How far do you push your upgrades??
So, I just ordered a OWC G4 550 ZIF upgrade for my B&W G3 400 (it shipped already! woot!). Many are reporting that these run successfully at 600MHz. I also swapped the CD ROM for a fast CD-WR and added an ATA card, a Radeon and three hard drives.
The weird thing is that I always advise other people that upgrades are rarely worth it; "If you need a new CPU, buy a new computer.", I tell them.
Thing is, I also advise folks that they should avoid Rev 1 purchases (I bought the ATA card because I broke down and bought the rev 1 B&W!). So, with no new processor family on the radar until the spring (at the earliest in my opinion), and my desire to avoid the rev 1 build of whatever Apple produces, I have decided to stretch the legs of my current machine. I figure that I can get about another year out of it, making it last close to five years.
Is this a mistake? Do I fail to take my own advise? Or did I do the right thing?
What's your strategy? Upgrade or hold the stock line until you dump and run??
[ 09-13-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]</p>
The weird thing is that I always advise other people that upgrades are rarely worth it; "If you need a new CPU, buy a new computer.", I tell them.
Thing is, I also advise folks that they should avoid Rev 1 purchases (I bought the ATA card because I broke down and bought the rev 1 B&W!). So, with no new processor family on the radar until the spring (at the earliest in my opinion), and my desire to avoid the rev 1 build of whatever Apple produces, I have decided to stretch the legs of my current machine. I figure that I can get about another year out of it, making it last close to five years.
Is this a mistake? Do I fail to take my own advise? Or did I do the right thing?
What's your strategy? Upgrade or hold the stock line until you dump and run??
[ 09-13-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]</p>
Comments
I think that the card include a software letting work the upgrade. I have update one or two year ago the PCI system firmware, thus making impossible to update to a G4 normally.
And to answer to your question : i think it's a good deal, the card is sell 350 euros with taxes and give you access to Altivec and thus better performances in many software including Photoshop and ... Jaguar.
I think this update is not very expansive, and that he can let me use this computer for one more years before the release of the new chips (that nobody seems to expect before MWNY).
[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: Powerdoc ]</p>
I am wondering how one performs the speed bump. Is it with the native pin scheme or on the upgrade's board somewhere? If this 600 MHz is possible it makes that upgrade much more attractive to me and I will probably buy it. Please let us know what your results are.
I also run a 500 MHz G4 Cube which is on the same 100 MHz bus and I can tell it is considerably faster than this B&W. So I'm very game to take the old original FireWire Mac to 600 G4. I'm all a twitter.
<strong>
What's your strategy? Upgrade or hold the stock line until you dump and run??
[ 09-13-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think increasing the amount of memory is definately worth it and necessary (its relatively cheap), as is adding more hard drives (you can always transfer them over to a new computer later, though they may be small and slow by future standards). Graphics cards, probably, but processor upgrades, probably not. I don't think you can be absolutely certain they will work 100% with future OS releases, and limitations elsewhere in the system probably throttle them back significantly. They're relatively expensive and I always think you're better off putting the money towards a new computer, even if it hasn't been released yet. Just my opinion
[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>
Powerdoc said:
[quote] i wish to update my server which is a a B&W 350 mhz with the same chip. Unfortunately i own a revision one and was obliged to add a SCSI PCI card in order to add a second HD.
I think that the card include a software letting work the upgrade. I have update one or two year ago the PCI system firmware, thus making impossible to update to a G4 normally. <hr></blockquote>
Well, powerdoc, you're in luck. The G3 firmware update to which you refer has been overcome, if it is the one that I think it is (there are two separate firmware issues: 1) Apples firmware update in late 1999 that blocked the ability of the G3 series to recognize the G4 chip. And 2) the PCI fireware flash that came with your PCI card. (Do you actually use SCSI drives? or did you get an ATA PCI card--which the old mac system recognised as a SCSI device--to use with extra ATA drives?) NewerTech has released free, a firmware update for the B&W G3 series called the "powermac G4 enabler". You run it from OS 9 before inserting your new CPU, and the machine will then recognise the G4 for what it is. Also, I think that the firmware you flashed for you PCI system should not interfere with the upgrade. That firmware actually is flashed onto the card, not the motherboard.
