Review of OWC Mercury Extreme 1.33GHz CPU Upgrade

A Click shows your site support to my Sponsors

The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews

Review: OWC Mercury Extreme 1.33GHz,
Giga Designs G4/800, 1GHz CPU Upgrades
By Mike Breeden
Published: 6/3/2003

= Links to Review Topics Pages =

Intro | Benchmarks | Apps Tests | Game Tests | Installation | Specs/Design

Introduction

A few weeks ago OWC announced their first AGP model CPU upgrade, the Mercury Extreme 1.33GHz w/2MB DDR L3 cache. Like the Giga Designs models I've reviewed previously, it comes with a pre-attached heatsink and fan, which makes installation very simple and is adjustable for CPU speeds like the Giga models. Also included in this review are comparisons of the Giga Designs G4/800 (w/2MB L3 SDR cache) and 1GHz (w/2MB L3 SDR cache). I had loaned these out to someone that promised to do a review in their G4/350 Tower, but never did. It took over a month for me to get these back, so rather than post a separate review for them I'm including them in this article. See the linked pages of this review for benchmark, apps and game test performance but here's a summary of my opinions on each of these 3 upgrades.
OWC Mercury Extreme: Overall this is the fastest single CPU upgrade I've tested to date, rock solid at 1.33GHz with no wake from sleep issue that I noted in the previous Giga Design 1.25GHz review when it was set to 1.33GHz. The Mercury Extreme was also stable in use at 1.4GHz, although at that speed it would hang on wake from sleep. (This is due to the L3 cache bus speed at that setting - cache control software can help with this by reducing the L3 cache speed.)
Giga Designs G4/800 2MB SDR L3: At about $280 (as of August 27th, 2003 it's $249 at OWC), if you're on a tight budget and have a G4/350-466 Tower this upgrade would be my choice. Adjustable, reliable and easy to install. It's not as fast as the more expensive upgrades, but it's much cheaper and a good value for the money. I didn't really care for the previous G4/800 w/o L3 cache as some apps/games take a big performance drop w/o L3 cache. (See the comparisons in my original G4/800 Giga Designs review on the G4 reviews page.)
Giga Designs G4/1GHz 2MB SDR L3: (Update - a later Giga Designs G4/1GHz model uses a 7455A CPU and is reported by many readers (and OWC) as running at 1.2GHz reliably - for $389.xx now at the site specials page for current pricing and availability.)
This particular early production SDR sample seemed to run very hot and also produced an odor that reminded me of the smell from a cheap monitor. Like the smell of cooking components which gave me a severe headache that lasted for hours. Although it was reliable during the tests run, I suspect the early production sample of this upgrade I received had some sort of defect, based on experince with 5 other Giga Designs upgrades and many owner reports in the database. Every other Giga Design loaner I've reviewed didn't exhibit this and I don't think it's typical. (The 1GHz model has been one of the most popular AGP upgrades.) Given the positive reports in the database and a price of under $420 currently, it's an upgrade worth considering.
(Update I've added a note to the installation page to check that the wire-wound coils (L1 and L2) are not touching the heatsink which is common with ground on the board. This could be why this 1GHz sample ran hot and smelled. The L2 coil is very close to the heatsink and if pressed on could short against the heatsink. Giga Designs as of July 2003 is now shipping upgrades with an insulating pad between L2 and the heatsink.)
As far as fan noise, both the OWC Mercury Extreme and the Giga Designs upgrade fans seemed to have less noise than my Digital Audio's original CPU fan that was removed in the process. However that fan is about 2 years old now, so perhaps it's noisier now than it was when new.

This review compares the performance of:

A Digital Audio (DA) G4/533 Dual CPU
The DA system w/OWC Mercury Extreme 1.33GHz 2MB DDR L3 cache
(at 1.33 and 1.4GHz since readers will be curious if it ran at 1.4GHz)
The DA system w/Giga Designs 1GHz w/2MB SDR L3 cache
The DA system w/Giga Designs G4/800 w/2MB SDR L3 cache,
For full details on the test system's hardware and software, see the system details listing below.
The Giga Designs G4/800 and 1GHz often run 50-100MHz over (but as with any overclock it's not always a sure thing). The relatively small overclock doesn't significantly add to performance and I didn't test higher speeds with the two SDR L3 Giga Design upgrades this time around since I'm very late in returning those upgrades. (The fact the sample 1GHz model seemed to run very hot was another reason, although I have not seen that with other Giga Designs models I have reviewed. I assume it was something odd with that particular early production sample.)
I no longer own any of the older G4 towers to use as test beds, but owners of older AGP towers can run tests described on the review pages to compare their performance to these upgrades.
To see what others thought of their CPU upgrades - you can search the Rate Your CPU upgrade database here for reader reports on most every CPU upgrade by brand and/or mac model. OWC's product pages also link to their comparison tests of AGP CPU upgrades.
Availability/Pricing:
CPU Upgrade pricing/availability can change at any time and prices have dropped since this review was posted in June 2003. See the OWC site specials page (and link there to complete listing of CPU upgrade models) for current pricing and availability.

