optimizing powerbook g4 1.67....10.4????

passenger · 5th April 2006, 07:53 PM

hey PEEPS.

I have a MAC powerbook g4 1.67 with 2 gb of ram (1gb x 2slots) 10.4

That being said, I run Cubase in there and ould like to get the MAC to peak performance. Here are my questions

1-what should I do regurlarly to keep it running as fast as possible
2-what kind of upgrades should i consider (could the new dual core intel chip be installed?
3-what kind of settings should be turned on or off (video....and other things like airport,,,,... i only use the MAC for audio, nothing esle, no internet nothing
4-Any other ideas are welcome. I have had the mac for about a year and love it.However.... i don't know enough about it yet.... so I need some help.

Thanks guys.

passenger · 8th April 2006, 03:22 AM

bump, any help?

6strings · 8th April 2006, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by passenger

1-what should I do regurlarly to keep it running as fast as possible
2-what kind of upgrades should i consider (could the new dual core intel chip be installed?
3-what kind of settings should be turned on or off (video....and other things like airport,,,,... i only use the MAC for audio, nothing esle, no internet nothing
4-Any other ideas are welcome. I have had the mac for about a year and love it.However.... i don't know enough about it yet.... so I need some help.

Hi. Briefly:

1. Just a precaution, but run "repair permissions" (using Disk Utility app) after installing any applications. Eventually you might want to read up on this

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107388

Not critical, but I run the cron jobs (unix maintenance scripts) every couple months, but I never really notice any performance improvement. Just the geek in me, I guess. Many use the third-party apps listed in the link above. Or you can just leave your computer on overnight three or four times a year and OS X will take care of itself (see link for details) Even if you ignore this altogether, you may not notice any slow-down for maybe years... :-)

2. Fast external Firewire HD for recording audio. http://eshop.macsales.com/ is a good source. Not a mac-specific suggestion, but you want to avoid recording your audio files to your OS drive. (for performance and file fragmentation reasons)

The CPU is not upgradable, and audio apps can't run (well) on the Intel chip yet anyway.

3. Quit all unneeded apps to keep memory free for recording apps. That's it. Internet and such is fine and won't interrupt anything.

4. Not much to really do. There are a few geek things people may jump in here with (or not), but you can really just jump on it and go, Mac OS X needs no "tweaking." (see answer #2, though, for audio recording in general)

Siem · 8th April 2006, 01:58 PM

I use a program called 'System Optimizer X 4.74( http://www.mkd.cc/ ), it optimizes, repairs the permissions and it updates the prebindings. Also sometimes I use a program 'Speed Freak' ( http://home.comcast.net/~jeff.ulicny...are/utils.html ) - it reprioritizes applications so that the frontmost (or active) application gets more processor time than background applications.

passenger · 9th April 2006, 02:14 PM

some people have told me to turn off certain functions like video options, and bluetooth, etc... I upgraded to 2 gb of RAM, in 2 slots.... i have read that this is bad. i don't see any huge difference for having quadrupled my ram. Any words of wisdom for this?

henryrobinett · 9th April 2006, 04:09 PM

Some people told you that too much ram is a bad thing?? Who said this, why and in what context?

I'm in a similiar boat. I just had to get a G4 1.67 PB to replace my 1gz Alumbook that died in a coffee accident. The replacement 1.67 come with a dying hard drive that bit the dust after 4 days. I have a replacement for THAT one now too! Not meaning to hijack this thread, but I'm debating whether to install 10.4.6. I had a disk image of my last HD which was in 10.3.9, which is now installed on it. I have 10.5 on my Dual 2.7 and have no complaints, but a reliable source who has my same computer (1.67) says 10.4x responds slower on the PB. Any opinions out there? Should I go Tiger or remain in Panther on this PB?

BTW I use Cocktail to clean the cache, prebindings, etc.. But I'm sure it's all the same thing. Repair permissions, like whatsname said, after each installation and from time to time. Invest in Disk Warrior! I can't tell you the times that application saved my butt! Before I do any major recording I Repair Permissions, Cocktail it and Disk Warrior. Stay away from Norton Utilities!