And how long have you been a Mod? I must have missed the nominations! Congratulations!
Multimedia asked:
[quote] I am wondering how one performs the speed bump. Is it with the native pin scheme or on the upgrade's board somewhere? If this 600 MHz is possible it makes that upgrade much more attractive to me and I will probably buy it. Please let us know what your results are. <hr></blockquote>
As has been said elsewhere, the site <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com"; target="_blank">xlr8yourmac</a> has a great page that lets you search for use stories on CPU upgrades. There are 36 reports (soon to be 37... hehe) for people upgrading their B&W G3s with the XLR8 G4 processor, another bunch for PowerLogics upgrades, sonnet etc.
The XLR8 carrier ZIF I bought is an OEM carrier card. So you use the jumpers on the motherboard to assist the speed settings. Other carriers, like the powerlogic upgrade have onboard jumpers on the carrier card that override the motherboard jumpers. And finally, OWC has a page
<a href="http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/index.cfm?load=zif.html"; target="_blank">here</a>
that gives jumper charts and upgrade instructions for B&W and Beige machines.
[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]
[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]</p>
<strong>
Powerdoc said:
As has been said elsewhere, the site <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com"; target="_blank">xlr8yourmac</a> has a great page that lets you search for use stories on CPU upgrades. There are 36 reports (soon to be 37... hehe) for people upgrading their B&W G3s with the XLR8 G4 processor, another bunch for PowerLogics upgrades, sonnet etc.
The XLR8 carrier ZIF I bought is an OEM carrier card. So you use the jumpers on the motherboard to assist the speed settings. Other carriers, like the powerlogic upgrade have onboard jumpers on the carrier card that override the motherboard jumpers. And finally, OWC has a page
<a href="http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/index.cfm?load=zif.html"; target="_blank">here</a>
that gives jumper charts and upgrade instructions for B&W and Beige machines.
[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]
[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Thanks for the info and for the congratulations.
i own a UW 40 SCSI card with a UW 9 G0 HD. SCSI HD are not interesting in term of prize of performance but have the reputation to be more reliable. This computer serve me as a server of a software made under 4D (i use Hypermed a software of medical gestion of patient). The data are critical for me, and it's important to have a reliable system. I made back up, but not enough periodically. For the moment i am under mac os 8,6 but i will update soon to mac os 9,2 and to mac os X next year (when the software will be updated for os X).
My network is based upon this server and two others mac a white G3 333 and a i mac 266 for my secretary.
My plan is to update now (and i just ordered a powerlogix G4 533/550 mhz 1 MO ratio 2,5/1 for 358 ? all taxes included) the server in order to have some boost in performance at the lower prize. Next year i will buy a new server : let's say a dual 867 mhz or the new model and will replace my g3 with the updated 550 mhz B&W (but i will not overclok it) and will replace the imac by an emac , and of course mac os X on everycomputers. And the next year (2004)i will replace the updated G3 with a brand new powermac 64 bit.
This is the best plan i have found to update my whole network at a minimal prize. The worse with software is that they let become your hadware old. When i have the first version of Hypermed everything was snappy and damn fast, after a few update of the software everything is damn slow.
I will tell my experience when i will recieve and make my update.
Rod UK : yes definitively memory is a good buy and i just order two RAM of 512 MO for 69? each (i dont think that the prize will drop anymore, every manufacture switching their production for DDR ram : my advice buy PC 133 SDRAM now !). But in this case , the card works fine under mac os X , give me a 60 % speed boost and, acess at a low cost to the Altivec world. 300 $ is a good deal, but 1000$ not.
1000 $ will be the cost to boost my home G4 533 to a 40 % factor : in this case i agree with you : it's worthless.
[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: Powerdoc ]</p>
604 processor. Although I don't normally recommend
it, I did upgrade that processor to a PowerLogix 250
MHz 604e with 1 MB of Rapid Cache.
The results were impressive. Between doubling the
MHz, adding L2 cache, and upping the bus speed
from 40 MHz to 50 MHz, I really helped the machine.
