[EnderWS]

What is the difference between the Powerlogix Powerforce 7447 1.6Ghz G4 for $269 and the OWC Mercury Extreme 1.4Ghz G4 for $299? The Mercury has 2MB L3 cache and 256k of L1 cache, and the Powerlogix has 512k L1 cache and no mention of L3 cache?
Any reason why, for $30 less, I shouldn't get the Powerlogix? It's been a while since I researched this stuff, I seem to remember that L2 cache made a difference, L3 not so much. Still true? I remember something about IBM's chips being less stable when overclocked than Motorola's, is that still true?
This is going into a 733Mhz Digital Audio G4. The most CPU-intensive tasks I do are Photoshop filters and scrubbing through movies (not DVDs). Thanks.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other...g/MEG41314L2S/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/PowerLogix/PF47S1600QD/

[EnderWS]

i'm answering my own question... "The 7447A has no L3 cache though, so a 1.7GHz 7447A is said to be equiv. in performance to a 1.46GHz 745x w/2MB L3"
from xlr8yourmac's database.

[RayK]

In my limited experience using a 867Mhz Titanium Powerbook with L3 cache and then using a 1.25Ghz Al Powerbook with the extra L2 cache, but no L3 cache, I thought the preformance on the Titanium was better. The Al was a bit quicker on some video tasks (like resize of quicktime window), but the general responsiveness of the Titanium was better. Before I am flamed for knowing nothing this is of course my personal opinion and I could be wrong.

[Eug Wanker]

In my limited experience using a 1 GHz TiBook with L3 cache (my previous laptop) and then using a 1.33 GHz iBook with the extra L2 cache but no L3 cache (my current laptop), I thought the overall performance on the iBook is better, although on some things the difference is minor.

Anyways, I chose Sonnet over PowerLogix for my Cube upgrade because PowerLogix has a very poor reputation in terms of service. Some people had waited OVER A YEAR for replacements for defective parts. It might be better now though, since they are now supported by OWC I think.

The main problem for the 7447A upgrades is two-fold:

1) For a fresh OS install, OS X 10.4 is required.
2) OS 9 support may be problematic in some cases.

These two issues are totally irrelevant for me, so I chose the 1.7 7447A. Given the choice again between a 1.4 GHz 7455 with L3 and 1.7 7447A though, I'd just choose whichever is cheaper. However, I'm still wary of PowerLogix.

[peterthorn]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

The main problem for the 7447A upgrades is two-fold:

1) For a fresh OS install, OS X 10.4 is required.

Where do you have the information about 10.4 required? As far as I have seen, it is only 10.3 that is needed?

Peter

[Lateralus]

Yeah, 10.3.5 in most cases.