"PowerLogix PowerForce G3 233Mhz w/512k Cache
Was : $249.99
Specials Price : $189.99*
Works in the following systems:
Apple PowerMac 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8600, 9500, 9600 Power Computing-PowerWave, PowerCurve, PowerCenter, PowerCenter Pro, PowerTower, and PowerTower Pro, and PowerBase systems. UMAX Supermac S900, J700
*Only 115 available at this price! Once they are sold, that will be it!
I bought PowerLogix out, so we are offering the absolute best deal on this one.

Railgun G3 300Mhz/1MB ZIF With XLR8 Carrier Card
Was : $369.99
Specials Price : $339.99*
*Get a Railgun 300Mhz/1MB ZIF card, and the XLR8 ZIF carrier card all for the low price of only $339.99!!! We have this bundle in stock and ready to ship! I have about 80 of these left, then we switch to the 400Mhz/Carrier at $589.99. "

The $339.99 CarrierZIF bundle was pretty popular and had sold out I was told last week but apparently they have gotten more in. See the Rate Your G3 Upgrade database for owner entries on this and other CarrierZIF bundles (select XLR8 CarrierZIF as the card brand for the search). If you missed them see my full review (tests in 3 Mac systems) and 'First Look' CarrierZIF articles linked in the sidebar here and on the Cpu Cards page. Note: XLR8 has made several improvements to the CarrierZIF since my review which used the first shipping revision of the card.

QT 4: [Updated] Despite several reader mails to the contrary, unless I'm blind today http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ still does not say anything but the note that QT 4 is free, not a word about the issue noted yesterday (the lack of a note that QT4 Pro upgrade is free for QT3 Pro owners). I got another SCREAMING reminder of this from the original reader that was ranting yesterday. His original complaint was that without a front page note he and others had purchased the QT 4 Pro upgrade before realizing it was free to QT 3 Pro owners and now had to wait for a refund (see yesterday's new for his entire story). I'm not even going to read another mail on this subject as I'm tired of being in the middle of this issue that has gotten blown way out of proportion. BTW: Frank Gstrein noted that the full QT 4 install is on many Mac magazine CDs, including the September issue of Macworld.

The Wired4DVD review noted earlier today has been updated and has a page of reader comments.

More news tomorrow including a new audio column issue from Thad.

N2MP3 is a new Mac MP3 encoder for the MacOS that is "Targeted at iBook toting students and G3 addicted audiophiles, N2MP3 gives novice and technical users alike a powerful tool for bringing digital audio to their desktop". N2MP3 is available for free download as a preview release (which limits encoding to twenty tracks and thereafter will only encode the first minute of additional tracks). For a limited time, pricing for the preview release of N2MP3 is only $24.95 until until September 6, when the final version will be released. N2MP3 can be downloaded and purchased immediately from: http://www.n2mp3.com

The XLR8 MAChCarrier G3/450 card arrived for review yesterday. I'll be testing it over the weekend. The included manual is the best I've seen with any G3 CPU upgrade, with lots of illustrations on speed settings and installation.

In other XLR8 news, yesterday they lowered the suggested retail price of their Performance Package to $79, a 21% price reduction. The Performance Package includes the Point&Scroll USB mouse, DualPort USB and XLR8's exclusive software utility, MACh Speed Control with PowerPack. They also noted their USB Performance Package is free with any newly purchased MACh Speed G3 or G3Z, 300 MHz or higher, through January 1, 2000. According to reader reports the MAChCarrier cards (and CarrierZIF) are excluded from the offer. I've asked XLR8 to verify this but the offer says MAChspeed (CPU card slot) and G3Z (ZIF module) models only.

Wired4DVD Review: Reader Bryan Berg has posted a review of the Wired4DVD PCI decoder card which notes some important pros and cons of the card. Hopefully the audio out issue will be resolved in a future software update. If any other readers have the audio popping issue with the card please contact me (I'm curious to know if this is common).

Latest TrueX SCSI Feedback: Joseph Snodgrass wrote about using the drive with the beta IntechUSA drivers

" I bought the SCSI Kenwood 52 TrueX today and it runs pretty well with the beta Intech USA drivers in my 7600 connected just to the internal fast SCSI bus. Mac and PC and dual format CDs mount and run fine. Intech has a neat feature where if you hold down the command key while mounting a dual format CD it will mount both volumes and that feature works with the Kenwood.

