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= View Recent Site Features List = - Freq. Asked Questions (FAQ) - - Systems Features - - CPU Card Articles - - SCSI/Disk Articles - - Video Card Articles - - Audio Articles - - Game Related Articles - - Tips & Misc Articles - - L2 Cache Articles -	Need Help? Ask the Men in Mac! PF 400MHz ZIF Upgrade Review for G3 Macs! XLR8 400MHz G3 Upgrade Review Visit the G3-ZONE for G3 Specific info! Bring in the Noise! (Mac Audio) Complete Site Contents Send News items, Tips and Guest Reviews Advertise here! - Help support Accelerate Your Mac!
12/23/98 - Wednesday's News:	Click for Current News Page
$479 G3/300/150/1MB in Stock: Other World Computing just sent word they have received the $479 G3/300/150/1MB ZIF upgrades noted here a few days ago. Apparently pre-orders have sold all but about 100 they say. " Our stock of the G3/300mhz Zif product has arrived. These are brand new IBM parts, 3yr Warranty, 30 Day Money Back. Compatible with All G3 Desktops, Minitowers, Servers, and All In One Models; Its a great way to upgrade your existing 233/512 or 266/512 to a higher level of performance. After existing pre-orders were filled, we have about 100 pieces left available. First come, first served. Price includes Fed Ex Standard Overnight delivery. OWC Inventory part number is Z300IBM. Best Regards, Larry Other World Computing 800-275-4576 www.macsales.com " [NOTE: CPU upgrade prices/availability change over time - see their specials page for the latest listing and the CPU upgrades page for the latest reviews.] George Cole of Bottom Line sent a note that the Voodoo2 cards have not arrived yet and the MC production dept was closed today due to ice (weather conditions). I'll keep you posted when they arrive. = 11:30 PM Update = I noticed that Sam's Club here in Charlottesville has the Maxtor 13.6GB IDE drive for $279.95. Their sales come and go, so not sure how long it will last. They had the Kodak DC260 Digial Camera for $799 last month (lowest price I've seen), but now it's back up to $849 Another Source of IDE to SCSI Adapter: Tony Wong found another IDE to SCSI adapter dealer that appears to be the same hardware as today's earlier post but they have a US toll-free number. See I-O Data's IDSC20 product page. Note it mentions it's designed to work with devices in 5.25" bays. I suspect it plugs into the IDE drive connector (vs a IDE cable) and needs that size bay for clearance due to the circuit board width of the adapter. This would also minimize circuit paths (cable lengths). I-O Data also has a Compatibility Page for the adapter listing IDE drives, DVD Roms and PC SCSI cards. Bottom Line has a limted time sale on the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus drive featured in my G3 IDE Upgrade article . Special good from 12/23 to 12/24 Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 2500 10GB IDE Int. Drive Our Part Number : 646500 Selling Price : $295.98 Specials Price: $289.99 Happy holidays from all of us at Bottom Line! Carmine's (MiM) [Yo!HoHo] News Feed (links may not be valid in the future) AppleTIL Updates (WEDNESDAY.12.23.98)  Drive Setup: Checking For Bad Blocks  Macintosh: Scan Rates for Monitors  QuickTime: User Tips  Apple HD SC Setup: Checks for Bad Blocks And More  iMac: Slight Delay After Firmware Update  PowerBook: "The Game" DVD Does Not Run  Holiday 1998 Telephone Support Hours (USA)  Support Professional: Description  Mac OS Up-To-Date: Qualifying Computers  Open Transport 1.0.8 Read Me  About iMac Firmware Update  Power Macintosh G3: CD Update 1.0 Read Me Christmas `cookies' greet Web consumers (Yahoo) Countdown to year-end Web privacy deadline (Yahoo) Low grades for Internet privacy efforts (Yahoo) MCI WorldCom(TM) Hit by Computer Virus (Yahoo) Danger on the Net? (News.Com) U.S. calls for wireless competition (News.Com) IBM slapped with Y2K suit (Yahoo) Live Picture out of focus? (News.Com) Linux: the Next Windows? Certainly not-yet. But it's something to keep an eye on. (TechWeb) Top Tech Stories of the year (ZDNet) = 2:00 PM Update = IDE to SCSI Adapter: Edward L. Kiselovski sent a link to a Black Fire IDE to SCSI adapter (their $139 IDSC20). Since most Macs have 10MB/sec onboard SCSI the latest IDE drives won't run their best with such a device (assuming it works in a Mac) but it might be of interest to someone. Check out the Black Fire product page at: http://www.blackfire.com.au/ide2scsi.html Mac Magic Contest: Rather than some random drawing we decided to award the card to the reader that sent the best one paragraph description on how the Mac has improved or changed their life. Send your entry to: Frank Bernier. The winner will be announced on New Year's Eve. The Unreal Maps of the Week page has been updated as well as the main Unreal news page. TheiMac.com has posted a Holiday Buyers Guide: Games and Peripherals NEC Monitor/3Dfx cards: Duane posted a tip in my 3Dfx Message Board for those having problems with this combo: " I've found an odd issue when using 3DFX (VooDoo I/II) passthrough accelerators