How to upgrade processor or increase processor speed for an eMac 700 MHz

Hi JamboSassa

The processor in eMacs and most Apples generally are soldered to the logic board and are not upgradable. To change anything you would have to change the logic board and that would mean it would be easier to buy a faster eMac like a 1.42GHZ. And then that leads to thinking about buying other kinds of Macs and that's a completely different path to what you intend.

So, unfortunately there nothing much you can do about the speed of the CPU.

regards roam

Hi,

I have an eMac too, so I was also interested in more speed.
In general it is possible to remove the CPU from the logicboard. The only problem is, that it has been fixed.
You need to remove it with some special tools (expensive) and put on a new G4 (not cheap as well).
The much easier way is overclocking.
Try this link: http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/eMac/eMac-upgrade.html
But be careful, playing with your Mac is dangerous and may cause damage to your CPU and/or other components.
The only safe way is to get a new eMac or better try to get a higher clocked iMac. Replacing the board with a new one is not a bad idea, but also a 1.42Ghz eMac is a little bit slow today.

Regards, Bernd

Hi Bernd

Yes I am aware of that hardware hack but would not recommend it to JamboSassa or anyone else who wrote into these boards because
- this site is hosted by Apple and is concerned about technical solutions within the bounds of existing hardware.
- that such a hack would require specialist skills.
- and that I would not want to be blamed for suggesting an action that could destroy someone's computer.

Furthermore, we are talking eMacs here, not multimillion dollar fighter planes. There is a point where the time and effort and risk required to alter something would exceed the material value of the computer.

I agree with you that the only safe way is to get another eMac but a 1.42 GHz is I think quite fast.

Remember back in the 90's when software was constantly pushing hardware. In the mid 90's I was playing SimCity 2000 on a 33MHz PC with 2 MB RAM.
By early this decade, I think hardware won the competition. For since the last 5 years or so all computers are 1GHz or more and are now adequate for any software demands required of them in the home computer field. No more do we have to keep getting faster computers except if you want to do heavy Digital Video creation and editing then 2GHz may be better.

The other factor beyond raw CPU speed is the RAM and BUS speed. This machine of mine is 1GHz but only 133MHz BUS. The later 1.25 and 1.42 GHz eMacs have 333 MHz BUSes which is considerable faster data transfer plus they have faster RAM to match.

Finally if one's machine feels slow, the first thing to examine would be the software environment. If a hard drive is too full or if there are too many applications loaded at startup that could also bog down the speed, of any computer in general.

Thank you for posting.

regards roam

My 700 emac runs at 1300 mhz and has from the second month I owned it. I never made any modifications to the stock cooling. This mod cost me nothing.
It has a 300 GB internal drive and a 300 Gb external/internal drive. In other words, everything in that Bodnar link worked. I have no special training in hardware mods. When I was a kid I used to play with my dad's soldering gun by melting all his solder wire. It was just that easy. Look at it this way, most Macs that have cpu upgrade cards cost 200-300 bucks, if not more, just for the cards. So if you screw up and skewer the soldering through the logic board you can probably buy a faster Emac on Ebay for the same money. What do you have to lose? If it works, it costs you nothing.

Good for you, but I still stand by what I said, that Apple Discussions is not the place to give advice about hacking hardware. So you have experience with a soldering iron since a kid. Not everyone has that technical experience, and it would be beneficial for you to realize not everyone is as competent as you. For some people, upgrading their RAM is technically beyond them.
These Discussions boards are largely visited by novices who seek basic and sound advice and that, in the main, is what is provided by those experienced enough to offer such.

regards roam