I want to start off by saying that if it were not for XLR8, this site might never have been started. Back in April of 1997, I wanted a CPU upgrade for my 8500/120 and the XLR8-180 was the only one I could afford. At that time the Newer Technologies MaxPowrs were about the only other choice and were hundreds of dollars more expensive. I feel XLR8's entry into the market with lower priced models (and with far more adjustability than anything on the market at that time) helped bring prices down which benefited all Mac owners.

Since I found little information on the internet about Mac CPU upgrades I started this site with a review of the XLR8-180 card. Things took off like a rocket from there, and I've added coverage of L2 Cache, Video cards, SCSI, discussion forums, and so on. Had it not been for XLR8's low pricing, it might never have happened. (But since I don't have a personal life now from the 6 hours a day of mail, constant testing, site news updates, etc. maybe I shouldn't be so grateful - just kidding ;-)

With that said, I was glad to see XLR8 enter the G3 market with a line of adjustable CPU cards based on the PowerPC 750 processor. Back in February they sent in a 266mhz model with 1 MB of backside cache for this review. I apologize to XLR8 and my readers for being so late, but it's been an incredibly busy year so far.

Note: The speeds documented here are for test purposes only and not a recommendation to others to overclock their card. XLR8 is said to honor the warrany regardless of the speeds run but verify that before you attempt settings over the rated CPU speed, Overclocking is risky and can result in loss of data or hardware failures.

Starting with this review I'll be rating CPU cards on a scale of 1-10 in each of the following categories:

1. BenchMark Performance: MacBench CPU scores are run at various speeds if the card is adjustable. The stock setting as well as the maximum reliable speed setting I found will be shown. BYTEMARK performance is also shown.
2. Applications Performance: How the card did in several CPU intensive tests like Infini-D rendering, Bryce 2, etc.
3. Software Controls: Ease of use and features of the supplied software controls.
4. Documentation: How clear and complete the installation and setup instructions are in the supplied manual.
5. Specifications: Features and details on the hardware design (includes Compatibility info).
6. Price/Performance: Overall value rating. Covered in the summary.

For this review the ATI Nexus GA video card was installed in the slot. To remain consistent with my other CPU card reviews, screen resolution was set to 1024x768, thousands colors.

The L2 Cache dimm of the PowerTower Pro had to be removed for the card to boot.

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.