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Madison · Aug 23, 2003, 12:54 PM

Hello,

I just purchased an upgrade for my Strawberry iMac. It's a 500mhz G3 card with 1mb of backside cache, since I'm running a 333mhz cpu now with 512K of backside cache, I am expecting a nice boost. Has anyone else bought one of these? I got it from Techno-Warehouse (used to be the guys from Newer Tech. I belive). It's only $150 after rebate, so I thought I couldn't go wrong, in a week or so, I'll let you know if I was right.

Tom

slider · Aug 23, 2003, 09:58 PM

Your right, for $150 you can't go wrong, I am recommending this to my sister for her iMac. Just make sure you have 512MB of ram to get the most out of it.

slider · Aug 26, 2003, 11:16 AM

Madison, did you get it yet? How is it? My sister is going to order it.

Madison · Aug 26, 2003, 09:02 PM

Slider,

I have not received it yet, I should have it in a couple days, I hope. As soon as I receive and install it, I will post here (assuming I don't destroy my iMac installing it) and let you know what I think.

Tom

Madison · Sep 1, 2003, 07:36 PM

Hello all,

Well, my upgrade card arrived on Friday, August 29th, however it was trumped by the arrival of my new son, Michael Thomas King at 3:15am on Thursday, August 28th! So, needless to say, I have had NO time to even think of installing this bad boy, but when I finally do, I will let you know how it works.

Tom

slider · Sep 2, 2003, 08:50 PM

Originally posted by Madison:
Hello all,

Well, my upgrade card arrived on Friday, August 29th, however it was trumped by the arrival of my new son, Michael Thomas King at 3:15am on Thursday, August 28th! So, needless to say, I have had NO time to even think of installing this bad boy, but when I finally do, I will let you know how it works.

Tom

Congratulations.

Madison · Sep 4, 2003, 02:41 PM

Thanks. Mother and baby are doing well one week later, now if I could only get him to sleep at night...

The new processor installed in about 10 minutes, no hassles at all. My iMac has run perfectly for a few days so far, not one hiccup. There is a definite speed increase, OS X feels faster for sure, don't know if that's real or perceived, but I definitely feel it. Boot times dropped about 30%, programs launch faster, and I'm able to play a couple games (although not well) that I couldn't play before, so all in all, for $150, well worth it.

Tom

Stradlater · Sep 4, 2003, 03:35 PM

Originally posted by Madison:
...don't know if that's real or perceived, but I definitely feel it.

and that's what counts!

oh, and congrats on the newborn!

slider · Sep 7, 2003, 12:43 AM

Alright, installed this card into my sisters 333 iMac and doubled the ram to 512MB. There is definitely an improvement over all. Her internal CDRW, which I also install, has been out for repair, which is were we also expect to see improved burning times. The biggest thing I noticed was I was not waiting for the OS and your usual programs such as email, web browsing, iPhoto, iTunes, Soap via Classic mode, Quicktime, internet explorer and so on. A general smoother feel came from the machine, of course the graphics card is the obvious hold back on these machines and there is nothing that can be done about it. I was very happy with Mac OS X performance and would recommend this upgrade to those that would like to get just a bit more out of it. For 150 bucks it's a good deal. Which reminds me, the sale was extended to the 10th of this month. I should also note that she as a 7200-rpm HD which helps with the speed. This is to hold her over until late next year, then this machine will be used solely for Word, email and web, more than adequate for the tasks.

Mr.Clicky · Sep 12, 2003, 05:25 AM

Hiya Slider, what CDRW did you drop into the 333? I'd love to drop one into my Grape but wasn't aware one was compatible. Would love to know...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by slider:
[B]Alright, installed this card into my sisters 333 iMac and doubled the ram to 512MB. There is definitely an improvement over all. Her internal CDRW, which I also install, has been out for repair, which is were we also expect to see improved burning times.

slider · Sep 12, 2003, 06:41 AM

http://www.mcetech.com/imacrw.html

Installation was not too difficult, just be patient and think about what you are doing. Technowarehouse, the people selling the upgrade card, are also bundling this same burner with the upgrade. I don't know which is the cheaper way to go, I think maybe direct from mcetech.

Mr.Clicky · Sep 12, 2003, 09:12 PM

have performed open-Mac surgery on this model and you're right it's about as tricky and knuckle-scraping as it gets. Thanks!

Originally posted by slider:
http://www.mcetech.com/imacrw.html

Installation was not too difficult, just be patient and think about what you are doing. Technowarehouse, the people selling the upgrade card, are also bundling this same burner with the upgrade. I don't know which is the cheaper way to go, I think maybe direct from mcetech.

Eriamjh · Sep 13, 2003, 12:59 PM

Are you interested in selling the old 333MHz processor? Please email or PM me if so.

slider · Sep 14, 2003, 12:29 AM

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
Are you interested in selling the old 333MHz processor? Please email or PM me if so.

To receive the $25 rebate, which brings the final cost down to $150, you need to send the processor in.