Best way to boost my G4
 

Hey there, new to this forum, thanks ahead of time for any help.

Heres the deal, Im looking to spend about $1000 (give or take) to upgrade my Quicksilver 867 to suit it for more Video editing (and less graphic work). Have 1.5 gb ram, Internal 60GB (Stock PATA), Internal 120 GB 7200/8mb PATA, a OWC FW800 card and Mercury 120 FW800/400 drive, also an OWC 120 FW400 external.

Im now living in India as a full time volunteer for a non-profit orginization, I bought the comp about 2 years ago for a mere $800 from a video colleague who got it for around $3000 (what a deal!), anyway, selling it and using it for upgrade to G5 is outta the question, so upgrade is my way to go.

Can anyone give me some options for Best bang for the buck!
Considering: PowerLogix 1.2 Dual processor upgrade ($600). SATA Controller card ($150), Internal/External SATA drives (2x250GB 8mb), need a Digatal/Analog converter (or a capture card?), How about a better video card? (have an ATI 9600 64Vram), New SuperDrive ($75).

Were doing mostly DV (VCDs and DVDs, but looking at getting HVR-Z1E (but will probably use it mostly in SD for immediate future), however Id like to keep future in mind, so things like SATA is a possibility. while im at it, does anyone know what limitations the internal bus has? What is the bottleneck in this machine?

OK, thanks again and happy editing
Jon

Like you suspect, bus speed is going to be your bottleneck after upgrading the processor(s). Sure, the CPU(s) will be substantially faster, but won't be usable to their fullest extent because they're stuck to the same old board. Even if that is doable, you're still cramming a whole lot of stuff into an outdated machine, especially when dealing with SATA and big video cards. Also, Quicksilvers and aftermarket Superdrives don't get along too well and its really not worth the hassle of installing one (install Superdrive in Windows PC, flash the drive with downloaded software, take it out of the PC, remove the PowerMac Combo Drive, install Superdrive in old Combo Drive bay, set drive to Master, install Combo Drive into second drive bay, set to Slave, boot PowerMac and hope everything actually works).

The processor upgrade ads are very appealing. However, if I were in your situation, I would set my sights on the iMac G5. The new iMacs are perfectly capable of editing video and are much more compatible with the future (SATA drive, DDR400 RAM) in case you upgrade to a PowerMac at some point. Granted, you're looking at over $1500, but you might be able to sell your fully loaded Quicksilver for $500 (of course, keep the firewire drives since they could still be used with an iMac), which would bring you closer to the iMac. You would be suprised how many folks out there are afraid to switch to OS X and will pay good money for an older dual boot machine.

I know this is the reply you specifically asked not to get, but it really is the more productive path. Plus, lets consider your machine to be worth $500 and you add $1000 in upgrades, its still only worth maybe $650. To you, its extremely valuable, but when its time to move on...

Either way, good luck with your upgrade. And most of all, have fun.

Im still using an 867 QS G4 running FCP3 on 10.2.8 (1.25GB ram - int 60 & 80 GB HDD and several FW externals). If you are doing basic DV editing(straight cuts) with maybe some Pshop graphics/titles etc. you should be fine.rendering a lot of filters/fx and mpeg2 encoding is where you will be dissapointed in the computers speed especially if you are working with deadlines.FWIW it took 9 hours to encode 90 min dance recital using Compressor at the 90min high quality preset. :(
I definitely plan on upgrading to G5 in the near future and if I were in your shoes I would not dump $1000 into that machine. Apple always has some good deals on refurbs as well.

Upgrade thoughts continued...
 

Thanks for the tips... Some more things to consider for sure.

What im thinking though is that the upgrade (now looking at 470$ model, Powerlogix 7447A 1.2 Dual or OWC 1.3 single) card is really the only permanent add on. If i dump the idea of the Superdrive, the SATA drives, controller card (FirmTek has a SATA card that is PCI-X backward compatible to PCI) Firewire/Analog deck; are all usable in the next system, anyway id need them.

So, thinking along these lines, what to do? I just re-installed Panther on the stock drive, reinstalled FCP4.5 HD, started using it and still am getting dropped frames on playback, would a faster processor have anything to do with this? Or should I just settle in with more Hard Drives and output to Quicktime and playback one QT stream for Print to Tape?

By the way, im living in India, I wonder what kind of buy this computer has over here? Taking it back to the US is a big hassle.