[CUBE] PM G4 Cube - Upgrade or not!?

[Allan Hise]

On Fri, 28 May 2004, Luis Meleiro wrote:

> >>> luis_meleiro at cilsp.com - 2004/05/27 09:59 AM >>>
> Listers,
>
> I finaly afforded the money to upgrade my PM G4 Cube, but I'm still (a
> bit) hesitant regarding the upgrade. Knowing that nowadays PL has the
> speedest chip in the upgrade market for Cubes (1,35GHz), I've decided
> that once I am decided, I'll buy one from them. So I would first like to
> have YOUR feedback... nice people who've upgraded (or not) and is
> willing to share some wise advice.
>
> Do 1,35GHz upgraded PM G4 Cubes wake up from sleep properly?

I have had the PL 1.4 GHz for a few months now.
I have had no problems with wake from sleep.

> As I can't seem to find additional info on this, do we have to press
> CUDA button before the first start up?

I am pretty sure that you do.

> I still have the need of (rarely) booting up in Mac OS 9 so, do the
> firmware upgrade (provided by PL) works?

I have never booted into 9 on this machine, so I can't answer that.

> Is the fan provided by PL (noise) noticeable, or is it normal/discreet?

It is quiet. If I have any ambient noise in the room, I don't hear it. For
example, if my window is open (I don't have air conditioning), the noise
from outside (and I live on a mostly quiet street) drowns out the fan.

When I do hear it, it is a low annoyance fan, unlike most PC fans.

> And is there a way to put the fan working only above certain (risky)
> temperature(s), or does it have to stay working all the time (while not
> asleep)?

It is always on.

I may have a bad board or am stressing the cube with the PL 1.4, 120GB
Seagate 7200 drive and a GeForce IIMX, because sometimes the cube
unexpectadly locks up. It may be a SW issue, however, I don't really know.
Usually if it locks, it locks during heavy operations (often while using
Nikon Capture, which I originally thought was the cuplrit), but sometimes
it has locked up while completely idle.

Before I blame the upgrade card, however, I plan on reinstalling panther
to be sure I don't have an OS issue, and maybe even puttging the Rage128
back in.

Allan