Help Identifying a G4 CPU Upgrade

[quicksilver]

I picked up a Quicksilver after I spotted this CPU upgrade inside it.

No manufacturer or speed listed and spots for assembly number (Assy No) and serial number (S No.) are blank.

I haven't taken the heatsink off yet.

Unfortunately the Quicksilver doesn't seem to want to power on and I haven't had time to move the card to another one.

I don't recall ever seeing a heatsink like this before.

Does anybody recognize the card?

 

[herd]

Nice find! Commissioned/sold by OWC under Mercury line. Looks like a 7455 at 1.3GHz with 2MB of L3 cache. It would probably do 1.4-1.53GHz without much trouble, but the heatsink is not great. One of the few boards that will fit the Cube.

 

[Byrd]

Is this the one? The heatsink threw me off, agree it's not great design and the CoolerMaster fan isn't stock. Replace the fan if going back into your QS as its pretty crappy.

https://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/manuals/Processors/MercuryExtremeGoldHalfHeatsinkowcmanmeg4/owcmanmeg4allmac.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOoo3Vg7JPpYdYqDboiwWwUQ-h-eSwWvYL122bYBILxgkUxjAyPfZ

 

[MacJunky]

That heatsink was used on the FastMac branded upgrades as well. One thing of note might be the ©FM2003 on the bottom of the board near one of the mounting holes.
Might be fun to browse through the ads in the back of Mac magazines sometime, there was some neat stuff back then.

FastMac | Performance Upgrades

Survival of the Fastest; Upgrades up to 1.5 GHz

web.archive.org

And installation instructions here:

Wayback Machine

 

[herd]

Was FastMac one of the OWC brands? Or was it left over from Giga Designs somehow? I've seen the exact same boards with different labels. I think OWC sold from all of the labels but I don't know the relationships. I think at one point they bought Powerlogix and converted it to their Newer Technology label. Sonnet also seems to have other labels, some sold by OWC and perhaps different ones for other countries. Those small black PCB upgrades are maybe the most pure "OWC" upgrades because I don't remember seeing them somewhere else first. The board pictured dates from 2004.

 

[quicksilver]

Thanks!

I’ll need to get this tested in another QS. The one I’ve built for myself is meant for OS 9 (GF 4600 Ti, 2x 1 GHz) and I know a single processor would be a better choice but this one seems like overkill any maybe better for paying for another Mac toy.

 

[derFunkenstein]

I took a flyer on one of these on eBay. It's missing the heatsink clip, though. Anybody know where I can get a replacement? OWC says they don't have it any more.

I picked up a low-end Socket A heatsink since the tabs are ~55mm and that's the length of Socket A / Socket 370. Once it arrives we'll see if that works, but I'd love to have an original.

 

[indibil]

You beat me to the purchase; I was about to buy it when it sold out. They were never sold in Spain, I was really looking forward to it .

I was planning to use a clip from a PIII, socket 370.

I hope you enjoy it.

 

[indibil]

I took a flyer on one of these on eBay. It's missing the heatsink clip, though. Anybody know where I can get a replacement? OWC says they don't have it any more.

I picked up a low-end Socket A heatsink since the tabs are ~55mm and that's the length of Socket A / Socket 370. Once it arrives we'll see if that works, but I'd love to have an original.

You beat me to the purchase; I was about to buy it when it sold out. They were never sold in Spain, I was really looking forward to it .

I was planning to use a clip from a PIII, socket 370.

I hope you enjoy it.

 

[derFunkenstein]

I made kind of a lowball offer on it, and I was surprised it was accepted. But yeah I'll let y'all know how it goes.

 

[derFunkenstein]

It worked! The jumpers as I received it were set for 1.467 on a 133 MHz bus but the card says it's rated for 1.4. I lowered it to 1.33 before powering it up in my Quicksilver 733 MHz. This thing is rippin' now.

@indibil if another one of these comes up without the clip, your idea for a S370 clip should be perfect. I was going to just replace the heatsink entirely since this one is so puny but the clip puts a TON of pressure on the CPU since the base of the cooler I bought is much thicker than the original and tabs on S370 boards are at the same level as the CPU.