I have an oppertunity to buy this:

SONNET ENCORE ST G4 1000/2M 1G POWER MAC G4 UPGRADE CPU

From what i believe, it is compatible with my Powermac with these specs - DigitalAudio G4 466Mhz.

Can anyone confirm the following please:

Will it work with my Mac? (See specs above)

Is it easy to install? (I am pretty good with computers)

Will MorphOS work with it?

Will i have problems with my MorphOS registration?

Is the speed increase significant in both MorphOS and OSX?

Thanks in advance... I love these forums

- Yes it's compatible
- It's plug and play. check their site, maybe you need to run a small update for the firmware
- MorphOS runs fine with it
- Does not affect your registration
- Your system will react a lot faster with it.

In short: you will like it a lot.

Thanks! Cant wait

Bought it

If you don't mind me asking, what does something like that cost?

1.25GHz G4 PowerMac MDD towers can be found near where I live for $100 or less every day of the week and twice on the weekends. If you are lucky, or patient enough, you can probably find one for $40 or less.

This makes me wonder why anyone would want to purchase an 800MHz to 1.2GHz upgrade CPU for an older G4 PowerMac, unless they can get the upgrade for next to nothing, or they have looked for the 1.25GHz to 1.42GHz G4 MDD PowerMacs in their area and cannot get them for a decent price.

I heard there were issues with drivers for the MDD macs.
That is why I am staying with my system and buying a sonnet later on when a cheap one comes around.
No other reason or I'd go with a MDD (the best power mac ever).

I bought it for $80 + $30 postage.

I live in Malta, Very very tiny Island with only 400,000 people. So you dont find a G4 as often as you would in the US. Who knows, i may find 2 tomorrow really cheap, but then again i might not for 3 months, so upgrading was my best option.

@Dougal: I've got the same card, got it for 70EUR+shipping here in Germany. It works nicely in my Powermac Gigabit with MorphOS 2.6, but there were some timing issues, especially if reflashed gfxcards were used. A reflashed Radeon 8500 has some issues on MorphOS (gfx garbage in video overlay as example), and it doesn't work reliable at all on OSX, no problem with the original 400MHz card. Same with a reflashed Geforce2MX (obviously only on OSX). An original Mac Radeon 9000 Pro 64 MB works like a charm.
Another issue is the BootROM version, you must have the latest version installed for the card to work reliable. But you only can update this BootROM on OS9.1 or later, no chance on OSX. It's a bit on the lip if you only got OSX and/or MorphOS on your Powermac.

[ Edited by analogkid on 2010/11/5 9:18 ]

@analogkid

I am getting a Mac edition Radeon 9000 64mb, so that should be no problem :)

The bugger is that I have OSX tiger and MorphOs, each on different hard drives. I don't even own os9x. Well, I guess there is nothing wrong in just downloading os9 just to do this and then deleting it.

@Dougal:

Indeed, I think this card has the best cost/performance ratio of all currently supported (original Mac) gfxcards. Unfortunately the 128 MB versions are relatively expensive.

@amigadave:

Well, in my case the Gigabit was a gift, I had to buy the Sonnet cpu card, the Mac Radeon and a SBLive for sound. Overall the whole costs were at the limit to be sensible, but I don't think it was too expensive. I could have stayed with the original 400MHz card and the reflashed Radeon 8500 (for me the gfx garbage are a very minor point), which would have resulted in a cost of 3 or 4 EUR (for the SBLive). Sure, this machine only has ATA66 and a FSB of 100MHz, but for me it doesn't make the big difference in real life usage. The cost/performace ratio of a MDD with a 1,8Ghz or 2,0Ghz card is much worse (compared to a Powermac G5).

Thats true, a 1,8GHz machine is really expensive.

After having both machines for a while, a 100MHz FSB Powermac and the 167MHz Powermac MDD, i must say my Powermac MDD 1 GHz Machine was
faster in the most cases then the Powermac 1,8 GHz with 100FSB.

I had about 10-20 more frames with quake 3, using the same gfk card.

My opinion is, the best Powermac you can get is a Powermac MDD 1,42Ghz.
Its not that pricey to upgrade your mdd with a 1,42GHz Card and you get the overall best performance.
Except you can grab a "cheap" Sonnet MDD Upgrade :)

> a MDD with a 1,8Ghz or 2,0Ghz card

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7186&forum=11&post_id=74206#74206

> I heard there were issues with drivers for the MDD macs.

For instance?

I believe mine (Digital Audio) is 133Mhz. That should make a difference (i.e positive difference) no?

it is 133Mhz. I think it will be as fast a Pegasos G4 1Ghz, if not faster ...

> I think it will be as fast a Pegasos G4 1Ghz, if not faster

Seems analogkid is with you on this:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7425&forum=3&post_id=77431#77431