Is a G4/500 or G3/900 Better?
Ryan Roomkey writes:
Wow, those 900/800
iBooks were released quietly; just read about 'em myself.
Just after, I sent an email to PowerLogix asking them if a 900 MHz
750fx would be released for the Pismo.
They said that this would happen shortly, so that's positive to
know. Seein' as the "BlueChip G3 Pismo" has yet to even be released. It
may very well debut with a 900 MHz PowerPC 750fx processor.
From what I've read, the 750fx is going to end at 1 GHz. As G4s
(faster than 500 MHz) and IBM 970s sounding "out of the question" as a
viable Pismo upgrade, I think that the 1 GHz PowerPC G3 will be
the last possible CPU upgrade for the Pismo (UMA-1). From the
benchmarks I have followed, even with AltiVec enhanced applications, a
900 MHz or 1 GHz PowerPC G3 sounds like more power than a 500 MHz
7410 G4 - it should run cooler, too!
Yeah, Apple was pretty quiet about the iBook speed bump.
Rumor is that IBM has been able to produce 1 GHz 750fx processors
for some time (they have a
product overview of their "1 GHz PowerPC
Microprocessor" dated 2001.10.24), but there's been no market for them,
since Apple wouldn't want the iBook to eclipse the PowerBook in clock
speed. And by offloading a lot of the work AltiVec does to the video
circuitry with Quartz Extreme, Apple has given the processor new life
in OS X.
But whether a 1 GHz G3 will outperform a 500 MHz G4 depends on how well
the task uses the velocity engine. Bare Feats tested three 700 MHz Macs -
the iBook, eMac, and G4 iMac - and found that iTunes ripped their test
tunes in 47-49 sec. on the G4s but took 66 sec. on the G3 iBook. If the
G3 ran twice as fast, it wouldn't reduce that to 33 sec. because it has
to read, rip, and write the file to the computer's hard drive.
Likewise, it you're into 3D gaming, at the iBook's native resolution of
1024 x 768, the G4 eMac and iMac had nearly 4x the frame rate in
the Quake Arena
test. Even a twice-as-fast G3 would at most double the frame
rate.
In another set of
benchmarks, a 500 MHz Pismo with a G4/500 upgrade rendered a
title in iMovie almost twice as fast as the stock G3 processor. In this
case, a 1 GHz G3 would probably match performance of the 500 MHz
G4. On the iTunes test, the upgraded Pismo was also nearly twice as
fast as the stock G3/500 CPU.
There are few easy answers. For some tasks a G3/900 will smoke a
G4/500. For some tasks the G4/500 will trounce the G3/900. And for yet
other tasks, performance will be close. Which is best for you depends
on your needs - OS X vs. 9, video, 3D gaming, simple tasks such as
email and word processing. Only you can decide which kind of upgrade
makes the most sense in your situation.
Disk Tools Floppies
Jay Prince writes:
To begin, let me add my thanks for your site to those of countless
others. The value and enjoyment I find here keep it at the top of my
"Online Publications" folder in iCab's Hotlist.
The "Disk
Tools Floppy" section in The Low End Mac Mailbag of 2003.04.24 got
me to checking and ruminating. In short, both my OS 8.0 and OS 8.5 CDs
have Disk Tools Image(s) folders at the root level (the plural, of
course, being for OS 8.0/8.1, which contains two disk image files, one
for 68k and one for PPC). Inside these folders are also DiskScripts to
facilitate making floppies from the image files.
Ah ha! Just found it on Apple's Web site:
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/
English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Mac_OS_8.1_Update/Disk_Tools_PPC.img.bin
Downloaded and checked it - seems identical to the one on my OS 8.1
install CD and is fully functional. There is also a file
"Disk_Tools_PPC_Info.txt" at:
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/
English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Mac_OS_8.1_Update/Disk_Tools_PPC_Info.txt
Just found another one with OS 7.5.2, Disk First Aid 7.2.1, Drive
Setup 1.0.2, and it includes Apple CD-ROM 5.1.1 in the Extensions
folder of the System Folder:
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/
English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Other_System/PMac_7500_8500_Disk_Tools.sea.bin
These links, and a whole lot more (34 screenfuls at 1024 x
768 on a 17" monitor), are on this page (that Network Access Disk is
there, too):
http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html
Enuf already! As usual, my intent to be brief did not pan out. Hope
some of this helps.
