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Processor Upgrade for Dual 1.0Mhz G4 MDD
Friday, May 26, 2006 / Hardware
Is there a processor upgrade for my Dual 1.0Mhz G4 MDD? I seem to be hitting my processor pretty hard with Waves Plug-Ins on my ProTools System.
At one time there was upgrade options for the MDD G4 towers. Giga Designs had the M-Series that supported upgrade speeds topping out at 2.0GHz. Unfortunately the Giga cards had many reports of unstable performance and the product was later discontinued. You may still be able to find some on eBay but I would not recommend using one.
Upgrade cards have been a problem for used Mac owners. Unlike the PC world, Macs need to have special upgrade cards and only a few companies have attempted to make those cards. An advantage of the Intel switch is Mac users will have access to the same upgrades that PC users have had. Both the Intel iMac and Intel Mac Mini have processors that are removable. Because the processor is a standard Intel chip, it can be swapped out for a faster processor of the same Intel chip family.
That is nifty for Intel people but you still need more power today. In your case, you may need to look at going to a G5-based system. A dual 2.0 would probably work well and still be affordable with the trade in of your old G4 tower.
I hope this softens the hits on your processor.
