Upgrade WallStreet Part 2, Page 2 to follow. Because Apple will not license its BIOS any longer, you have to transfer your existing BIOS from the original Apple ROM to the upgrade board's ROM. You must have the original Apple processor to do this. If you're buying the Sonnet Crescendo/WS there is an additional requirement. The Crescendo/WS requires an original Apple branded hard drive for the BIOS transfer software to work. If your original 2 or 4 GB Toshiba drive died or you tossed it long ago after replacing it, you are SOL.. PowerLogix's transfer software does not require the original Toshiba hard drive. ì. . . when you try to install OS X onto any drive larger than 8 GB, it will not recognize the drive for installation . . . î One more thing, both upgrade processor systems still carry the boot OS restriction of an 8 Gigabyte first partition that all the WallStreets originally had programmed into the Firmware. That means, that when you try to install OS X onto any drive larger than 8 GB, it will not recognize the drive for installation until you partition it with the first partition no larger than 8 GB. Sonnet claims to have solved this limitation, but our attempts with 20 GB and 40 GB Toshiba drives proved them wrong, as OS X refused all efforts until we partitioned the drives to 8 and 12 GB, or 8 and 32 GB. The accompanying installation, or BIOS transfer software from both companies is quite good and easy to use. With the PowerLogix kit you must separately install the cashe activation extensions for OS 9.x and then OS X, we missed that initially. Robert Jagitsch, President of PowerLogix, told me that a rewrite of the installation program is in the works.				Now for the Performance - We used a combination of our own Photoshop, Corel Suite 10 and iTunes benchmark components, along with a very nice Benchmark program (OS 9.x and OS X versions) written by Nic Waller of Danicsoft called SpeedRun, version 1.1.3. Both kits make a major difference in performance over the original Apple processor daughter card that held a G3 PPC-750 running at 233MHz with only 256K of L2 backside cache. But where each G3 or G4 kit accelled (excuse the pun) is obviously different. Sonnet's G3 500 was 112% faster than the original processor in OS 9.2.2 benchmark tests, the PowerLogix G4 500 was slightly faster. OS X was a whole different story, but for a different reason than you'd guess would be the obvious. In the OS X SpeedRun, which does not use AltiVec optimized components the PowerLogix G4 was slightly faster than the Sonnet G3 500 in processor speed tests at 141% faster than the original G3 233MHz processor. In our AltiVec specific benchmarks, the PowerLogix G4 clobbered the Sonnet G3, being 28% faster at certain PhotoShop filters, Vector image conversions and iTunes ripping, this was not unexpected. Here was the first surprise, the PowerLogix G4 design somehow allows the OS X compromised ATI RageLT Pro video card to run more efficiently on non AltiVec optimized applications. In repeated test runs (because we couldn't believe our eyes), the ATI RageLT Pro video card was 12% faster on average than the Sonnet G3. Don't ask me why! Now the second surprise; using the OS X version of SpeedRun Benchmarking software on both kits, and comparing them with other tested systems that were saved in the log, both boards made the WallStreets faster than a G4 450 Cube, G4 466 PowerPC and a G4 Titanium PB 667! Ok - Ok, we have no idea why it beat a TiPB 667, but it did on repeated tests with no deviations. back - next
	The measurement on this SpeedRun comparison chart labeled "Your Computer", is the WallStreet running OS X 10.1.5 with the PowerLogix BlueChip G4 500MHz kit installed.   about us | current articles | archive | home all right reserved copyright ©1999-2002.