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Top stories of Dec. 29th, 2000: |
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| My Phone Conversations with XLR8 and Newer Tech Today: |
| Jack Kolk, VP and General Manager of XLR8 called today to assure me they are alive and well, and will be showing their MPe ZIFs and CarrierZIF 2/MPe upgrades at their suite at Macworld S.F. next month. With the news of Newer Tech closing, he wanted to say that XLR8, while being somewhat "quiet" this year, is in the Mac upgrade market for the long haul with support from Tripp-Lite, their parent company. (Note: See the G4 reviews page for tests of their dual G4 in a Beige G3)
I also called Roger Kasten, VP of Newer Technology today who promised to send a "Farewell Letter" later today thanking both customers and employees of Newer Tech, along with comments on Newer Tech and the industry in general. [See the later news update above for details.]
Although readers have often written to say they can't find Powerlogix Bluechip upgrades in stock, today they sent a press release saying 2000 was a great year for them and noting they expect good sales for 2001. Although not as well known in the USA as other brands, MetaBox is also said to be healthy.
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| My Take On Why Upgrade Companies Are Hurting This Year |
While on the subject, although some may disagree, in my opinion the lack of faster CPUs (G3 or G4s above 500Mhz) in the last year or more has affected sales of all "name brand" cpu upgrade companies. With the flood of low-cost, OEM G3/450 ZIFs in the last year or so, without significantly faster CPU upgrades available, the sales of more expensive name brand upgrades has dropped in my opinion, affecting the bottom line of all upgrade companies. (Apple's new system pricing compared to the initial prices on many of the faster G3 and G4 upgrades also affected sales of course, since some were initially priced over 1/2 the cost of a new G4 system.) Let's hope 2001 sees availability of both faster G4s (7410s) and IBM's 750CX (G3 w/on-die full speed cache) available to upgrade companies as well as Apple.
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| Reader Reports Voodoo3 B13 ROM Allows Deep Sleep: |
| I asked the reader that originally reported that the shareware Sleeper utility allowed his G4 to go into deep sleep mode with a Voodoo3 card installed if he had tested with just the B13 ROM update. He replied that the B13 ROM update alone appears to have enabled deep sleep mode:
"
Mike,
It appears that it is indeed the B13 ROM that allows the deep sleep. I
never would have guessed it. The documentation with the B13 ROM was
practically nil. I would have thought what I consider a major feature
like this would have been mentioned.
I "believe" I've removed all of Sleeper and its settings, but you never
know with some of these sneaky programs. Maybe you can coax someone with
a B13 ROM and a "clean" (not have had Sleeper installed) system to
verify the results.
Regards,
John Macdonald
"
I've added these comments to the B13 Voodoo3 update feedback page.
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| Radeon and Falcon 4 Fix Coming Soon: |
I didn't get to test Falcon 4 in my review of the Radeon graphics card, but
there have been reports in the Forums here previously on the problems with the Radeon and that game The good news is that I have tested a beta driver update for the Radeon that runs Falcon 4. I can't post these drivers or send them to others of course (for legal reasons), but my contact says that the update will be released around the time of MWSF in early January.
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| Mac Drive Compatibility Database Updates: |
| The Drive Compatibility searchable database had 9 new entries posted this morning (current total 2,314). Entries from after midnight are added the following day. Note: I've added "Firewire to SCSI Adapter" as an interface type. I welcome reports on drives used with adapters. (Please note the adapter brand/model and if the drive was bootable in your comments.)
DVD ROM Drives:
- IDE Pioneer DVD-114 in B&W G3
CDROM Drives:
- SCSI Plextor PX-32CSi (32x max) in G4/AGP (w/2930 card)
CDRW Drives:
- Firewire to SCSI Adapter w/SCSI Plextor 820T (8x20 CDR) and G4/AGP
- Firewire Sony Spressa CRX 1600L iLink (12x8x32) w/G4 AGP
- IDE LG CED-8080B (8x/4x/32x) in B&W G3
(filed under "other brands")
Hard Drives:
- IDE IBM 75GXP 30GB in Umax C600
- IDE IBM 75GXP 45GB in Beige G3
(notes reboot drive start issue)
- Firewire Maxtor 80GB w/PowerCenter Pro (w/PCI Firewire card)
(noted some freezes - I sugged trying the free Heat Utils driver)
- IDE Seagate 28GB (x2) in Umax S900 (w/PCI IDE RAID card)
You can find these full reports by searching the database with the drive/brand/mac models listed above selected (the latest reports are shown first in searches).
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database.
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| Rate Your CPU Upgrade Database Updates: |
| The Rate Your CPU Upgrade database has been updated with 8 new report (total to date: 4,990). [Entries from after midnight will be added the following day.]
- Metabox G3/260 in Starmax 4000/160 (rated 10)
- OWC G4/466 ZIF in Beige G3 (rated 3)
- PowerLogix G3/350 in PowerCenter Pro 210 (rated 10)
- PowerLogix Zforce w/G3 400 ZIF in 7500/100 (rated 7)
- Sonnet G3/350 in Starmax 3000 (rated 9)
- Sonnet G3/400 in 7100/66 (rated 8)
- Sonnet G3/400 in 7600/200 (rated 10)
- Apple B&W G3/400 OC report
You can find these full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand)
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