Review Table of Contents:

Applications Performance: Tests with QT to MPEG4 conversion, iMovie3 quicktime movie export, iTunes4 MP3 encoding, multitasking, and Photoshop 7.0 (50MB image/21 filter tests).

Games Performance: Tests with Jedi Knight II, UT2003 Demo, Unreal Tournament X, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Quake3.

Benchmark Performance: CineBench 2003, Xbench and Altivec Fractal (FPU) test results.

Installation: Comments on installing the upgrade, photos of it installed, etc.

Specs/Design: Details of the upgrade's CPU and Cache, jumper settings, etc..

System Compatibility:
These CPU upgrades are listed as compatible with the following Mac models:

Apple G4/AGP "Sawtooth"
Apple G4/AGP "GigaBit Ethernet"
Apple G4/AGP "Digital Audio"
Apple G4/AGP "Quicksilver"
Apple G4/AGP "Quicksilver 2002"

OS Requirements:
OS 9.2.1 or OS 9.2.2
OS X

Other Owner Experiences: For owner ratings of most every CPU upgrade for any upgradeable Mac, search the Rate Your CPU Upgrade database.
Test System Details:

Apple Digital Audio G4 Tower
Dual 533MHz G4 CPUs (7410) w/1MB SDR L2 cache per CPU
133MHz (SDR) bus w/1GB RAM
Western Digital WD120JB 120GB (20% free space) Hard Drive w/OS 9.2.2 and 10.2.6 installed
Onboard ATA/66 hard drive controller
Pioneer OEM DVR-103 Superdrive
Retail ATI 8500 AGP 64MB graphics card
Quicktime 6.2 (Pro)
Airport active for all tests

Display used was a Sony 19" F400. The hard drive was not optimized. For MP3/CD rip tests, a Lite-on 40125S (40x12x48x) CDRW in a Pyro Firewire case was used.

You can follow my preferred path through the review by continuing to the next page, or use the links below to jump to a specific page.

Index of OWC 1.33GHz/Giga G4/800 and 1GHz Review Pages
Intro | Benchmarks | Apps Tests | Game Tests | Installation | Specs/Design

- or -
Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM

Copyright © 2003.

No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission.
All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies.

Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.

