Upgrading the CPU on an 800Mhz Quicksilver (2002)

[weckart]

I can salvage a dual 1Ghz processor from a faulty QS for not too much. Would the upgrade be worth the effort or is it a case of diminishing returns? I would mainly be using OS9 with a bit of Tiger on this box.

I am assuming that the logic board on both is identical and that the DP cpu daughterboard would simply slot in the same place the 800Mhz cpu sat. I am also assuming the fan noise would not increase appreciably. That is plenty loud enough already.

 

[bunnspecial]

I recently did this exact upgrade and had no issues, other than the fact that my QS doesn't recognize the L3 Cache that's present on the Dual 1GHz but not on the 800ghz.

I can say that it made a HUGE improvement in Tiger. One of my main uses for this particular computer is for scanning film, using a 3rd party software package called VueScan. Scanning medium format(6cmx6cm) film at 3200dpi gives a JPEG of around 20mb. The scan software does some post processing on this(combining multiple scan passes, etc) and with the 800mhz processor it typically took 10-15 minutes to process one of these files. Going to dual 1ghz nearly cut this time in half-to around 6-8 minutes.

When doing a couple hundred of these(or even a couple dozen), that time difference is huge.

As far as OS9, I haven't seen a huge improvement. With that said, mine was pretty fast in OS9 anyway, and I don't do anything very processor intensive under OS9.

The dual 1ghz daughtercard will drop right into place. Just be sure you get the dual processor heatsink also and transplant it.

 

[weckart]

Noise-wise did you notice much difference? The fan would be the same in both cases. I am just wondering if the logic board would make it spin faster and more noisily to make up for the additional heat generated from the second cpu.

Odd about the L3 cache. I suppose I could transplant the board from the second box if it isn't faulty but that looks like a lot of work for not necessarily that much benefit.

 

[bunnspecial]

Actually, I think it's quieter after the upgrade, but that's likely due to the fact that I took the chance to clean out 10+ years of accumulated dust and other gunk from the CPU fan, heatsink, and other areas around there. I also repasted the CPU(as I always do any time I break the heatsink/CPU bond). Both of those combined, as I said I think it's both running cooler and quieter.

I can't make a direct comparison between a "clean" 800mhz and "clean" dual 1ghz, as I had the upgrade planned when I bough the Quicksilver and thus put off the normal maintenance I would do until I had all of the various bits and pieces on hand to do the upgrade.

 

[weckart]

Thanks for the info. I suppose for £15 it might be worth a punt given that heat sinks alone go for that on eBay.

[EDIT] Googling around about the L3 issue suggests that you might have a 2001 Quicksilver. That one has a ROM that supposedly does not recognise L3 cache and an ATA controller that balks at large HDDs over 128GBs.

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks for the info. I suppose for £15 it might be worth a punt given that heat sinks alone go for that on eBay.

[EDIT] Googling around about the L3 issue suggests that you might have a 2001 Quicksilver. That one has a ROM that supposedly does not recognise L3 cache and an ATA controller that balks at large HDDs over 128GBs.

Mine is a 2002QS(the only version to my knowledge which came stock with a single 800mhz processor) and had no trouble with a 200gb IDE disk when I installed it.

I asked about the L3 cache issue on here, and some folks seemed to think that at least on the 2002 models, the L3 is locked out unless the computer originally shipped with a processor with L3. The other potential idea was that the L3 on my processor is simply bad, which happens occasionally.

In any case, here's some recent discussion on the issue

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1752120/

 

[weckart]

Thanks for that. I do have some options if the L3 does not show up. Will see when I pick the machine up. The cpu on it might very well be fried, anyway.

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks for that. I do have some options if the L3 does not show up. Will see when I pick the machine up. The cpu on it might very well be fried, anyway.

If nothing else, the DP heatsinks are worth a not insignificant amount of money...$30-50 on Ebay from what I've seen.

 

[weckart]

Well, I picked up the QS today. It looks in decent nick, a bit grubby on the lower handles, one or two scuffs on the side panels and quite dusty inside but nothing broken. The seller removed all the RAM and HDs and left all the screws, disks, cables and cages rattling around loose inside. Not too smart but he was selling it as DOA.

It chimed and booted first time. The Graphics card was a GeForce 4Ti 4600 DVI/ADC, which was nice but faulty giving a grey striped image from the VGA port and squawking quite alarmingly from its fan. I threw in a spare Radeon 7500 instead and ran AHT 1.2.6. It passed with flying colours including recognising the L3 cash on the dual cpu card. I would transfer the cpu over to my other QS but am a little worried now in case I lose the cache en route.

There is even a Zip drive in the second optical bay for a real nostalgic rush. Too bad I threw away my Zip disks a few months back.

