G3 Upgrade
If you've done a Takky Upgrade you are probably a person who is addicted to speed in the Color Classic. But what could be done to get more speed than a conventional Takky Upgrade? The Takky Upgrade is a good Basement to do more(if you've chosen a 5400/6400 or 5500/6500 logic board).
The Macs that we use as a donor are not designed to do CPU upgrades, but some clever engineers found out, that the L2 cache slot could be equipped with a CPU Upgrade. This knowledge enables some companies to enter the market with G3 L2 CPU upgrade cards in the late nineties. Watch out for the difference of the clock speed - it could be different from the 5400/6400 to the 5500/6500 boards because of the different busspeeds.
As an overview, here is a list of all known G3 L2 upgrade cards:
| Manufacturer | CPU Speed on 5400/ 6400 |
CPU Speed on 5500/ 6500 |
Cache Size | Cache Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| metabox joeCARD T | 320 MHz | 320 MHz | 1 MB | 160 MHz |
| 300 MHz | 300 MHz | 512 KB | 150 MHz | |
| 260 MHz | 260 MHz | 512 KB | 130 MHz | |
| Newer Tech MAXpower G3-L2 |
400 MHz | 400 MHz | 1 MB | 200 MHz |
| 300 MHz | 300 MHz | 512 KB | 150 MHz | |
| 300 MHz | 300 MHz | 1 MB | 160 MHz | |
| Phase 5 Maccelerate!750TA |
300 MHz | 300 MHz | 1 MB | 150 MHz |
| PowerLogix | 400 MHz | 400 MHz | 1 MB | 160 MHz |
| 320 MHz | 320 MHz | 1 MB | 160 MHz | |
| 240 MHz | 240 MHz | 512 KB | 120 MHz | |
| Sonnet Technologies Crescendo/L2 G3 |
- | 500 MHz | 1 MB | 250 MHz |
| 400 MHz | 400 MHz | 1 MB | 200 MHz | |
| 400 MHz | 400 MHz | 512 KB | 133 MHz | |
| 320 MHz | 350 MHz | 1 MB | 175 MHz | |
| 320 MHz | 350 MHz | 512 KB | 175 MHz | |
| 300 MHz | 300 MHz | 1MB | 150 MHz | |
| 300 MHz | 300 MHz | 512 KB | 150 MHz | |
| 250 MHz | 240 MHz | 512 KB | 125 MHz | |
| Vimage VPower PF |
325 MHz | 320 MHz | 512 KB | 120 MHz |
| 240 MHz | 225 MHz | 1 MB | 160 MHz |
L2 Cache Slot on a 5500/6500 Board for G3 Upgrade Card.
An Example: A Sonnet Crescendo G3 L2
All in the past available cards are discontinued and you have to look for them on eBay or other sources. The prices raising higher and higher and with good luck you find a complete donor Mac on eBay wich have a card installed. So let me say - if you find such a card for a good price: buy it! ;-)
Plastic Works
All the CPU Cards are higher than the plastics in the case give space.
The image shows you that you have to cut out a plastic inlay. Be careful: there is a small clip which holds the floppy drive in place. Please don't cut out too much.
You have to cut out a small piece of the floppy drive holder too.
When you cut out the described plastics, the logic board slides in perfectly with the G3 card installed.
Other things to do
- Install a new fan for the G3 card
- DO a PSU Upgrade!
Finish!
If you built everything correct and installed the drivers of you card(sonnet drivers are available in the downloads section) you can enjoy the speed of a G3 CPU in your Apple Color Classic.
You see here a benchmark of Norton Utilities. The benchmark was done on my Takky with a 6500 logic board 275MHz and the installed 500MHz Sonnet Crescendo G3. The untouched Color Classic is similar to the Mac LC II in the result list.
Have a look on the Takky Upgrade page if you want to compare the speed.
Have a look on the Takky Upgrade page if you want to compare the speed.