[rambo47]

Some of the best stuff came not from Apple but from the support companies. The HARMONi upgrade from Sonnet priced at $300 looks like a winner. I have an old rev.1 iMac currently being shared by my kids. Price was right - free. I've been debating when to sell it and get a newer model. While it's still great for the kids now, it won't be long before they move beyond it's capabilities with it's 233 MHz chip and puny hard drive. I already upped the RAM and that made a huge difference. But I don't dare upgrade the OS past 8.6 due to RAM usage. Forget OS X! But with this latest from Sonnet maybe this old Mac will yet see OS X.

[Scott_H]

You left off the best part. That card adds Firewire to your old iMac

I may have to buy that thing.

[CaseCom]

Very interesting ... I wonder if it's as fast as native FireWire?

[candyman]

Surely it will be fast as the native FireWire...
BUT where's the connector must be installed? Beneath the mezzanine port?
I hope no!

It's a pity the port is one...

Bondi Blue still rulez!

candyman

[Scott_H]

That's what I was wondering. There's no pic of the card at the site BUT there was a hand holding a Firewire plug. Maybe there's some kinda typical Firewire plug that somehow comes out the back. Can't wait for the reviews on this

[rambo47]

Even if the port is a pain in the butt to reach, attaching one long FireWire cable will give you access. Once your first peripheral is attached you have a convenient access point right on that device. I'm not sure how many FW devices you can string together but it's a lot.

[Kon-El]

The important thing is that it doesn't mess with the mezzanine slot. I have the VooDoo 2 Game Wizard for rev. A & rev. B iMacs and would want this card. But it it blocks the VooDoo2 card in the mezzanine slot, I'd just have to go with the PowerLogix 500mhz G4 processor upgrade.

[Scott_H]

I'm just wondering how it gets "outside the box". I want to see a pic of the card and how it's installed

[tadashi]

Originally posted by Scott_H:
<STRONG>I want to see a pic of the card and how it's installed </STRONG>

Hello. It is already reported in "Macworld Conference & Expo New York 2001" pages at the Suyama-Shiken web site (suyama.co.jp).

tadashi, 20 July 2001(JST).

[scottiB]

More info:
http://www.macminute.com/expo/20sonnet.shtml

Looks like you get a whole new motherboard chassis. Wow. I'm upgrading my 266

[edit: added comment]

[ 07-20-2001: Message edited by: scottiB ]

[Phoible]

What is the motherboard chassis? Do you replace the entire motherboard, or just certain parts? I would assume that it would be a pain to remove the motherboard, possibly more so than replacing the CPU card.

[scottiB]

From the link above:

More than just an upgrade card, HARMONi comes in an entire casing for easier change-in, change-out and can be performed either by the customer or by an authorized Apple service center or Sonnet dealer.

"I'd say the only drawback for a consumer in installing this upgrade is getting the iMac casing open and then closed," Kratz said. "That's a little difficult, but what I can say is that we've made it much easier by simply sliding the old motherboard 'cartridge' out, and the new one in."

Now I'm a little confused, too. From the pic, it seems that it's the whole bloody chassis because of the new port face arrangement? Pull your old one out, slide the new one in? What about the hard drive? Questions, questions.

[runningdog]

i don't see what the confusion is. Its the same motherboard and chasis. The firewire adapter clearly juts out from the CPU daughtercard and is fitted to a new faceplate. The only other change is the clipped RF shield.

Too bad this upgrade isn't shipping now so i can buy it. But by the time Harmoni ships the new redesigned iMacs might be out and i'd rather buy that instead.

[Arty50]

I've been considering the Powerlogix upgrade for my Rev A for the last couple of weeks and then this was announced. My only question involves the backside cache. The 500 MHz Powerlogix has a 1 M cache running at 200 MHz. The Sonnet card has a 256 K cache running at 1:1 (I assume 500 MHz?) with the processor. While the Firewire is nice and all, I only really care about getting the better processor. Does anyone have any input?

[PeteL999]

Don't forget to take into consideration that the powerlogix card is also a 500 mhz G4. Imagine if sonnet's was a 500 mhz G4 with the firewire port. Oh man I think I'm gonna wet myself

[Fragicula]

the good thing about the sonnet card surely will be that you can buy it at all. i've never seen a g4 upgrade at any shop. or do i just look in the wrong places?

if i bought an upgrade i would replace the hd as well. but that seems to be pretty difficult. has anyone tried it here? how was it?

mfg
Fragicula

[CreepDogg]

I've replaced the HD in my Rev. A. It wasn't that bad. The hardest part was copying the data to the new HD (I have another Mac and just networked them to do this). I put a 45GB IBM DeskStar 75GXP in my iMac - it works great.

