You make a great point mordaskyt. Used cpu upgrades can be risky for many reasons. As far as the
firmware update, yes you need one. You will probably need some other software too. All of these
are available on the net and are free. If you buy a new card, this stuff comes with it and they are
super easy to install. Let us know what you end up with.

-maestro

I have a 733 which downclocked the bus to 66, it's still faster than the orig 350 at most things, though for memory intense items, I think the 100mhz bus and 600Mhz cpu will likely be a faster option.

I would also suggest upgrading your disk and your drive controller, this proved to be a big bottleneck on mine for I/O based apps like i* stuff.

I also didn't see much speed boost from the ATI 9200PCI, though I might if I were to play any games, etc.

Personally, I would reccomend a mac mini and FW enclosure. Sure it's more money, but it's way faster and will likely be useful as an aux machine for longer than the B&W...