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The quest for the perfect Bondi Blue

ltpitt

ltpitt

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 18, 2020
110
40
Hi all!

I am currently trying to build the beefiest Bondi iMac on the planet.

At the moment this is the configuration of my Rev B:
  1. 512 mb ram / 300 Mhz (overclocked 233 Mhz CPU)
  2. Voodoo2 card
  3. SSD
I think there is still room for improvement.

I've read about legends that reballed beefier CPUs but that is way beyond my skill / budget.
I think that the thing I could try is getting a 333Mhz CPU and overclock it to 400Mhz.

Is anyone having one of those sweet CPUs around?

Thanks for your help, it is appreciated :)
 
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Ahahahah I totally get you but this is a tray loading one...
And the cost for a reballing for this is not really cheap.

On the other hand this would put on the table cooling problems that I'd be pleased to avoid :D
 
ltpitt said:
Hi all!

I am currently trying to build the beefiest Bondi iMac on the planet.

At the moment this is the configuration of my Rev B:
  1. 512 mb ram / 300 Mhz (overclocked 233 Mhz CPU)
  2. Voodoo2 card
  3. SSD
I think there is still room for improvement.

I've read about legends that reballed beefier CPUs but that is way beyond my skill / budget.
I think that the thing I could try is getting a 333Mhz CPU and overclock it to 400Mhz.

Is anyone having one of those sweet CPUs around?

Thanks for your help, it is appreciated :)
Click to expand...
You have the Voodoo 2 card?

They can be hard to come by for the mezzanine slot iMac.
 
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Hello all!

While I saw his amazing videos on YouTube drooling...
150 dollars is a bit too much for a mac that will be in any case kind of unusable in the end.

400mhz g3 vs 400mhz G4...
Is it really that different?

I am ready to fight with my configuration any G4 Bondi iMac! :D
And I really hope to get the 333Mhz processor for a nicer price.
 
ltpitt said:
Hello all!

While I saw his amazing videos on YouTube drooling...
150 dollars is a bit too much for a mac that will be in any case kind of unusable in the end.

400mhz g3 vs 400mhz G4...
Is it really that different?

I am ready to fight with my configuration any G4 Bondi iMac! :D
And I really hope to get the 333Mhz processor for a nicer price.
Click to expand...
It is that different yes. You will never have the "beefiest Bondi iMac" as long as theres a G3 in it. Personally for a hobby like this, $150 is nothing. If you can't afford that much right now, that is perfectly okay. However, if you are in this PPC mac hobby at all, get it out of your head that you're wasting money because "it's unusable" or it's too old. To me, sticking a cool upgrade like a G4 into an old iMac is totally worth $150 bucks. Sometimes finding parts for old Macs is even more than that.
 
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Project Alice said:
It is that different yes. You will never have the "beefiest Bondi iMac" as long as theres a G3 in it. Personally for a hobby like this, $150 is nothing. If you can't afford that much right now, that is perfectly okay. However, if you are in this PPC mac hobby at all, get it out of your head that you're wasting money because "it's unusable" or it's too old. To me, sticking a cool upgrade like a G4 into an old iMac is totally worth $150 bucks. Sometimes finding parts for old Macs is even more than that.
Click to expand...

While I get your point i think that maybe it is not the right time to invest this sum on this.
Maybe later, who knows.

About the beefiest Bondi iMac on the planet i stand my case and I will be ready to race any G4 config with my specs.
The G4 (on the same identical hardware) would be advantaged only in Altivec enhanced applications.
My Voodoo2, on the other hand, would smoke any Ati Rage Pro on the planet.

Quite a fun race to do, imho. :)
 
Last edited:
ltpitt said:
While I get your point i think that maybe it is not the right time to invest this sum on this.
Maybe later, who knows.

About the beefiest Bondi iMac on the planet i stand my case and I will be ready to race any G4 config with my specs.
The G4 (on the same identical hardware) would be advantaged only in Altivec enhanced applications.
My Voodoo2, on the other hand, would smoke any Ati Rage Pro on the planet.

Quite a fun race to do, imho. :)
Click to expand...
Yes the Voodoo2 will be way better than the Rage Pro. I suppose the Voodoo is also not functional in OS X.. A G4 mainly improves OS X. My Pismo flys in comparison to what it was before the G4. The G4 improves more than altivec, people always say it doesn't but everything is way smoother on one than a G3. I've got a B&W G4 too. The difference is pretty noticeable in Tiger, and obviously it opens up the door to Leopard too.
But, it probably wouldn't be in OS 9. I didn't really think about that, I don't think there's much of a difference running OS 9 on a G4 vs a G3. But if you were able to use OS X there would be something there.
 
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ltpitt said:
Interesting!
Would you mind describing the performance boost?

How does it feel now in Classic / Os X (which version are you using?)
Click to expand...

OS 9 flies. Virtual Gamestation, and other emulators, would lag a bit before the upgrade. Now they all run at full speed. Everything else gets a nice boost, i.e. Photoshop and Office. The two major bottlenecks with the Bondi are the bus speed and the graphics memory, so OS X isn't that great. There are some graphics driver tweaks, found in the Wallstreet thread that @AphoticD posted, that will make it somewhat useful.
 
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Tiny update...
I have here with me a nice 333Mhz CPU.

Can't wait to overclock it!

I really hope I can get stable 400Mhz mwahahahahahaah :D
 
That mild of an O/C shouldn't be a problem. In my experience tray loaders actually have somewhat better thermals since they are actively cooled.

Personally, though, you already have something that many of us lust after in the VooDoo. I'd go for a G4 all the way!
 
Don't put strange things in my mind...

Ps
I already started saving for it.
 
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