I have posted in various threads about Apple/ATI's odd choice of 3870.
The blue, single slot version they went with uses a small fan that has to really ramp up at times. It only uses two wires, limiting the amount of speed control. It is the less desirable 3870 in PC world.
The red dual slot units use a four wire fan with a much larger impeller.....allowing for significantly quieter and more efficient operation.
When the OWC OEM 3870s got sold off, they were larger dual-slot units like the red ones. (but in lovely Battleship Grey)
I have always felt the Mac version SHOULD have been the red one.
Last night I was reading through the OFFICIAL RETAIL MANUAL for Mac 3870, the one that ships on the disk in the Mac 3870 Box.........imagine my surprise to find out that the red card was the one WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET !!! Pic is right from manual, no Photoshop slight of hand. A cooler JUST like the 4870.....the one we should have had all along.
When they wrote the manual, they were using a red one.....the switch to the cheaper, coarser single slot blue card came later on.
So who chose the give us the small, loud one?
The only plus to it being that you could pack 4 of them in, I guess. (To re-enact the Second Movement of the MDD "Wind Tunnel Symphony", perhaps?)
I'm gonna guess......
The blue, single slot version they went with uses a small fan that has to really ramp up at times. It only uses two wires, limiting the amount of speed control. It is the less desirable 3870 in PC world.
The red dual slot units use a four wire fan with a much larger impeller.....allowing for significantly quieter and more efficient operation.
When the OWC OEM 3870s got sold off, they were larger dual-slot units like the red ones. (but in lovely Battleship Grey)
I have always felt the Mac version SHOULD have been the red one.
Last night I was reading through the OFFICIAL RETAIL MANUAL for Mac 3870, the one that ships on the disk in the Mac 3870 Box.........imagine my surprise to find out that the red card was the one WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET !!! Pic is right from manual, no Photoshop slight of hand. A cooler JUST like the 4870.....the one we should have had all along.
When they wrote the manual, they were using a red one.....the switch to the cheaper, coarser single slot blue card came later on.
So who chose the give us the small, loud one?
The only plus to it being that you could pack 4 of them in, I guess. (To re-enact the Second Movement of the MDD "Wind Tunnel Symphony", perhaps?)
I'm gonna guess......