The GeForce was quite filthy in the fan, which seems to be an aftermarket IcebergQ4 and needs powering from a molex splitter as its plug does not fit into the power slot on the card itself. I have some hopes of reviving this card as it would be quite nice to have. There does appear to be some brownish residue below the silver (capacitor?) next to the power socket above the AGP notch.

At the very least, I have another fully functioning better specced QS for next to nothing.

Still have to find the time to give it a good spring clean, mind. The weather is far too nice now for that sort of thing.

 

[agottschling]

Well, I picked up the QS today. It looks in decent nick, a bit grubby on the lower handles, one or two scuffs on the side panels and quite dusty inside but nothing broken. The seller removed all the RAM and HDs and left all the screws, disks, cables and cages rattling around loose inside. Not too smart but he was selling it as DOA.

It chimed and booted first time. The Graphics card was a GeForce 4Ti 4600 DVI/ADC, which was nice but faulty giving a grey striped image from the VGA port and squawking quite alarmingly from its fan. I threw in a spare Radeon 7500 instead and ran AHT 1.2.6. It passed with flying colours including recognising the L3 cash on the dual cpu card. I would transfer the cpu over to my other QS but am a little worried now in case I lose the cache en route.

There is even a Zip drive in the second optical bay for a real nostalgic rush. Too bad I threw away my Zip disks a few months back.

The GeForce was quite filthy in the fan, which seems to be an aftermarket IcebergQ4 and needs powering from a molex splitter as its plug does not fit into the power slot on the card itself. I have some hopes of reviving this card as it would be quite nice to have. There does appear to be some brownish residue below the silver (capacitor?) next to the power socket above the AGP notch.

Image

At the very least, I have another fully functioning better specced QS for next to nothing.

Still have to find the time to give it a good spring clean, mind. The weather is far too nice now for that sort of thing.

That looks like cap leakage to me. I think that that cap is dead, but if anyone else knows otherwise just correct me.

 

[weckart]

Quite possibly but not fatal, yet. I cleaned up the fan on the GeForce and tried again. I got to O/F with some artefacts on the right of the screen and the fan on the GPU squawking then gradually slowing down. I switched off at this stage as this seemed to be a classic case of the fan not cooling the gpu adequately - both the noise and the artefacts.

I took off the fan and noticed that heat compound had been applied liberally and inexpertly. Unfortunately, whoever did it had not bothered to remove the previous compound/pad, which had hardened around the centre of the die and at the edges. It would not scrape off easily so I have ordered some isopropyl to remove it properly.

It may be that inadequate cooling has gradually led to a death of the capacitor but I am hopeful that it is nothing more than a flesh wound.

 

[128keaton]

Quite possibly but not fatal, yet. I cleaned up the fan on the GeForce and tried again. I got to O/F with some artefacts on the right of the screen and the fan on the GPU squawking then gradually slowing down. I switched off at this stage as this seemed to be a classic case of the fan not cooling the gpu adequately - both the noise and the artefacts.

I took off the fan and noticed that heat compound had been applied liberally and inexpertly. Unfortunately, whoever did it had not bothered to remove the previous compound/pad, which had hardened around the centre of the die and at the edges. It would not scrape off easily so I have ordered some isopropyl to remove it properly.

It may be that inadequate cooling has gradually led to a death of the capacitor but I am hopeful that it is nothing more than a flesh wound.

You could try cleaning that corrosion off with some alcohol. Or you could just drink the alcohol.

 

[MacVidCards]

Well, I picked up the QS today. It looks in decent nick, a bit grubby on the lower handles, one or two scuffs on the side panels and quite dusty inside but nothing broken. The seller removed all the RAM and HDs and left all the screws, disks, cables and cages rattling around loose inside. Not too smart but he was selling it as DOA.

It chimed and booted first time. The Graphics card was a GeForce 4Ti 4600 DVI/ADC, which was nice but faulty giving a grey striped image from the VGA port and squawking quite alarmingly from its fan. I threw in a spare Radeon 7500 instead and ran AHT 1.2.6. It passed with flying colours including recognising the L3 cash on the dual cpu card. I would transfer the cpu over to my other QS but am a little worried now in case I lose the cache en route.

There is even a Zip drive in the second optical bay for a real nostalgic rush. Too bad I threw away my Zip disks a few months back.

The GeForce was quite filthy in the fan, which seems to be an aftermarket IcebergQ4 and needs powering from a molex splitter as its plug does not fit into the power slot on the card itself. I have some hopes of reviving this card as it would be quite nice to have. There does appear to be some brownish residue below the silver (capacitor?) next to the power socket above the AGP notch.

Image

At the very least, I have another fully functioning better specced QS for next to nothing.

Still have to find the time to give it a good spring clean, mind. The weather is far too nice now for that sort of thing.

That looks like a clock generating chip, never seen one fail before