Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Mercury On-The-Go FW800+USB2 up to 1.0TB. Bus Powered, no external power supply needed. Macworld Editors Choice, CNET Very Good Starting from $99.97, 500GB $159.99. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Daniel's Advice

New Type of G3 Daughter Card

Dan Knight - 1999.05.20

With the Power Mac 7500, 8500, and 9500, Apple introduced a new way of upgrading their computers: the CPU daughter card. Prior to this, all of Apple's upgrades (except for PPC upgrades to 68K Macs) meant changing the system board.

Thanks to a competitive market, there are dozens of daughter card upgrades available for Power Macs, the Umax SuperMac J700 and J700, and several Power Computing models. Although there may still be a few 601- and 604-based cards out there, the vast majority run a G3 processor at speeds between 220 MHz and 400 MHz (see Guide to G3 Daughter Cards for more details).

There have been some incredible values for significantly boosting the performance of older Power Macs while spending under $500.

Until now, when you bought a daughter card upgrade, that was it. Whatever speed it ran at, whatever cache size it had, that's what you had. Period.

That's changed now. PowerLogix and XLR8, undoubtedly soon to be followed by others, have introduced a new kind of daughter card - one that can be upgraded.

The $149 PowerLogix Z-Force and $189 XLR8 Carrier ZIF ship without a CPU or cache. Instead, they have the same ZIF socket used in the Power Mac G3, allowing you to install the ZIF upgrade of your choice.

What kind of sense does that make when $300 buys a card with a G3 already installed?

It could make a lot of sense.

Say you have a Power Mac G3/233 and a Umax SuperMac J700/180. You want to put a faster CPU in both. Buying a 400 MHz ZIF upgrade will make the G3 about 50% faster (for more information, see Guide to G3 ZIF Upgrades).

Then you have the choice: Buy a $300 G3 daughter card for the J700, replacing its 180 MHz 604e, or buy a ZIF daughter card and install the 233 MHz G3 from your Power Mac G3 now, and then a faster CPU next time you upgrade the G3.

First, it saves you $100-150 over the daughter card. Beyond that, next time you replace the CPU in a Power Mac G3, you can move the old CPU into your J700 for free.

The ZIF daughter cards give you the option of upgrading older Macs at no additional future cost when you upgrade Power Mac G3 systems - just put the old CPU assembly in the ZIF card and get two upgrades for the price of one. And ZIF upgrades are easier to design, less expensive to make. (For current bargains, visit DealMac. I've seen 300 MHz ZIP upgrades listed there for under US$200.)

This could also create a market for pulled 233 MHz and 266 MHz ZIF assemblies from older G3 computers. Until now, there was nothing you could do with them after an upgrade, unless you wanted to keep them as spare parts. They don't sell for a great deal but could make it very economical for those of us with older systems to upgrade by buying a ZIF card and a used G3 module.

In the long run, this will also allow companies such as PowerLogix and XLR8 to discontinue the more costly daughter cards, streamline their product lines, and focus on the future with faster G3 ZIF upgrades - and G4s when they become available.

And it looks like G4 upgrades will also work with the ZIF daughter cards.

Now that's an upgrade option!

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

Recent Mac Daniel columns

WiFi Hardware Compatible with Desktop Macs Running OS X, MetaPhyzx, 03.11. USB, ethernet, PCI, and other wireless hardware compatible with Mac OS X.
WiFi CardBus Adapters Compatible with PowerBooks, MetaPhyzx, 03.11. CardBus hardware and drivers compatible with PowerBooks running Mac OS X.
WiFi PC Cards Compatible with PowerBooks Running OS X, MetaPhyzx, 03.11. PCMCIA/PC Card hardware and drivers compatible with PowerBooks running Mac OS X.
WiFi PC Cards for PowerBooks Running Mac OS 9, MetaPhyzx, 03.10. PCMCIA cards and drivers reported to be compatible with PowerBook running the Classic Mac OS.
More in the Mac Daniel index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 15" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based MacBook launched at 1.83-2.0 GHz, had several teething problems.
Group of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
November 22 in LEM history: 99: Gradebooks - 00: Leveraging Apple design - Quadra 630 to Power Mac 5200 - 02: Laptop or desktop? - 04: SuperDuper: Quick, easy, efficient backup - Cross-platform programming for the rest of us - 05: Mac video surveillance on the cheap - Which OS is best for my vintage Mac? - No 'best browser' for the Mac - Sorry state of browsers for classic Macs - 06: Core 2 means cooler running 'Books - 2.0 GHz G4 upgrade
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.17. Used 1.83 GHz, $750; 2.16, $800; 2.33, $900; refurb 2.4, $1,299; 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,899; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 11.17. "Leopard" upgrade, $80; single user license, $135; 5 users, $173; Mac Box Set, 5 users, $230; Server, 10 users, $340; unlimited, $850. Shipping included.
Best Mac mini Deals, 11.16. Used 1.42 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.66 GHz Core Solo, $419; 2.0 Core 2, $450; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $769; Server, $990.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 11.16. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $210; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz, $479; SuperDrive, $498.
Best iPod shuffle Deals, 11.16. Used 1 GB, $35; 4 GB, $65; refurb 1 GB, $39; 2 GB, $59; new 2 GB, $55, 4 GB, $75. New and refurb prices include shipping.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.