on 31/8/01 22:26, Andrew W. Hill at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> WHATEVER YOU DO, DO *NOT* UPGRADE YOUR CPU TO A G3!!!
>>
>> I'm echoing the comments of others I'm sure.
>
> Not mine. I think G3 upgrades are great for the 7600. I wouldn't
> recommend them for the x100 series due to problems I had, but G3s in
> the PCI Powermacs are great.
Ok, in some circumstances I could still see a place for an upgraded 601/3/4
PPC. You need (desire) speed but need (want) to maintain compatibility with
older hardware. But, unless you want to be restricted to old software (which
I don't imagine many users who wants to upgrade to the latest CPU wants)
it's a bad route to take. I still think that Apple will do a good job of
preventing 601/603/604 G3-upgraded computers from running later versions of
OS X, especially as its bread and butter is hardware sales and not so much
software sales.
Last year (July 2000) I had to decide between upgrading a 7500/100 to a
G3/450 or getting a B&W G3/450. When I factored in the $$$ I got for selling
the 7500/100 and what I had to pay to upgrade the 7500/100 with a new drive,
video, USB, Firewire and RAM and the fact that future compatibility with OS
X was tenuous at best the B&W G3 was about 50% cheaper!!! (even moreso b/c I
traded my iMac Rev A in for a substantial chunk off the sale price). Again,
if you don't want to ever run OS X I think it might be cost effective to
upgrade only the CPU (especially if you can live with the RAM and HD of the
old Mac).
>> USB & Firewire cards are often more problematic than built-in USB or
>> Firewire (e.g. Apple supposedly demands built-in Firewire for Final Cut Pro
>> 2.0)
>
> It supposedly requires it for iTunes as well, but I'm running iTunes
> happily on 8500s with 233MHz 604e's. As far as mice go, the cards
> are fine. I dropped a $16 PC USB card into Dad's beige G3. We use a
> Microsoft mouse and an Imation Superdisk on it. No worries.
At $16 get the card + a USB mouse instead of the ADB mouse :) BTW I think
the iTunes requirement is if you want to use USB CD burners with iTunes.
> The Blue G3 and the Yikes! G4 both use the same motherboard. No
> differences beyond possibly ROM. I would recommend staying away from
> the Yikes! as you pay a hefty premium for not a lot more. For
> instance, you still have the 2xPCI graphics slot and ATA/33. If
> you're going for the G4, get the Sawtooth. This way you get AGP -
> much nicer - and ATA/66.
Although, if you can get a Yikes without too much of a premium a G4/400 is
at least the equal, if not quite a bit faster than the G3/450. Also, the G4
series is nearly GUARANTEED to be able to take G4 CPU upgrades. As I
outlined before the B&W G3 can only take G4 upgrades if you apply a firmware
patch (and there's no guarantee that the accelerator co will be able to (or
want to) re-write a firmware patch if Apple ever decides to re-patch the B&W
in the future). Only one final caveat about the B&W G3s... if you happen to
get a Rev 1 (even if it's been upgraded to a G3/450) you'll still have ATA
problems while the G4s do not have that problem. People familiar with the
Yikes G4 can, I'm sure, warn of the problems with the G4.
BTW I love my B&W G3. It's cheaper than the G4s but still has as much
potential as its more expensive brethren.
> I doubt that will happen. I believe that Apple will keep the G3 chip
> in circulation for quite some time in the iMac & iBook. Its been
> shown that a consumer chip and a professional chip works well. For
> instance:
> Athlon + Duron
> PIII + Celeron
> 603 + 604
> (was there a PII + Xeon thing? I remember something like that...
> wasnt paying attention i guess)
True, but the G3 is getting pretty long in the tooth as far as technology is
concerned (it's been in mass production since 98, not to mention it's based
on the 603 chip design (the low-end chip before it)). Motorola hasn't been
working on the G3s anymore for a while & they've been focussing entirely on
the G4 and its offspring for a while now (years). Apple will have to
kick-start a new upgrade cycle for all the G3 iMacs in one or two years and
that would be one easy way to do it. (although, I guess this is entirely
speculation)
> Basically a lot of people don't need a fast CPU. I know I don't. My
> G3/450 works great for me. The RAM used to hold me back, the
> graphics and disk subsystems still do. My problem really isn't with
> the chip. Most home users don't care too much as long as it keeps up
> with the web. And it has a high MHz rating, of course.
I've had my G3/450 for a year now and I have to admit it's fast but not fast
*enough* for some CPU intensive tasks. Video (e.g. .moov & .mpeg) is a tad
choppy (not all frames play on large video), especially under OS X (20% of
that is the HD but 80% is simply b/c the CPU still doesn't have enough spare
cycles to devote to good video). 600 MHz G3 or 450 MHz G4 would fix that
last complaint of mine (of course, I don't like upgrading CPUs because it
costs more to do it properly than buy a newer machine so I think I'll have
to wait until I have the spare $$$ to sell this B&W and buy a newer G4).
L8r, Eric.
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