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tkmd · Jun 22, 2002, 11:19 AM

I have wanted to get a new powerbook since I realized how slow the pismo 400 was in X. I am going to wait till DDR makes its debut in the powerbooks, which I figure wont be till this time next summer, to make that purchase. Till then Ill hold on to my pismo. The question is, has anyone and bought and recieved thier upgraded powerbooks and if so, how does OS X feel with it?

I know this kinda early (they went on sale on monday) but what the hell.

pismo 400/768/48Gb

icruise · Jun 22, 2002, 12:03 PM

I don't think anyone will have gotten their machines back by now, but you can keep an eye on xlr8yourmac.com since he is asking for people's experiences with the upgrade. I imagine something will show up there sooner or later.

nonhuman · Jun 22, 2002, 01:18 PM

I don't think I'm going to get it. I already have a Pismo 500, and it seems like kind of a waste to give up all that money for just AltiVec.

skyman · Jun 22, 2002, 01:55 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by tkmd:
I have wanted to get a new powerbook since I realized how slow the pismo 400 was in X. I am going to wait till DDR makes its debut in the powerbooks, which I figure wont be till this time next summer, to make that purchase. Till then Ill hold on to my pismo. The question is, has anyone and bought and recieved thier upgraded powerbooks and if so, how does OS X feel with it?

I know this kinda early (they went on sale on monday) but what the hell.

pismo 400/768/48Gb<hr /></blockquote>It require you to send them your PowerBook. I for one am not going to send anyone my PowerBook.

Fyre4ce · Jun 23, 2002, 08:11 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by skyman:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by tkmd:
I have wanted to get a new powerbook since I realized how slow the pismo 400 was in X. I am going to wait till DDR makes its debut in the powerbooks, which I figure wont be till this time next summer, to make that purchase. Till then Ill hold on to my pismo. The question is, has anyone and bought and recieved thier upgraded powerbooks and if so, how does OS X feel with it?

I know this kinda early (they went on sale on monday) but what the hell.

pismo 400/768/48Gb<hr /></blockquote>It require you to send them your PowerBook. I for one am not going to send anyone my PowerBook.<hr /></blockquote>I would take out my hard drive and put the system install CD in the drive. I don't think there are any drivers the would have to install. But they aren't getting access to my files.

NY152 · Jun 23, 2002, 09:10 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by tkmd:
I have wanted to get a new powerbook since I realized how slow the pismo 400 was in X. I am going to wait till DDR makes its debut in the powerbooks, which I figure wont be till this time next summer, to make that purchase. Till then Ill hold on to my pismo. The question is, has anyone and bought and recieved thier upgraded powerbooks and if so, how does OS X feel with it?

I know this kinda early (they went on sale on monday) but what the hell.

pismo 400/768/48Gb<hr /></blockquote>A little off topic...

I am as well looking at purchasing a new PowerBook sometime over the next twelve months. I am waiting for the processor to hit 1 GHz. But seeing your post I am wondering if you can explain the benefits of DDR ram? Thanks for your help. By the way do you think the 1 Gig will hit us by January?

skyman · Jun 23, 2002, 11:54 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by NY152:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by tkmd:
I have wanted to get a new powerbook since I realized how slow the pismo 400 was in X. I am going to wait till DDR makes its debut in the powerbooks, which I figure wont be till this time next summer, to make that purchase. Till then Ill hold on to my pismo. The question is, has anyone and bought and recieved thier upgraded powerbooks and if so, how does OS X feel with it?

I know this kinda early (they went on sale on monday) but what the hell.

pismo 400/768/48Gb<hr /></blockquote>A little off topic...

I am as well looking at purchasing a new PowerBook sometime over the next twelve months. I am waiting for the processor to hit 1 GHz. But seeing your post I am wondering if you can explain the benefits of DDR ram? Thanks for your help. By the way do you think the 1 Gig will hit us by January?<hr /></blockquote>DDR RAM is much FASTER.

vmarks · Jun 23, 2002, 02:40 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />DDR RAM is much FASTER.<hr /></blockquote>which is why it's an acronym for Double-Data Rate.

BigMark · Jun 23, 2002, 07:23 PM

No way I'm letting my Pismo out of my sight. Besides OS X runs great on it as it is (G3/500). X even runs well on my brothers 333MHz Lombard.

Moderator · Jun 24, 2002, 09:28 AM

I'll be pulling out my 20 GB HD and putting the old stock 10 back in..with a basic install.

I agree..I don't want anyone poking around my HD.

retep · Jun 24, 2002, 10:38 AM

I nearly ordered the upgrade for my Pismo 400MHz 1Gig RAM the first day it became available but managed to control myself . Just as well I did because my DVD drive crapped out on me the next day. A replacement drive would have cost around $200 - my budget for the upgrade.

