Quicksilver 733 processor upgrade

[proxy]

Okay,

So I received my Gigadesign 1ghz processor upgrade (~$400 at OWC) for my QS733 and I am very very pleased. Snappy screen and meters, been using cpu at 75% with no overload, C4 and L2 strapped accross the Master, 32 tracks and its still happy.

Installation was not too bad. Be careful removing your heat sink (and don't throw it away, you may want it later). Also, my documentation implied that I didn't need to reinstall the original fan, but the online instructions have an extra line that says "Reinstall the original fan!". This may seem obvious in hindsight, but the new cpu has a fan right on it, and the printed installation instructions essentially end with "screw in the cpu, close the cover, boot up and check it out". Which is fine, until you work for 4 hours and crash because your G4 is all but ablaze. Anyway - I reinstalled the fan and it works great now. I rarely crash, and when I do, its usually from doing too many things at once.

I initially overclocked to 1.2ghz, but reverted after my fan-less crash episode. The crashes were probably from the heat and not the extra 200mhz, but I didn't want to take any chances. The amazing thing was that clocking it back "down" to 1ghz didn't really make much of a difference, further reinforcing the idea that the big bottleneck in the 733's is the lack of L3 cache.

This has been a great way to extend the life of my computer and I can already tell it is well worth the price.

- Proxy