Overclockers Get Power Mac G4 DP Running at 1.5GHz


Posters to the Arstechnica message boards have apparently got the latest G4 DP Power Macs at 1.5GHz. That's cooking.

So hot, in fact, that the standard cooling system on the Mirrored Drive Door PMs isn't able to cope fully with the heat generated by the overclocked CPUs.

However, some users have apparently been able to get the PMs running stably at 1.33GHz, which is commendably quick, according to those with first-hand experience.

This raises the possibility, as some posters have noted, that Apple could make 1.5Ghz systems available, provided they upgrade the cooling system in the new Power Macs.

We first looked at the overclocking experiment reported at xlr8yourmac. a few days ago, which suggested that clock speed might be controlled entirely in software. Altering the bus speed on a DP 867 PM produced a clock of over 1.1GHz.

Analysis: Probably not one you want to try at home, kids - use a nice, cheap Celeron for practise instead.