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Good morning all!
Have a question that I can't seem to find any specific info on. What I'm wondering is this, will a Dual 1GHz processor card from a Quicksilver work on an older 466MHz Digital Audio machine. Both have the 133MHz bus, and the connectors are the same. I understand that there is some need for external trickle power to the Dual processor board, but where would I get the correct info for this? What modifications, if any, would I need to accomplish. I'm fairly certain you understand what I'm wanting to do. Of course, I want a smokin' dual 1GHz for cheap (LOL), like most of us, or would I be better off getting a commercial upgrade such as Sonnet, Giga Designs, Mercury, or OWC? Any guidance or links to the tech stuff concerning this sort of upgrade, would be greatly appreciated.
CoonAz
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You can look on Xlr8yourmac for more info, both in the published articles and the CPU Upgrades Database. I remember there was some hacking up one had to do to the daughtercard of a Quicksilver CPU to make it work in a Digital Audio machine, but I only recall people doing that for single processors and not duals.
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Yeah, this is pretty easy to do--I dropped an 867Mhz CPU into my 466Mhz.
Here's the deal: the 466 motherboard has 3 posts to mount the CPU on. You'll mount the dual 1Ghz on those three, and then run a 12v line to the fourth hole. The fourth post in the QS runs the 12V to the board, but there's no fourth post in the DA.
The easiest way to do is is to get 12V from the power lines running to the hard drives. You need to get little Y cord/, which is usually used to get power extra hard drives when the you've run out of power outlets for them. The Y cord plugs into the existing power outlet (little white block of plastic mounted on four wires, usually), and then gives you two outlets. You run one to your existing hard drive, and take the 12V line (usually yellow, use meter to check) from the other outlet to the fourth mounting hole. I just snipped the 12V line loose with a wire cutter, stripped the insulation off the end, ran it through the fourth mounting hole, and then twisted it back around itself, very tightly. I didn't solder it, and haven't needed to, once I realized that it needs to be twisted very tightly. It came loose one time, and my DA wouldn't boot. I retwisted it, very tightly, and have had no problems for years.
Obviously, use really good static control (I'd get one of those wrist grounding strips, myself), don't do any wire cutting over the motherboard, and all should be well.
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Thanks for the replys and insight about upgrading my DA with the Dual 1GHz processor. I will be trying it here shortly. Still, I would like some sort of a link that gives some visuals. I've never done these before and don't want to kill my DA G4 (LOL).
CoonAZ
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There used to be something on www.xlr8yourmac, but I couldn't find it. Look around there, and you'll find stuff for upgrading an AGP G4, but I couldn't find the DA stuff.
Have you ever installed RAM or an HD, or swapped a CPU? It's not much harder than that.
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Oh, and if you want to sell that dual 1Ghz CPU instead, I'm interested....
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 Anonymouse 1, thanks for the thoughts about the Dual 1 GHz processor, but I'm not selling it. About a week ago I came across a rather great find. It was a QS powersupply (344w/22 pin), and I got it for a dollar. It appears to work, too, as I get trickle voltage at the #4 pin. This is where Apple said to test it, and if I had voltage there, then chances are the unit was probably good. All I need now is to locate a QS case and a good QS MB to build one, so I think i'll hang on to it if I'm not able to upgrade my DA. Thanks for the offer though.
I also tried to locate the upgrade articles for a DA at xlr8yourmac and couldn't find them either. Still, thanks again for your assistance with this. I'll post once I get it done and let you know how it came out.
CoonAz
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