PowerBook Mystique Review - FastMac 8X SuperDrive Upgrade"
by Charles W. Moore
The Pismo, properly known as the PowerBook G3 2000 FireWire, was a watershed model in the literal sense. It was the first Apple portable with built-in FireWire, and introduced the motherboard architecture that would be used in the first 1.5 generations of Titanium G4 PowerBooks. On the other hand, it was the last-ever G3 PowerBook (albeit upgradable to G4), the last Apple 'Book to facilitate processor upgrades by virtue of having its CPU mounted on a removable daughtercard, and the last to feature the convenience, versatility, and simple upgrading qualities of a removable device expansion bay.
The Pismo shipped with a tray-loading CD/DVD-ROM drive in the expansion bay -- the first PowerBook to come with DVD support standard across the board.
For my own Pismo, I also have ZIP drive and Superdisk modules, the latter of which also reads and writes 1.4k floppies, although it is no longer supported in all aspects 10.3 Panther and presumably neither by 10.4 Tiger.
The DVD-ROM drive has worked well, but read-only optical drives are passe in an era where computer users have become accustomed to expecting easy CD-burning capacity at minimum. And so the genius of the expansion bay is highlighted.
Optical drive upgrades that support DVD-ROM and CD burning ("Combo" drives), and both DVD and CD burning (SuperDrives), are available for most post-Pismo PowerBooks and iBooks, but require case-opening surgery, which usually must be performed by a trained technician, in order to swap be in the new drive. With the Pismo, upgrading to a combo or SuperDrive is a 20-second operation. Just pull the release lever, pop out whatever module is in the expansion bay, slide in the new drive module, and you're done. Slick. Upgrading my Pismo PowerBook's optical drive is as simple as that. Pure plug & play.
The subject of this review is the FastMac 8X SuperDrive module for Pismo (it also supports the earlier PowerBook G3 Bronze "Lombard"). The same drive innards are also offered in upgrades for the Titanium PowerBook and the dual USB iBook, slot-loading G3 iMacs, and G4 Cube Macs, but installation is, as noted, much more challenging with those units, and in most instances likely not a do-it-yourself operation. However, FastMac includes easy to understand, fully illustrated instruction manuals with purchase of each drive if you want to give it a shot.
This SuperDrive upgrade burns DVDs at 8x speed (that is 8 times faster than Apple's original "SuperDrive") and rewrites DVDs at 4x speed. It also writes to DVD-RAM discs at 3x speed, CD-Rs at 24x speed, and CD-RWs at 10x speed -- essentially equivalent to the SuperDrives offered in current PowerBooks and iBooks. Indeed, it is the same Matsushita (Panasonic) UJ-825 internal mechanism, I understand.
FastMac's SuperDrive upgrade is a slot-loader, which is much nicer to live with than the clunky, tray-loading DVD-ROM drive that came with the Pismo. Some original equipment Pismo DVD drives have been plagued with spotty reliability, and thus the 8x SuperDrive upgrade (or one of FastMac's other optical drive upgrade models) will make an excellent replacement.
The FastMac 8x SuperDrive changes the appearance of the right front corner of the Pismo slightly, and it doesn't quite have the tailored look of the OEM drive, but it looks perfectly fine to me.
I didn’t even have to reboot, although FastMac suggests that you do.
With the FastMac SuperDrive, you can play or burn both CDs and DVDs, and the drive supports booting. The test unit has performed flawlessly, and is of course much faster than the Pismo's original DVD-ROM drive (which is playback only). "Our new 8x multi-format burner, with included iLife software, offers the ultimate DVD and CD recording experience," said Michael Lowdermilk, Business Development Manager for FastMac Performance Upgrades. "With it, you can burn a complete 4.7 GB DVD in under 10 minutes."
I found nothing to complain about with the FastMac 8x SuperDrive unit. It "just works." OS X Disk Utility Disk Burner as well as both Burnz and BurnItAgainSam disk authoring software perform perfectly with it, and while I didn't test them, Apple's iDVD, and iTunes, as well as Roxio's Toast Titanium and Popcorn applications are supported as well.
