Main Menu

Shiny shiny

Started by Jem, April 21, 2010, 07:38:29 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Print
Go Down Pages1 2
User actions

Jem

April 21, 2010, 07:38:29 AM
So I think after nearly 4 years sterling service, countless jingles, one Experiment In Mass Appeal, a live album, 40 (ish) Frost Reports, a Dividing Line and some hefty emailing, it's time to retire my trusty dual core G5 and get a super shiny 8 core. And go to ProTools 8. Finally.

Does anybody know if the RAM from a mid 2006/7 G5 is compatible with a new one?

Pedro

#1
April 21, 2010, 07:57:11 AM
I would happily knit, crochet or weave a square to go in the blanket it has over its legs during the the long winters in Eastbourne.

Farewell G5.

#..so..we..say....thank you for the music, the songs we're singing....
"Putting food on the table is more important than 7/8"

Trapezium Artist

#2
April 21, 2010, 08:04:15 AM
Highly unlikely, I'd say: RAM modules from Apple machines even a couple of years apart are rarely compatible.

A quick look around suggests that a 2006-era Power Mac G5 used dual channel DDR2 PC4200 RAM which have 240 pins and run at up to 266MHz. A new 8-core Xeon Mac Pro uses 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM, also with 240 pins. However, DDR2 and DDR3 are not electrically compatible and have different location notches, and thus I'm 99% sure your old DDR2 modules will not fit in the new machine.

So no, I'm afraid you're out of luck. One option might be to buy the 8-core machine from Apple with as little memory as possible (the default appears to be 6 x 1GB), and then buy what you really need from a 3rd party manufacturer. I've had very good luck with Crucial and their prices are usually pretty good to boot.

An 8-core machine has 8 RAM slots, each capable of holding up to a 4GB module, so you can get up to 32GB in total (albeit it won't be cheap). You'd need to think about which sort of modules to buy now (1GB, 2GB, 4GB) to avoid blocking too many slots and wasting money if you want to upgrade later on. If 16GB is enough, buy a bunch of 2GB modules: probably cheaper to get 8 x 2GB than 4 x 4GB. But if you think you might upgrade later, then biting the bullet on the 4GB modules now could save you money later, as you won't be throwing anything away.

Anyway, have fun; we have a new 27 inch i7 iMac for the family and 'tis delicious. I'm also thinking of changing my 9-month old Mac Book Pro to one of the new ones, mostly to get a non-shiny(!) screen ...  :D

flamadiddle

#3
April 21, 2010, 08:41:29 AM
Oooh.  Does that mean you're selling?

Jem

#4
April 21, 2010, 08:48:24 AM
Quote from: "Trapezium Artist"Highly unlikely, I'd say: RAM modules from Apple machines even a couple of years apart are rarely compatible.

A quick look around suggests that a 2006-era Power Mac G5 used dual channel DDR2 PC4200 RAM which have 240 pins and run at up to 266MHz. A new 8-core Xeon Mac Pro uses 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM, also with 240 pins. However, DDR2 and DDR3 are not electrically compatible and have different location notches, and thus I'm 99% sure your old DDR2 modules will not fit in the new machine.

So no, I'm afraid you're out of luck. One option might be to buy the 8-core machine from Apple with as little memory as possible (the default appears to be 6 x 1GB), and then buy what you really need from a 3rd party manufacturer. I've had very good luck with Crucial and their prices are usually pretty good to boot.

An 8-core machine has 8 RAM slots, each capable of holding up to a 4GB module, so you can get up to 32GB in total (albeit it won't be cheap). You'd need to think about which sort of modules to buy now (1GB, 2GB, 4GB) to avoid blocking too many slots and wasting money if you want to upgrade later on. If 16GB is enough, buy a bunch of 2GB modules: probably cheaper to get 8 x 2GB than 4 x 4GB. But if you think you might upgrade later, then biting the bullet on the 4GB modules now could save you money later, as you won't be throwing anything away.

