Welcome to Medicine Man. Got a Mac tech support question? Ask. It's a pretty simple relationship, really. We won't even tell your insurance company.
To ask a question (sorry, no house calls), just pop by the Apple Wizards website at http://applewizards.net/ and click on any of the links for the "Special Area" — you should see "Medicine Man" as a choice. Drop us a line with your question. The website is open 24 hours a day, 8 days a week.
As always, this won't hurt a bit… I promise! If you're good, I'll give you a lollipop!
 
Grogginess #1
Any way I can tweak the performance out of my 7600/132? I use this for sound recording and want more processing power but have a tight budget. Thanks.
- Peter Hobert
Treatment #1
Is there ever! Your computer, the 7600/132, is just about the best computer to upgrade at this time. You have a removable daughtercard with a 132 MHz 604e PowerPC processor, which can be replaced with nearly any type of modern processor you want; even a 400 MHz G3! For 
around $399, you can buy a 233 MHz G3 processor card
from Sonnet at http://www.sonnettech.com/ . Place this
into your computer and you'll have approximately
twice as much speed as you've got now!
Another way to increase performance of your sound recording software is to buy more RAM and a faster hard drive (though you may also need to buy a fast SCSI card as well). Buying RAM is easy as pie — just go to any Macintosh vendor and tell them what type of computer you have. However, you might need some help trying to find the fastest hard drive possible. Right now, the best kind of drive to buy is an LVD (Ultra SCSI-2), but those are very expensive. For you, I might recommend a regular SCSI-2 hard drive with at least 7200 RPM and 10ms seek time. Good luck!
 
Bad Thing #2
I need Voodoo2 on my computer. Unfortunately, I have a PowerBook G3 that didn't come with PCI slots (I think, I have the internal 56k modem installed). However, I need something that will get me them.
How can I get Voodoo2 in my PowerBook? (I am willing to tinker).
- Toby Muresianu
Ointment #2
I have some bad new for you, Toby. The only way to get PCI slots on your powerbook is to buy a PCI expansion chassis from a company like Magma.
 
Unfortunately, these things run really expensive. The cheapest that I have seen one for is $799… On the upside however, they work really well and the chassis includes extra space for internal hard drives, which will cut the price off a hard drive by about $50.
However, for $799, you could probably outfit yourself with an older 604e. Really, to get Voodoo2 (normally), you need a desktop machine, preferably a G3 minitower. Good luck.
 
BooBoo #3
Computer speed: Is a 200 MHz machine twice as fast as a 100 MHz (for example's sake)? Or is it exponentionally faster? If so, by how much?
- Jamie Jones
Bandage #3 
Well, Jamie, this is one of the most
confusing subjects for anyone faced
with a computer purchase. However, this
dilemma has been eased for Mac users:
Apple is currently selling only G3
machines, and comparisons among them
can be made fairly well. When you look
to figure out the relative speed of a
computer, there are two variables: clock
speed and processor type. The clock speed,
simply put, is the megahertz measurement.
The processor type is the, well, processor
type. The PowerPC chip that drives your
Macintosh could be one of several types:
601, 603, 603e, 604, 604e, or G3. The 601,
603, and 603e's all have proportional clock
speeds. A 604 or 604e at the same clock
speed as one of the previous chips runs
about 30% faster. Finally a G3 runs about
30% faster than a 604 or 604e. See http://www.MacKiDo.com/Hardware/ for more.
 
Paper Cut #4
Is there a way to connect the Syquest EZ135 to an iMac. I know Imation has a floppy drive, which I might buy with the computer, but what happens to my old SCSI stuff? Will I have to go with a Desktop G3 in order to keep my Syquest drive and disks?
- John Doe
Stick It In Ice #4
Well until a week or two ago, I would have said "No way!," but an innovative company, ForMac, has since announced that they are coming out with a SCSI card for the mysterious Mezzazine slot in the iMac.
 
The card, called iPowerRaid, should be released before the holidays and will cost around $300. It will support SCSI-1, SCSI-2, SCSI-3, Fast, Ultra, Wide, etc. A note of caution, however, installing this card will void your warranty… Man, that sucks! If you know French, you can check out this website:
Another product has also surfaced for using SCSI drives and peripherals with your iMac. The Microtek Xpress USB will only cost about $80 and will attach to the USB port of your iMac. The one downside, it will only run at the USB speed limit (1.5 MBps). Look for it to start shipping on 04 January 1999.
