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Put a Tiger In Your 'Top (4/16/98)
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Don't junk that 1400 just yet. You are all aware that there are several third-party G3 upgrade cards that, when installed in, say, a stock Powermac 7500, actually outperform the fastest shipping Macs currently available from Apple? Well, that trend continues into the Powerbook realm. O'Grady's PowerPage mentions that they're testing an upcoming upgrade for the Powerbook 1400 that transforms the lower-end Powerbook into the fastest Mac portable on the planet.
The upgrade in question is a NUpowr G3 module from Newer Technology, those mad geniuses who are consistently able to push older machines way past their apparent limits. This new upgrade card let you stick a 250 MHz G3 processor (with 1 MB of backside cache running at 125 MHz) into your 1400's case, raising that 1400's MacBench processor score by up to 500%. According to the Powerpage, their upgraded 1400 scored 830, compared to 137 before the upgrade-- and compared to 745 for an actual Powerbook G3. And while pricing for this upgrade hasn't been announced, given that the Powerbook G3 costs some $4000 more than the 1400, it sounds like it's going to be a good deal.
Of course, we don't know when Newer will actually ship this sizzler, and with the Wall Street Powerbooks expected to appear in a few weeks, the title of "World's Faster Powerbook" will be returned to Apple. (The high-end Wall Street apparently MacBenches well into four digits.) Nevertheless, if you need a Powerbook now, getting a 1400 and upgrading when the card is a available sounds like a very cost-effective and viable option. Of course, if you can wait, we personally think you should hold out for a Wall Street with its light-up Apple logo. Gimmicks make the world go 'round. :-)
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SceneLink (633)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/16/98 episode: April 16, 1998: The spectre of OS licensing still hovers over Cupertino, as Apple considers the possibility of Rhapsody clones. Meanwhile, the Powerbook 1400 can look forward to a nitro-burning funny card that'll make it six times faster, and even today there are some companies thinking different enough to migrate from PC's to Macs...
Other scenes from that episode: 632: Send in the Clones II (4/16/98) Mac OS licensing may be dead for now (though AtAT still strongly suspects it'll be revived at some future date), but if Mac OS Rumors is correct, there's a distinct possibility that Apple is considering licensing Rhapsody, its next-generation server OS, to "several major hardware manufacturers."... 634: Reversal of Fortune (4/16/98) In this Age of Kali, darkness prevails as we hear about company after company replacing their Macs with Wintel PC's. The reasons are various and sundry, ranging from purchase cost per system to uncertainty over Apple's future...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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