Sonnet has struck the latest blow in the upgrade card price battle by again dropping the price on their line of G4 upgrade cards. Upgrade card prices keep dropping offering users of older Macs to extend the life of their machines. According to Sonnet:
Sonnet Technologies, the worldwide market share leader in processor upgrade cards for Apple Macintosh? computers, lowers prices by up to 10% on G4 processor upgrades. The price reductions help Sonnet to maintain its market leadership by setting the best price/performance standard for the G4 processor upgrades. Sonnet?s new lower prices are as follows:
- Crescendo G4/PCI 400/1M $499.95 (was $549.95)
- Crescendo G4/PCI 450/1M $599.95 (was $649.95)
Sonnet?s full line of Crescendo G3 and G4 PCI upgrade cards are compatible with the following Macintosh models:
- Power Mac 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8515, 8600, 9500, 9515, 9600
- Workgroup Server 7350, 8550, 9650
- Power Computing PowerCenter*, PowerCenter Pro*, PowerCurve*, PowerTower*, PowerTower Pro, PowerWave
- UMAX J700/S900
- DayStar Genesis 360, 400, 528, 600, 720, 800, 900, 932
- Mactell XB-Pro
(* Compatible with Crescendo G3/PCI cards only.)
- Encore G4/ZIF 400/1M $499.95 (was $549.95)
Sonnet?s full line of Encore G3 and G4 upgrade cards are compatible with the following Macintosh models:
- G3 All-in-one
- G3 Blue & White
- G3 Desktop
- G3 Mini Tower
- G3 Server
- G4 Graphite
Altivec Enabling Software The Sonnet Crescendo G4 upgrade ships with superior Altivec Enabling software, giving all applications access to the Altivec processing engine in the G4 processor. The unique Sonnet Enabler extends Altivec support to even MacsBug, which is an important distinction for software developers and sophisticated users.
Mac OS 9 Velocity Engine and Adobe Photoshop Altivec Compatibility Sonnet Crescendo G4 Enabler fully supports the Apple Velocity Engine? libraries included in Mac? OS 9. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop 5.5 Altivec Plug-ins and After Effects; Apple Computer Final Cut Pro 1.2; Astarte Software AG Mpack 3.5.1; Casady & Greene Sound JAM; Connectix Corporation Virtual PC; Deneba Canvas 7; Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver, and Director; MetaCreations Kai?s Power Tools and Bryce; QDesign Qdesign; Sonic Solutions Sonic DVD Fusion, Sonic DVD Transcoder, Sonic DVD Creator; as well as many other Altivec-enabled software applications. Scientific and audio/video authoring applications will benefit significantly from a Sonnet G4 upgrade.
Sonnet Metronome:
Every Sonnet processor upgrade includes the Metronome Profiler Utility software, giving users useful system performance information such as processor type, speed, and bus speed.Sonnet cards have unequaled ease-of-installation and reliability. The Sonnet Presto, Crescendo and Encore cards work in every compatible Macintosh without the need for the antiquated methods of hardware configuration. Free from switches, jumpers, and control panels, the Sonnet upgrade cards are Simply Fast?. Sonnet products are guaranteed to operate reliably over variations of machine, time and temperature. The ability to move an upgrade card from one machine to another without the need to tweak any jumpers, switches or control panels is a significant advantage to resellers and organizations that want to maximize their flexibility, while minimizing the long term technical support requirements.
You can find more information at the Sonnet web site.