Mac upgrade maker Sonnet Technologies Inc. has announced an addition to its Encore/ST line of CPU upgrades. Sonnet’s Encore/ST G4 line is designed to be installed in certain Power Mac G4 models that utilizes AGP graphics.
The new Encore/ST sports a Motorola 745x series processor operating at 1.4GHz, and incorporates 2MB of DDR L3 backside cache. The 1.4GHz single-processor upgrade joins 800MHz, 1.0GHz and 1.2GHz models already available from Sonnet.
Macs compatible with the new Encore/ST 1.4GHz upgrade include Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics, Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Audio systems. The upgrade can also be installed in Quicksilver units operating at 733MHz, 800MHz Dual Processor systems and 867MHz systems, as well as Power Mac G4 Servers that are equivalent to the aforementioned desktop systems. What’s more, the upgrade can also be installed in Power Mac G4 Cube systems with the use of an optional Cube Installation Kit (Sonnet recommends professional installations for such systems).
The new Encore/ST upgrade automatically detects the bus speed of the host machine, and can switch between 100 and 133MHz accordingly. It’s compatible with Mac OS X and all previous operating systems and software, according to Sonnet, and requires no drivers or software to work.
The estimated street price of the Encore/ST G4 1.4GHz is US$599.95. The Cube Installation Kit will be available soon, and will cost $59.95.