News for Tuesday, 7 December 2004

A follow up to previous news item.
Cri-cri managed to flash his 117D on a Mac with a 108 firmware.
He sent us an archive containing all requested files, firmware included.
DVR-117D-DVR-108OK.sit
There's a small documentation in English in the archive.

We were more than suspecting the DVR-117 you'll now get in most G5s are nothing but a bridled 108.
We hence investigated thoroughly the case to make sure.

To know about the whole case and its conclusions:
Unlocck the power of your Pioneer DVR-117
If you're too lazy to translate the article, just know that a flashed 117 will burn at 16x and support double layer media.

Sonnet has just released a new model for its processor upgrade card for PowerMac G4 AGP: ENCORE/ST G4 1.7GHz! This processor upgrade can be installed in the following PMG4 models:
- Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics)
- Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)
- Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio)
- Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2001)
- Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2002 with single processor)
- Power Mac G4 Cube (specific models SG4-C1200 and SG4-C1700 running respectively @ 1.2 or 1.7GHz)
- Macintosh Server G4 (Equivalent to listed Power Mac G4 models)
(So all PMG4 AGP SDR bus and Cube, not for PMG4 MDD).
There is no information regarding the 1.7GHz G4. The PDF TechNote is providing information for STG4 up to 1.4GHz, based on PPC 745X featuring 256kB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache. One can expect that the 1.7GHz model will be based on a 7447, with 512 L2 cache and no L3 cache. It could be interesting to compare performance of cards with and without L3 cache.
For the cube, the processor upgrade card is including a quiet fan, and Sonnet recommends professional installation
Price for the STG4 1.7GHz: 499.95$.
Sonnet

The current competition between notebook-dedicated optical-drive manufacturers will lead to "end of life" of Combo drive by mid-2005. At that time, the standard model installed on notebooks should be a 8x DVD burner. High-end notebooks should be equipped with multi-format, higher speed and DL DVD burners.
Let's expect that the future iBook revision in few months will be the beginning of the "all DVD burner" for Apple notebook machines.

A few of you guys came back to us to see how well our 6800 Ultra equipped with the NVSilencer 5 was working. Well, it's still well and kicking booty :)
The latest revision of Hardware Monitor can read the temp off the card. The GPU is idling at 59°C and a rises up to a touch under 70°C under full load. It's perfectly in line with what one could expect from such cooling system, and much better than the stock solution. The original article is right here:
http://www.hardmac.com/article.php?id=42
Now, we're trying to somehow slowdown the rpm of the PCI area fan, which has gone up since we installed the 6800 (even stock). Seems to be a precaution taken by Apple to avoid overheating. But this isn't quite as necessary since the NVSilencer 5 pulses the hot air outside of the case. If anyone is onto something in software, please get in touch with us. Otherwise, we'll have to come up with some weird hardware mod, because the apple fans have 4 connectors... so your run-of-the-mill voltage variator won't work.