with NEC Monitors and the provided mode sense adapters, as well as a resolution: When I installed my Game Wizard card in my G3 accelerated PowerMac 7500 and booted up, my monitor stayed in sleep mode (detected no active signal from the computer). After a number of different guesses, I borrowed the univeral monitor adapter from my roomate's Mac (it's an all Mac house). Once I set the dip switches to the proper mode settings, I booted up and everything worked great! I hope this helps others out, because it sure drove me nuts for a good 15 minutes (the most trouble I've EVER had with Mac peripherals...). " The FAQ has a 3dfx video card section with other info including a link to Griffin's cable/adapter kit. Quake II for Mac OS X Server Released: Frank Bernier sent a note that MacGaming.com is reporting Omnigroup has released Quake II for Mac OS X server. It requires the data files from PC Quake II (pak files I assume) and currently does not support hardware acceleration. Get the 650K package at: ftp://ftp.omnigroup.com//pub/software/MacOSX/Quake2.19-1998-12-22-RDR2.tar.gz Check out Macs Only!'s Hands-On Review: Thrustmaster Fusion Gamepad on iMac by Chris Conlon, Guest Reviewer. Settimio Perlini of Italian site MacProf sent word that the MacOS 8.5.1 update Italian Version is available at Apple's website = 12:00 PM Update = If you missed the midnight update I posted Part 2 of the Apple G3 Maxtor IDE Drive Upgrade article showing performance comparisons between the stock Quantum 6GB drive. More Maxtor IDE drive Feedback: David Ahn reports he had excellent results with the 5400 RPM 17GB Maxtor drive: " you know about my experience with upgrading to the 17.2GB DiamondMax (plain) 5400 RPM drive; with HDT BenchTest, I achieved 11.6MB/s sustained read, and 14.5MB/s sustained write. This is in comparison to the old stock Quantum Fireball ST 4.0GB's already decent 6.9 MB/s and 7.9 MB/s. It may be a limitation of the IDE interface, but I don't see a noticeable difference between my DimaondMax 17.2 and your DiamondMax Plus 10.0's sustained transfer rates. David Ahn " The 17GB may have a higher data density which also boosts transfer rates. In general every test I've read shows the DiamondMax Plus drives (7200 RPM, 512K cache) to be better performers than the std 5400 RPM (often 128K or 256K cache) DiamondMax drives. I've not read a test of the 17GB model however. For $259 for the 10GB Plus drive and a free ZIP (Staples special sale recently, noted here) it was a real bargain. More on Apple's DVD update: I finally got time to download and install the DVD update 1.1 (4.3MB) last night. As noted in the readme, it not only fixed some problems reading certain disks but now it will remember where you stopped a DVD movie so you can resume where you left off. Now you can also put the PB to sleep and still pick up where you left off. It may be my imagination but the image quality also looked better (less jaggies on moving images) but I could be wrong. This is one must have update for DVD owners! Humor of the Day: A reader sent this humorous note on Windows 2000 " Redmond, WA--MS announced today that the official release date for the new operating system "Windows 2000" will be delayed until the second quarter of 1901. " Other Net News: Hot Swapping As Dr. Tim Hillman finds out, sometimes 'Hot Swapping" just leaves you out in the cold. (MacOpinion) Average PC price drops below $1000 Cheapest prices drop, sales climb, and iMac holds its own. (PCWorld) Intel readies chip onslaught CPUs will target everything from mininotebooks to eight-processor servers. (PCWorld) Yesterday's News Summary 10 Favorite Products of 1998 article New Cats-n-Dogs article - year and review and what's ahead in 1999 Apple DVD Update fixes DVD disk playing problems Unreal news page updated Carmine's TIL and net news updates Bottom Line Game Wizard status Apple makes Time's Technology Top Ten Myth II demo Wide SCSI and Printing Issues reader report Apple G3 IDE Drive upgrade article posted Other Net News Please verify your Email address when sending support mail: I'm still getting a few bounces on mail I send to help readers with tech support problems. Please ensure you verify your correct email address (repeat it in the mail as a safety measure). Also, please check the FAQ, and Troubleshooting page for possible solutions first before writing - and please try the Men in Mac Help page as an alternative on requests for tech support to help me be able to spend more time on reviews. Thanks. For other recent site news/features links, see the Recent Site Features page. Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE. News and guest reviews that don't require a reply are always welcome. I hope to catch up in the next few weeks. Thanks. Looking for past articles? Check the menu frame topics links (CPU Cards, SCSI, Graphics Cards, Systems) under the logo above or in the menu frame below or check the Recent Features page. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help. You might save someone from a lifetime of Windows in the bargain.