[Henrik Asplund]

Hey folks!

I have a B&W Power Mac G3, 300 MHz, 1/2 MB Level 2 cache, 512 MB RAM. I thought about upgrading my processor with a processor upgrade card. Is this a good idea or is the whole idea of getting processor upgrades compared to waiting to buy a new computer just stupid (in regard of money)?

1) Is the Sonnet cards the best way to go (e.g. G4 500 MHz, G4 800 MHz, G4 1 Ghz) or can I find cheaper better cards?

2) How much does the different cards actually increase the "speed" of the computer? (For example, Photoshop, iPhoto, games, iTunes, GarageBand and so on?) Are there any good "compare" websites?

3) Could a faster harddrive increase the speed of the computer swapping files?

Thanks in advance for some info!

/Henrik

[waxcrash]

I've upgraded a B&W 350 MHz with PowerLogix's G3 900 MHz ZIF. Great upgrade that made the computer usable with OS X. I run Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark on it everyday without a single problem. I wouldn't bother with a G4 upgrade, but get the best bang for your buck with the PowerLogix G3 1GHz upgrade.

[faragbre967]

You should just eBay it for a Quicksilver or something a little newer than the B&W. However, if you're gonna stay blue, go with Powerlogix G3 upgrades because the Sonnet G4's slow down the bus speed to 66 MHz. Unless you need AltiVec, which if you did you would have a better computer, it's useless and is the only difference between G3 and G4.

[Chinasaur]

I did the PL 800Mhz in my B&W back when it was available.

PowerLogix, Giga, Sonnet and OWC all offer cards so shop around for best bang for buck.

1. I agree, stay away from lower Mhz G4's, as well as the upper clocked G4's as they lower your FSB speed to 66Mhz from 100Mhz. At this point I'm also about to recommend you look at used G4's (Sawtooth and above) as they are MUCH more expandable (AGP, higher clocked G4 upgrades). If your budget is $300 and below then it might make sense to upgrade to a G3 processor rather than invest in a G4 box right now

2. The speed increase will be very noticeable. You might kick yourself for waiting so long

3. A faster HD will speed up transfers. Remember that your limit is 120MB or less so don't buy a 160.


Best of luck.

[jcadam]

Originally posted by faragbre967:
You should just eBay it for a Quicksilver or something a little newer than the B&W. However, if you're gonna stay blue, go with Powerlogix G3 upgrades because the Sonnet G4's slow down the bus speed to 66 MHz. Unless you need AltiVec, which if you did you would have a better computer, it's useless and is the only difference between G3 and G4.

The G4 upgrades slow down the bus to 66Mhz?! EGADS!!! I'll take a G3 1GHz on a 100Mhz bus over a G4 1GHz on a 66Mhz any day of the week. That G4 would be somewhat faster on Altivec-HEAVY apps, but significantly slower at everything else.

[DrBoar]

www.xlr8yourmac.com and www.barefeats.com has lots of comparisons.

Getting a CPU upgrade is a very good idea if that is all you need. If you need a CPU and a graphical card and a new HD, you better think twise.

A 1GHz G3 CPU from Powerlogix should blast you ahead at a fairly good clip Very good for games and even for altivec stuff it will compare quite well with 600 MHz G4s.

Have you tried user jumpers from discarded harddisks and OC the G3 for free? The G3/300 I had could be run at 350 MHz and some have been able to run it at 400-450 MHz (instruction at xlr8yourmac)

[Henrik Asplund]

Thanx for all your replies!

It's just that I'd really prefer getting a processor upgrade card instead of trying to get to work switching my computer for a new one. (I'd rather wait until I have the money to buy a low- or medium-range G5.)

Is anyone from Sweden here? I live in Sweden and it seems no one sells the PowerLogix cards or at least I haven't found anyone. Any tips? Or can you buy a processsor upgrade card from PowerLogix anywhere on the web, an Internet store or something? Apple?

I think the G3 1 GHz would be good. Is it true that this one adds up to about 600 MHz G4?? How big would the difference be between:

1. G3 300 MHz - G3 500 MHz?
2. G3 300 MHz - G4 500 MHz?
3. G4 500 MHz - G4 800 MHz?
4. G4 800 MHz - G4 1 GHz?

As you might guess, MONEY is a big divider here ;-)

Thanx in advance!

/Henrik

[discotronic]

Originally posted by DrBoar:


Have you tried user jumpers from discarded harddisks and OC the G3 for free? The G3/300 I had could be run at 350 MHz and some have been able to run it at 400-450 MHz (instruction at xlr8yourmac)

I picked up a B&W 300MHz for my brother recently. It was a non REV board and I overclocked it to 400MHz with no problems. It has been running problem free for over a month. The speed difference could definately be seen.