Super Drive 8x Pismo System requirements:
• Compatible with Mac OS 9.x, Mac OS X 10.2 up
The FastMac 2x through 8x SuperDrives require installation of a little software driver called PatchBurn,, developed by Christian Mšller in RealBasic 5.2 using the MBS-plug-ins written by Christian Schmitz. Patchburn is included on a CD bundled with the drive. PatchBurn is a tool to patch existing CD/DVD-drivers (under Mac-OS X 10.2.x) or to generate and install new device profiles (under Mac-OS 10.3.x and later). Which version of the software you install depends on which operating system version you're using.
Christian Schmitz. has released the first alpha version of PatchBurn 4. This alpha does not have the final feature set yet, but it will install device profiles under Mac-OS X 10.4 (Tiger). PatchBurn 4 will not run under Panther (10.3) or Jaguar (10.2). Both, PatchBurn 1 (for Jaguar) and PatchBurn 3 (for Panther) remain available for download.
With OS 10.3, note that for enabling Finder Burn functionality as well as iTunes, iDVD, etc., you must be running OS 10.3.2 or later. The Patch process is reversible if you need to remove the Patchburn drivers from your system in the future.
With OS 10.2, enabling Finder Burn functionality as well as iTunes, iDVD, etc., requires running the Patchburn 1 application. Select the same manufacturer as the drive you are patching (the model number doesn't matter). This is also reversible if you need to remove the Patchburn drivers from your system in the future.
For OS 9, you must have OS 9.2.2 installed, as well as Authoring Support 1.1.9 (which can be downloaded from Apple Computer beforeyou install the following extension.
For CD Burning functionality under OS 9, you must first un-stuff the Authoring Support Files located in the OS 9 stuffed file on the Fastmac SuperDrive support CD. Then, place the appropriate file (depending upon which drive was purchased) into the System Folde Extensions Authoring Support Files.
You then must remove the existing Matshita or Sony extension and store it in a safe place (like the Extensions Disabled folder). Restart your Mac, and you should have full Finder Burning support and all Apple "i" applications should function normally.
I've been running OS 10.3 so I used the PatchBurn 2 driver (included) — actually the installation left over from my install of a FastMac 4x Superdrive last year still worked fine with the 8x unit.
PatchBurn is freeware/donationware, and can be downloaded here:
http://www.patchburn.de/
The FastMac SuperDrive for PowerBook G3 Pismo or Lombard features:
8X Speed DVD-R Writing
4X Speed DVD-RW Writing
3X Speed DVD-RAM Writing
24X Speed CD-R Writing
10X Speed CD-RW Writing
8X Speed +R Writing
4X Speed +RW Writing
24X Speed CD-ROM Reading
8x Speed DVD-ROM Reading
Buffer Under Run Protection
Designed to replace Apple's original optical drive, FastMac's 8x DVD±RW drive is compatible with all Apple PowerBook G4, iBook G4, PowerMac G4 Cube, iMac G3 Slot-Load and iMac G5 models.
Fastmac SuperDrive 8x prices:
SuperDrive 8x Dual-Layer for PowerBook G4 400, 500, 550 & 667 MH - $249.95
SuperDrive 8x Dual-Layer for PowerBook G4 667 MHz or Higher - $189.95
SuperDrive 8x Dual-Layer for PowerBook G3 Pismo - $189.95
SuperDrive 8x Dual-Layer for PowerMac G4 Cube - $249.95
SuperDrive 8x Dual-Layer for iMac Slot Loading - $249.95
SuperDrive 8x Dual-Layer for iBook G4 - $189.95
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Also available from Fastmac:
Combo Drive 24x for PowerBook G3 Pismo - $159.95
SuperDrive 1x for PowerBook G3 Pismo - $169.95
For more information, visit:
http://www.fastmac.com/