Hi all,

I have the PC doing well with a faster motherboard and processor (AMD 2.1 Ghz) in it.

Now for the Beige G3/266Mhz running OS X.

Does anyone have any recommendations/experience/nightmares with the Accellerators available for the Beige G3. There are quite a few available that all sound good:

Sonnet Encore/ZIF G3/500MHz w/1024k 2:1 Backside Cache, 10x multiplier $169
OWC MercuryZA G4/450-466MHz Altivec Enhanced ZIF with 1MB@225MHz 2:1 Backside Cache $189
PowerLogix PowerForce G3/800MHz ZIF with 512K L2 On-Chip Cache $297

Not to mention several HIgh-end models also, but my budget won't let me think too much about those.

My main point for getting it would be rendering, so it would seem like the OWC G4 would be a better choice than the G3 versions. Thanks in advance for any advise.

I am trying to avoid buying another accellerator that will not be in business in a couple of years. My previous one is an XLR8 model, oh well.
MarkV

OK dude, check this out...

I also have a beige G3 266, and despite having a dual 1.25ghz, all i can think about at night is pimping out my beige beast.

i think that the 800 Mhz G3 card is what you and i both want. -- particularily if you're going to be doing 3D on it, which gets no benefit from Altivec (the thing that makes a g4 so much faster than a g3). So pop that puppy in.

Then get at least 512 MB of RAM in that thing. Apple says that the early beige machines can only take a max of 3x128 chips for a total of 384 MB, but you can get away with 3x256 for 768. There is some spec you need to make sure the chip meets (which i forget, but will get to you shortly) or you can just buy RAM that is certified for all Beige G3's. (A 256MB stick should run about $30)

then decide whether this is a render box, or a machine you want to model and manipulate scenes on. if you want to actually work on scenes, your next big bottleneck is the graphics card. if you're just rendering final images, the calculations are all done on the CPU, so you don't need to blow your dough on the GPU.

most of these beige machines shipped with a piddly 2MB of integrated ATI Rage 128 video acceleration. I would recommend buying the 4MB upgrade chip ($29.99), and then also picking up the ATI 7000 PCI graphics board ($119) This board sucks by today's standards but is the only Mac-compatible board that I have been able to find that has a PCI interface. Since we don't have AGP, we're kind of SOL.

The reason you want to drop 30 beans on the 4MB upgrade is so you can run 2 monitors, which in my opinion allows you to work much faster.

If you still have money after that, consider getting TempoTrio ($179) (USB2, FireWire & ATA133 all on one card) This gives you lots of options for storage, without using up all the precious PCI slots. If it is too much money for you, consider just a regular ATA133 card ($84) Add a fast hard drive to that, and you'll get much faster virtual memory access. Carrara uses alot of virtual memory, so this should improve render times noticeably. Don't bother with a RAID card. I don't think you'll add any real world speed increase with it for the kind of work you'll be doing.

If you are sending files back and forth to another computer, drop in a 10/100 ethernet card ($15-30) into the last remaining PCI slot, so that you aren't restricted by the 10base-t of the built-in ethernet. You'll be very happy you did.

So these are the upgrades that I've been looking at for my G3. It totals about 750, but it is just so tempting to plunk money into that machine... Anyway, I hope that this helps you make your decisions. Please let me know how any of this equipment works out for you if you do choose to upgrade, and I'll do the same for you when I get some of this stuff.

-Scott

I have an old Beige G3 233 that I use for my scusi scanner & Scott's recommendations look tempting. I agree that the 800MHz G3 would be a better choice for Carrara renders. If you are working with Cocoa apps then the G4 may be a better choice (those programs are primarily written for the G4/OSX combination). If you are doing Carrara renders on it I'd suggest rendering booted into OS 9, I believe it could be faster. I tested the "Spooky" Carrara2 file render from the content CD under these conditions: Pismo G3 400MHz/512 ram/100MHz bus/1MB L2 cache: Boot from OS X 10.2.4 render time = 19 min 14 sec Boot from OS 9.1 render time = 14 min 37 sec PowerMac G4 dual 1.24MHz/1250 ram/167 MHz bus/1MB L3 cache Boot from OS X 10.2.4 render time = 8 min 41 sec Boot from OS 9.1 (unfortunately CAN'T) My G4 system is potentially 6 times faster then the G3 Pismo but doesn't even gain double the speed. Carrara clearly suffers under OSX code implementation. I guess it's to expected from most "legacy" apps, at least for now. Scott, if that dual 1.25 machine you have is a dual-boot box you may want to test that Spooky render test out, I'd be interested in the outcome under OS 9.

Budget permitting you might consider getting the low-end eMac instead of an accelerator card. I've been very happy with my eMac (superdrive version) so far (plus it makes a great little office stereo).

Sonnet Tech just announced a G-4 1Ghz upgrade for the Beige box last week they are supposed to come out with a later update for the B&W which is what I am looking for. The only draw back is that it will set you back $700 dollars just for that upgrade. I think you could get more bang for the buck if you spend your money like Scott suggested then on this one item, but at least the flexibility is there now if you find the need. I bought a dual 1.25Ghz from the latest crop from Apple because I just got tiered of weighting for such an upgrade, but I still kept the B&W around. I am using it less and less.

pinklet, dammit, i just made a mess on my keyboard!!! finally they release upgrades for machines that really need them. anyway, about my dual 1.25 -- while it was a rev1 and still boots in OS9, you can't use SMP in OS9, so for Carrara I would stick to X. Depending on how fast the G3 is when/if I upgrade it, I'm thinking about using it to model scenes while my dualie renders. As far as the e-mac is concerned, yes the price and power of it is tempting, but the lack of dual monitor support relegates it to a render box. and if that is all you use it for, you're probably better off with an original imac, since 3D makes the G4 useless. overall, it has never been cost effective to upgrade processors. you would get a much better deal buying any of the quick silver macs than you would spending it on an upgrade for a beige box. that being said, i'm still gonna have to get that Ghz G4 - (when i checked it was priced at $599), but look at the fans on that thing!!! i'll bet it will rival the noise of my dual1.25. Maybe the G3800 is a better idea after all. hmmm. -scott