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Power Up That iMac

Posted by Hemos on from the pump-it-up dept.

JimRay writes: "A company called powerlogix has announced that they are offering a G-3 upgrade for those fruity iMacs. For a mere US$500, you can have an iMac running at 500mhz with 1mb of backside cache. Throw linuxPPC on that thing and you're ready to rock and roll. The press release is here and the specs are here."

3 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. I'm a lot more interested in their cheaper upgrade by jht · · Score: 4

    For $300, you get a 400MHz board with 512k of cache - a much better deal for most. $500 to upgrade an older Rev. A through D iMac isn't such a big whoop, when you're constrained to Rage Pro graphics and a 66 MHz system bus. But for $300 (OK, $299), it's a nice way to kick a little life into the old iMac. I may get one for my wife's iMac, and then set her up with ViaVoice once she has the processor to chew through it properly.

    Just to point it out, the current 2.0 iMacs run at 350 and 400 MHz, but with a 100 MHz system bus and the ability to use standard SDRAM DIMMs (not the laptop SO-DIMMs the older ones use). This processor upgrade is only for the older ones.

    The one other thing to keep in mind is that Apple is almost a lock to announce new iMacs at Macworld next month, given that the current line dates back to October with no changes since then. At the very least, expect a speed bump in the current models, with possibly more RAM added, and maybe things like a DVD added to the low end model and price cuts as well. Apple makes a lot of profit on iMacs, relative to most low-end systems.

    - -Josh Turiel

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    -- Josh Turiel
    "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  2. Sorry, but you got your info screwed up... by Racher · · Score: 4

    I'm sorry but Powerlogix doesn't do that with the daughter cards, you are thinking of Newer Technologies. They do that with the daughter cards, this post is incorrect. PowerLogix pulls the ROM off the original board and flashes it onto their upgrade board.

    CPU upgrades for the iMac have been around for a long time, the one from Powerlogix is actually semi-normal, instead of mailing off your daughter baord to be used in another upgrade.


    ...and I'm not sure we should trust this Kyle Sagan either.

  3. More Information and Useful Links by MacSlash · · Score: 4

    Over at MacSlash we covered the news last week in this story. We've got some more details, and some good links for more information.

    Another thing to keep in mind is that Newer Technologies makes a pretty sweet iMac upgrade, too. Their videotape installation makes it easy to pop in and go, although it's only 466 mhz, as opposed to the 500 discussed in the article above.

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    MacSlash: Your Daily Dose of Mac News and Discussion.