All the best to you and yours, and all of your endeavors, and to the
whole LEM community.
Thanks for the kind words - and the helpful links!
Internet Sharing with AirPort
On the topic of Internet Sharing in
OS X, Jeffrey Harris writes:
I set up our home iMac DV 400 (OS X 10.2.5) to share its dial up
connection over AirPort, then locked the settings panel.
Now it does not have to be manually shared on each dialup - I just
turn on the iBook and power up the airport and voilà.
Thanks for sharing the tip. I'll post it in the Mailbag for the benefit of others.
An Even Simpler Google Site Search
After seeing my code in Small Dog, Searches, and
the Low End, Peter da Silva shares his solution:
Adapted from my 404 page at www.taronga.com:
<FORM METHOD=GET ACTION="http://www.google.com/search">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME=num VALUE=10>
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME=btnG VALUE="Google+Search">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME=as_sitesearch value="lowendmac.com">
<P><INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="as_q" SIZE=64></P>
</FORM>
No server side support needed at all. Those guys at Google think of
everything.
Yeah, they really have done a spectacular job with their search
engine - and then gone out of their way to make it easy for anyone to
use it.
Thanks for the code.
OS X Network Detection
When I mentioned that the classic
Mac OS could detect the presence of a network and select a set of
extensions based on it using Extensions Manager, Peter da Silva writes
that OS X has the potential to do the same thing:
If you're willing to do a little Unix hacking, if you look at the
"rc" (run commands / restart commands) files in /etc, you can
see that there's a common set of scripts that include a way to test if
you've got networking set up at boot time and what network they've
ended up on.
Modifying them to switch locations depending on what DHCP says
shouldn't be too difficult. Most of the clues can be found on this
page:
http://www.bluap.nl/osx/tips.php
To get a script to run at startup, you need to set them up in
/Library/StartupItems/ or
/System/Library/StartupItems/
see "man SystemStarter" for more information.
There's a lot more power in the BSD core of Mac OS X than
Apple is making readily available to nonprogrammers. It would be nice
if there was a very simple interface that would let the user specify
things like, "If connected to work network, use network configuration
Work. If connected to home network, use Home setup. If not on a
network, use Dialup configuration."
We have the power, stability, and pretty interface, but Apple really
needs to keep working on ease of use for the novice user. (Of course,
this also provides a place for freeware and shareware authors to strut
their stuff.)
Low End Mac and Wireless Networking
Responding to More on Wireless
Options for Older PowerBooks, Benjamin Stafford writes:
Wonderful site! It is my first stop every time on the Web. I have
used the site as a resource in building my own classroom computer lab.
The count so far is 6 Internet ready Power Macs (7100 and 8100 series). The only thing
holding me up is space!
Anyway, I wanted to add my 2 cents on PCI wireless cards. Belkin
is shipping an 802.11g PCI card ( I have seen them at Staples).
On Belkin's site they have refurb 802.11b cards real cheap. So the
cards are out there. I read in Macworld that Belkin was going to
provide drivers for the 802.11g cards by Feb. 2003. I emailed them, and
the response was "you're outta luck!" So if someone can hack a Windows
driver for the Belkin, we would be all set.
Those old Power Macs still have a fair bit of life in them. For
real bargains, look into Power
Mac 7200s when the 7100s and 8100s become scarce. They're no speed
demons, but they're cheap, support up to 512 MB of memory, and have
decent onboard video.
I just checked Belkin's site, and they are out of stock of
their own PCI 802.11g card. Their site still says
the PC Card version is not yet available, and that's what
I'd need for my PowerBook. Since the card isn't yet available, I guess
we're all out of luck at present.
Backing Up to SCSI
Peter da Silva also has some comments on backup:
I know SCSI is kind of old tech these days, but you can get pretty
big SCSI drives for not too much money if you don't care how they
look.
