UMAX C600 and C500 and Sonnet G3 upgrades

[Stefan Jeglinski]

>(*) Sonnet also has a cheap 400 MHz G3 card -- $100 -- but the L2 
>cache on it runs very slow and Sonnet has been playing dirty tricks 
>in recent times by shipping processors that may not really be rated 
>at 400 MHz, so I can't recommend it.

Not only that, but at least originally (a few years ago), the G3L2 
400 MHz design was significantly different from the 500 MHz design, 
and I had confirmation from a Sonnet tech employee that the 400 cards 
were "problematic" (read "defective," and I'm talking Mac here, not 
even trying to consider Linux). I had such a card on a 6500 and it 
was hell; the symptom was complete lockup when doing dual monitor 
acceleration. Many people not in this boat ran fine with the 400, but 
a select few of us were forced to a 500. This was covered extensively 
at the time on 3dfx discussion boards, but obviously they are 
unaccessible now, unless they were archived by Google.

BTW, at least for Mac, I would unhesitatingly recommend the 500 card 
(although the processor-ratings debacle Tim refers to is troubling). 
No I have never worked hard yet to get Linux going with this card. 
Some day though I plan to...



Stefan Jeglinski