Recently I had the opportunity to upgrade my PowerBook G4 1.5GHz to a 2.0GHz Freescale 7447A CPU. Daystar Technology based in Georgia offers a MAChSpeed upgrade service to PowerBook owners like me who are wanting that extra power to run Logic Pro and other CPU intensive applications like Final Cut Pro. I took the plunge in the name of technology and sent my PowerBook in a custom box provided free by Daystar to its customers.
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Contributed by: Pierce
Recently I had the opportunity to upgrade my PowerBook G4 1.5GHz to a 2.0GHz Freescale 7447A CPU. Daystar Technology based in Georgia offers a MAChSpeed upgrade to PowerBook owners like me who are wanting that extra power to run Logic Pro and other CPU intensive applications like Final Cut Pro. I took the plunge in the name of technology and sent my PowerBook in a custom box provided free by Daystar to its customers.
One thing should be noted, Gary Dailey CEO of Daystar technology takes care of each upgrade like it was his own. The customer is given a tracking number so you know where your PowerBook is at every point on this journey. There is a questionnaire inside the box for every customer to fill out in how well your PowerBook is working and other details. But the process is quite easy and made extra safe by Daystar.
The question that we all wanted to know was it going to be worth it upgrading my PowerBook or should I have just gotten a new MacBook Pro? It is worth it in terms of stability. The PowerBook arrived unscratched and in better condition then I sent it. There had been modifications done to the PowerBook in the process and everything ran really well.
I was waiting for a fan to kick in but to my surprise it didn’t. It did get very hot though around the F11 key. Not as hot as the MacBook Pro but left on for awhile could be uncomfortable. But when using Logic Pro I encountered the same thing I have for awhile. The CPU warning saying it was overloaded. So the power increase is not as significant as I wished it to be. But when tested with Final Cut Pro it performed pretty well.
It terms of stability and power it was impressive. In terms of benchmarking the PowerBook G4 at 2.0GHz is about 25 to 30 percent better in overall performance. But compared to the MacBook Pro it still is pretty slow. Here are the numbers in a shoot out between a PowerBook G4 2.0 and the new MacBook Pro.
The fact is that the MacBook Pro just screams in terms of speed but some of us want to wait until Apple has worked out all the kinks with the MacBook Pro. The option of upgrading from a 1.5GHz to a 2.0GHz processor will certainly be appealing to some. The care and experience that Daystar has with the PowerBook G3s and G4s made this upgrade an outstanding success and has made this customer very happy. It has allowed me to use more applications that used to be off limits. If you’re considering an upgrade I would recommend sending your PowerBook G4 to Daystar. It’s a great way to extend the life of your machine.
Contributed by: Pierce
