Apple Mac Upgrades - RAM, SSD Flash, External Drives and More

CPU Loaing Test - Adobe Photoshop 8 and iTunes	L2 Cache	L3 Cache	Time, Sec.

Reference Apple Systems

PM G4/400 Gigabit Ethernet	1MB SPB SRAM	0MB	1964
PM 2x G4/450 Gigabit Ethernet	1MB SPB SRAM x2	0MB	895
PM G5/1.6GHz (800MHz Frontside Bus)	512k On Chip	0MB	592
PM G5/1.8GHz (900MHz Frontside Bus)	512k On Chip	0MB	514
PM G5/2x 2.0GHz (1GHz Frontside Bus)	512k On Chip	0MB	229

Acceleration Cards

OWC Mercury Extreme G4/700MHz	256k	2MB SPB SRAM	1265
OWC Mercury Extreme G4/800MHz	256k	2MB SPB SRAM	1174
Sonnet Encore/ST G4/800MHz	256k	2MB DDR SRAM	1091
OWC Mercury Extreme G4/1GHz	256k	2MB SPB SRAM	1018
Sonnet Encore/ST G4/1GHz	256k	2MB DDR SRAM	1007
GigaDesigns G-Celerator G4/1.25GHz (@ 1.2GHz)	256k	2MB SPB SRAM	890
OWC Mercury Extreme G4/1.25GHz (@ 1.2GHz)	256k	2MB DDR SRAM	897
Sonnet Encore/ST G4/1.2GHz	256k	2MB DDR SRAM	894
OWC Mercury Extreme G4/1.33GHz (@ 1.3GHz)	256k	2MB DDR SRAM	843
GigaDesigns G-Celerator G4/1.25GHz (@ 1.4GHz)	256k	2MB SPB SRAM	808
OWC Mercury Extreme G4/1.467GHz (@ 1.4GHz)	256k	2MB DDR SRAM	813
Sonnet Encore/ST G4/1.4GHz	256k	2MB DDR SRAM	812

Time to execute Photoshop 8 test script while iTunes 4 visuals are running full screen in the background. All times in seconds, shorter bars are better. The above test is a seriously difficult task for any processor to run. If you wish to duplicate it, this is what is involved. I would use caution - this CAN AND WILL overheat processors. For more information on this test, see this Photoshop Benchmarking article I wrote. If you have problems with your machine locking up while running this test, investigate the thermal bond between the heatsink and processor - this will stress your computer more than anything! Set your monitor's resolution to 1280x1024, millions of colors. Open iTunes and play a song. For this test I chose a 10 minute live version of a Rolling Stones track, and had it repeat in a loop so all of the processors tested in this series would be having the same visual patterns displayed. Some of the iTunes visuals differ in CPU load, and this levels the playing field, so to speak. Expand the iTunes window to fill the screen Activate the visual effects, at full screen resolution. Open Photoshop Select the action script to run, and start the stopwatch.