Guest Review of NewerTECH MAXpowr G3 PDS 210 for 6100

Macs Only! Guest Review:

MAXpowr G3 PDS

Model 210 for the 6100 Series

by Sam Di Matteo

Company: Newer Technology, Inc.

Price: $489 (MacConnection)

Pros: Greatly increased speed with no re-configuring and no learning curve.

Cons: It does not work with the DOS cards that were original equipment in some of the 6100's. Scrolling speed not increased. Will not run Mac OS X.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

August 3, 1998

It was a cold day in February and I was sitting at my trusty, but slow 6100/60. I was pondering the purchase of one of the left-over Power Computing Clones or a UMAX system. Three of my friends had just purchased new Clones. They were fast, stable and in stock.

At the time, the Power Computing and UMAX systems could be had for less then $1,000. I was seriously considering one of these systems. Two of these friends had purchased PowerBase 240's. Another friend had ordered a Mactell Clone that was running at 200 MHz.

After playing Riven and MYTH on their machines I was filled with envy. Here, I had been a Mac addict for years and for less then $1,000 three of my friends had the fastest Macs I had ever used.

That's when I read about the NewerTECH MAXpower G3 PDS upgrade card for the first generation PowerMacs. As soon as I saw it in a catalog (February), I ordered a MAXpowr G3 PDS 210 for my aging 6100/60AV. It was right after the Macworld Expo SF '98, where the NewerTECH upgrade cards were unveiled and won the best of show award.

It was six months later that I finally received the card I had been waiting with anticipation for. Well, now I have my revenge. My MAXpowr came on July 10,1998. I felt like a proud poppa. I was able to keep the system that was on my desk for more then four years, and I would have the speed of the first PowerMac G3's.

Okay, we are only talking about a computer, but I had previously done everything that was possible to speed up my computer. I had added an Apple AV card to remove the video from the system. I had installed the maximum amount of RAM (72 MB). I have read that there are 64MB RAM chips for the 6100 but I have not heard of anyone having used them, maybe more about these later. I added an L2 cache of 512k. I added a 1.2 GB hard drive, and a 24x external CD-ROM drive. As you can see everything else is new except the motherboard, power supply and case.

Now my 6100 could run almost anything: Microsoft Office 98, Riven, MYTH, Photoshop and most other CPU intensive programs. The only problem was these programs just did not run as fast as they should or were meant to. Well, all that has changed now. I can run anything out there and at speeds faster than most other Mac's.

Specifications

The Maxpowr G3 PDS CPU upgrade card contains, as you probably guessed, a G3 (PowerPC 750) processor (CPU). The CPU runs at 210 MHz with 512k backside cache running at 105 MHz, a 2:1 ratio. The upgraded model runs at 240MHz with 1 MB of backside cache running at 160 MHz., a faster 3:2 ratio. However, the actual processor speeds are based on a ratio to the speed of the system bus in the original PowerMac. The backside cache speed is a fixed ratio to the processor speed. The Table below has more info.

Original CPU/Bus Speeds (MHz)	Model 210 CPU/Bus Speeds (MHz)	Model 240 CPU/Bus Speeds (MHz)
60/30	210/105	240/160
66/33	214/107	247/165
80/40	220/110	240/160
110/33	214/107	250/166
110/37	220/110	238/158

Documentation

The documentation was the best that I have seen in any manual or set of instructions. They are easy to read, and follow. They lead you through the process and have real life pictures so you can compare them to your own as you work your way through the instructions. I would hope that anyone else that is looking to print instructions would use this as an example of how to do it right.

The Computer

Here are the specifications for my computer:

• Power Mac 6100/60 (1995)
• 60 MHz 601 PowerPC
• 512k L2 looksee cache
• 72 MB Ram
• 2MB VRAM on Apple AV card
• 1.2 MB Quantum Hard Drive
• Mac OS 8.1
• LibMotoSH math library extension enabled
• RAM Doubler 2
• 2048k Disk Cache enabled
• 15 Apple AV MultiScan monitor

Installation and Set Up

The installation is not very hard but it feels more overwhelming than it really is. This is especially so if you have a video card in the PDS slot.

