Will there be Faster Pismo Upgrades?

[refinery]

So I was browsing XLR8YourMac's website when i saw the Powerlogix press release concerning their Pismo upgrades. They are now avaliable in 900MHz G3 upgrades. Seems like a pretty decent upgrade for $349. I love my little Pismo, im not a metal freak and never was too interested in the titaniums (until that 17", that is...) Even with just a 900MHz upgrade, in a couple ways it still kicks the ibook's butt.... 1GB ram capabilty, superdrive upgradable, dual battery capabilty...
But anyway, I was thinking.... why are there no faster upgrades for the pismo in G4 than 500MHz? Does this have to do with the more specific power requirements (core voltage, etc) for newer G4s like the 7455 or whatever it is they are using in the titanium laptops?
What Im basically wondering about, is it likely at all that an upgrade company will be able to develop a faster G4 upgrade for Pismo and other laptops like Wallstreet?
I can't see any reason why there couldn't be say a 667 upgrade for the Wallstreets (66mhz bus on a 10x multiple) or an 800 or 867 or even faster for the Pismos, thanks to their 100MHz bus. Sure it might be expensive but a 867 or 1GHz upgrade for my pismo is much more appealing (and even if it was expensive, im sure it would be less than one of the new g4 laptops...)
A G4 upgrade would be much more ideal for me, because I do a lot of audio work on my pismo, with altivec enabled stuff like Absynth and Digital Performer.

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are, and if there are others out there like me wanting more G4 power for their Pismo.

 

[Wyrm]

I have a Pismo too, and the only thing I've heard is that the pinout for the 744x-745x G4 is so different than the 750/7400 chip that they would need to redesign the daughter board severely enough to not be very cost effective (re market is not there) I think it's possible, but then so was putting a man on the moon. Too bad.

When they upgrade the 17" to the ATI 9600 Mobility - and maybe the 7457 (512Kb L2 cache) - I think I can retire my Pismo. Then there is also the mysterious debut of the new 15"??? Wonder what's there?

-Wyrm

 

[refinery]

well i suppose that the pure speed gain of 900MHz g3 vs. 500MHz g4 would negate any sort of speed advantage gained through Altivec optimization. I'll have to wait and see some speed test results on those upgrades before i make up my mind......

 

[yzedf]

g4 over 500MHz creates a lot of heat.

 

[bennetsaysargh]

sorry that i can't help you, but i just realized that pismo looks like the origional iBook cases, only black and a bigger screen. anyone who has a pismo look at it and you can see what i am talking about.

 

[Gus]

The original iBook and the Pismo look nothing alike. I'm not sure what angle you are looking from. They're not even the same shape.

The only problem, and I do mean the only problem, is that the Pismo is forever stuck at 8MB VRAM. That's the only reason I ever got rid of mine. I loved that machine. Best laptop Apple ever made.

Regards,
Gus

 

[Wyrm]

Re: 8MB of VRAM
Maybe Apple will fix this laptop problem with the ATI 9600 Mobility - if it is user upgradeable like the specsheet says on ATI's site.... I also hope Steve isn't still pissed off at ATI that he's cutting them out of the laptop line.. ATI makes better mobile chips right now.

-Wyrm

 

[techne]

Originally posted by refinery
well i suppose that the pure speed gain of 900MHz g3 vs. 500MHz g4 would negate any sort of speed advantage gained through Altivec optimization. I'll have to wait and see some speed test results on those upgrades before i make up my mind......

Altivec isn't just speed, buddy. There are some nice things locked just for G4 owners, as the MPEG2 encoder shipped with iDVD and DVD Studio Pro, which allows you to author DVDs as easy as Apple advertises. Yes, there are G3 MPEG2 encoders as Bitvice's but trying to author a DVD as easy as with iDVD using it, can be a painfull experience. There are other things optimized for Altivec, as Photoshop and such, but at least they allow you to use G3's.

As a Pismo owner, that is my big complain about it. I never complain about speed or the lack of metallic look. Pismos have a nice dark organic look and a solid feel, for you people who had never used one

 

[Wyrm]

I agree with you there -

the Pismo was the perfection of the line...

 

[ibookin']

I like the Pismo too, but after having Quartz Extreme on my iBook with 32MB of VRAM I don't think I could deal with 8MB of VRAM. The difference in graphics performance for G3s and slower G4s is phenomenal.

Also, the iBook CAN be upgraded to a Superdrive, it just can't do MPEG2 encoding the Apple way.

 

[kiza]

Hello all
i'm a happy owner of a Pismo 400
question: is it really impossible to upgrade the 8megs of VRam?
is there any way to assign some Ram to do this, or maybe some virtual Ram?
(i read somewhere about using a PCIMCIA CompactFlash adapter as a volume to improve older Pbooks Ram performance: it is faster than the HDD)

any ideas?
thanx in advance
kiza

 

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by kiza
Hello all
i'm a happy owner of a Pismo 400
question: is it really impossible to upgrade the 8megs of VRam?
is there any way to assign some Ram to do this, or maybe some virtual Ram?
(i read somewhere about using a PCIMCIA CompactFlash adapter as a volume to improve older Pbooks Ram performance: it is faster than the HDD)

any ideas?
thanx in advance
kiza

You would have to replace everything dealing with the video except maybe for the connection to the LCD and the external port. It would cost more than the machine is worth due to re-engineering to make it work with anything else.