Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

im_to_hyper

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 25, 2004
1,378
397
Pasadena, California, USA
Hey everyone,

A few years back, I picked up a reflow station with plans to upgrade my dual MDD to 1.8GHz 7448 CPUs (possibly 2GHz?), inspired by the webernet then discovered Macrumors' very own DosDude1. Fast forward three years, and now I’m looking to upgrade my Wallstreet PowerBook G3.

I’ve come across 1GHz G3 750 CPUs for around $8, and 1.6GHz G4 7447 CPUs for about $10. I’m wondering if it’s worth going for the G4 7447, or should I stick with the G3 for this upgrade? (7448 would be overkill; even though that cache tho...)

Also, does anyone know of a service that still offers custom mail-in CPU upgrades for these old machines: even if it is "just" individuals?

Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
 

Raging Dufus

macrumors 6502a
Aug 2, 2018
632
1,168
Kansas USA
Really stretching the grey matter here, but IIRC the higher-spec'd G3's were never offered as an upgrade for the Wallstreet. Time for a history lesson - please note most of the links I post below are obsolete and come from the Wayback Machine.

There was for a brief time a 900 MHz G3 upgrade for the Pismo PB (more about that here). I think it's pin-compatible with the Wallstreet; if I'm right about that, I don't know why you wouldn't be able to put one of those, or a 1 GHz, onto a Wallstreet's processor daughtercard. The key takeaway from that sentence should be "I don't know" because I don't, I'm simply speculating. The fastest I was ever aware of for the Wallstreet was a 500 MHz G3.

I'm a bit more sure you won't be able to put a G4/7447 in a Wallstreet, because no processor upgrade manufacturer ever offered such a thing. All that was offered was the 7400 or 7410, maxing out at ~ 500 MHz, because those were pin-compatible with the G3 daughtercards of the Wallstreet/Lombard/Pismo. Here's an example. Here's another one (for the Pismo). And, pin compatibility is not the only problem: there's no firmware update available to allow anything later than the 7410 to work in a Wallstreet, because no manufacturer ever offered one. I'm not saying it's impossible, just AFAIK it's never been done.

If I were you, and had your equipment and what I presume is a matching skillset, I'd grab the fastest G3 I could get and give that a try. Might want to see if you can get hold of a few spare Wallstreets - or at least their processor daughtercards - before you try it though. Would be a shame to trash a running Wallstreet on an experiment!
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer

swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,253
1,831
Michigan
Really stretching the grey matter here, but IIRC the higher-spec'd G3's were never offered as an upgrade for the Wallstreet. Time for a history lesson - please note most of the links I post below are obsolete and come from the Wayback Machine.

There was for a brief time a 900 MHz G3 upgrade for the Pismo PB (more about that here). I think it's pin-compatible with the Wallstreet; if I'm right about that, I don't know why you wouldn't be able to put one of those, or a 1 GHz, onto a Wallstreet's processor daughtercard. The key takeaway from that sentence should be "I don't know" because I don't, I'm simply speculating. The fastest I was ever aware of for the Wallstreet was a 500 MHz G3.

I'm a bit more sure you won't be able to put a G4/7447 in a Wallstreet, because no processor upgrade manufacturer ever offered such a thing. All that was offered was the 7400 or 7410, maxing out at ~ 500 MHz, because those were pin-compatible with the G3 daughtercards of the Wallstreet/Lombard/Pismo. Here's an example. Here's another one (for the Pismo). And, pin compatibility is not the only problem: there's no firmware update available to allow anything later than the 7410 to work in a Wallstreet, because no manufacturer ever offered one. I'm not saying it's impossible, just AFAIK it's never been done.

If I were you, and had your equipment and what I presume is a matching skillset, I'd grab the fastest G3 I could get and give that a try. Might want to see if you can get hold of a few spare Wallstreets - or at least their processor daughtercards - before you try it though. Would be a shame to trash a running Wallstreet on an experiment!

There was a 500mhz G4 for the Wallstreet. I think Sean (Action Retro) tested one in one of his videos but couldn't get it to run stable at all.

Yep he did. Found the video here.

EDIT- Sean (I forget your user name here), if you're reading this, might I suggest you try the CPU upgrade again, except use a spinner drive. SSDs in a Wallstreet are either incredibly unstable or don't work at all.
 
Last edited:

mode11

macrumors 65816
Jul 14, 2015
1,402
1,096
London
I've got a 550MHz G4 in a Pismo. Was a fairly common upgrade and works wonderfully. Not sure what the internal differences are with the Wallstreet.
 

micahgartman

macrumors regular
Feb 22, 2005
242
322
Houston, TX, USA
I have no idea if this is helpful but here are pics of the Sonnet Crescendo G3/500MHz in my Wallstreet:

IMG_8771.jpeg


IMG_8773.jpeg
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.