XLR8 has had a unique approach to processor upgrades - piggybacking
ZIF type processor cards onto either a dual processor capable
ZIF adapter or processor slot carrier card. The MACh Velocity
MPe Dual G4/500 card is one of the first type, utilizing a
ZIF type adapter card that fits into the original ZIF socket
of your G3 Beige. You don't have to purchase one of the dual
processor adapters with both socket filled, however. It's
possible to buy the adapter containing only one processor
card, with the intention of adding a second processor at a
later date. Also can add another G4 processor of any speed
- the two processors don't have to have the identical clock
speed. Though XLR8 does say for best compatibility you should
use one of their MPe ZIF G4 processors, they do admit that
"others may work".
What we review below is the the XLR8 card with Dual Processors.
The first thing that strikes you about the XLR8 MACh Velocity
MPe Dual G4/500 upgrade card is how burly it is. This two
fisted upgrade, complete with two independent fans on its
backside, is huge compared with a traditional single ZIF processor
upgrade. The G4 ZIF cards themselves are quite petite, but
with the dual processor adapter, fans and attendant cables
(to feed juice to the fans and the MACh Velocity card &
second processor), the packet takes up a lot of space.
Supported Models
Apple: Beige G3 Power Macs (versions are in the works
for the Blue & White G3s and the G4s with the Yikes
motherboard)
Mac OS 8.6 to OS X (partial) supported
XLR8 is playing it safe by providing one fan for each of
the processors. Although you can get away with no extra fan
when doing a single G4 ZIF upgrade, the extra heat generated
by both the extra processor and the adapter card, requires
an effective means for keeping the processors cool. This keeps
them from misbehaving - there is nothing like a misbehaving
processor to ruin your whole day!
Installation
XLR8's packaging of their products has always been exemplary.
Not only do they consistently have an excellent manual that
walks you through all of the steps, but the company goes the
extra mile, supplying you with the extra equipment you will
need to make the installation as easy as possible. In the
case of this upgrade XLR8 includes: a small screwdriver, to
aid in removing the original processors heatsink clip, a quality
grounding strap (if there is only one thing you take away
from this review, we hope it is that you use that grounding
strap....your un-fried motherboard will thank you), and a
little dab of thermal grease which goes in-between the first
processor, and the heatsink that you must install.
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Installing the MACh Velocity MPe is a little more complicated
than installing a regular ZIF upgrade. First up is to install
the software - a control panel that you can use to manually
change the speed of the backside cache and other settings.
An extension is also installed - which enables the Velocity
Engine of the G4, and works with the Control Panel regulating
backside cache settings. The control panel also gives you
statistics on the operation of the card, such as the temperature
of the processor and the amount of the installed RAM, among
other things.
Before you take the card out of its anti-static bag make
sure that you have the grounding strap connected to your wrist
and the other end correctly connected to the computer. The
way to do this is to first open up your computer. You will
have to remove the power cord to "un-roll" the machine
and then plug the power cord back into the computer. Then
you can plug the grounding strap into the power outlet on
the back of the computer. The grounding strap will not do
its work if the power cord is not plugged into the machine.
Removing the old processor is a simple process of removing
the retaining clip, releasing a lever, and gently lifting
the old processor out of its socket. The old processor's heat
sink will not be required by the new upgrade so you will need
to detach that from the motherboard and remove it as well.
Putting the new processor upgrade in is a little more complicated.
Because the adapter card you are installing will cover the
floppy drive connector cable, you will need to disconnect
this cable from the motherboard. You don't get to plug it
back in! This means that you will lose your floppy drive if
you opt for this type of upgrade.
The MACh Velocity card slips right into a vacant ZIF socket
and should require only very slight pressure to make it seat
all the way. If resistance is experienced something is wrong
and the card should be realigned. The next step is to attach
the clips that hold the second processors heatsink/fan combo
in place. The manual goes into great detail about the process
of doing this, but I found it awkward and was worried that
if I lost control of the high-tension clips, they would go
careening across the motherboard gouging its delicate nervous
system. I think that XLR8 could have eased up a little on
the clip tension and still have achieved the goal of securing
the fan structure.
