[alari]

What's the fastest processor upgrade available for a G3 B&W ?
I found a 1GHz G4 at macsales.com, but i'm wondering, if i could get better.

[Mister Elf]

Probably a 1.1GHz G3 or so...not quite sure.

[Lateralus]

The 1.0/1.1GHz G3 is the fastest upgrade for the B&W. The Sonnet G4 1GHz drops the bus to 66MHz which has a pretty big effect on performance. The G3 also has 1024k of 1:1 L2, whereas the Sonnet only has 256k of L2 and 1MB of 5:1 L3.

[discotronic]

I put a PowerLogix 900MHz G3 upgrade and a Radeon 9200 in my brother's B&W. It had a stock 400MHz processor and stock video. The difference in everyday use was amazing. If you can get the upgrades cheap enough, it is better than going with a new system if you don't need one.

He uses his PM for surfing the net and very light gaming. Mostly older titles like Warcraft 3.

[alari]

Are there any G4 upgrades available, that wouldn't bring the FSB down ?
I'd like to use iLife 06, which requires a G4, iPhoto 6 can be run on a G3 with a trick, but i' d like to use other applications of iLife too.

[bowwowman]

Are there any G4 upgrades available, that wouldn't bring the FSB down ?

The only other 100mhz G4 upgrades for B&W's were the 550mhz ones from OWC a few years ago. They are extremely hard to find nowadays, but grab one if you do. They are/were overclocked 500's guarenteed to run at 550. I actually got mine to 650mhz by using thermal paste, a small fan above the heatsink, and moving the jumpers on the mobo......

And IIRC, the most of the iApps require a 700mhz G4, at least for iDVD anyways

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by alari

Are there any G4 upgrades available, that wouldn't bring the FSB down ?
I'd like to use iLife 06, which requires a G4, iPhoto 6 can be run on a G3 with a trick, but i' d like to use other applications of iLife too.

I wouldn't recommend that unless you upgrade the graphics card as well, if you still happen to use the stock graphics card, that is. On the other hand, there are no useful graphics card upgrades for BW G3s since they do not have an AGP slot. Which means no Quartz Extreme (yes, there's a hack for that, too, but still, it won't help you too much).

You could look into getting a used G4 as well, and spend probably a little more than what you'd pay for all the upgrades. Also, you might think of getting a Mac mini, too. Do a search in this forum to find out where you can get used Macs.

If you want to run iLife '06, you have to meet the absolute minimum requirements of OS X to begin with:
- 512+ MB RAM: do you have that much?
- a Quartz Extreme-capable graphics card (not a minimum requirement, but it does help a lot, especially if you have a computer with a slow cpu!): you cannot get a QE-capable graphics card for your Mac
- 800 MHz G3: you could do that with an upgrade

So my bottom line is: you can upgrade you BW to put it to some use, but I don't think you can run iLife '06 at decent speed. Instead, I'd look into a used G4 or (if your budget permits) into a Mac mini.

[Lateralus]

Originally Posted by bowwowman

The only other 100mhz G4 upgrades for B&W's were the 550mhz ones from OWC a few years ago. They are extremely hard to find nowadays, but grab one if you do.

A few years ago? OWC just stopped selling them a few months ago and XLR8 is still selling 500/600s.

[almaink]

Go to Ebay and get a G4 600. They don't lower the bus speed and outperform the G3 1Gigs.
http://cgi.ebay.com/XLR8-600-MAChSpe...QQcmdZViewItem
For a faster video card you can get an ATI Radeon 9200.
http://www.ati.com/products/radeon92...0me/specs.html

[Lateralus]

Originally Posted by almaink

Go to Ebay and get a G4 600. They don't lower the bus speed and outperform the G3 1Gigs.

They most certainly do not outperfom the G3s.

The 750GX G3 and the 7410 G4 are somewhat similar in that they are both 4-stage pipeline CPUs, based on the same basic design. The similiarities end there, however. The G4 relies on backside L2 cache, which only runs at approximately 250MHz. It also, of course, has AltiVec. The G3 on the other hand has its 1MB L2 cache integrated into the die, running at the full clock speed of the CPU.

The G4 couldn't keep up with the G3 even if it were running at the same 600MHz in anything that didn't take advantage of AltiVec, let alone outperform it with it having a 400 or 500MHz clock speed advantage. AltiVec is nice, but it isn't anywhere near that good.

I had a B&W with a G4 7410 that I had running at 650MHz which I replaced with a 1GHz 750GX G3, running at 1.1GHz. The speed difference was extreme. I just did the same to a friend's B&W, also taking it from a 650 G4 to a 1.1 G3, and he agrees that the G3 is much, much faster.

