This page will be used as a reference for the specs on all L2 G3 cards for the 6400/6500. Since the manufacturers have made trying to tell exactly how a particular card will run on the different speeds of system buses difficult, I thought this page needed to be made. Remember that all other models based on the same motherboards should have the same specs. The green text denotes the fastest available G3 for a particular system. The red text denotes cards not in production anymore :(

Below the chart are some misc. G3 upgrade card info as well that apply to all L2 G3 upgrades so I posted here instead of on each individual cards page.

[Now if you want to help the Sonnet using community here is a tip to get better and longer use out of these things. In a PM5500 and PM6500 heat is a problem. The L2 G3 board is right up against the RAM. I have found RAM to be heat sensitive if the Sonnet metronome software indicates it goes over 40'C. The Sonnet can handle much higher temps, I use to see 47'C sometimes with running QT movies, and it ran fine, but the RAM got a little funny. So I recommend that if you have these machines and use the L2 G3 upgrades, especially the PM6500 (its L2 mounting puts the heatsink opposite convection flow) is to buy two socket 7 pentium cooling fans, remove the heatsinks (t451-2020 $7 each from tigerdirect.com). They are 12 volt and each pulls about the same current as the stock apple fan. Take the Apple processor fan off and using its mini plug solder the two 7 fans in its place. Run the two pentium fans in series so they split the voltage and run at half speed and draw the current of one Apple fan to avoid overtaxing the Apple supply (wire the first fan red wire to the mini plug red and the other fans black to the Apple plug black and connect the remaining 7 fans red and black to each other). Using nylon ties to attach them, put one over the stock apple processor and one blowing down (the side of the fan that was next to the heatsink is the direction the fan blows) over the L2 G3 and Ram. On the 5500 you have to mount the fan in the back of the L2 and blow it toward the edge of the L2 G3 and RAM. On the 5500 before you cut the Apple fan wired make sure you can fit the 7 fan in back of the L2 by attaching it to the L2 sonnet board with a nylock and put it back into the case. These 7 fans are larger in dia so some custom placement is necessary. Since after extensions boot, the Apple processor goes to idle with the L2 G3 taking over, the slower fan speed over the Apple processor is not important. If you have to go back to the Apple processor for any length of time, than just run the socket 7 fans at full speed by rewiring them in parallel. The socket 7 fans are larger and even at half speed move plenty of air so the above should not be necessary.

Once this is done, your L2 G3 will run about 10'C cooler and you can try overclocking it a bit. More importantly if you have RAM that does not like higher temps you can get less system lockups :)]

7/20/03 Sonnets latest G3 upgrades are more stable then previous versions: Sonnets latest 400Mhz and 500Mhz G3 upgrades are the most stable of the lot. There may still be some issues such as audio stuttering when mixed with their original Firewire/USB combo card but the heat sink is smaller so it no longer touches the RAM chips its sitting next to and other stability issues have been resolved with the latest software. One issue that may not be an issue is the fact that neither can be clocked with the Sonnet Clocker anymore? They appear to be hard coded at their speeds. The only issue would be a person putting the 400Mhz model in a 6500. It will only run at 400Mhz and won't allow you to over clock it by changing the bus multiplier as previous Sonnet G3's could. But in a 6400 the 400Mhz card is already at maximum speed and the 500Mhz card is at maximum speed in a 6500 so there really is no way to overclock them even if it was possible!

L2 G3 Reported Temperatures

My Vimage Info page on Vimage's G3 upgrade for the 6400