I followed the instructions here:
http://www.theimac.com/drive_steps.shtml

EXCEPT that I did NOT remove the motherboard - I found I was able to replace the HD without removing it.

I've been looking for a way to get FireWire on my Rev. A for a long time - I think I'll be purchasing one of these when it's available. Then my Rev. A will have:

500 MHz G3
512 MB RAM (I have 160 now but will upgrade)
45GB HD
CD-ROM
FireWire
SCSI
USB
OS X (again will upgrade with 10.1 - running 8.6 right now)

Anyone notice this upgrade brings the specs close to the new iBook (including the 66 MHz system bus)?

I've been looking for a way to get FireWire on my Rev. A for a long time - I think I'll be purchasing one of these when it's available. Then my Rev. A will have:

500 MHz G3
512 MB RAM (I have 160 now but will upgrade)
45GB HD
CD-ROM
FireWire
SCSI
USB
OS X (again will upgrade with 10.1 - running 8.6 right now)

I'm looking forward about this CPU/FireWire upgrade on my iMac Rev.A. I read the picture of the actual product, I have a little problem here. Recently, I have a Formac iProTV/SCSI card installed, but Sonnet will ship with their own new faceplate, which means it will block the TV and SCSI port. Any idea?

Once upgraded, my iMac Rev.A will be;

500MHz G3
256MB RAM
46.1GB Matrox ATA/100 7200RPM
6MB VRAM
TV/video-in
SCSI
APS-Tech 121032 Ext. SCSI CDRW
Mac OS 9.x and 10.x

Kenneth

[Kenneth]

Sorry for double posting, but why am I listed as unregister ?

[CreepDogg]

I also have a Formac iProRaidTV - I e-mailed Sonnet ([email protected]) with that very question - have not gotten a response yet.

If I have to, I'll take a hacksaw to their faceplate to make a cut-out for the SCSI/TV ports, but hopefully they'll have a solution...

Can't wait to get a MOTU 828 and start doing some music recording on my Rev. A!

I've seen people with SCSI on their iMacs (in this thread). How is this done?

[Fragicula]

there are two cards for the mezzanine slot of the first imacs: scsi/tv card and a voodoo2. I have the voodoo2 and that's a problem if I buy the processor upgrade. because then I want to run osX but there aren't drivers for the voodoo and will never be because microsystems and 3dfx are out of busines. so I couldn't profit from the carbonized games.
I really have to think about that.
mfg
Fragicula

[J.W. Pepper]

If you get this machine upgraded you might look into upgrading you optical drive to a combo. Those of us with slot loaders will just have to wait.

[Jacke]

I took some time to email Sonnet about whether or not the Mezz. slot will be used and got this reply:

"Our upgrade does not use the Mezzanine slot and we don't know if it will
work with other Mezzanine cards in place. We're still examining this issue
and if we can get those cards to work, we will. If not, our Harmoni upgrade
will ship without support for Mezz cards. We'll simply block their access.

So at this point, I don't really have an answer to your question."

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Arty50]

Originally posted by PeteL999:
<STRONG>Don't forget to take into consideration that the powerlogix card is also a 500 mhz G4. Imagine if sonnet's was a 500 mhz G4 with the firewire port. Oh man I think I'm gonna wet myself </STRONG>

Actually, they make a 500/G3, 433/G4, and 500/G4.

[Laurence]

Since I assume this replaces the processor card in the iMac, any chance it allows you to use PC100 memory as well. I know the speed would not improve over the 66MHZ memory in the current config, but you could get the 512MB DIMMS for a 1 GB iMac setup?

[Phoible]

It is rather unlikely that this replaces the memory. That would require all upgraders to purchase new memory. You can put 512 MB in the rev A - D iMacs, which should be enough for most people.

there is a picture of the card at http://www.cube-zone.com
It should be on the first page or in the archives (last week)

[slider]

I just read about this in a magazine and found this thread, it will be out soon and outpost is excepting preorders now. I am very excited about this from family members that have 333 iMac's. 500MHz, Firewire, $300. Great price, and Firewire, wow.

[knifecarrier]

Man, thats a great price. I'd get one for sure IF.... if it didnt have such a dinky L2 cache.

Too bad they didnt make it a meg of cache liek powerlogix's upgrades.

- Ca$h

[TimmyDee51]

Ca$h, check out a thread I started about this (I think it was called 466 1 MB vs. 500 256K or something like that). Anyways, I had the same concerns because I didn't want to lose performance when I added the FireWire since I have a NewerTech card in right now. The upshot of it all is that the larger, slower cache performs on par with the full-speed, smaller cache.

[slider]

Does anyone know that actual release date on this thing, I know outpost is accepting preorders.

[slider]

Found the answer, ClubMac say it ships in early November.

