Got a Yikes G4? Processor upgrades at last!

[Hemingray]

Great news! For those of us who bit the big one by rushing out and buying the first G4 400s that hit the shelves (read: YIKES!), we've been shunned for a long time when it comes to processor upgrades. The best we could get was 500MHz, a measly 100MHz faster (and even LESS if you did the 50MHz overclock).

Well, FINALLY Sonnet has come out with Encore ZIF upgrades for the B/W G3 and Yikes G4s that are actually worth looking into!

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore.html

800MHz and 1GHz processors, $350 and $500, respectively.

[EDIT: Important information below!]

 

[Hemingray]

WARNING!! Downclocks bus to 66MHz!

Well guys, the good news was premature!

Apparently the "upgrade" DOWNclocks the bus to 66MHz! I called Sonnet to confirm this. You won't find this caveat in their tech specs, either...

So it's punching up the processor at the price of the bus! That's not cool. Had to cancel my order... oh well, it was a nice thought...

 

[jMc]

I've never seen two posts run such a gamut of emotions. It's like compressing War and Peace into, um, well, two posts...

 

[Hemingray]

Originally posted by jMc
I've never seen two posts run such a gamut of emotions. It's like compressing War and Peace into, um, well, two posts...

Heheh, well, I thought about just editing the first post, but the change in tone would have been too dramatic...

Headline: Processor upgrades at last!!
Content: These suck! Don't buy them!

LOL...

 

[jMc]

I feel for you though, man. I use a Yikes! at work, but I'd rather they gave me a shiny new G5 rather than just a lousy upgrade card... maybe a blessing in disguise for me at least.

 

[seamuskrat]

But wouldn't a 66 bus with a 1 gig G4 be better than a 100 bus with a 500 G4?

Of course, its not the 100% gain I would have liked, it seems reasonable at least.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Re: WARNING!! Downclocks bus to 66MHz!

Originally posted by Hemingray
Well guys, the good news was premature!

Apparently the "upgrade" DOWNclocks the bus to 66MHz! I called Sonnet to confirm this. You won't find this caveat in their tech specs, either...

Good for you, man! Hou did you find that one out?

Good to know!

 

[Hemingray]

Originally posted by seamuskrat
But wouldn't a 66 bus with a 1 gig G4 be better than a 100 bus with a 500 G4?

Of course, its not the 100% gain I would have liked, it seems reasonable at least.

Perhaps a little, but is it really worth the $500? I don't know the technical pros and cons of bus speed vs. clock speed, but the thing I object to most is the fact that they fail to mention this in their specs. Any way you look at it, you're getting a 33% hit in whatever these processor upgrades are offering.

Originally posted by MacsRgr8
Good for you, man! Hou did you find that one out?

Good to know!

Well, I first saw a user's comment on MacNN.com about a rumor that it reduces the bus to 66MHz. They said to check out the xlr8yourmac forum, which I did. I saw more comments about it. Concerned, after having just placed an order for one, I called up Sonnet and asked them if the rumors were true. They confirmed it, so I cancelled my order. Had I not checked the MacNN comments on the news article, I would probably still be blissfully unaware until it was too late.

 

[MacsRgr8]

This is pretty serious, if you ask me.

On these (and other) forums one of the largest debates about the speed of the G4 Macs was the speed of the FSB. Many are sure that a 167 MHz FSB even "cripples" a 1 GHz G4.
So, slowing down from 100 MHz to 66 MHz should be pretty disasterous.
Sonnettech better mention the bus speed slowdown on their site, or alot of thier buyers would be pretty angry if they found out after the purchase!

 

[seamuskrat]

Here is link t the Sonnet Benchmarks:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_graphs.html

This shows SOME improvement over a G4500 at 100 bus. But its not huge if you already have a G4 500.

I would also imagine this muct creat a host of other problems because you are messing with clock multipliers and such.

I will be very curious to see how these fare in real world tests once the customers get them and use them.

On a related note, any thoughts on a recent bout of actual cursor/machine freezes on my BW? Its running 10.3.2 with a zifG4500 and 640 ram, all PC133. Rather recently it has taken to just locking up, kinda like od OS 9 days. Utilities say all is good, so I am at a loss.