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talena · Dec 9, 2002, 11:32 AM

Hello!

I own a G4 with a Yikes! (PCI graphics) board and i want to know if I can replace this logic board with the Sawtooth AGP one. Some people told me, that this is not possible because of the power supply. But it would be much cheaper for me to change the board, than to buy a new G4 with AGP.

Thanks from Germany,
Tal.

Ron W · Dec 10, 2002, 09:55 AM

Why would you want an AGP motherboard? You can still find the Radeon Mac PCI card around. It is still far better the AGP rage Pro.

If your thinking is that you want a kick ASS AGP card, think again. Your video experience will be CPU bound anyway. You could put a geforce 4 in a Sawtooth but with a slow CPU it will not churn out the high frame rates you would expect.

I hope this makes sense.

Ron

firefly · Dec 10, 2002, 10:45 AM

However the Sawtooth board is superior in other ways. It can take up to 2GB RAM and more importantly accepts the new 1GHz CPU upgrades from Sonnet etc. rather than ZIFs where the max is around 550MHz.

Ron W · Dec 10, 2002, 06:45 PM

Originally posted by firefly:
However the Sawtooth board is superior in other ways. It can take up to 2GB RAM and more importantly accepts the new 1GHz CPU upgrades from Sonnet etc. rather than ZIFs where the max is around 550MHz.

I do agree it is superior in other ways but to what end? Think about it for a minute�. If you needed 2GB or ram for your work, you would then be a pro user. If that were the case, you would not bother with either. You would just buy a new Dual GHz.

Ron

D'Espice · Dec 11, 2002, 02:54 AM

AFAIK that is right, the power supply is not compatible and might destroy your new mainboard. However you can simply get a cheap ATX power supply and modify it a bit in order to get it to work. I've done that on saturday, a friend's Sawtooth power supply is defective so we got him a standard ATX power supply until the replacement arrives.

And don't forget that you also need to replace the microprocessor, the Yikes CPU does not fit on the Sawtooth motherboards.

gizzard · Dec 11, 2002, 03:00 AM

It works, I've done it.

talena · Dec 11, 2002, 09:22 AM

Thanks so far.

So i can use a standart ATX Power Supply in my G4? Where can i find the pin settings for the power connector. But the mounting screws for the mainboard are on the same place? I want to use the Sawtooth board, because it gives me the ability to use 2GB of Ram and the faster IDE support.

Simon

gizzard · Dec 11, 2002, 04:08 PM

Just swap motherboards, there is no need to upgrade the power supply.

talena · Dec 12, 2002, 06:22 AM

That's what i wanted to hear

Thank you!