[TimmyDee51]

Does anyone know how a G4 upgrade card would fare in a rev. D iMac with a Maxtor 7200 rpm hard drive? I know there are not any heat issues with the new hard drive and the original processor, but would the G4 push it over the edge? If there are no problems, that would be one hell of a system. Now too bad I can't upgrade my graphics card. . .

[Ca$h68]

it should be fine. search the forums for more info. I'm getting a 5200rpm HD though since they're cheaper.

Ca$h

[The Godfather]

If you are going to use G4 performamce, buy the card. If you haven't bought the 7200RPM, don't buy it because it is said it creates too much heat.

If you buy the card, please post a review in this forum

[TimmyDee51]

I was debating the two. I'm not sure which would give me the better performance difference, a 7200 rpm HD or the G4 card. The card would obviously boost the speed a great deal, but it would be hindered by the 5400 rpm drive, the 66 MHz system bus, and the Rage Pro Turbo graphics card. The 7200 rpm drive would be cheaper and give me better load times. I haven't heard of any temp issues with a stock processor and the Maxtor Plus drive. As a precaution, I have found that Powerlogix G3 cache profiler has dropped my CPU temp 10 degrees (from 145 to 134) just by turning on dynamic power management. Perhaps that would work on the G4 upgrade, since it is run at 433 even though it is rated for 450 just to save on the temp.

[The Godfather]

Well, I haven't experienced the benefits of 7200RPM yet. I am perfectly happy with the performance of my 5400RPM 4GB HD, but the only thing that bugs me is that when it goes to sleep, it take about 5-10 seconds to speed up the disk for wake-up*. I don't believe this problem is fixed with a 7200RPM.

If you haven't treated your iMac a generous amount of RAM (>160MB), then you probably still don't know how fast your G3 is. Only after being unsatisfied with that should you consider buying the upgrade.

If you are going to do VideoScript stuff, I would recommend upgrade to G4. The speed boost will be abysmal. Real time video analysis is one task which I believe is not benefited by a 100MHz bus because the CPU is the only bottleneck in this case.
(please somebody correct me if I am wrong, when do you need 100MHz and when is 66MHz going to be enough?)

If you are thinking of buying the G4 upgrade just to make fun of people who bought $2500+ gray towers while you have it all in a cheap fruity package, then definitely go for it. After all, that is part of the essence of being male.

The Gamewizard, although obsolete, still performs better than the even more obsolete ATI 128 that Apple packs in the newest PowerMacs. If you had one, then you may start to have bottleneck problems due to the bus (you are always going to have bottleneck problems somewhere anyways, that's a law).

*Other times I get the green light of death and that bugs me even more. Cheap consumer iMac

My two Canadian cents

[TimmyDee51]

Good points Godfather. I'm definitely going to invest in a 128 MB chip of RAM, boosting myself to 160 megs. As for the HD, I'll reconsider a 5400 rpm one since money is scarce. The same is true for the G4. I don't think I'll have the cash to accomplish such a feat. On the other hand, I think that the Gamewizard would be an excellent investment, but I have a 333 MHz with no mezzanine. I heard there is a way to add a mezzanine slot to a rev. C-D, but I don't know much more about it. Do you or anyone else?

[Ca$h68]

yeah, I do. But go search the forums and find out yourself.

Ca$h

[TimmyDee51]

Found it. Thank's Ca$h. I think, however, that the whole soldering thing has me a bit phased. That and possible Voodoo 2/mezzanine incompatibility with OS X. But then again, I might get ambitious. . .

[Cosmo]

If you do successfully get a hd into your rev. D imac please drop me a line (via icq or e-mail). My imac is currently down because i tried 2 install a new drive...

check it out