Audio CDs and CD-Rs mount and play fine, but Toast is having some problems ripping files (looks like it could work drive-to-drive on the fly, but no joy so far ripping to the hard drive. I get -17 errors. No big errors (system hangs, etc.) Unreal and Myth II run fine. Even with just the fast SCSI internal bus instead of the Ultra SCSI connection the drive is capable of I get a MacBench 5.0 score of just over 150 (an ATAPI 24x Sony drive in a G3-300 Mac is the 100 benchmark - my old NEC 24x SCSI got a 95).

One very cool thing - I can play that 58+meg 15 second uncompressed Quicktime 240x180 movie that is in the resources folder of the MacBench 5.0 CD with no dropped frames!
Joseph"

Intech tells me they are attempting to work with Kenwood to ensure compatibility with Connectix Virtual Game Station (Playstation emulator). The lack of CVGS compatibility is a common reason many mac owners don't try the drive.

OS X Server running on G3 upgraded 7300 w/Voodoo3: In reply to yesterday's news post on OS X server graphics card compatibility, Joel Reed notes he's running OS X server on a CarrierZIF G3 upgraded 7300 with a 3Dfx Voodoo 3 card.

"Mike,
Hate to add to your supply of mail but I just wanted to drop you and your readers a note to say I have MacOS X Server working successfully on my 7300/366 with a Voodoo3 2000 (1.0b2). Had some free time this evening so for kicks I decided to try and install MOSXS, I really didn't expect it to work. I was more worried about the video card more than the G3 upgrade. But like they say "it just works..." I really don't understand the drivers/compatibility issues or what would make a card not work, but I had no issues installing. I have been using it pretty steady for a good part of the evening with no hangs, freezes, or cosmetic problems, that includes the blue box. There is no acceleration in Server (no support) or blue box (hardware/emulation issues, same issue prevents the backside cache of the G3 card from working either) but that's all pretty minor, hey it works! You take what you can get. It definitely beats Server on the stock 7300 and Ultimate Rez.

I've had the Voodoo3 card for almost two weeks now and have had _0_ problems with it. Like I said before I don't know the ins and outs of drivers, compatibly, etc, but this card just ROCKS!

My System:

7300/366(owc-xlr8 carrier)
Voodoo3 2000 (1.0b2)
MacOS X Server 1.0-2 (BlueBox 8.6) (2.1g Fireball)
8.6 (4.3g Fireball)

Thanks for the great sites,
Joel Reed "

Unreal 224 Beta6: Although most readers are not having problems with Unreal 224 beta 6 (many have posted framerate scores in the new FPS Database), Westlake has posted a troubleshooting page with tips for those that are having problems. Their Unreal news page yesterday notes their frustration with all the patches from the PC code. I've also added this link to my FAQ Games topic area.

Rage128 Nexus/VR: Many readers seem to be confused over the Rage128 VR and Nexus cards - they should offer the same performance as the Rage128 Orion (reviewed here). The VR adds video capture and TV tuner and the Nexus has 32MB of video ram (vs 16MB for the other models). The main advantage to the Nexus would be for very high resolution 3D and as noted in my ATI Rage128 FAQ, ATI says that the Nexus will allow setting texture details to maximum in Quake3 with less performance impact (larger texture storage RAM, without AGP more on-card RAM is a bonus for games with large amounts of textures). The Game FPS Database has some Nexus 128 reports (select Rage128 as the video card and then look for Nexus 128 in the comments field of the search results).

Apple Sues over eOne: I'm sure you've all read it by now but I received a mail from Apple PR that they have sued eMachines over the eOne mac wanna-be. I posted my comments on the eOne after seeing it in person awhile back. I'm wondering if this suit may have the side-effect of getting more buyers to look at the eOne. Some may want to buy the eOne as a 'collector's item' in case eMachines is forced to stop production.