[Metzen]

Originally posted by Scott_H:
<STRONG>That's what I was wondering. There's no pic of the card at the site BUT there was a hand holding a Firewire plug. Maybe there's some kinda typical Firewire plug that somehow comes out the back. Can't wait for the reviews on this </STRONG>

*cough*

*cough*

Excuse me, I think I have a cold

[knifecarrier]

Hrm. Darnit. I think I am getting one. Stupid 256kb L2 cache.. I'm going to be pissed if they offer a better one in the future. &gt;

Such is life.

I'm going to preorder tonight so I can get mine before all you sucka's.

- Ca$h

[vmarks]

Originally posted by knifecarrier:
<STRONG>Hrm. Darnit. I think I am getting one. Stupid 256kb L2 cache.. I'm going to be pissed if they offer a better one in the future. &gt;

Such is life.

I'm going to preorder tonight so I can get mine before all you sucka's.

- Ca$h</STRONG>

Ca$h,

256kb l2 cache running at 500mhz is about the same performance as 1mb running at 66mhz or 100mhz. You aren't getting a raw deal on this.

The difference in cache means, Sonnet is using the IBM G3 chip instead of Motorola. That's all it means.

[Kon-El]

Thanks for those linked images! I sure hope the Mezzanine slot still works in this! Can't wait for the reviews on that once it is finally released!

[knifecarrier]

Eh... actually I didnt preorder. Thought I should wait til its almost out, then get evne lower RAM prices, since I want to nab a 256 meg chip at the same time.

And... k... why the HELL are people dumb?&gt;!?!

People are always concerned about running OSX or something on a new CPU. Um.. HELLO!?!?! A cpu is a cpu! If its basically the same thing as the original CPU, only a lot faster, how would it NOT run something? Its NOT going to affect the mezzanine slot, cuz the mezz slot is on the otherside of the mobo completley!

Anyway.

- Ca$h

[ 09-24-2001: Message edited by: knifecarrier ]

[CreepDogg]

It looks like this upgrade replaces more than just the CPU - it replaces the whole processor daughtercard, which I believe includes the system ROM. Given that there's more than the CPU at play here, and the fact that FireWire is being added (so there are some at least minor changes to the daughtercard architecture), there is some chance that the controller for the mezz could be affected. SHOULD this affect use of the mezz? No. COULD it? Possibly, but probably not.

The only probable issue is that the new faceplate shown in the picture links here doesn't have an opening for ports provided by cards connected to the mezz. On my Rev. A, there was a small plate on the faceplate that came off to give access to the ports there. This doesn't have that - it's in the spot that says 'HARMONi G3' on the plate.

Probably not a big deal - like I said before, I'll get hacksaw or something and cut the needed hole in the plate if I need to (as obviously the original plate won't have a spot for the FireWire port), but hopefully based on feedback, Sonnet addressed that.

[TimmyDee51]

I'm not sure that Sonnet can mess with the ROM simply because that's what was the original barrier because Apple has it trademarked or patented or something. The ROM is the same then. The daughtercard architecture may be different, but it still has to communicate with the rest of the system so it shouldn't be that different. Since the mezz controller is not located on the daughtercard, it should be ok at interpreting data from the daughtercard if the daughtercard's architecture can communicate with other existing hardware. I guess what I'm saying is that if the upgrade is to play nice with everything else on the system, it should also play nice with the mezz connector by simple logic.

[BaronMunchausen]

This rocks! Not only are newer Macs cool with FireWire (full six-pin not cheesy 4-pin), there are third party companies coming out with upgrades for THREE YEAR-OLD Macs to give them the same capability and better performance. Show me a PC component company that's doing that with a three year-old PC (for PCs that can also run WinXP). Geez this is cool.

[andi*pandi]

I wish I'd known about this before I gave Santa my wish list. I had hinted for a CD-RW or an external HD, but sighed that it would have to be slow USB cuz I don't have firewire... Now, here's a nifty solution!

Santa, are you out there?

Oh, Santa....

[petoria]

J.W. Pepper

look into upgrading you optical drive to a combo

I looked for one when my cd-rom died. Only one I found was a CD-RW. The tray load is not a standard sized drive.


Laurence

any chance it allows you to use PC100 memory as well

Got PC-100 in my rev D right now. PC-100 should work in and 66 MHz bus system, the RAM chip just slows down to the system bus speed. Same thing for ATA-100 HD's. My 30 gig ATA-100 works great.

[edit: my rev D is still 333 MHz]

[ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: petoria ]

[vmarks]

The cd drive in the iMac tray loadings is a laptop drive. There are reports of some people using drives from Dell machines successfully in place of the tray loading drive. Check at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com for more info on this.

[andi*pandi]

Santa got my revised list... and the harmoni is on its way! Sadly, it was backordered... until it gets here I'll just have to use my new Predator CDRW in its USB mode... and switch to firewire later!

Thanks Santa!