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Delays in Met@box upgrades due to OS 9.1?

updated 02:22 am EST, Fri January 26, 2001


A MacNN reader notes problems with delivery of Met@box upgrade cards:

"After a one week delay in getting an update about an order I placed for a JoeCard Z upgrade, I got news from the folks I placed the order with that MetaBox has held the shipping of all of their G3 500 and G4 upgrade cards, pending the resolution of a driver code issue with XLR8. When I asked if the problem was related to the 9.1 upgrade, the representative said 'I can't really go into further detail'. The distributors should have an answer from MetaBox by Monday or Tuesday as to 'whether or not' they expect the cards to ship."


by MacNN Staff

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 peripherals

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  1. 0

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    01/26, 09:02am | report spam | Reply | delete

    MetaBox=Vapor Company

    Yeah, Metabox...same company that promised all those multi-platform boxen that never shipped. They change focus ever couple years to get funding and attention...

  1. 0

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    01/26, 09:51am | report spam | Reply | delete

    who's left?

    Newer dies, Metabox apparently isn't trustable, Sonnet charges out the wazoo for their upgrades... what's a Mac user to do for upgrades these days?

  1. 0

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    01/26, 12:35pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    I like my Metabox upgrade

    I used to be a die-hard Newer Tech only purchaser. Working for a prepress VAR, Newer had excellent products and support. I have worked with Sonnet, and am not disappointed about their prices, I think they are fair, but they update their drivers too often. And some of their upgrade cards are incompatible with interleaved RAM on 7300 and the like computers. Sonnet support didn't realize this or admit this for almost a year after the upgrade card's release. I tested for this problem after reading a PowerLogix tech note on one of their products. (Newer G3 upgrades don't have this problem.) Since some of my 7300's have all their slots full of 64MB chips, I was disappointed to learn this.
    But I recently puchased a Metabox cache-slot G3 upgrade for just over $100, for a PowerMac 4400 (that I bought for $1). Well, the Metabox card was easy to install, and the computer booted right up, and I have not had a crash since. And the 4400 also has an Asante 10/100 EN card and an old IXMicro 3D video card (both of which have known problems with various vendors G3 upgrade cards.) I was not expecting the system to be this reliable, but its been a month now, and it works great. I like the price and reliability of the one Metabox product I've worked with.

  1. 0

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    01/26, 12:41pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Metabox business focus

    Metabox sells Mac upgrade cards in the US only recently, but has been doing so in Europe for a few years now, since the Mac clone market was pulled out from under them.

    However, their major focus is Internet appliances, and has been since the Mac clone debacle. Just last fall they got a committment from a British firm for 100,000 of their Internet appliances. That's just one customer. Pretty good I'd say for a company whose original business plan was squashed by Apple.

  1. 0

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    01/26, 12:43pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    who's left?

    Well…how about Apple? You can get an upgrade from them that has a faster CPU, more storage, extra RAM, new software, and a great looking case to boot. When you compare this to the cost of a CPU card, I think you'll come away from it with a pretty favorable impression.

  1. 0

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    01/26, 02:04pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Who's left?

    Yes, I can spend $1600 for a new machine, and then upgrade all of my peripherals, since they are all either serial, SCSI or ADB (two printers, cd burner, scanner, tablet... ), or I can spend

  1. 0

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    01/26, 02:14pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    let's try this again...

    ...or I can spend

  1. 0

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    01/26, 02:19pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    hey, neat!

    You can't use single greater than greater than / less than characters in here :p

    ...or I can spend under $350(!) for a g4/400 speed upgrade, which is all I'm in need of right now.

    Since I got my beige G3, I've upgraded the ram (twice), added a new video card, upgraded the ROM, and added a new hard drive; I've even plugged in a usb/firewire card. If you add all of that together, as well as the g4 upgrade, it will still be cheaper than a new Mac. (The kewl case is not a selling point for me (^: )

  1. 0

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    01/26, 02:26pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Well, there are adapters…

    At some point, though, the benefits of upgrading to a new system outweigh the benefits of holding on to legacy peripherals. You can plonk a PCI SCSI card into a new G4 for about $50 and it'll run circles around the old stuff.

    I've generally found that real cost in terms of time and frustration of cobbling together a Frankenstein system are a lot higher than the cost of just getting a new machine.
    Not that, say, a ZIF upgrade or a G3/G4 card can't put some snap into an older system. But in general, I think a system is best suited to running software developed in a window of +/- 2 years from the date the system shipped. If that's what you want to do, then maybe a cheap upgrade makes sense.
    Otherwise, the new machine really is a good value.

  1. 0

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    01/26, 02:51pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    You are forgetting...

    When you try to figure out the economics of buying a new computer vs upgrading an older computer, you have to include in the cost of the new computer the price of the old computer also. One year ago I put $1100.00 into my PPC 7500. For that money I got a TurboMax ATA card, a Maxtor DiamondMax 45 gig 7200 RPM ATA/100 drive, IBM UltraStar 9.1 7200 RPM SCSI drive, XLR8 Zif Carrier card, Other World Computing 450 mhz G3 zif, Voodoo3 2000 video card and a USB card. Needless to say, having spent time working on newer machines, I am quite confident that my 7500 can hold its own against any beige G3 or B/W 400 mhz or slower. My 7500 orginally cost me 2200.00 so that I now have $3200.00 in it. Had I purchased a 500 mhz G3 B/W or a newer G4 at that same speed, I would have at least $4500.00 invested between my old box and the new one, plus add ons to use my current midi hardware and SCSI cd burner/scanner...etc. Personally, I don't think pretty plastic is worth 1200.00 dollars, and yes the bus speed of the newer machines makes a difference, but not a difference that I have noticed worth $1200.00. Now if that $1200.00 could have gotten me one of Apple's current machines a year ago, I may have considered it. Apple needs to catch up to the performance/innovation that the PC platform is currently leading in:
    ATA/100, 133 mhz and FASTER bus speeds for the past 6 months, mhz, mhz, mhz, DDR and RAMBUS, etc...
    imho.
    wl

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