Anyway, have fun; we have a new 27 inch i7 iMac for the family and 'tis delicious. I'm also thinking of changing my 9-month old Mac Book Pro to one of the new ones, mostly to get a non-shiny(!) screen ...  :D

I had a feeling that might be the case, but I thought I'd better ask the collective. You always know what to do! :D

Cheers TA.

Jem

#5
April 21, 2010, 08:58:03 AM
Quote from: "flamadiddle"Oooh.  Does that mean you're selling?

'fraid not mate. This baby is due to see out her days as my wife's play thing. A nice gentle retirement.  :D

Pajter

#6
April 21, 2010, 09:34:23 AM
That new machine's gonna fly! It'll probably double your production speed. :P

Mooncat

#7
April 21, 2010, 09:35:14 AM
In that case put an 'ebay filter/block' on it - you're bank balance will thank you!!!!!!!!


edit - actually the ebay imbalance in the Godfrey household is more likely to be firmly in Jem's favour ;)
One of the brave Defenders of the Realm - Lydney, October 2010
Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs are not happy

Trapezium Artist

#8
April 21, 2010, 09:54:21 AM
Quote from: "Jem"
Quote from: "flamadiddle"Oooh.  Does that mean you're selling?

'fraid not mate. This baby is due to see out her days as my wife's play thing. A nice gentle retirement.  :D

Yup, despite our new iMac being about twenty squillion times faster, we're not disposing of the 2003-era eMac which was our family machine for the intervening period. Still works, still allows one of the kids to access the interweb while their mum is lounging in front of the new beastie, and still has that CRT with a hard glass screen with biro marks on it where one of the kids decided, when younger, to express themselves. Precisely why we bought such a machine instead of the lampshade LCD iMac that had just come out at the time  :shock:

Jem

#9
April 21, 2010, 01:40:13 PM
Yeah, we had one of the old iMacs with the bulbous body and the screen on a stick that we gave to the kids for precisely the same reason.

Until yesterday that is when they finally killed it after 3 years of trying.

So they're on one of the old laptops now, trying to kill that instead.

Dave M

#10
April 21, 2010, 01:46:57 PM
You'll be needing to dust of those heavy duty / manly swear words then ... up dated software for all those dasterdly plugins you use may be required !

Hopefully the pain and hassle will be offset by the swish of the new machine.
... it was like watching a peach jelly f##k a steel drum ..  

Jem

#11
April 21, 2010, 08:56:02 PM
Quote from: "Dave M"You'll be needing to dust of those heavy duty / manly swear words then ... up dated software for all those dasterdly plugins you use may be required !

Hopefully the pain and hassle will be offset by the swish of the new machine.

Well, I realised recently that I only use about 10 plug ins. This should gimme the chance to run a tighter ship.  :D

rogerg

#12
April 24, 2010, 12:07:39 AM
Quote from: "Jem"This should gimme the chance to run a tighter ship.  :D

let us know how that goes...

Pedro

#13
April 24, 2010, 12:33:19 AM
Every ship needs a good plug-in.
"Putting food on the table is more important than 7/8"

SerFox

#14
April 24, 2010, 07:42:19 PM
Quote from: "Jem"
Quote from: "Dave M"You'll be needing to dust of those heavy duty / manly swear words then ... up dated software for all those dasterdly plugins you use may be required !

Hopefully the pain and hassle will be offset by the swish of the new machine.

Well, I realised recently that I only use about 10 plug ins. This should gimme the chance to run a tighter ship.  :D

Can I have the other 390?  :lol:


I'm going to be getting a new system myself once I finish uni. I want to invest in a nice shiny Mac Pro myself, but I think that's a bit beyond my price range, so I'm thinking of the hi end iMac, with an i7, which will still be fast as lightning, and about 2 grand cheaper!
Print
Go Up Pages1 2
User actions