Or you probably have SCSI drives around the place that you could
use.
Well, you can get a FireWire SCSI adapter for under $60:
http://shop.vendio.com/segcomputers/item/564174585/index.html?s=1051264882
That'll give you a drive that you can use from either FireWire or
SCSI Macs.
Well, we've got lots and lots and lots of old 80, 200, and other
sized SCSI hard drives up to about 700 MB around here, but none big
enough to be practical for backup.
My current backup system needs a lot more storage than that. Right now
I'm using a modestly priced (about $80 after rebate) 80 GB Western
Digital 7200 RPM drive in a two-drive
FireWire enclosure I bought from Computer Geeks for about
$60.
My next project is to do an unsupported
installation of OS X on my SuperMac J700 backup machine so I can set
up two of these drives as a 160 MB RAID array, since Retrospect backups
are limited to a single volume. Just need to make sure I have enough
RAM and a big enough hard drive before I get started....
On the other hand, for those with older Macs that still use SCSI, there
are some phenomenal deals out there - like the current link on
dealmac for a refurbished 23 GB Seagate drive for US$9.95!
G3 or G4 Laptop?
Alexandre Doyen writes from Liège, Belgium:
I use a Targa/AMD 2000+ laptop with Windows XP, Protools (music
software) (+ FireWire HD), and I can open an amazing number of plug-ins
with this processor. More than 2 or 3 times more than with my old G4
400 MHz (tower Mac)!
I bought this because I didn't have the cash to buy a Mac
laptop.
But I begin to regret it, because it was so much easier and stable
on Mac anyway! But if I bought, for example a new iBook G3, would I
have the same performance as my G4/400 Mac or the AMD 2000 PC ??
Is there a real difference between G3 and G4 laptops?
What would be the best?
I'm lost!
I know that feeling from any time I try to do anything on the
Windows computers in the camera shop where I work part-time. I feel so
lost, especially in Photoshop, where I know so many keyboard shortcuts
- and they're different in Windows.
There are some real differences between G3 and G4 laptops. iBooks are
much less costly and always have a 1024 x 768 display. G4 PowerBooks
may have a 12" 1024 x 768 screen, 1280 x 854, or 1440 x 900. The 15"
and 17" PowerBooks also have two memory slots, so you can install more
memory than you can in the iBooks (or 12" PowerBook).
How a G3 compares with a G4 depends on what you're doing. A G3 at the
same clock speed won't be any faster than a G4, but the G4 may not be
much faster at some things - and a lot faster at other tasks. Compared
to your G4/400 tower, I think you'd find an 800 MHz or 900 MHz iBook a
very nice upgrade, since it has a fast CPU and supports Quartz
Extreme.
Clocking the G3 All-in-One
Boltzero writes:
After following a couple of links on Clocking the Power Mac G3, I was successful in
clocking my G3
All-in-One from its stock 233 MHz to 280 MHz. This is apparently
the maximum setting for the G3 AIO; any setting higher prevented the
system from booting. I completed the modification a couple of months
ago and have not had any problems thus far; the system remains stable
and reliable. Jumpers were placed on the 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 blocks to
yield 280 MHz on the G3 All-in-One.
I didn't know 7 off, 8 on was a workable configuration (time to
update the overclocking page yet again), but if you're running at 280
MHz, it must be the setting for a 70 MHz system bus. Congratulations on
obtaining a 20% speed increase without spending a penny.
No USB Card Support in Mac OS 9.2?
Ben Gravely writes:
I have a G3/400
Beige computer with a USB card and Logitech optical mouse.
Everything works fine in OS 9.1. Recently, I loaded OS 9.2.2 on the
internal HD to see if it was more stable than 9.1.
Unfortulately, 9.2.2 doesn't see the USB card. The mouse is dead. I
have tried everything in the upgrade drivers and SW category with no
results.
Is there something I am missing?
Yes, you're missing the drivers for your third-party USB card. If
you don't have them on a floppy or CD, you should be able to download
them from the manufacturer's website.
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