Oh yes! Be sure to get a firewire carbus - PCMCIA - if you're going to be recording audio to an external hard drive! The PB has only ONE fw bus/port. This can choke the thing if you're using a fw interface. If not what I do is partition my internal drive 50/50 or 40/60 and put the OS on the smaller one and the other is used for audio. This way I can defrag the drive easily between sessions, once I've backed up the data off the drive.

passenger · 12th April 2006, 04:00 AM

what i heard is that the 1.67 PB responds better to a 2gb ram on one chip than 1gb x2 on two chips?

My PB doesn't seem to be giving me much more since I quadrupled its ram. But it does choke up in funny ways, that never happened before.

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5th April 2006, 07:53 PM	#1
passenger Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 163	optimizing powerbook g4 1.67....10.4???? hey PEEPS. I have a MAC powerbook g4 1.67 with 2 gb of ram (1gb x 2slots) 10.4 That being said, I run Cubase in there and ould like to get the MAC to peak performance. Here are my questions 1-what should I do regurlarly to keep it running as fast as possible 2-what kind of upgrades should i consider (could the new dual core intel chip be installed? 3-what kind of settings should be turned on or off (video....and other things like airport,,,,... i only use the MAC for audio, nothing esle, no internet nothing 4-Any other ideas are welcome. I have had the mac for about a year and love it.However.... i don't know enough about it yet.... so I need some help. Thanks guys.

9th April 2006, 04:09 PM	#6
henryrobinett Lives for gear Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sacramento Posts: 5,912	Some people told you that too much ram is a bad thing?? Who said this, why and in what context? I'm in a similiar boat. I just had to get a G4 1.67 PB to replace my 1gz Alumbook that died in a coffee accident. The replacement 1.67 come with a dying hard drive that bit the dust after 4 days. I have a replacement for THAT one now too! Not meaning to hijack this thread, but I'm debating whether to install 10.4.6. I had a disk image of my last HD which was in 10.3.9, which is now installed on it. I have 10.5 on my Dual 2.7 and have no complaints, but a reliable source who has my same computer (1.67) says 10.4x responds slower on the PB. Any opinions out there? Should I go Tiger or remain in Panther on this PB? BTW I use Cocktail to clean the cache, prebindings, etc.. But I'm sure it's all the same thing. Repair permissions, like whatsname said, after each installation and from time to time. Invest in Disk Warrior! I can't tell you the times that application saved my butt! Before I do any major recording I Repair Permissions, Cocktail it and Disk Warrior. Stay away from Norton Utilities! Oh yes! Be sure to get a firewire carbus - PCMCIA - if you're going to be recording audio to an external hard drive! The PB has only ONE fw bus/port. This can choke the thing if you're using a fw interface. If not what I do is partition my internal drive 50/50 or 40/60 and put the OS on the smaller one and the other is used for audio. This way I can defrag the drive easily between sessions, once I've backed up the data off the drive. __________________ All the best, Henry Robinett

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8th April 2006, 03:22 AM	#2
passenger Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 163	bump, any help?

8th April 2006, 01:58 PM	#4
Siem Gear nut Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 118	I use a program called 'System Optimizer X 4.74( http://www.mkd.cc/ ), it optimizes, repairs the permissions and it updates the prebindings. Also sometimes I use a program 'Speed Freak' ( http://home.comcast.net/~jeff.ulicny...are/utils.html ) - it reprioritizes applications so that the frontmost (or active) application gets more processor time than background applications.

9th April 2006, 02:14 PM	#5
passenger Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 163	some people have told me to turn off certain functions like video options, and bluetooth, etc... I upgraded to 2 gb of RAM, in 2 slots.... i have read that this is bad. i don't see any huge difference for having quadrupled my ram. Any words of wisdom for this?

12th April 2006, 04:00 AM	#7
passenger Gear maniac Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 163	what i heard is that the 1.67 PB responds better to a 2gb ram on one chip than 1gb x2 on two chips? My PB doesn't seem to be giving me much more since I quadrupled its ram. But it does choke up in funny ways, that never happened before.