The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews
Review: OWC Mercury Extreme 1.33GHz, Giga Designs G4/800, 1GHz CPU Upgrades By Mike Breeden Published: 6/3/2003
= Links to Review Topics Pages =
Intro \| Benchmarks \| Apps Tests \| Game Tests \| Installation \| Specs/Design
Introduction
A few weeks ago OWC announced their first AGP model CPU upgrade, the Mercury Extreme 1.33GHz w/2MB DDR L3 cache. Like the Giga Designs models I've reviewed previously, it comes with a pre-attached heatsink and fan, which makes installation very simple and is adjustable for CPU speeds like the Giga models. Also included in this review are comparisons of the Giga Designs G4/800 (w/2MB L3 SDR cache) and 1GHz (w/2MB L3 SDR cache). I had loaned these out to someone that promised to do a review in their G4/350 Tower, but never did. It took over a month for me to get these back, so rather than post a separate review for them I'm including them in this article. See the linked pages of this review for benchmark, apps and game test performance but here's a summary of my opinions on each of these 3 upgrades. OWC Mercury Extreme: Overall this is the fastest single CPU upgrade I've tested to date, rock solid at 1.33GHz with no wake from sleep issue that I noted in the previous Giga Design 1.25GHz review when it was set to 1.33GHz. The Mercury Extreme was also stable in use at 1.4GHz, although at that speed it would hang on wake from sleep. (This is due to the L3 cache bus speed at that setting - cache control software can help with this by reducing the L3 cache speed.) Giga Designs G4/800 2MB SDR L3: At about $280 (as of August 27th, 2003 it's $249 at OWC), if you're on a tight budget and have a G4/350-466 Tower this upgrade would be my choice. Adjustable, reliable and easy to install. It's not as fast as the more expensive upgrades, but it's much cheaper and a good value for the money. I didn't really care for the previous G4/800 w/o L3 cache as some apps/games take a big performance drop w/o L3 cache. (See the comparisons in my original G4/800 Giga Designs review on the G4 reviews page.) Giga Designs G4/1GHz 2MB SDR L3: (Update - a later Giga Designs G4/1GHz model uses a 7455A CPU and is reported by many readers (and OWC) as running at 1.2GHz reliably - for $389.xx now at the site specials page for current pricing and availability.) This particular early production SDR sample seemed to run very hot and also produced an odor that reminded me of the smell from a cheap monitor. Like the smell of cooking components which gave me a severe headache that lasted for hours. Although it was reliable during the tests run, I suspect the early production sample of this upgrade I received had some sort of defect, based on experince with 5 other Giga Designs upgrades and many owner reports in the database. Every other Giga Design loaner I've reviewed didn't exhibit this and I don't think it's typical. (The 1GHz model has been one of the most popular AGP upgrades.) Given the positive reports in the database and a price of under $420 currently, it's an upgrade worth considering. (Update I've added a note to the installation page to check that the wire-wound coils (L1 and L2) are not touching the heatsink which is common with ground on the board. This could be why this 1GHz sample ran hot and smelled. The L2 coil is very close to the heatsink and if pressed on could short against the heatsink. Giga Designs as of July 2003 is now shipping upgrades with an insulating pad between L2 and the heatsink.) As far as fan noise, both the OWC Mercury Extreme and the Giga Designs upgrade fans seemed to have less noise than my Digital Audio's original CPU fan that was removed in the process. However that fan is about 2 years old now, so perhaps it's noisier now than it was when new. This review compares the performance of: A Digital Audio (DA) G4/533 Dual CPU The DA system w/OWC Mercury Extreme 1.33GHz 2MB DDR L3 cache (at 1.33 and 1.4GHz since readers will be curious if it ran at 1.4GHz) The DA system w/Giga Designs 1GHz w/2MB SDR L3 cache The DA system w/Giga Designs G4/800 w/2MB SDR L3 cache, For full details on the test system's hardware and software, see the system details listing below. The Giga Designs G4/800 and 1GHz often run 50-100MHz over (but as with any overclock it's not always a sure thing). The relatively small overclock doesn't significantly add to performance and I didn't test higher speeds with the two SDR L3 Giga Design upgrades this time around since I'm very late in returning those upgrades. (The fact the sample 1GHz model seemed to run very hot was another reason, although I have not seen that with other Giga Designs models I have reviewed. I assume it was something odd with that particular early production sample.) I no longer own any of the older G4 towers to use as test beds, but owners of older AGP towers can run tests described on the review pages to compare their performance to these upgrades. To see what others thought of their CPU upgrades - you can search the Rate Your CPU upgrade database here for reader reports on most every CPU upgrade by brand and/or mac model. OWC's product pages also link to their comparison tests of AGP CPU upgrades. Availability/Pricing: CPU Upgrade pricing/availability can change at any time and prices have dropped since this review was posted in June 2003. See the OWC site specials page (and link there to complete listing of CPU upgrade models) for current pricing and availability. Review Table of Contents: Applications Performance: Tests with QT to MPEG4 conversion, iMovie3 quicktime movie export, iTunes4 MP3 encoding, multitasking, and Photoshop 7.0 (50MB image/21 filter tests). Games Performance: Tests with Jedi Knight II, UT2003 Demo, Unreal Tournament X, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Quake3. Benchmark Performance: CineBench 2003, Xbench and Altivec Fractal (FPU) test results. Installation: Comments on installing the upgrade, photos of it installed, etc. Specs/Design: Details of the upgrade's CPU and Cache, jumper settings, etc.. System Compatibility: These CPU upgrades are listed as compatible with the following Mac models: Apple G4/AGP "Sawtooth" Apple G4/AGP "GigaBit Ethernet" Apple G4/AGP "Digital Audio" Apple G4/AGP "Quicksilver" Apple G4/AGP "Quicksilver 2002" OS Requirements: OS 9.2.1 or OS 9.2.2 OS X Other Owner Experiences: For owner ratings of most every CPU upgrade for any upgradeable Mac, search the Rate Your CPU Upgrade database. Test System Details: Apple Digital Audio G4 Tower Dual 533MHz G4 CPUs (7410) w/1MB SDR L2 cache per CPU 133MHz (SDR) bus w/1GB RAM Western Digital WD120JB 120GB (20% free space) Hard Drive w/OS 9.2.2 and 10.2.6 installed Onboard ATA/66 hard drive controller Pioneer OEM DVR-103 Superdrive Retail ATI 8500 AGP 64MB graphics card Quicktime 6.2 (Pro) Airport active for all tests Display used was a Sony 19" F400. The hard drive was not optimized. For MP3/CD rip tests, a Lite-on 40125S (40x12x48x) CDRW in a Pyro Firewire case was used.

You can follow my preferred path through the review by continuing to the next page, or use the links below to jump to a specific page.

Index of OWC 1.33GHz/Giga G4/800 and 1GHz Review Pages Intro \| Benchmarks \| Apps Tests \| Game Tests \| Installation \| Specs/Design - or - Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM
Copyright © 2003. No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission. All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies. Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.