page 6
Segment Two -
Processor
Performance Boosts
November
1st , 2003
While many other kit manufacturers reuse the existing aluminum heat dissipation radiator from your original G4 processor, Giga Design has a very slick and robust copper radiator and fan assembly, very much like you would find on an Intel P-4. Heat will be no problem with this kit.
Just
do it, yourself
All of the Mac upgrade kit makers have made doing a processor upgrade
easy enough nearly anyone could do it. I’ll qualify that by asserting
that you have to have common sense, good vision, are careful and are
willing to read the instructions, which are painfully simple.
Don’t be a chicken, be careful and just do it! So lets look at these two representative kits and how easily they install; their pros and cons, and some performance benchmarks.
Sonnet’s kit is essentially just a processor daughter board with no additional cooling device other than reuse of the original Apple aluminum finned radiator, which has no fan to draw off heat generated by the processor. There is no software to install to make the new processor work, as you would have with an iMac or G3 PowerBook upgrade that requires transfer of the Apple BIOS. There are also no drivers required to enable the L2 or L3 cache, as some kits need.
However, there is an oddity with some Sonnet kits, that they do not report correct processor speed of cache size in OS 9 Classic, so Sonnet provides a small application for checking this.
First off, never work on your PowerMac while it is plugged in, unless you want to risk your Logic Board, a $250 to $450 replacement. After you’ve unplugged your Mac, wait 10 to 15 minutes for it to cool down; opening the side access panel will facilitate cooling. You should also use a static electricity grounding strap around your wrist and grounded to conductive metal on the Mac’s frame.
With the G4 up on a secure table, about the level of your waist, locate the aluminum-cooling radiator. Follow the removal instructions for the radiator and then the original processor. Make a mental note, or even take a digital picture, of the orientation of finned radiator and the clips that hold it down.
The original processor
daughter card is held down with three screws that run into hexagonal “standoff”
posts that themselves screw through the logic board to a nut on the underside.
When we removed the three screws, two came off easily but one was too
tight into the standoff post under the daughter card. It just spun the
post around and around. Pulling off the Logic Board was the only solution
to get access to the standoff post nut. This might or might not happen
to you, it all depends on how sloppy the Apple assemblers were on the
day they built your G4 PowerMac
After removing the
original G4 processor daughter card, place it on a non-metallic and non-fabric
surface such as wood, plastic or ceramic. The slightest static charge
will kill your old or new processor or components on the circuit board.
The original Apple
Heat sink radiator is reused for this kit
Sonnet Encore/ST,
a sweet poem -
The new Sonnet G4 processor kit now takes the place of the original; again
follow the printed directions to the letter. Be sure that the connector
on the underside of the daughter card is securely into its mate on the
logic board before screwing the card down.
Sonnet's Encore/ST
in place of the Apple daughter card
Click on all pictures for enlargements.
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