whats the fastest Apple processor I can put in a AGP 400 Sawtooth

[Artzdrums]

I am currently running a 2002 Duel 1 ghz Quicksilver and I have a AGP 400 Sawtooth I want to set up for my friend for his first mac. What is the fastest Apple cpu that will work in the sawtooth? In 2005 I upgraded a Sawtooth to 1.53ghz from fastmac.com for $150.I was forced to sell that machine a few years ago. The upgrade cpu's have become to expensive now they are $250 but I noticed the work for both my machines. Does that mean I can get a Duel 1 ghz possessor from a Quicksilver off ebay and run it in the Sawtooth? We are both musicians and He needs a stable machine to record and bounce files back and forth not necessarily surf the web. I'm gonna buy a mini as soon as i get the cash for that.
Thanx any help will do for us starving artist.

 

[raysfan81]

The fastest Apple branded processor you can use for that machine is the dual 500mhz cpu running on a 100mhz bus (the same as the Sawtooth) without much work. I think there is a way to re-solder things to increase the bus speed but I don't know. You could try looking on eBay or craigslist for sonnet or gigadesign g4 chips which would be faster.

 

[max¥¥]

i have a sonnet 1.2ghz im my quicksilver and i'm sure that it is compatible with the sawtooth

 

[Giuly]

The fastest CPU you can put into a Sawtooth is 2x1.6GHz, A) If you find one, B) It would run as 2x1.2GHz in a Sawtooth.
Else, hazzle free would be the 733MHz CPU from the Digital Audio, which would run at 550MHz in your Sawtooth, unless you modify the multiplier to 7.5x.
933MHz from Quicksilver theoretically also works, but the CPU board is larger and interfere with the IDE connector on the logic board. (And would unmodified run at 700MHz). Also, you need to use the Sawtooth heatsink with these CPUs, with a fan similar to the Sonnet CPUs.

I think there is a way to re-solder things to increase the bus speed but I don't know.

AFAIK only on the MDD motherboard to increase the bus from 133 to 167MHz.
But you can modify the multiplier of the CPUs from i.e. 3.5x to 4.5x, so they instead of running on 3.5x133MHz FSB = 466MHz, they run at 4.5x100MHz FSB = 450MHz.

 

[ThunderSnake]

As has already been said, the fastest Apple module that will work without modification is the dual 500 MHz, but not all Sawtooth motherboards will function with dual processors. Uni-N 7 or later is required to run dual CPU's in a Sawtooth.

Processors modules from faster machines like the Digital Audio and Quicksilver were designed to run on 133 MHz buses. While it is possible to overclock a Sawtooth motherboard, it usually results in an unstable system. It's better to adjust the processor modules to run on the 100 MHz bus.

Aftermarket processor upgrades (like those sold by Sonnet, Powerlogix, and Newertech) are easier to work with. They are capable of running on either bus without the tedious work of soldering resistors.

You can probably find a single CPU 1.2 GHz upgrade on eBay for less than $100.

OWC has this single 1.6 GHz upgrade module available for $199 (new with one year warranty). I think that's a good deal if you really like this particular computer and want to keep it productive for a while longer, but it's also getting into price territory where it might make more sense to look for a second hand Quicksilver or MDD.

On the other hand, if you just want to build the ultimate Sawtooth, those 7448 chips are pretty sweet. Only $779 for the dual module.

 

[G$$]

I bought a 1.8GHz dual upgrade card form OWC about 6 years ago to put in my Digital Audio G4, and it's still running fine I love it, the only draw back is the bus speed of the system, word of advise max out your RAM and use all like chips (same size, same speed), my upgrade didn't like mix mached chips at all.

 

[666sheep]

I think there is a way to re-solder things to increase the bus speed

OP, if you got soldering skills, see these:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/sawtooth_bus_overclock/sawtooth_bus_overclock.html
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G4ZONE/sawtooth/SawtoothCPUdesign.html

Your Sawtooth should run perfectly with 120 MHz bus. I've done this mod, it worked pretty well.

Most powerful CPU upgrade is MAXPower G4/7448 but it's quite expensive.

 

[raysfan81]

As has already been said, the fastest Apple module that will work without modification is the dual 500 MHz, but not all Sawtooth motherboards will function with dual processors. Uni-N 7 or later is required to run dual CPU's in a Sawtooth.

Processors modules from faster machines like the Digital Audio and Quicksilver were designed to run on 133 MHz buses. While it is possible to overclock a Sawtooth motherboard, it usually results in an unstable system. It's better to adjust the processor modules to run on the 100 MHz bus.

Aftermarket processor upgrades (like those sold by Sonnet, Powerlogix, and Newertech) are easier to work with. They are capable of running on either bus without the tedious work of soldering resistors.

You can probably find a single CPU 1.2 GHz upgrade on eBay for less than $100.

The sawtooth is a cool looking machine but it makes more sense to go for a little bit later model that has a faster bus speed to make finding an upgrade a bit easier.