WallStreet Upgrade Question
From Cliff Dickerson:
Charles,
Hello. I enjoyed your article on upgrading PowerBook G3s. It was
very helpful. I have a question maybe you have some time to answer
for me.
I bought a PowerBook G3
Wallstreet II (233 MHz, 512 KB cache) for $100 for my mom who
is leaving to Africa and needed something sturdy for email and
journal entrees. Also she is new to computers, and making her use
Windows XP was not an option.
I have added a low profile 256 meg chip to the "service tech"
RAM slot on the CPU board and another "taller" 256 chip to the user
accessible RAM slot. I have also added a 40 GB Toshiba hard drive
and USB 2.0 and 802.11b PCMCIA cards.
My question is what CPU boards from other PowerBook G3s can I
purchase, either from an "upgrade" company or used from eBay
or something, for example a
Pismo or Lombard CPU board? the 233 MHz is
still very slow, even for just email and text file editing.
Thanks very much for your time!
-Cliff
Hi Cliff,
You might be able to swap in a processor daughtercard from a
faster WallStreet II (266 MHz or 300 MHz). The Lombard and Pismo
daughtercards will definitely not work.
My suggestion, if you want more processor power without spending
too much money, would be to check out the modestly priced to G3
WallStreet upgrades from Wegener Media:
- G3/400, $99.99
- G4/500, $219
Charles
Enabling Quartz Extreme on Pismo
From Jonny:
Hey Charles,
Long time reader, first time writer. I wanted to bring this
program [PCI Extreme!] to your attention, as I figured it may work
on your Pismo, as my friend has
ran it fine on his 500 MHz
iBook, which has the same graphics board and 8 MB of
VRAM.
I have also ran this on my Power
Mac G4 PCI and a Radeon 7000, and it works beautifully. The
Fast User Switching works smoothly, Dashboard has no jitters, etc.
Its a great program. I figured you may wanna give it a shot on your
Pismo. :)
Enjoy!
- Jonny
Hi Jonny,
I had heard of this hack but didn't realize that it might work
on laptops. Sounds like it's worth a try. Thanks for the tip!
Charles
UPDATE: Several readers have reported that PCI Extreme! requires ATI Radeon video and does not support earlier ATI video chipsets, such as the ATI Rage video found in older Macs.
64-bit Intel Future
From Scott Selby:
Perhaps Steve knew this before the announcement.
ExtremeTech reports:
"Intel shifted the majority of its Pentium 4 processors to
64-bit capability over the weekend.
"Intel quietly introduced the Intel 5x1 series, which shifts the
existing 775-pin, 32-bit Pentium 4 line - known as the 5xx series -
to 64-bit memory addressing."
Perhaps you might not need 64 bits, I know that I don't need
much more than my 400 MHz iMac
to do most of the work that I do with a computer. It is nice to
know that Apple isn't taking a step backward from the G5 to a
32-bit processor.
Scott Selby
Intel Already Has 64-bit CPUs
From Ed Hurtley:
This is a response to one of your "Macintel letters" - from Scott Selby.
Scott writes: "As of the last time that I checked, Intel still
has not released a 64-bit [x86] processor. What justification is
there for going with a 32-bit Intel when the [64-bit] Athlon
exists?"
Intel does, indeed, have 64-bit x86 processors. Their Xeon line
has used the x86-64 extension for months now (Intel calls it 'EMT'
for 'Extended Memory Technology', but it really is an
implementation of AMD's 64-bit extensions to the x86 ISA.) And
64-bit Pentium 4's are just now hitting the market. With a year to
go before even the first Mac, Intel will likely have their entire
line of processors supporting 'EMT', making them 64-bit.
Some links that show 64-bit support:
(Some models support 64-bit.)
Ed Hurtley
Bad iTunes Track Update
From Owen Strawn:
Apple was kind enough to offer me a refund (though they haven't
posted it yet), so I deleted the tracks from my library and ordered
the CD from Amazon. Guess what? The clipping is just as bad on the
CD - as far as I can tell it is identical (not hardly surprising, I
suppose). So it isn't actually an iTunes problem.
Owen
Thanks for the update, Owen.
Charles
19" Samsung LCD Monitor/TV
From Marion in response to Pismo
Upgrade and TV Tuner Question:
My husband bought a Samsung 19" LCD from Sam's (he bought at
$540, I think). I has a place to plug in a TV cable and works a
treat. I just bought a second one, and it was $499. Great screen,
big, clear and TV.
Marion
Re: Pismo Upgrade and TV Tuner Question
From Ben Funk:
Oh, neat! I'll check in to those.
The route I ended up taking was an ATI Xclaim VR/TV combo. When
it comes time for a new monitor, however, I'll certainly check out
LCD's with the built in tuner.
Thanks for passing that along.
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