Later, I bought a 300 MHz G3 with 1 MB backside
cache. Even with the advancement in caching, this
upgrade was probably a waste.
I really think if you can't double, don't bother. Just
keep plugging in more RAM and HD, and maybe a
new video card. (My 7600 ended with a ATI Rage
Orion video, 112 MB Ram, 15 GB Drive, and an
internal Zip.)
Atros
- slowness... There is just not way that I can deal with my current machine anymore. I use fast new machines at work, and my home computer is nearly 4 years old. I do do a fair bit of source compiling, I do some scientific computing in the field of genomics and I do like the occasional game of Urban Terror
and I just can't take the speed anymore (or the lack thereof rather).
- Upgrade rumours... Although I am not one to "buy on rumours" the evidence really points to a next generation processor/motherboard combo. For those not reading the threads in future hardware, I can only say that things have not looked this positive in a long time. However, these new mobo/CPU combos appear to be 6-12 months from appearing in Rev 1 form. I'll buy a rev 2.
- price... the processor I bought was at a good price, for Mac processor upgrades. $265. I look at it as $22 dollars a month for the next year for the privilege of a 40% speed boost over that period.
I guess that I could add the importance of Altivec to the above list, since I'm going from a G3 to a G4.I guess I also have an urge to silk screen out the G3 shadow on the inside of the case, and put a G4 shadow in there. hehe.
[ 09-15-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]</p>
<strong>The weird thing is that I always advise other people that upgrades are rarely worth it; "If you need a new CPU, buy a new computer.", I tell them.
09-13-2002: Message edited by: wormboy ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
Hi wormboy!
Very amusing to read this. Seems to me like the opposite of a politician: You're preaching wine and drinking water.
Makes you symphatetic.
My advice: Follow your advice
!
The news is that the upgrade arrived. So Powerdoc in a few hours, I'll be able to give you the lowdown on the upgrade. Stay tuned...
<strong>Well, thanks kiu77!
The news is that the upgrade arrived. So Powerdoc in a few hours, I'll be able to give you the lowdown on the upgrade. Stay tuned...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Unless the worst happens and your computer blows up, in which case we won't be hearing from you at all...
[ 09-16-2002: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>
Thankfully, that was not an issue in this case!
OK the new processor is installed and currently running at 600 MHz with apparent stability. A couple of notes for those interested in trying this...
1) You should get the newertech B&W G4 enabler, rather than the powerlogix firmware flash. It's repeated all over xlr8yourmac, but it bears repeating again here. You need to run it in OS 9.
2) The clip that holds the heatsink on is much stiffer than I thought it would be. You really have to work to get this off without clobbering your motherboard with the pliers. I used a small flathead to pry the metal clip outwards away from the plastic knob it hooks over, as I pushed down on the body of the clip the a pair of needle-nose pliers. When you put the clip back on, make sure that iy goes on the same way (in the same orientation) that it came off.
3) The jumpers are really tiny and hard to extract from the jumper bar. I used a combo of needle-nose tweezers and a pin. I did not have a thumbtack, but that might have worked better than the pin, as it would have been easier to hold firm.
4) I elected to keep the cache setting at the default 5:2, rather than trying to jump it up. Mike at XLR8 says he does not see much impact of changing cache speeds, and it could reduce the life of the cache to run it too fast.
Any questions about the experience for those who are about to try it?
<strong>
Thankfully, that was not an issue in this case!
OK the new processor is installed and currently running at 600 MHz with apparent stability. A couple of notes for those interested in trying this...
1) You should get the newertech B&W G4 enabler, rather than the powerlogix firmware flash. It's repeated all over xlr8yourmac, but it bears repeating again here. You need to run it in OS 9.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Why the newertech enable is better than the powerlogix firmware ?
PS : did not recieve yet my upgrade card. I have phone to ask some news today : it will not be send to me before 10 days
As for your delivery, I feel your pain. I just moved from Europe to the US. I ordered my upgrade at 5:50 PM on a friday and it was in my mailbox monday morning. Even OWC shipping via FedEx to Europe was never so fast!
Make sure you post your experience after you upgrade. I'd be interested to see how it goes for you.