The PowerJolt CPU card contains a IBM or Motorola 266 Mhz PowerPC 750 CPU and 1MB of backside cache running at the full processor speed. The PowerJolt's heatsink design is unique in that it contacts the cache chips in an effort to provide increased cooling, although I was unable to determine if this was a benefit.

The 4ns cache is a major factor in the cost of this card, as these chips are said to be about $300 each. Although the 5ns cache equipped XLR8 266/177 card also ran 300/300 reliably, I still consider the 4ns cache on this card a plus.

Components Verified:
To ensure I was not sent a "ringer", I removed the heatsink to check the CPU and cache on the card. This particular card had a Motorola 266mhz CPU and IBM 4ns rated cache. As MacTell had claimed, the cache on the card was faster than other 1:1 cache speed G3 CPU cards I've seen recently (most use 5ns) and the same speed as my first production run PowerForce 250 card. I also talked with one other PowerJolt owner who also verified that his card had 4ns cache.

Since the cache chips had thermal paste covering them (for better heat transfer to the heatsink) I did not want to remove it for photographing the cache/cpu as I didn't have any thermal compound on hand at the moment.

Workmanship:
As with all recent production G3 cards I've seen, quality of workmanship was very good, with no cold solder joints, no jumper wires, cut traces, or other modifications that would indicate a design change after the pwb was manufactured. The heat sink made good contact with the CPU (and cache) and thermal compound was used for improved heat transfer. I caution owners of the PowerJolt to not over-tighten the heatsink - as due to the contact with the cache and the use of two nylon spacers on one end of the heatsink, it might be possible to over-tighten the heatsink and place too much stress on the cpu/cache chips (which would be increased as temperatures rise during use).

Since the Apple G3 systems have far more hardware compatibility issues than the PowerForce card, I do not deduct points for this. There are many other choices of SCSI cards that do work with the PowerForce, including the winner of my SCSI tests - the HammerStorage Jackhammer. If you currently use a Adaptec SCSI card, this is something to consider however.

The hardware design was reliable in use at accelerated speeds, had good adjustability and used slightly faster (more expensive) cache than other designs. For these reason I rated the hardware a 9.

The next page contains a summary and final comments on the product and pricing.