Best ZIF upgrade out there?

Question

Best ZIF upgrade out there?

I'm looking to upgrade an old Blue and White (i'm not sure which rev. - if anyone could help me determine this, i would appreciate it) from the stock 300MHz ZIF to a G4 or fast G3. I'm looking for comments on which processors work with fewest/no problems running os 9.2/10.3/10.4 and which may be the best value.

Thanks to all who respond

MacBook Pro 2.2GHz 15" 2GB, 120GB, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Feb 11, 2008 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 11, 2008 2:54 PM in response to rootsmaneuver

The third article on this page shows how to determine rev.1 or rev.2.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/yosemite/newfeatures.html

There are user reviews of B&W processor upgrades here, just select "Apple BW G3".
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/cpureview.lasso

The fastest G3 ZIF made was 1.1GHz.

The fastest G4 ZIF is 1GHz, but there is a catch.
G4 ZIFs rated 700MHz and higher use a different revision of G4 chip, which requires the system bus to be slowed down to 66MHz (from the original 100MHz).

G4 ZIFs rated less than 700MHz can use the full bus speed.

Also, with G4 upgrades, the firmware must be patched before the upgrade is installed. The patch utility should come with the upgrade.

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2008 12:01 AM in response to rootsmaneuver

You may want to consider upgrading to an AGP G4. For the cost of a G4 Zif, maybe even less you can get an early G4 with AGP graphics. The prices on low-mid range G4's are really good right now and can be found pretty cheap.

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Answer 3

Woehlck

Level 2

155 points

Feb 21, 2008 11:08 PM in response to rootsmaneuver

Sonnettech appears to have a 1GHz G4 ZIF card that (at least the way they word it) appears to not slow the bus down to 66MHz. If you're interested, i'd email them and ask. Either way, the L2 cache should make the loss of bus bandwidth relatively unnoticeable.

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Answer 4

Feb 22, 2008 12:33 AM in response to Woehlck

http://sonnettech.com/support/faqs/encorezif.html

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Answer 5

Thomas M

Level 4

1,150 points

May 4, 2008 4:49 PM in response to rootsmaneuver

Since, from your signature-thing there you are in possession of a Macbook Pro, I'm not going to bother you with telling you to buy a used G4 instead. Your Macbook Pro would be able to outperform it anyway.

So, I take it you are wanting to upgrade your G3 for a 'hobby' sort of reason. If you aren't intending to try to run Leopard on there, the 1.0GHz G3 (750GX) that OtherWorldComputing sells for the moment might be the best bet. It has dropped quite a bit in price since I bought one some time ago. Mind you, I believe you are stuck at 10.4.9 as Powerlogix hasn't released an updated version of their CPU Director software in some time. This software is needed to set CPU frequency to its proper setting. You don't need it but you would be stuck at startup default of 800MHz, as far as I know.

I haven't much experience with G4s, though. I went straight from my ole B&W G3 to my current Macbook. You actually have a good selection. Sonnet makes several speed G4 upgrades for the B&W. They have a nice purple heatsink too. I dont' know about their reliability or anything but Sonnect products are usually of... higher quality.

Message was edited by: Thomas M

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