Words by Mary Pyefinch
May 2005

Has this happened to you: you buy a fast computer and you feel good until you find out the next week that your computer is not the fastest any more? Then you kick yourself for not waiting a little longer to get that new computer? Well take a deep breathe, help is here and its name is FastMac. FastMac has been creating and selling upgrade products for a variety of Macintosh computers since 1998.

The latest upgrade from FastMac is the FastMac G4 Upgrade. The last G4 upgrade model was the “Overall Best Pick” at MacWorld. However, the lab guys at FastMac knew they could make it even better, they could rebuild it, make it faster, and they did by adding the Cooling Shroud.

Here is the concept – it is not good to have too much heat around your processor. The FastMac Cooling Shroud forces the hot air to rise off the heatsink back down into the copper Cooling Fins and away from the air intake. What this means in plain English is that the processor keeps its cool while running your most CPU intensive applications. Hence, the upgrade is more efficient and there is less data resistance, which means a longer processor life. Now that is really COOL!

The best part of the upgrades from FastMac is that it only takes a few minutes to replace the processor in your G4 Power Mac. You can do it yourself. All you need is a Phillips head screwdriver and three little screws. Voila! You now can satisfy your need for speed. The how-to documentation is available on the website, www.FastMac.com. And it walks you through the process with helpful photographic illustrations and step-by-step instruction.

FastMac also carries G4 processor upgrade for G3 iMacs, G3 Powerbooks, and G3 Power Macs. They also sell combo drives – super drives for G3Macs, G3 Powerbooks, G3/G4 iBooks and G4 Powerbooks.
In addition they offer iPod replacement batteries with a 3-year warranty. The FastMac’s exclusive PowerTrue technology gives you 50-60% more battery life than other iPod batteries – longer than Apple.

FastMac began seven years ago as an OEM supplier of processors. Ed Savio, Product Manager, Development and Marketing said, “It was time to brand ourselves and separate from OEM providers.” So in 2003, they brought all of their products under the FastMac name and began selling directly to customers as well as dealers.

Last year they came upon some amazing technology - PowerTrue technology. Mr. Savio provided me with a heads up on their latest product. It is a battery; they do not have a name for the battery at this time but the battery has a proprietary system that extends your battery’s life.

For example, when you listen to your iPod, once the song is in the memory, the drain on the battery is steady. Steady drain is the most efficient way to use a battery's resources. But when your two or three song cache of songs is up and the iPod must go back to the hard drive, the power drain spikes. This also happens when the backlight comes on or when scrolling through songs. Power spikes are what cause wear and tear on a battery.

Think of it like this, starting a car engine is where the most wear occurs. Accelerating is where the most gas is used, etc. The PowerTrue™ Technology on the battery (a proprietary chemical compound combined with added circuitry) stores a small amount of energy, which can be used for these power spikes, smoothing the peaks and valleys of power drain. This not only extends playtime 10-20%, but overall battery life significantly. For example, the battery is at 80% at the end of the year, 70-80% in three years at the most.

We will cover this new product in more detail in the Winter edition. Have I piqued your curiosity?

FastMac’s overriding philosophy is to give you the tools to extend the life of your Mac and enjoy the latest operating system and applications without having to invest more money by buying a new computer.
FastMac gives you more power for less money than other companies. Plus they stand behind their products 100%.

Their support is excellent. The documentation on how to install the processor is very good. So you save money by installing the processor yourself. And if you need help, it is only a phone call away.

The PowerMac G4 processors are priced from $199.95 for a G4/700 MHz CPU to $499.95 for a G4/1.44 GHz CPU.

This processor is compatible with PowerMac G4 models: AGP (Sawtooth), Gigabit, Digital Audio, Quicksilver 2001, Motorola G4 7455 up to 1.5 GHz, 2MB L3 Cache, AltiVec Velocity Engine.

Min. System: Mac OS 9.2, built for Mac OS X, 3-Year Warranty.