Click for External Drive Sales!
One click on the banner shows support to my Sponsors
Click for External Drive Sales!
 The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews |
Originally Published: 7/24/98 |
|
- please check their web site at www.vimagestore.com for the latest info. For a huge list of CPU Upgrade Reviews and Related articles - Click Here [Original July 1998 article follows] Update 7/25/98: I've added a Q & A section for their PowerBook 1400 Upgrades.
 4400 L2 Cache Slot G3 CPU Card
Vimage will be releasing news regarding the 6400/6500 on their website in the next few weeks. [update: www.vimagestore.com has info on the 6400 announcement now - but no word on any 6500 version]
2) I understand you do extensive pre-release testing
on your products - can you elaborate on this?
There is a multilevel testing procedure performed on each product before it is released and/or approved for a particular Macintosh or clone. This process involves extensive testing both in the alpha and beta stages of a product's development.
3) Is the August 98 ship date a firm one? Which products
will be available then?
Product is expected at the very end of August. Along with our normal shipment, the Power Mac G3/240 for the Power Mac 4400 will also be arriving. Because of the tremendous response we've received from the PM 4400/StarMax community, we've begun accepting preorders for the card.
4) Will your products be available at major mail order dealers?
Vimage is currently selling directly to the public, but distributor channels are being formed.
5) What control panels/software/adjustments are provided
with your upgrades? (List by models if applicable)
The only recommended software is an extension which loads at startup and enables use of the backside cache. The card will work without the extension, too, but not to its full potential.
6) Are your products compatible with the Adaptec PCI SCSI cards and wide SCSI drives?
Yes. Our engineering department is aware of no incompatibility issues with any current Adaptec PCI SCSI cards or wide SCSI cards.
7) Are they compatible with Media 100 video capture cards?
No incompatibilities have been reported.
8) Are their any known hardware or software compatibility issues
with any of your product line?
No.
Dave Friedman,
A. No. (also confirmed by one of their user Doug Wing, reported at
comp.sys.mac.protable a couple of weeks ago)
Q. Does your card have problem with some SCSI device (specially ext. ZIP)
as reported by users with the competitor's card?
A. No. We test our card with several scsi devices (including ZIP),
everything is fine.
Q. Does your card consume a lot of power?
A. Yes. Faster G3 CPU does consume more power. Our card consume about
20-25% more power than 603e. [Honesty!!-Mike]
Q. Does your card also consume power while the PB is in sleep like the
competitor's?
A. Our card only consume about 10% of the power compare with the
competitor's card while in the sleep mode. (Doug Wing also reported that he
left his 1400/vimage G3 sleep o/n without power adapter connected and there
is no noticeable power drain in the next morning)
Q. Is the backside cache speed adjustable? If it is, do you offer software
for user to do so? Or 3rd party's G3 utility software can do the job?
A. No. Our cards are extensively tested to perform the best. At current
moment, we do not offer adjustable cache and user cannot adjust the cache
with 3rd party's software. (Sounds like it is possible but they don't know
what is going to happen)
I believe their 266 MHz, 1MB backside cache model is very competitive in price even though it's faster and has twice the amount of cache.
Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM! 
|