I need G4 MDD, Hard Drive Up-Grade advice, please.

Question

I need G4 MDD, Hard Drive Up-Grade advice, please.
My G4 Model:
Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003) - M9145LL/A
Processor G4 1.25 GHz (SINGLE)
- L2 Cache 256 KB (1:1)
- L3 Cache 1 MB
167 MHz Bus Speed
(Dual Boot Model) - Running 10.3.9 and 9.2.2
Installed Memory - 1- 256 MB Stick and 1- 512 MB Stick - (Kingston PC2700 - KTA-G4333)
- Maximum 2 GB
- Slots 4 SDRAM (PC2700 - DDR333)
Hard Drive 80 GB Seagate
- Type (Speed) Ultra ATA/100 (7200 rpm)
Combo Drive
USB 1.1 2
FireWire 400 2
EtherNet (built-in) 1000Base-T
Expansion Slots 4 PCI slots
Display ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
- VRAM 64 MB DDR
- AGP 4x
LaCie external DVD Burner.
I'm planning on doing the following:
I'm on a limited budget, can only afford to spend around $300.00
I Want to add 3 more 512 MB Sticks of the Kingston KTA-G4333/512 PC2700 Ram.
Also, I Want to Replace my 80 GB HD with either of the following:
2 - Seagate 160 or 250 GB SATA drives/8 MB Cache on the Rear Bays
And a - SIIG SATA PCI Controller Card (SIISCSATM12S)
OR;
1 Seagate 160 GB ATA/100 8 MG Cache drive in the ATA/100 Bus Rear Bay.
And 1 Seagate 160 GB ATA/100 8 MG Cache drive in the front ATA/66 Bus Bay.
My Question:
(Which would be better performance wise and for stability?)
I only want to have 2 internal Hard Drives so my Mac won't over heat.
I'm planning on Cloning my 80 GB drive to one of the new drives using Super Duper.
After that, I'll store the drive until I can afford to get an external OWC case for it.
I want to use the second new drive for a Photoshop Scratch disk and for temp video file work.
Under 10.3.9 - I use:
Photoshop CS2
Toast 7
Popcorn 1.0.3
VisualHUB
On occasion I still boot into OS 9 for Photoshop 5.5., QuarkXPress 3.2.2 r5 and Adobe Illustrator 7.
I don't foresee being able to afford a Mac Pro and don't want to get a used G5 anytime
soon. I'm hoping my G4 will last me a few more years.
I suspect putting a ATA/100 drive on the ATA/66 Bus might hamper performance. And suspect using a SATA controller card in a "PCI" slot isn't as good as having a True SATA Bus, performance wise either.
I was just wondering which would be the better way to go for performance and stability?
The drives will be probably OEM either at OWC or NewEgg.
I'd really appreciate some help with this. Thank You.

Answer 1

beardedbob wrote:
I want to use the second new drive for a Photoshop Scratch disk and for temp video file work.
Under 10.3.9 - I use:
Photoshop CS2
Toast 7
Popcorn 1.0.3
VisualHUB
I suspect putting a ATA/100 drive on the ATA/66 Bus might hamper performance. And suspect using a SATA controller card in a "PCI" slot isn't as good as having a True SATA Bus, performance wise either.
I was just wondering which would be the better way to go for performance and stability?
With those applications and the intended purpose for the 2d drive, i.e. video and PS scratch, then go SATA. No question, best performance (without considering the cost of SCSI) to be found with SATA even using a PCI SATA controller. PATA been left behind, no ones doing development anymore.
I would suggest partitioning that 2d drive because PS and FS scratch disks are different in kind. FS needs unfragmented media, otherwise dropped frames and sync issues. PS scratch media are temporary and messy.
Depending on the drives and card, SATA drives should bench (with something like Intech QuickBench) at the high end of around 80-90 MB/sec. I haven't bought a PATA HD in years, but best I ever saw was around 60 MB/sec. 80-90 MB/sec is still very good even if say you can bench better in Mac Pro.
The Siig card you're considering is solid. I've used it in both 10.4 and 10.5, but only used it to boot in 10.4.x, never in Leopard. I had some issues with it my others cards, but easily solved by swapping placement.
I also have the two-port Sonnet Tempo, which is actually just a purple Firmtek Seritek 2-port card. I bought the Siig first, having to get it (and a bunch of other stuff) shipped overseas. I later bought the Sonnet because I could get it locally although for a higher price; with overseas taxes, customs, etc. for only the card --- it's a wash.
Anyway, I have two WD SE16 750GB drives in my MDD 1.25 Dual, which were originally on the Siig. With the Siig, QuickBench (I run the big 100MB files) showed 70+ MB/sec Read, around 55+ MB/sec Writes. I was a bit disappointed about the Writes. When the Sonnet arrived, I swapped and ran QuickBench again. With the Sonnet I see both Reads and Writes at 80+ MB/sec.
So as far as benchmarks go, the Sonnet/Firmtek wins. (I know Firmtek has a line of internal cards, including a 4 port version.) But I can't say I noticed any huge difference in everyday tasks. I had some sleep issues with Sonnet/Firmtek in 10.4.x, which was solved by downgrading the firmware.
I have FC Studio, but I capture to externals via eSATA.
I still have the Siig, it's in my MDD 1.0 Dual used as a file and Time machine server. Has a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB on it which doesn't bench to well on the Siig, but I haven't tried bench testing it with the Sonnet.
Hope that helps.