In the end I bought a second hand Ti400 256Mb RAMfor $1000 and plan to sell my Pismo. Although I would have loved to have kept the Pismo and upgraded it, I figured that I should spend the money to get a G4 with a larger screen and a larger HD.

Now that I have the Ti, I've been surprises at how fast and (that dreaded word) "snappy" OS X is. Definitely an improvement over the G3 400 even though it had more RAM.

Anyway, I say go for the upgrade if you love the Pismo, you'll definitey see an improvement in OS X. But don't forget, you also have other options. I expect second hand TiBook prices will drop again after MWNY.

Moderator · Jun 24, 2002, 07:24 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by retep:

Anyway, I say go for the upgrade if you love the Pismo, you'll definitey see an improvement in OS X. But don't forget, you also have other options. I expect second hand TiBook prices will drop again after MWNY.<hr /></blockquote>Awe man...now you have me second guessing myself..

If one can buy a used Ti 500 for say...$1200...and sell one's Pismo for say...$600...that's still a good deal more than the $300 upgrade..

you do get the sexy form factor and mega wide screen...but then again you get the scratches too..

..who knows

J��n · Jun 24, 2002, 09:05 PM

If the dear devils send in there results of the upgrade and there Pismo's are still running fine, I go for it.

Next summer my Pismo 400 will be 2 1/2 years old and ready to replace for daily use! My Pismo will then be used as my Juke box!

J��n

PerfectlyNormalBeast · Jun 24, 2002, 11:57 PM

I got the box in the mail today from Powerlogix. The packing material they supply is just a little bit of bubble wrap. I'm going to have to use a lot more than that. I've spent some time backing up my hd onto my pc and removing work-related files. I was one of the first to order and I probably won't get it back until the end of next week. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Don Pickett · Jun 25, 2002, 12:53 AM

If they up the processor speeds, I will do it. ~$400 to ~$500 for an 800 MHz G4? I'll do that.

tkmd · Jun 27, 2002, 06:31 PM

Perfectly normal beast- I'm glad - please tell us about it when you get your Pismo back. I hope there will be a noticable differance in speed in X.

Fyre4ce · Jul 1, 2002, 01:48 PM

So far only one taker? That's mildly discouraging. I'm waiting for reports before I do it.

Moderator · Jul 1, 2002, 05:52 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Fyre4ce:
So far only one taker? That's mildly discouraging. I'm waiting for reports before I do it.<hr /></blockquote>I'm with you...there will be a cascading effect I'm sure,

milhous · Jul 1, 2002, 06:59 PM

For Pismo 500 users such as myself, the G4 upgrade at the present clock speed of 500mhz is just not worth it at all. However if they had a 1000mhz G3 ready to go for that price, I'd take it in a heartbeat.

On a different note, I wonder how much GUI performance we'll see in Jaguar. Of course we can't be expecting much since our Pismos don't meet spec, but I hope we'll be able to at least "see" an improvement of some sort.

seanyepez · Jul 1, 2002, 10:19 PM

I will have my review unit (on behalf of MacNN Reviews) by next week. Our review will be out no later than next Friday. I'll let you know how things go! It will include benchmarks against 400- and 500-megahertz G3's in Photoshop, UNIX compiles, OS X/OS 9 performance, temperature, etcetera.

[ 07-01-2002, 10:21 PM: Message edited by: seanyepez ]

PeteWK · Jul 3, 2002, 03:22 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by seanyepez:
I will have my review unit (on behalf of MacNN Reviews) by next week. Our review will be out no later than next Friday. I'll let you know how things go! It will include benchmarks against 400- and 500-megahertz G3's in Photoshop, UNIX compiles, OS X/OS 9 performance, temperature, etcetera.

<hr /></blockquote>Glad to hear it. I'll be springing for an upgrade later this month. I'm just wondering what the strong points of each company are before I commit. I've purchased stuff from Newer before with excellent results, but then this is a new Newer.

PeteWK

seanyepez · Jul 3, 2002, 03:32 AM

I forgot to mention that I'm going to be getting the Powerlogix upgrade. Personally, I feel more comfortable dealing with Powerlogix. Newer Technology has been dead until just recently. <img border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" title="" src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" />

PerfectlyNormalBeast · Jul 3, 2002, 11:02 AM

Newer doesn't even have a proper website.

Still, I couldn't be less informed about what's going on with my Powerbook. Since I sent it in last Tuesday to PowerLogix, I haven't recieved any kind of email heads up about my machine. I guess it will just come with the fedex guy one day soon. Some kind of order tracking would be nice.

