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PROJECT: Ultimate Mac Status

Update: 12/27/98: I've finally gotten time to update this page to show the current state of the project Mac. As regular readers of the main site know I nicknamed this Mac "Elvis" since it is the current King of all the Macs I own.
 
BASE SYSTEM: Daystar Genesis

I've created a page on "Elvis" with the details of the Genesis case and the components I've installed. With a wide Cheetah boot disk scoring 1600+ in Macbench 5, internal 4 drive array capable of 50+MB/sec peak rates, a 400MHz G3 CPU card delivering approximately a 1300+ MacBench 5 CPU score, dual ATTO SCSI cards, dual video cards, a video capture card, 3Dfx game card and over 500MB of RAM, I'd say my goal has been achieved. Of course with faster CPUs, Video cards, Disks, etc. appearing every month or so this will be an ongoing project that will be updated as I obtain new products. The Rage128 and Banshee cards are prime targets as are Ultra2 SCSI drives. Stay tuned!

Here's a snapshot of current performance (MacBench 5.0)
PHASE 1: CPU Card Upgrade
As of Nov 98, the best CPU upgrade I've tested for older Macs (non-Apple G3) has been the XLR8 400MHz card. As noted in the review this card was true Plug-and-Play in every system I tried and rock stable at 400/200/50. Higher speeds might be possible but I've not attempted them so far.

 
PHASE 2: Disk Performance Upgrade
The current configuration is using dual ATTO PCI SCSI cards driving a wide scsi boot Seagate Cheetah 4.5 GB drive and a 4 drive RAID array using SoftRaid 2.1.5.

For more info on Mac PCI SCSI cards and Raid software packages, check out the SCSI Test Reports, Part 1 (single SCSI card/single drive comparisons), Part 2 (dual SCSI card/dual drive Raid tests) and Part 3 (single SCSI card/dual Raid tests). Also check out the Graphs of Part 3 scores by card used and/or software Raid package. The SCSI Features page has many more disk and controller related articles that also might be of interest.

 
PHASE 3: Video Card Upgrade
This one is on-going and I will probably end up with multiple cards installed. The Ultimate Rez is currently installed for its very good 2D speed, but has poor 3D support. The ATI Nexus GA so far has been an impressive mix of good 2D speed (only about 10% slower than the Ultimate Rez) and good 3D and Game performance. The MacPicasso 540/3D overdrive card is not as fast as either of these cards in 2D but has a nice seamless 8MB 3Dfx Voodoo card interface that outputs into a viewport. Until the ATI Rage128 and VillageTronic 3Dfx banshee cards arrive I'm current using an Ult. Rez and a MacPicasso/3DO overdrive to provide the best mix of capabilities.

The MacTell Vision 3D Pro II (and Lite) are the fastest 2D cards I tested all year. I don't own one of these cards or it would have replaced the Ultimate Rez card as the primary 2D video card.

For reviews of all the cards mentioned - see my Graphics Cards page list of site reviews.
     
  • Project: Ultimate Mac - fastest/best equipped personal computer on the planet:

    A Daystar Genesis chassis/motherboard will be the basis for a ongoing series of reports on creating the world's fastest personal computer ( overall applications performance/capabilities ). Vendors who would like to have their products be a part of this project are invited to Contact Me. DVD RAMdrive, 3D video card and Ultra 2 SCSI disks are needed at the moment, preferably a pair for RAID configurations.

    Where possible, only the best the industry has to offer will be included in this Mac.

    This will be a series of illustrated, step-by-step reports on upgrading all aspects of your Mac's performance to levels you may not have imagined possible. I'm very excited about this project, especially the Ultra/Wide/Raid SCSI upgrade which will be the first area to be addressed. Support from several companies has already been promised, which is needed to make this project a success.

    So far the included components are::


    Outstanding items: (needed)

    • Ultra2 SCSI Drives for the internal Raid array (to replace the Atlas II UW drives for better performance)
    • 3D high end or combination 2d/3d high performance graphics card (ATI Rage128 and VillageTronic MP850 look promising)
    • DVD/DVD RAM drive (Currently using Apple 24X CDrom)

    Product selection is based on my experience (see the site contents page for reviews of CPU, SCSI and Graphics cards) and user comments. I'm always open to new products and suggestions.

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