Installing the Software:

The PowerForce G3 ZIF comes with a Cache Control Panel and their SpeedMeter utility (reporting CPU/Cache/bus speed and CPU temperature) on a floppy disk. You simply copy the control panel to your system folder, copy the SpeedMeter util. anywhere you like (I put it in the Apple Menu Items folder). Open the control panel, select your card model and select the cache speed and click the "Enable Now" backside cache button. Check off 'enable cache at startup' so that it will be enabled every time you start up.

Cache Control:

The PowerForce G3 ZIF upgrade shipped with v1.4 of the PowerForce Cache Control. You simply select the proper card and set the cache ratio to 1.5:1 and check the 'enable cache on restart' and you're done. Make sure you select the ZIF model, since the text that identifies that model from the PowerForce 400 CPU card for PCI macs is too long to be displayed in the standard dropdown menu after selection. Selecting the wrong model can result in the cache hanging the system when you first enable it. I'd like to see a wider control panel area so that the full text of the selected model is visible (see below for an example).

SpeedMeter:

The SpeedMeter utility displays the current CPU speed, backside cache speed, system bus speed, cache size, and processor temperature. As shown below the low voltage, copper design 400MHz G3 CPU never exceeded 34 degrees C after hours of running applications and benchmarks. The 400MHz CPU ran about 20 degrees C cooler than the 300MHz stock CPU.

Software controls were easy to use and the card itself had only one control knob which made it a snap to configure. I deducted one point for the fact the full text of each setting was not visible in the control panel. This would be a minor change and would allow easier verification of settings at a glance.

The next page describes the documentation and installation instructions supplied with the card. Or you may use the links below to jump to a specific page.