[FalsEye05]

I know this might sound like a far reach, but it's worth a try...

I have a Beige G3 DT (350Mhz/416MB RAM) upgraded from the stock 233Mhz chip. I installed the faster zif and everything has worked well ever since, but it could still use more speed. When I upgraded the chip I kept the old 233, is there any way I can still use the 233 to increase the speed to 583? I've looked at XLR8's CPUless carrier cards, and the specs say the zif and the carrier card both are compatible with desktops. Now I'm just wondering if a dual-processor setup is possible on a beige G3 DT, and if it's really worth it to actually do the upgrade.

I was also thinking of just getting a G4, and selling the G3 all together. But I'm not sure yet. What is the difference in speed between a G3 and a G4 system (let's say a G3/400mhz vs. G4/400mhz, both with 416 MB of RAM, both running OS X)?

Thanks for your help.

[DrBoar]

G3 CPUs really does not support dual CPUs (not for practical purposes and even with G4 you can not add CPUs of uneaqual speed.

A B&W G3/400 and a G4/400 PCI will be the same in OS X. A ordininary G4/400 has a AGP slot and faster graphics as well as support for Quarts Extreme. When compared to a beige G3/350 the faster AGP graphics, the faster IDE disk and buss speed all add up to a faster computer.

But OS X that is slow on a G3/350 is also quite slow on a G4/400. I whould not bother with upgrading to anything less than a 733/800 MHz G4(and not one of those without a L2 cache)

A 1 GHz G3 (250 dollar)ATI 9200 graphcial card (130 dollar)will along with a USB card, Firewire card and a fast IDE card and hard disk make your humble beige G3 a quite fast computer but then the cost is that of new eMac or a fast second hand G4.

So do not spend more money on your G3 than perhaps a ATI 128/radeon PCI card cheap from ebay. G4 around 1 GHz is the next step up and will serve you for a couple of years, excluding games were they will be serverly outdated next year or so (DOOM 3 and games based on that engine)

[FalsEye05]

Thanks for the reply Dr. Boar, all the info. helps me out.

I figured the dual processors on a beige g3 wouldn't work too well, considering how out-dated the beige g3 is already. But I did not know they had to be of the same speed.

I'm using OS 9 right now and it's running at a good speed. But I was asking about OS X only because my USB card is recognized only in 10.1+ , and my USB hub is only recognized in 10.2+. But I don't think I'm going to put too much more into it, maybe the new graphics card as you suggested, but thats it.

I'm looking for a used graphite or quicksilver right now, so if you or anyone else knows of any online stores, or that have any good deals, please let me know.

Thanks again for your help Dr. Boar.

[Dr. Wahnsinn]

If your USB card isn't being recognised in OS 9, then you probably don't Apple's USB software installed. The SW is available from Apple's support site and is titled USB Card Support 1.4.1.smi.