[Chinasaur]

Henrik,

The difference between G3 and G4 is Altivec. Unless you are ripping/encoding .mp3's all day or using other Altivec enabled programs, the speed of a G3 and G4 is the same clock for clock.

My old PL upgraded 800Mhz B&W has 1GB of RAM and it's more than fast enough for daily use other than video editing. I gave it to my GF and she feels it stacks up well against her 1.8Ghz P4 in everything other than ripping.

The only caveat I have is that if you spend your cpu upgrade money on a G4 (not Yikes model) then you will have a platform you can expand on and get far more use out of than the G3. A G4 would give you an AGP slot and ability to take the latest G4 upgrade cards later.

That said, if you can get a 1 or 1.1Ghz G3 upgrade card for a reasonable price (and that's up to you), then go for it.

[Cadaver]

I have a blue & white G3 with a 900MHz G3 from PowerLogix. 512KB on-chip L2 cache @ full processor speed. The increase in performance makes it easily comparable to a modern iBook (up until recently the last of the G3-based Macs). But w/ the potential for a nice, fast hard drive.

The high-clock speed G4s are not worth it, IMO. Too expensive, and you have to chop the bus speed down by 33%. Not worth it. You can find ~600MHz G4s that will run at a 100MHz bus, but unless you must have AltiVec for specialized software, you're far better off going with a high clock speed G3 (up to 1.1GHz w/ 1MB on-chip cache are available).

Add a decent hard drive, and perhaps a faster video card (Radeon Mac Edition if you can find one for cheap on eBay is a great card, or the new Radeon 9200 PCI Mac Edition).

Prices from Other World Computing:
1GHz G3 (w/ 1MB L2 cache) = $259.95
128MB Radeon 9200 PCI = $129.00

Together, they make a killer upgrade for a blue & white G3.

Another option to consider is buying a cheap G4 with an AGP slot off eBay, and putting in a low-cost G4 upgrade --

I recently bought a Gigabit Ethernet PowerMac G4 off eBay and added a 1.4GHz OWC G4 upgrade card. The PowerMacs can be had for around $400, and the 1.4GHz/2MB L3 cache OWC Mercury processor card was $350. Used the same RAM and previously upgraded HD from the old blue & white G3 for some additional cost savings, and I've got a very fast G4 for less than 1/2 the price of a new G5. I use this machine at work for office/productivity applications, and its perfect.

Now that I've got the 1.4GHz GigE PMG4 at work (where the B&W G3 used to live) I'll turn the G3 in to a home backup server for my 4 computers at home (G5, PC, PowerBook and wife's iBook).

[discotronic]

Originally posted by Cadaver:

Prices from Other World Computing:
1GHz G3 (w/ 1MB L2 cache) = $259.95
128MB Radeon 9200 PCI = $129.00

Together, they make a killer upgrade for a blue & white G3.

With a 1.0 or 1.1GHz G3 upgrade and the Radeon 9200 how well would you say that the B&W would compare to an eMac 1.25GHz? Mostly it is a question of gaming. He isn't worried too much about the latest and greatest since he has an Xbox. My brother's B&W is nothing more than a starter computer and he is progressing so fast that it won't be long until he is ready to upgrade. Since I gave him the comp as a gift he doesn't have any money tied up in it. The low end eMac is still $799 plus add the price of RAM and it has a crappy video card. The biggest problem is money. If it wasn't, I would have just bought him a G5 and got it over with right

[Captain Egotist]

This is not a mod. It is only a mod if you modify a CPU that you purchase using a soldering iron. Please move this to the appropriate forum.

- Ca$h

[Waragainstsleep]

I have a B&W 400MHz, and someone bought another one into our workshop today which a had a G4/400 in it. The difference in Panther is quite astounding.
Someone may have mentioned it earlier, but just in case:
You can get a G4 up to 600MHz (without OCing it) without downclocking the bus. This is pretty much the best way to go, since the PPC7400 and 7410 had about double the pipelines of the newer chips (thats how they got the clock speeds up), and so they are comparable in performance to much higher clocked G4s in later machines.

If you think this is overestimating the value Apple puts on clock speed, then ask yourself why we can't already buy Powerbook G5s clocked at 1GHz or so.....

[bowwowman]

Originally posted by Captain Egotist:
This is not a mod. It is only a mod if you modify a CPU that you purchase using a soldering iron. Please move this to the appropriate forum.

- Ca$h

Even though you are "technically" correct, we already have moderators, to decide what goes where & such

Are you a mod-wannebe or what ? I notice you made the same comments on a few other posts too.......

[Captain Egotist]

Originally posted by bowwowman:
Even though you are "technically" correct, we already have moderators, to decide what goes where & such

Are you a mod-wannebe or what ? I notice you made the same comments on a few other posts too.......

I'm just annoyed that somet things aren't up for discussion, and are instead dealt with by the almight 'gods' of macnn without any input.