[G4] G4 350 boost!

[John Niven]

Thought I'd report on my G4 AGP 350MHz upgrading on
the cheap.

This machine is an early UNI-N revision 3 so can't
take a dual upgrade. So I found a single 733MHz CPU
card and heatsink, from a QuickSilver, I think, on
ebay for a total of $50.51. Doesn't seem to  have a L3
cache.

The 733 daughter card is bigger than the 350. You have
to remove the DVDrom/Zip ATA connector to get it to
fit. Others have de-soldered it and directly soldered
the cable to the PCB. As I am using SCSI drives via an
ATTO UL3D PCI card, I just snipped the ATA connector
pins off and re-routed the DVDrom cable to the free
main ATA/66 plug.  If you are using a PCI ATA
interface (to get big drives) you could do the same.

The heatsink is too big also. I hacksawed off one half
so it looks a bit like the original. Seems to work OK,
but I might fit a fan if that becomes necessary.

As is the new CPU runs at 550MHz. That's because its
multiplier is set as 5.5 times the system bus. 

133.3MHz X 5.5 = 733MHz but 100.0MHz X 5.5 = 550MHz

So I got out my iron and moved one resistor
(instructions on-line) to make the multiplier it's
maximun of X 8.0.  Now my CPU runs at 800MHz!!!

So far it seems OK and is not getting hot. Not a bad
way to boost an aging AGP!!!!!

John


 
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