MS USB Keyboard on Lombard: In the continuing thread on Lomboard PB G3 USB compatibility Mike Jackson wrote that he's using a Logitech MouseMan Wheel and a MS Natural Keyboard Hooked without problems. (A Microsoft Keyboard on a Mac? :-)

Voodoo2 Coolers: Paul Constantine sent a note that he had the Stealth Voodoo2 Cooler fan/heatsink (reviewed here) fall off his Voodoo2 card after several months of use. Luckily he had the Voodoo2 card in the 'bottom' PCI slot so there was no shorting to another card when it fell. My Stealth Cooler is still attached fine after almost a year. I cleaned the mating chips with alcohol and applied the heatsink firmly and have had no problems so far.

USB/Firewire CDRs: Several readers asked for advice on USB CDRs after the comments here recently. Based on reader feedback I'd suggest the Sony drive if you must have USB (and to be safe I'd not burn at more than 2x). Mactell's web site has a $499.99 (list) Firewire CDRW. Considering the price if I had a SCSI-less B&W G3 I'd consider the cost of a low cost SCSI card (Initio bluenote, or adaptec 2906 - both generally under $75) and a standard SCSI CDRW drive. That may be cheaper, more reliable and allow using other legacy SCSI devices in the bargain (but it does cost a PCI slot).

If you don't check every day's daily news (updated several times a day normally) you might miss something valuable. Check the summary list below for highlights of the last few day's news and the archives page for older new page links. For a blast from the past, read what was on the news page here exactly a year ago.

Other Net News:

• More Cocoa For Windows (xappeal)
• Quantum cuts 800 jobs for HD unit reorg (News.com)
• Iomega chief exec to step down (News.com)

Thursday's News Summary

• Dangers of Overclocking
• reader report of PB1400 w/G3 upgrade cdrom problems
• 8100/G3 Upgraded reader tip regarding Spigot Power AV Card cable
• More Kenwood TrueX SCSI cdrom drive feedback
• Intechusa rumored to support Kenwood SCSI drive soon
• List of OS X server supported graphics and scsi cards
• Unreal 224 Beta 6 released
• Other World Computing Norton 4/AfterLife/Full Throttle $49.95 bundle
• Prototype B&W G3s had IR port?
• QT 4.0 Pro free upgrade for Qt3 Pro owners (reader rant)
• More Lombard USB Feedback
• More reader feedback on USB to SCSI adapters
• Reader comments on Sony USB CDR
• Game News page updated
• MAC3dfx.com updated
• New Mac Game Performance (framerates) database updated
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Rate Your Mac Games database updated
• Other Net News

Wednesday's News Summary

• Westlake updates Unreal for higher resolutions for Glide
• Reader suggestions for CDROM extensions to try with Kenwood TrueX SCSI
• More reader feedback on USB to SCSI adapters
• Reader tale of woe with Lomboard PB G3 USB compatibility
• Reader review of Carmageddon 2
• Reader report on Kenwood TrueX SCSI drive
• Reader Report on QUE USB CDRom recorder
• Proformance III owner notes updated ROM/Control panel improves Rave games
• Reader comment on Newer USB to SCSI adapter
• Game News page updated (part 2 of 3D card summary and more)
• MAC3dfx.com updated
• Mac Game FPS database updated
• Rate Your Mac Games database updated
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Other Net News

Tuesday's News Summary

• Restart tip on updating Proformance III drivers
• MacDSL page updated
• Metastream2 Mac viewer available for download
• G3 CPU micro-photographs
• TrueX SCSI drives in stock at Fry's reader says
• Proformance III 'Write Combining' tests
• Proformance III vs OEM Rage128 reader performance tests
• Proformance III game problem report
• Reader comments on Formac at SIGGRAPH/3D Glasses
• Reader request for USB/SCSI feedback
• Reader request for IDE RAID performance results
• More reader feedback on Rage 128 Orion/MS Excel issues
• Mac Game Framerates database updated
• Rate Your G3 Upgrade database updated
• Rate Your Mac Games database

For other recent site news/features links, see the Sidebar to the right and the Recent Site Features page.

If you own a G3/300 or faster Mac, you might want to get our PPC Checker utility that will report if your CPU is copper or aluminum based.

Considering a G3 Upgrade? Check the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The database is being updated daily for new reports. Also make sure you ask your dealer about any issues with your particular mac model as I have gotten several reports of issues with certain G3 upgrades in some Mac models (Mach 5, PowerBase, 7300). I urge any owners that have had problems to report this via the Survey Form. Always give the most weight to recent owner reports (dated in the listing).

-Freq Asked Questions