PerfectlyNormalBeast · Jul 3, 2002, 01:05 PM

It came today. It works flawlessly. I've had it for about an hour and have no problems whatsoever. It was much more carefully shipped back to me too.

I have little time for a review. I'll try to post something tomorrow night. Initally unstuffing was much faster. Transparent things seems faster and such. It might seem a bit peppier in general too. I'll let you know about more soon.

James Thomson · Jul 3, 2002, 07:05 PM

Hi,

Nice to hear that your G4500 Pizmo arrived safely ! I would like to get the upgrade also but my main worry is extra heat. does the fan come on now? Do you notice a difference with heat and increased fan activity? I really look forward to a full report ! Thanks

seanyepez · Jul 3, 2002, 07:49 PM

You'll have exactly that late next week.

tkmd · Jul 4, 2002, 12:02 PM

OK PNB, talk to us - Im dying, tell me what you think, your 2 sentences concerning the upgrade did not suffice my curiousity. Seanyepez, wont have his results until next week- I cant wait that long...

J��n · Jul 4, 2002, 03:51 PM

Come on guys where are the benchmarks, can't wait anymore...!

Give us something for the weekend....

J��n.

seanyepez · Jul 4, 2002, 07:37 PM

My results will be well worth the wait. I'm going to be comparing performance between a 500-megahertz TiBook, 400- and 500-megahertz G3's, and the Pismo with the G4 CPU.

tkmd · Jul 4, 2002, 08:08 PM

C'mon seaneypez, you've given me some good suggestions in the past- so I know that you know your stuff. So c'mon give me at least a thumbs up or down- for a guy stuck inside studying for boards- when I should be at a BBQ drinking beer instead.

are we talking big speed improvements here or what?

I have no patience.

icruise · Jul 4, 2002, 08:15 PM

I don't think he even has his upgraded 'book back from them yet, so it is a little tricky to give his opinion. Personally I imagine that there will be a small but welcome speed increase, but nothing to blow your socks off. I've used the Tibook 500 and didn't find it to be THAT much faster than the pismo 400 (although some altivec enhanced things would be significantly improved). Still, this upgrade is cheap enough (I thought it would be a lot more expensive, since other upgrades have started out in the $600-$700 range before dropping) that it should be well worth it for those who want to get a little more life out of their pismos. I am considering it, but I don't have the money at the moment so it will have to wait a bit.

PerfectlyNormalBeast · Jul 5, 2002, 12:17 PM

I may not have time to write a longer report today. I'm swamped at work. I can try to answer specific questions, but I haven't been using it all that much yet, and i didn't really take any benchmarks when it was a g3 400, so this is almost entirely subjective.

So far the fan came on once, when I was using the machine in my attic in nearly 100 degree swealter, and it was sunk into a pillow, so it's hard to tell. It's cooler today and I should be using it more, so I'll let you know if that's a problem. So far though, it doesn't seem to be much hotter.

The only benchmark I have is iTunes encoding. It went from 2.7 to 3.7 to usually somewhere in the sixes. This is a huge jump.

Compiling code is also quite a bit faster it seems, which is the main reason I wanted the upgrade, so I'm happy.

As I use it more, I'll try to let you know more that I notice. If you'd like me to try something specific that doesn't take forever to do, I'll try to accomidate.

I'm pretty happy with it so far.

seanyepez · Jul 5, 2002, 04:19 PM

You're only making me more anxious to get my CPU back from Powerlogix. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

PerfectlyNormalBeast · Jul 8, 2002, 01:16 AM

Well, it's been a few days in cooler weather and the fan hasn't come on once. I don't think the cpu much hotter than it used to be. I notice it being faster, but it won't blow you away in non-altivec stuff. It seems like I'm waiting a little less time for stupid UI stuff like menus and dialogs and sheets, so that's nice.

I still wish sheets came down faster. It would be so nice. Project builder and Mozilla use them a lot, which is good, but I end up waiting for them, which is bad. I really hate it when one sheet has to fold up, only to have another fold down. This happens in Mozilla when you're in the mail prefs box and you want to add another account. It bugs me.

rjc3 · Jul 8, 2002, 06:36 PM

jeez...doesn't anyone do benchmarks anymore? fan stories are fascinating, but where are the data? let's see some numbers!

PerfectlyNormalBeast · Jul 8, 2002, 11:18 PM

Well, I never took any before I upgraded. Would you like me to try something now?

ARK · Jul 9, 2002, 12:54 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by PerfectlyNormalBeast:
Well, I never took any before I upgraded. Would you like me to try something now?<hr /></blockquote>Yes, tell us something.. would you do it again?.. was it worth it? hows the machine running? Any performance tests?