The last step is to secure the power cabling that makes the
fans run and which feeds juice to the adapter card.
Performance
In general, for processor intensive tasks and tasks that
take advantage of the AltiVec instructions (Velocity Engine)
of the G4, (Photoshop, CineBench 2000, QuickTime and SoundJam
for example), the MACh Velocity MPe Dual G4/500 turned in
excellent performance over our stock Beige G3/266 and our
reference machine, the Blue & White G3/350. When compared
to the stock configuration the souped up Beige machine showed
nearly 4 times the speed improvement in some tests (see
below).
However
when running OS 9.1 and comparing the dual processor upgrade
to a single G4 card, speed improvement in most tests was less
dramatic. This is because most applications running under
OS 9.1 are not dual processor savvy, meaning that they do
not breakdown tasks to run concurrently on each processor.
The exceptions, in our test suite, are CineBench 2000 (Raytracing),
SoundJam and (theoretically) Photoshop. In our testing CineBench
was the most dual processor aware program, turning in a score
that was slightly 1.7 times better than when the machine was
running off a single G4 processor. SoundJam showed between
a 20-23% speed improvement over the single processor setup,
and Photoshop, advertised as a dual processor aware program,
showed very little speed improvement, when operating under
a dual processor environment. Either we are not choosing Photoshop
filters that take advantage of dual processors, or Photoshop's
dual processor prowess has been greatly exaggerated.
According to both Apple and XLR8 not only will the OS itself
take advantage of dual processors, but since this support
is built into the OS, any Carbon or Cocoa application will
take advantage of dual processors as a matter of course. As
David Reynolds of XLR8 put it to us "Developers have
to do essentially nothing. the MACH kernel [of OS X] is the
real reason for this. Carbon and Cocoa applications 'should'
spawn tasks, which can then be spread across multiple processors."
At the moment the XLR8 software that drives the MACh Velocity
card does not support dual processors when running under OS
X. You can still run OS X but only one processor will function
(the left one). XLR8 says that this should be rectified within
a month or two.
Once we got through XLR8's round of beta drivers to the finished
version (2.0), stability of the upgrade was excellent.
Conclusions
Who should consider buying a dual processor card at this
point? Those that make extensive use of dual processor savvy
applications (you know who you are) and those on the bleeding
edge that are looking forward to the rush of OS X applications
that should appear in the coming year. For the rest of us
it might make more sense to purchase the MACh Velocity MPe
card with only one processor for the time being.This will
allow you to take advantage of all the extra processing power
a high-speed G4 processor will give you, while you wait for
the OS X situation evolve to the point where adding a second
G4 processor will make more sense. Apple has made it quite
clear that dual processors are the wave of the future. The
dual processor support built into OS X establishes this, and
the fact that the next round of Tower machines should sport
dual processors, hits it home. So purchasing a dual processor
capable upgrade card should position you well for the future.
At $1,279, this dual processor card is pricy ( a single processor
version will set you back $769), but is about half of what
it would cost you to buy a new
dual processor G4/533 computer from Apple. XLR8 also sells
the dual processor card at 400MHz ($929) and 450MHz ($999)
speeds.
The tests below are from our suite of real world application
tests. These tests feature a diverse selection of applications
commonly used by the Mac community. The test suite was designed
to render an accurate and well rounded picture of performance.
Click
here for detailed information on each test and our machine's
configuration. All of the tests below (with the exception
of the Quake III & Cinebench 2000 tests) were timed with
a stopwatch. The times are then converted to percentages relative
to our base Blue & White G3/350 machine which is set to
100%. For all scores, higher numbers are better. Absolute
scores for most tests can be found below this section.
Finder Tests
AppleWorks 6 Tests
Quake III Tests
Actual frame rates for all configurations
listed below this section.
Photoshop 6 & Other Data Crunching Tests
Encoding/Decoding Tests
Actual Scores
In Seconds except for the Quake (fps) and
CineBench 2000 scores
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