George Cole of OWC wrote to say they have the last of the iMac Game Wizard Voodoo2 cards for rev A and rev B iMac 233's (requires mezzanine slot not in later iMacs). I guess the far east mfr. has stopped making these? George says they have 500 left, selling for $95.00. I have one in my iMac rev A (noted in my iMaxPowr G4 upgrade review) and it's a huge boost for gaming performance. My iMac DV SE review has some comparisons that show in many games a G3/233 w/Game Wizard card is close to the performance of a G3/400 DV SE iMac with Rage128VR graphics chip.

" We recently did some tests on a similar drive, a Seagate ST39236LW (on our 29160N board) and found that by changing the 'Number of Cache Segments' (on Mode page 8) from the default of 16 to a setting of 2, raised the speed from 8-9 MB/sec to around 26 MB/sec. This may be what the 'prepress' setting in ATTO Tools is doing.

I mention this so that users with other ways to change mode page settings (e.g. FWB's FWB Configure application [part of Hard Disk Toolkit], or CharisMacs Power Control) can get the same benefit if they don't have access to the ATTO Tools software.

Thanks,
--
John Tessier
Macintosh Test Lab Engineer
Adaptec, Hudson Technology Center "

According to ATTO's Software Licensing Terms, their software is only to be used with ATTO hardware, even though the tools application is available at their support downloads page. http://www.attotech.com/software/index.html has a form that requires a name and email address for download access. I own several ATTO SCSI cards used for past reviews here (UltraWide and Ultra2 version) but don't own their reportedly impressive Ultra3 card.

" Mike,
Concerning the user on the main page today, 7/31/00, reporting poor performance when using a Seagate 18GB SCSI ST318436LW. This is a problem I also faced a while back and worked very closely with Seagate engineering located in Minnesota to resolve it.

I use SoftRAID to stripe three of these drives in a RAID 0 configuration using a 29160N controller. According to Seagate this drive leaves the factory set up to be used in a Windows NT desktop environment. They do this by toggling a bit in the mode 0 page. They also set the default number of cache segments to 16. This set up will also give very good scores using WinBench. These settings unfortunately are not optimum for a Mac set up.

Seagate had me toggle the mode bit for server operation and changed the number of cache segments to 3. When I did this I saw a dramatic improvement in read/write performance. Fortunately I had a copy of FWB tools to change the mode bit since SoftRAID only allows one to change the number of default cache segments. I suspect the Atto tools 'prepress' setting might be doing a similar service.
(Walter P.)"

" Mike,
FYI...
You perhaps already know this, but the resources in ATTO Tools can be adjusted to maximize disk drive performance, depending on disk drive model, by editing the ATTO Rez's HDda, HDpp, and HDvd, since ATTO was kind enough to include a TMPL rez. in ATTO Tools to make these resources comprehensible. I've done this with multiple copies of ATTO Tools, renamed to support the associated disk drive models we install.

Best to use FWB Configure first, to experiment with the mode page settings that produce the best disk drive performance, per model and interface configuration.

Unfortunately, I can't do the same thing with Apple Drive Setup, using the fSCR rez., since there is no template for this Rez. and I gave up programming decades ago. ;-)

None of this is a good idea for those who are not ResEdit or Resorcerer skilled, along with understanding mode page settings, of course. But, as we all know, properly tweeked mode page settings are often worth the disk drive's weight in gold, performance wise.

FWIW.
-Rod
-----------------------------------------------------------
ASTEC Company, Inc., Virginia, USA
http://www.astecbbs.com
------------------------------------------------------- "

I've not used FWB's HDT since v2.5, but in the past I did find its mode page settings capability could boost performance.

" Hey Mike!
MP3 Rage's new v2.7 update fixes all those 2.6 bugs, which is nice but, best of all, the search engine, named Ragester, has been greatly enhanced. What's new?

"Added support for dozens of Napster-compatible servers (e.g. OpenNap) other than the server provided by Napster, Inc. This will allow MP3 Rage to search and download MP3's using the Napster system even if the servers provided by Napster, Inc are shut down. Simply click on an alternate server."

To my knowledge, this is the first MP3 app to add these features. The folks at www.chaoticsoftware.com are on target.'