The first thing I would recommend would be to read the entire installation directions before beginning. The next thing is to follow the directions. You are probably not Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor so do exactly what they say. NewerTECH designed this upgrade card and they tested it and re-tested it. That is why we had to wait so long for this card.

Second, start your computer and load the software that is provided. The extension enables the G3 processor. Without this software you will only get the speed of the 6100's 60 MHz PowerPC 601 which remains in the computer.

I have an AV card so the process is a little more complicated. The first thing I needed to do was to remove the AV card from the Processor Direct Slot (PDS). The AV card just lifts out by pulling it up by the bracket and card, being careful to minimize any rocking motion.

Next comes the hardest part of this whole installation. Because I have a 512k L2 cache card I had to remove it. According to Newer's Tech support, removal of the L2 cache chip is difficult--you have to pull hard but the infamous "not to hard." Grab the L2 cache chip at both ends and pull it out evenly. Once this chip is out, then you have to pull the ROM chip out and put it in the slot where the cache came from. Basically you need to take the ROM chip which is in the slot closest to the PDS slot and place it in the next slot further away. NewerTECH's Support said this is because the G3 gives off some heat and the ROM chip being that close could cause some problems.

After you have done those two things, if you have a 6100 without the AV card, then you just push the MAXpowr card into the PDS slot and you are done.

If you have the AV card, as I do, things become a little more complicated but as long as you are careful and are not in a rush things will be fine. The process requires that you remove the riser card from the L bracket that it is attached to. It has three screws holding the AV card to the bracket. You need to remove them and then pull the AV card from the Riser. After this you need to remove the two screws that hold the riser to the bracket. Take the new processor and screw it to the bracket, the same way the riser came out. Slide the AV card into the slot on the top of the processor and screw the three screws that hold it to the bracket. When this is done, place the Processor card into the PDS slot.

That is it. You have just nearly quintupled the speed of your computer.

Performance

The fun began as soon as the G3 extension loaded on startup, when the processor speed, cache speed and the ratio were displayed in the extension. After it loaded the extensions began to fly across the screen. I cut one minute of startup time by moving the G3 extension to the front of the load order by putting a space in front of its name.

Using the MacBench 4.0 scores as a reference, my computer is almost five times faster than before installing the upgrade. And the floating point is almost four times faster. See the Table below for the actual scores.

Table 2. -- MacBench 4.0 Scores

CPU/Cache Size	Processor Score	Floating Point Score
MAXpowr 210/512	533	655
My 6100 60/512	112	174
Stock 6100 60/256	100	100

In raw feel, my computer react's faster. Everything but the scrolling seems to have increased greatly. The scrolling of windows still seems slower than PowerBase's that I have used. The up side is that PhotoShop opens in less then 30 seconds, Microsoft Word in less then 20 seconds.

Quark and Freehand redraw much faster then previously. These are all impressions that are hard to translate into numbers, but the keeper is that Real PC 2.0 with Windows 3.11 loaded, and now it will actually run and allow you to play games. Previously, it would just sit there, it would load, but it was unusable.

Games play so much faster and easier, MYTH was hard to play before because it was slow, now it is even more fun. Civilization II use to take 1 1/2 hours to play a short game, now it takes less then an hour because the game has speeded up. Riven and MYST are both much faster and easier to play because of the speed.

Conclusions

This card is just what the doctor ordered for the first generation of Power Mac's. You have devoted lots of time and energy to building your system just the way you like it. Well, now you can have your cake and, guess what, you can eat it too. This is one of the simplest solutions in the world. Everything you have will work. You don't have to reconfigure your system or even upgrade to Mac OS 8. The manual lists only that the LibMoto extension requires System 7.5 as the base OS. However, I have not tried any other OS but 8.1. This card has had no problem since I put it in. I have not had one crash since installation. All I get is more speed, and better response.

Think of it this way, you upgrade your first generation Power Mac to G3 speed and you can wait until that speedy G4 comes out, which won't be long. So if you want to get more use out of you first generation Power Mac, this is the card for you. It is easy to install and everything else about your system will remain the same, just more speed and better response. What else would you need?

Copyright © 1998 by Bill Fox.
All rights reserved--no commercial use permitted without attribution.

Of course . . . . . . and I am proud to be an Evangelista! . . .