Come on peeps.. fill us in on the info of how its working.

Wheres the guy that was supposed to get his back and do some tests on them??

Im interested in buying this upgrade but I want to see if people are happy with it.

J��n · Jul 10, 2002, 12:09 AM

xlr8yourmac does have a couple of reviews, no benchmarks yet.

<a href="http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso?-search" target="_blank">http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso?-search</a>

seanyepez · Jul 10, 2002, 12:11 AM

I'm here. Powerlogix hasn't shipped me the container to ship them my PowerBook in.

I might have to call them up tomorrow and ask where it is.

PerfectlyNormalBeast · Jul 10, 2002, 02:18 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ARK:
Yes, tell us something.. would you do it again?.. was it worth it? hows the machine running? Any performance tests?<hr /></blockquote>Well, I would do it again, yes. The machine is running very well.

I don't have any more performance data than I did before. Ballbark/guestimate? It's between 10% and 40% faster, depending on what you're doing. Media stuff like iTunes encoding has the biggest gains.

It was worth it for me, but I can't vouch for everyone. Anything that makes the machine compile a little faster is worth it for me. There have been ZERO adverse side effects though.

ARK · Jul 10, 2002, 12:10 PM

BAREFEATS TESTS NEWER TECH 500MHZ G4 Pismo!!!

<a href="http://www.barefeats.com/pb09.html" target="_blank">http://www.barefeats.com/pb09.html</a>

[APi]TheMan · Jul 10, 2002, 05:51 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ARK:
BAREFEATS TESTS NEWER TECH 500MHZ G4 Pismo!!!

<a href="http://www.barefeats.com/pb09.html" target="_blank">http://www.barefeats.com/pb09.html</a><hr /></blockquote>"a no-brainer" says barefeats.. hehee

[APi]TheMan · Jul 10, 2002, 11:30 PM

I'm seriously considering getting this upgrade now... I don't see Pismos listed as compatable on the page, though...

<a href="http://www.powerlogix.com/products/bluechip4.html" target="_blank">http://www.powerlogix.com/products/bluechip4.html</a>

seanyepez · Jul 11, 2002, 12:07 AM

My PowerLogix box came today. I'm sending the machine off for upgrade.

JediMac · Jul 11, 2002, 09:44 PM

I know seans review will be worth the wait. Until then I have a question. I have a pismo 400 rev2 and it gets hot as heck. On the bottom around where the Apple logo is. I havent had the fan come on yet. I have 192MB of ram and it runs in X fine. However the heat is uncomfortable when its in my lap. Any suggestions, comments ?

Thanks

[APi]TheMan · Jul 12, 2002, 03:52 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by JediMac:
I know seans review will be worth the wait. Until then I have a question. I have a pismo 400 rev2 and it gets hot as heck. On the bottom around where the Apple logo is. I havent had the fan come on yet. I have 192MB of ram and it runs in X fine. However the heat is uncomfortable when its in my lap. Any suggestions, comments ?

Thanks<hr /></blockquote>I have no suggestion... but I know what you mean. I have my Pismo elevated about 1" (via two CD cases stacked on each side of the case to prop it up)... the heat seems to have cracked the desk my laptop resides... doh. Mom doesn't know... yet... hehee.

seanyepez · Jul 12, 2002, 02:01 PM

With the proximity of Macworld, the review isn't going to happen until I get back. I have to send in a working computer to PowerLogix, and since I wasn't able to get my DVI PowerBook in time, the Pismo can't go to PowerLogix until I get back. I might be able to send another Pismo to PowerLogix, but I still won't be able to do the revew in time.

I just recently received the box from PowerLogix to send a computer back to them.

[APi]TheMan · Jul 13, 2002, 04:52 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by seanyepez:
With the proximity of Macworld, the review isn't going to happen until I get back.<hr /></blockquote>Get back from... Macworld?

Oh well.

seanyepez · Jul 13, 2002, 05:07 AM

<a href="http://reviews.macnn.com/review.php?id=17" target="_blank">http://reviews.macnn.com/review.php?id=17</a>

That's a reader review of the Newer G4 upgrade. Hope it helps.

tkmd · Jul 13, 2002, 08:53 AM

I read the review and it left me, well, about, were I am now- not any better off at making a descion. What kind of benchmark is this guy using? Graphics jumped 158%???? There has been no GPU upgrade. I question this "benchmark" not in its assertion that the Newer Pismo will be faster but in its quantifing its speed inprovment.

BTW, I read in a review i at XLR8yourmac that if you send in a 400, the 1Mb cache on the upgrade runs at 166mhz while people who send in 500 Mhz units run the same cache at 200Mhz. Can anyone explain this to me ? Isn't this a completely new chip?