CDRW Drives:
• Yamaha 8x/8x/24x SCSI in PTP
• Yamaha IDE 4416E (4x/4x/16x) in ADS Pyro Firewire case
  
  Hard Drives:
  
• IBM 15GB IDE (75GXP series) in Performa 6300
• IBM Travelstar 25GB in PB G3 1st model
• IBM 20GB IDE in 54/64/6500
• Magic 60GB Firewire drive w/PB Lombard
• Maxtor 40GB in Beige G3 rev 2
  (notes DV editing issues)
• Quantum Fireball LM 15GB in Apple G4/AGP
• Seagate SCSI Cheetah ST318404LW 18GB in B&W G3

If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database.

• Apple B&W G3 OC report
• Mactell G3/280 in Umax C600 (rated 10)
• OWC G3/450 ZIF in Beige G3/233 (rated 9)
• Powerlogix Z-force in PowerWave (rated 5)
  (Notes QT player problems)
• Powerlogix Z-force in S900 (rated 5)
• Sonnet G3/400 in 9500 (rated 8)
  (noted some fit issue had to be solved)
• Sonnet G3/300 in 6500 (rated 10)

You can find these full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database of over 4000 entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy.

" FIXED AT FIVE: MICROSOFT PATCHES WINDOWS 2000
http://www.pcworld.com/cgi-bin/pcwtoday?ID=17891

You'll have that 87MB worth of chewing gum and bailing wire downloaded in no time."

Software Updates:
• Flight Check 3.8.6
• IPNet Monitor 2.4.5
• ATTO Fibre Bridge 1.2.6
• Happy Gear (Utility to allow Inputsprocket game controllers to be used with pre-sprocket compatible games)
• AIM 4.1.
• Numerous Vicomsoft Updates
• Multiple Users Actions
• The Sims 1.1.1
• Balloon Buster 1.0

Apple TILs:
• Apple Pro Keyboard: System Requirements
• iMac (Summer 2000): What's New and Different
• Mac OS: Icons in a Printed Window Appear Clipped or Incompletely Printed
• AirPort: Configuring a Base Station With a non-AirPort-Capable Computer
• Flashing Question Mark on the Screen: Causes and Cures

Gaming:
• HappyGear connects old games and new game controllers (Maccentral)
• Playmakers: Id's Devine on Apple, Macs, & much more (Maccentral)

Hardware Related:
• Edgeport Mac Serial Support (ionetworks)
• NewTek's SIGGRAPH Booth to Feature TCP/IP-Based Apple G4 Render Farm and NewTek's StealthNET Render Controller (newtek)
• Olympus Announces First 2 Megapixel Point & Shoot Digital Zoom Camera for Under $500: Now with QuickTime Movie Capability (PRnewswire)
• Apple working on monitor adapter (Maccentral)
• SmartAxis brings smart cards to the Macintosh (Smartaxis)
• Press release on VXI Parrot [USB audio/mic headset]

General Mac News:
• Yellow Dog Linux on the iMac (linux journal)
• LinuxPPC on the Macintosh PowerBook (linux journal)
• Apple Plugs Corporate Leaks (villagevoice)
• How to open up your new Pro Mouse [destroys it] (chipmunk)
• iGeek: Hands-on with AirPort (macweek/zdnet)
• Apple reveals details about Apple Expo (macwelt)
• Newer co-founder resigns (macweek/zdnet)
• AppleShare IP 6.3 (macworld/zdnet)
• Tango 2000 (macworld/zdnet)
• Trends: Software, Reinvented (macworld/znet)
• I, iMovie maker (Union-Tribune)
• VectorWorks for OS X (Nemetschek)
• Apple sales continue to grow (Macworld UK)
• Analysts upbeat on new iMacs; mixed on Cube and MPs (Maccentral)
• The King Of Spin (Macuser UK)
• Tech-support rethink by Apple (Macworld UK)
• Mac and iBook sales slide (Macuser UK)
• Backseat driver: Apple, focus on China (Maccentral)
• QuickTime aids in digital election coverage (Maccentral)

Other Net News:
• Bracing for Animation's Big Leap (NY Times)
• Drive Makers Cautiously Upbeat About Second Half (techweb)
• This megahertz madness must end (the register)
• Sony to establish internal semiconductor company (EE times)
• Pirates Beware: This File Will Self-Destruct (fox news)
• Stephen King set to net $1m from online experiment (the register)
• Rambus: You're terminated *!@$ - Intel (the register)
• Intel P3-1.13GHz SECC2 CPU (Planethardware)
• AMD Has No Reasons To Be Too Bothered (toms hardware)
• Microsoft slashes price on Windows Me (News.com)
• Echelon spy system wildly exaggerated - official (the register)