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Eriamjh · Jul 8, 2005, 01:54 PM

http://daystartechnology.com/Daystar...elopment1.html

Apparantly they think that this is worth it. You have to send in either the whole system or at least the mobo. The G4 design is cool.

My wife has the 20" 1.25GHz model. I'd love to be able to put a 1.5-1.8GHz chip in it eventually. I wonder why is says it is for the 700 & 800MHz models and not the 1GHz or faster models?

Anand · Jul 8, 2005, 02:33 PM

Yes, I have a original 800 Mhz and would upgrade it if the money was right. A 1.5 G4 with 1 MB cache would be quite nice. Even better if they could add a new GPU.

Eriamjh · Jul 8, 2005, 04:22 PM

I doubt there will ever be a GPU upgrade, but a jump to 1.35GHz would be sweet.

CreepDogg · Jul 8, 2005, 11:54 PM

Since it's a mobo upgrade, I wonder if it will include USB 2.0. I'd consider an upgrade if it did. That's my only frustration with my 1GHz G4 is USB 1.1. I'm really sick of slow keychain drive transfers...

Eriamjh · Jul 9, 2005, 01:05 AM

It's not a mobo upgrade. They remove the 700/800MHz G4 on the mobo and replace it with a pin-for-pin compatible version on the same mobo. No USB upgrade. No GPU upgrade. Etc. It's just like the pismo G4 upgrades.

Anand · Jul 29, 2005, 10:34 AM

The price is out. $594 for a 1.35 chip with 512 kb level 2 cache.

Is it worth it? $500 would have been high but acceptable to me. This seems like a lot.

I wonder if that price includes shipping?

Helmling · Jul 30, 2005, 02:46 PM

I eagerly await word from the first people who try this. I love my "soccer-ball Mac" but it is getting on in years and the speed is just not cutting it for certain applications, such as iPhoto running my 1300 image photo library.

rwhiffen · Aug 2, 2005, 11:34 AM

I agree. With a 1.25Ghz mini coming in at $499 - with faster DRAM, better video (same VRAM amount though) and 17" LCD's being $150 it's hard to swallow the upgrade cost. The only advantage I see is that the mini has a 2.5" HD which is slower than the stock iMac G4 drive. Since I put the new 16Mb cache drive and DVD+-RW drive in my iMac I've been eagerly awaiting this upgrade. But the cost is $200 too high for me. (dont' forget you have to pay shipping both ways $35x2 and if you don't have the box (like me) it's another $20. So in my case, it's $684.

The 15" screen is getting a little cramped anyway. I guess it's time to give up my beloved 15"-800Mhz box.

Cheers,
Rich

Originally Posted by Anand

The price is out. $594 for a 1.35 chip with 512 kb level 2 cache.

Is it worth it? $500 would have been high but acceptable to me. This seems like a lot.

I wonder if that price includes shipping?

Anand · Aug 17, 2005, 08:42 AM

Well, now it is $548 with free shipping. I may consider it but am too busy to do it before Sept 15. If they drop the price again I will do it.

rwhiffen · Aug 26, 2005, 10:36 AM

Sweet! Free shipping. That's good to know. The straight up $548 price tag makes it much more interesting to me. I'll have to start saving my pennies.

yikes600 · Aug 26, 2005, 11:38 AM

Interestingly enough, this upgrade uses a 7457 upgrade without a L3 cache which is very uncommon. Upgrades missing the L3 are significantly cheaper and weak in performance compared to the same with a L3. Keep in mind this is different the newer 7447 chips clocked at 1.6-2.0GHz seen in other upgrades which don't support a L3. I'd like to know the reason for the missing L3... I suspect it's to cut cost, but that doesn't seem to be reflected in the $548 price tag.

Link · Aug 26, 2005, 11:58 AM

yikes600, I'd guess that a good chunk of the cost is covered in the equipment they need to install these suckers. Desoldering a processor off a board to solder a new one on is rather expensive since it can't really be done by hand.

Eriamjh · Aug 26, 2005, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by yikes600

Keep in mind this is different the newer 7447 chips clocked at 1.6-2.0GHz seen in other upgrades which don't support a L3. I'd like to know the reason for the missing L3... I suspect it's to cut cost, but that doesn't seem to be reflected in the $548 price tag.

It's because the chip itself is not designed to support L3. Blame Freescale for that.

The cost is high because they have to pay a tech to desolder the old CPU and resolder in the new one. Assuming this is done in about 1 hour, figure that's $100 retail alone.

That, and G4s are still fairly expensive even at 1000 piece quantities. These aren't $80 Celeron chips.

Anand · Oct 6, 2005, 05:07 PM

Sorry to drag this thread back from the depths, but has anybody done this? I have looked at XL8yourmac and no one has listed an upgrade to an iMac G4.

Footy · Oct 6, 2005, 05:31 PM

Edit: wrong forum... sorry

rwhiffen · Oct 18, 2005, 10:37 AM

And lower still!
http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/10/...ade.price.drop

Now it's $450 for the 700/800 mhz... but they've dropped the free shipping.

It says:

US Ground FREE [ADD $20.00]

That's the most expensive "FREE" shipping I've ever seen.

Cheers,
Rich

rwhiffen · Oct 18, 2005, 10:46 AM

whoops... double post... gave me a SQL connect error last time, but went anyway....

dru · Oct 19, 2005, 11:33 PM

Has anyone done this? I haven't seen any independent benchmarks. I'm curious to see if it does anything really worthwhile at all.