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Rangefinder
Magazine Digital Photography: by John Rettie
Like many long time computer users I used to replace my computer once every 18 months to two years. Why? The pace at which they improved all but forced it on us. If you wanted to run the latest software or you got frustrated with slow operation it was a necessity. However, in the last couple of years computer improvements, both Macs and PCs, seem to have plateaued. Sure, the newest models run faster than those produced a couple of years ago but other than pure speed of operation, there is not a lot to differentiate them. Newer computers have more RAM, bigger hard drives and many, especially Macs, include DVD writers in place of CD writers. Of course, items such as these can be hooked up as external peripherals and memory can easily be expanded. This has been my personal experience during the past three years since I purchased a PowerMac G4 with dual 450MHz processors in 2000. At the time it was the second fastest and second most expensive Mac G4 on the market and cost about $2500. It came with a 30MB hard drive, 256MB of RAM and a DVD drive. I immediately upped the RAM to 512MB and I was very happy with the computer’s performance. I needed a CD burner almost immediately so I started using an external QPS CDRW drive connected through the FireWire port. As memory prices dropped, it was a no-brainer to add another 512MB of memory, giving me a total of 1GB. That made a big difference, as I never found myself running out of memory. Next, I found myself running out of storage space so I got an 80GB Seagate hard drive, which I added as a second internal drive. At the same time I also switched to Mac OS X, so I installed it on this hard drive and set the computer up to boot off this drive rather than the main drive, which I reserved for OS 9 and its applications. This is how I have been running my machine for the past 18 months. The only change I made about six months ago was to buy a DVD-R/RW drive, which will, of course, also burn CD-Rs. It was one of the second generation Pioneer drives (A-104), which was the first drive available for under $300 and was also the model used by Apple as its Superdrive, so it was totally compatible. I got one with a rebate just as the newer and faster model hit the market. Price was more of a concern for me than anything as I still burn CD-Rs and only the occasional DVD. I was able to buy an external FireWire drive case at a discounted price as well. Otherwise I would have just swapped it for the CDRW drive in the QPS case. Ironically, just after I’d purchased this case I bought another one for the same price at CompUSA that included a 40GB hard drive for only $50, after rebates. Now I have an external hard drive as well as the DVD-R drive hooked up to the computer. It’s really a great benefit to have as many hard drives as possible as it makes it so much easier to make quick backups and sort images by making copies in new folders on a different drive. Last year I borrowed an Apple PowerBook laptop and decided that when I’m ready for my next new computer, chances are high that I’ll get a PowerBook and use it as my main computer, as well as my portable. I am still planning on that, although I have no desire (read budget) or need to buy a new computer at this time.
Nonetheless, I decided it
would be an interesting exercise to check out some of the upgrades that
could be pursued in order to bring my three-year-old
Mac up to When I checked eBay to see what my computer would be worth, I discovered that I would only net about $800, not including the extras I’ve added, which are worth about $500. It’s kind of sad to see it worth so little, as Macs used to hold their value quite nicely. What it does mean is that it’ll effectively cost less to upgrade my old G4 to be close in performance to a current model. In the past, that was not often the situation. Essentially the two main things that would be needed to upgrade my computer would be faster processors and a better graphics card. Apple Cinema Display Both the Cinema displays require a newer graphics card in order to display images correctly. Fortunately, the Radeon 9000 Pro is compatible with all PowerMac G4s, although an adaptor is required to power the monitor with G4s produced prior to the Gigabit model, which was introduced in July 2000. That’s the model I have so it was an easy job to take out the graphics card (ATI Rage) that came with the computer and plug in the Radeon 9000 Pro. There is just a single cable running from the card to the monitor, as it supplies the video signal, power, and dual USB ports on the back of the monitor. This is a neat solution as it avoids the need for three separate cables and allows the keyboard and mouse (or any other USB peripherals) to be plugged into the back of the monitor for an uncluttered desktop. The Cinema display came to life immediately. I restarted the computer and it automatically set itself at the correct 1680 x 1050 resolution. This is an unusual size but it’s ideal, as it allows one to view two pages side by side and have room along the bottom for the OS X dock and along the right edge for folder icons, etc. The monitor has received rave reviews from everyone who has tried it and I can see why. It has a perfectly evenly lit display across the whole screen with no fall- off in the corners, which seems to be a problem with a lot of LCD screens. Text is perfectly crisp with no blurring, even when scrolling. Images show their correct colors even when viewed at an angle. All in all, it’s one of the nicest monitors I’ve ever used, including high-end CRTs. When you consider how many hours you spend in front of a monitor it’s an important area where spending money for a better quality display pays off in productivity and comfort. Now that my Mac has the latest graphics card and monitor, it already feels much better. I’m not sure I can quantify any difference in speed of graphics drawing that is a result of the LCD monitor or whether it’s the card. I guess I should test the card with an old CRT monitor to see if there’s any difference. Next I plan to up the RAM from 1GB to 1.5GB and replace the 30GB hard drive with a 120GB drive. Once I am sure everything is stable I will perform the biggest upgrade of all—replacing the CPU with a third-party processor upgrade card. I plan to try out the PowerLogix PowerForce G4 upgrade with dual 1.0 GHz processors. The instructions make it appear to be a simple swap. I’m sure it’ll be subjectively faster, but I need to do some objective timing before and after to determine if there is real value in spending nearly $900 to upgrade the processors. Stay tuned…I’ll report on my findings next month. Quick Book
Review:
Nonetheless, the book is written in an
easy-to-read manner with some humor (such as “fixing grannies”)
and sarcasm (“for some reason creating a color inkjet printer that
prints a decent black-and-white print is still apparently beyond our
grasp. Don’t get me started.”) thrown in for good Kelby is well know as a Photoshop guru who lectures, authors books, edits and publishes magazines as well as running the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, which includes organizing Photoshop conferences. John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. He has been using a camera as a professional for 33 years, a computer for 23 years, and has combined his knowledge of both for the past ten years. Readers can contact him by e-mail at john@johnrettie.com or by snail-mail in care of Rangefinder magazine. |
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the level of performance of a current G4 Power Mac. Essentially,
today’s (end of May) top end G4 has a faster system bus on the
motherboard, dual 1.25 GHz processors, 512 MB of Ram standard, improved
graphics card, a 120GB hard
drive and a Superdrive (DVD burner). It sells
for about $2700, which is essentially the same price as I paid for
my machine three years ago. It has an additional double-speed 800 Mbps
Firewire
port and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. While these last two components
are worthwhile, they are leading edge and there are not yet many products
that use them. All in all the only major difference from my machine
is the Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card and the faster processors and motherboard.
measure.
The book is aimed at professional photographers and includes photographs
and techniques from accomplished professionals such as Jim DiVitale and
Kevin Ames. 