I recently got a 350mhz Sawtooth and i've decided to make it my HTMac. i have a mac mini, which is small clean and neat, but not very expandable in the ways i want. i would like to be able to use the sawtooth for high def video when the time comes. I'm just not sure which card to get. i would like to use agp if i can since the sawtooth has only three pci slots.
ati has three cards:
9800 AGP 2x-4x 9600 AGP 4x-8x 9200 PCI as far as i know the 9600 can't work because the sawtooth only has 2x agp.
there are four cards i want to use in the pci slots but can only use three. USB2 + FW, Sata storage, gigabit ethernet, and m-audio sound card (not sure if compatible or not). one more pci slot would have been SO nice.
help please thank you very much
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2.4gHz 15" MacBook Pro, 1.66gHz Core Duo Mac Mini, 2.5gHz G5 QUAD, 733mHz Quicksilver, 450mHz G4 Cube, 700mHz G3 iBook, 350mHz Sawtooth G4, 350mHz Revs. A and B B&W G3, 16mHz Powerbook 100, 8mHz Macitosh Classic.
Registered: 10/16/04
Posts: 586
Loc: Vancouver, BC Canada
First off.. no matter what vid card you have a G4 350 is never going to be able to play HD video. You would need to upgrade it to a dual G4 1GHz+ to be able to do that.
About the card.. a 9800 is too much power and money for video plus it will only be feeding through a 2x AGP slot. I have seen a few 64mb radeon 7000 agp flashed for mac on ebay. that would be all the video power you need and they are only about 45-50 bucks.
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Mac mini C2D 1.83GHz - 2GB RAM - 200GB 7200rpm HD Sawtooth w/G4 1GHz - 1GB RAM - SIIG SATA w/2x1TB HD B&W w/G4 600MHz - 1GB RAM - 2x80GB HD Sawtooth G4 400MHz - 512MB RAM - 40GB HD Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP 20" Widescreen LCD 2.94TB Total Storage
i already have one of the mentioned 64MB 7000 cards, but will that be enough to push a high def resolution of 1080p/i? (1920x1200 dpi)
I realized the 350mhz isn't enough so here is my plan for the HT mac. i'll be doing these upgrades:
max out the ram (2 gigs) up grade CPU to ATLEAST 1GHz Add 4 port SATA card for uber internal storage of uncompressed music and movies Add USB 2 + FW card Either an surround sound card (if it's compatible) or gigabit ether net card ATX case and power supply Slot load DVD/CD burner, and maybe upgrade to blueray down the line wifi and bluetooth
so there is the run down
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2.4gHz 15" MacBook Pro, 1.66gHz Core Duo Mac Mini, 2.5gHz G5 QUAD, 733mHz Quicksilver, 450mHz G4 Cube, 700mHz G3 iBook, 350mHz Sawtooth G4, 350mHz Revs. A and B B&W G3, 16mHz Powerbook 100, 8mHz Macitosh Classic.
Registered: 10/16/04
Posts: 586
Loc: Vancouver, BC Canada
Originally Posted By: "macDeviant "
i already have one of the mentioned 64MB 7000 cards, but will that be enough to push a high def resolution of 1080p/i? (1920x1200 dpi)
resolution relies very little on the gpu. its all about how much vram you have. 64MB is plenty for 1920x1200. a radeon 7000 would perform just as well as a 9800 when it comes to high res video. 64mb radeon 700 is all you need. trust me..
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Mac mini C2D 1.83GHz - 2GB RAM - 200GB 7200rpm HD Sawtooth w/G4 1GHz - 1GB RAM - SIIG SATA w/2x1TB HD B&W w/G4 600MHz - 1GB RAM - 2x80GB HD Sawtooth G4 400MHz - 512MB RAM - 40GB HD Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP 20" Widescreen LCD 2.94TB Total Storage
Registered: 10/16/04
Posts: 586
Loc: Vancouver, BC Canada
I imagine the gpu might help HD quality stuff a bit but it wouldn't be that dramatic a difference. With standard definition it would make no difference at all.
I am a complete quality whore when it comes to video and I wouldn't spend more than 50 or so on a media center vid card. Thats just me though..
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Mac mini C2D 1.83GHz - 2GB RAM - 200GB 7200rpm HD Sawtooth w/G4 1GHz - 1GB RAM - SIIG SATA w/2x1TB HD B&W w/G4 600MHz - 1GB RAM - 2x80GB HD Sawtooth G4 400MHz - 512MB RAM - 40GB HD Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP 20" Widescreen LCD 2.94TB Total Storage
next question: is it really needed to have a $300 CPU to play high def i.e. dual 1ghz. Wouldn't a single 1 GHZ be enough? i won't be doing much encoding on with the machine, and it will all be single tasks, surf the web, listen to music, watch a movie. not like it's going to be my main machine.
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2.4gHz 15" MacBook Pro, 1.66gHz Core Duo Mac Mini, 2.5gHz G5 QUAD, 733mHz Quicksilver, 450mHz G4 Cube, 700mHz G3 iBook, 350mHz Sawtooth G4, 350mHz Revs. A and B B&W G3, 16mHz Powerbook 100, 8mHz Macitosh Classic.