[alari]

I'm planning on get an FX5200 PCI to flash it with a mac bios, and more RAM, i have 384 right now, i also have 2x 7200rpm HD-s in there, 80 and 20GB, the internal ATA33 bus slows them down a bit, i guess.Running iLife just seemed cool, but i can live without that, i guess i'll go with the 1GHz G3.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by alari

I'm planning on get an FX5200 PCI to flash it with a mac bios, and more RAM, i have 384 right now, i also have 2x 7200rpm HD-s in there, 80 and 20GB, the internal ATA33 bus slows them down a bit, i guess.Running iLife just seemed cool, but i can live without that, i guess i'll go with the 1GHz G3.

Are you really sure you don't just want to get a used G4? For the price of the upgrade alone, you can buy a barebone G4 system (according to this thread, you can get a 733 MHz G4 for roughly $200-250) and upgrade it with your system's components for a start.

You might also want to take a look at an earlier thread which basically answers a lot of your questions.

[Tuoder]

PPC Mac Minis are going for 500 and up. I would consider going that route.

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Originally Posted by alari

I'm planning on get an FX5200 PCI to flash it with a mac bios, and more RAM, i have 384 right now, i also have 2x 7200rpm HD-s in there, 80 and 20GB, the internal ATA33 bus slows them down a bit, i guess.Running iLife just seemed cool, but i can live without that, i guess i'll go with the 1GHz G3.

Are these Powerlogix 1GHz @ 199 dollar reliable? I have read so many horror stories at xlr8yourmac.com? And do they still require bending the heatsink clip?

[Lateralus]

Yes, they require bending the heatsink clip.

As for them being unreliable, not sure why you'd think that. I've been through three 900MHz-1.1GHz PowerLogix ZIFs and they were solid as a rock. Can't say I've had as good of luck with Sonnet's G4 solutions though, and according to XLR8YourMac, a lot of other people haven't either.

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Yes, they require bending the heatsink clip.

As for them being unreliable, not sure why you'd think that. I've been through three 900MHz-1.1GHz PowerLogix ZIFs and they were solid as a rock. Can't say I've had as good of luck with Sonnet's G4 solutions though, and according to XLR8YourMac, a lot of other people haven't either.

I wouldn't buy a Sonnet G4 ZIF that reduce the bus speed from 100 to 66 Mhz, but when I read the forums at www.xlr8yourmac.com, the Daystar G4 ZIF seems more attractive, because there were no complaints of crashes or incompatibility, (rating often 10/10) while the G3 Powerlogix got from several users ratings 1/10.
I am glad to hear you didn't have any problems.
I was considering to buy a second hand PL on EBay but without warranty it seemed a bit like the lottery...
I still find all these upgrades (new) at approx. 200 dollars expensive.

If it fails, and I want to put the old processor again, wouldn't that be a problem to bend the heatsink clip again?

[alari]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Are you really sure you don't just want to get a used G4? For the price of the upgrade alone, you can buy a barebone G4 system (according to this thread, you can get a 733 MHz G4 for roughly $200-250) and upgrade it with your system's components for a start.

You might also want to take a look at an earlier thread which basically answers a lot of your questions.

Used G4-s are hard to find, where i live, and the sellers usually ask way too much for them, i got this B&W with a good price and i'm just looking for upgrades, it's used as a web/file server at home.

[Mac Hammer Fan]

I guess my G3 300 B&W has a smaller heatsink than the later models (350/400)
Wouldn't this be a problem for an upgrade?

[mountainash]

If you are looking to save money, you won't want to get the fastest upgrade. The 1GHz G3 probably is good performance/price. Check out the second hand markets, used dealers, ebay etc you might get a slower g4 or g3 for not too much. Also, upgrade the RAM to 1Gb before you do anything else. You can also add a superdrive, large SATA HDD (with a SATA card), usb2, firewire800, AirPort, Bluetooth, gigabit ethernet, and better graphics.

For webserving, you only need a fast g3 and heaps of RAM (a fast HDD can be useful, too). Like Mr Cray said, it isn't about the fastest CPU it's about the fastest system.

[Lateralus]

For the record; After making a little fan sheath for the heatsink in my friend's B&W, his 750GX G3 is now running at 1.2GHz and is solid as a rock.

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Originally Posted by Lateralus

For the record; After making a little fan sheath for the heatsink in my friend's B&W, his 750GX G3 is now running at 1.2GHz and is solid as a rock.

Well, if it feels faster than a Daystar 600 Mhz I'll give it a try.
Thanks for the info.

[Mac Hammer Fan]

is it true that a G3 can't run Pages? (IWork)
In this case, I am not so sure that I'll buy the G3 ZIF@ 1GHz

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Can someone tell me if the speed difference of a PowerLogic G3 ZIF between a G3 B&W and a G3 Beige with the same ATA PCI card, the same PC 100 memory 768 MB RAM and same Radeon 7000 PCI is noticeable?
(bus speed 66 up to 83 vs 100)
I have read that the large cache of the PL ZIF reduces the efffect of the slower bus speed.
is this true?

TIA