apple System Profiler for the processor speed, and ASP doesn't correctly recognize the Sonnett Duet 1.8 GHz upgrade.

That is, without an ASP patch which Sonnett provides!

The only other issue dealt with the customer's old video card-- another necessary upgrade not related to Sonnett.

In short, FC Studio can be fully supported in Tiger on a Dual 800 G4.

I may become the guinea pig. The goal is to tid ee over until at least second generation Intel tower. Here's my plan. Anyone feel free to comment on my upgrade strategy for FCS:

Tweaking my Dual 800 Quicksilver currently with 1GB RAM, 3 FW 800 ports:

1) 2 new 120 GB capacity WD ATA 100 drives, 160.00
2) 1 Dual 1.8 Ghz Sonnett processor upgrade- 600.00
3) ATI Radeon 2/4X AGP 9600 Pro dual DVI card - 200.00
4) 2 20" aluminum DVI Cinema Displays - 1400.000
5) Add 512 MB RAM to max 1.5 GB. - 100.00

Total - 2460.00

(Pro: cheap. Con: slower than current, limited RAM.)

OR

Buying a new G5-

1) G5 2.5 Ghz, 2GB RAM, 250 GB SATA drive, PCI Express - 2673.00
2) 20" displays - 1400.00
3) FireWire 800 PCI Express card, 3 port - 100.00

Total - 4173.00

(Pro: fast as current. Con: pricey and guaranteed obsolete 6 months.)

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Set a Level keyframe with Command-Option K !

The FCP 5 KeyGuide?: a professional placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central:
www.neotrondesign.com