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Madison · Nov 25, 2003, 09:56 PM

Hello all,

I have 2 quick questions regarding my backup PowerMac 7600 my daughter uses...

1. Will any PCI graphics card for the Mac work in it? I was looking at a cheapo ATI Rage 128 card with 16mb RAM on it for about $20, that way she can play all her games with no trouble and nice graphcs.

2. Do I need to do anything special to replace the hard drive? The 1.2 gb unit is obviously way too small. Will any IDE drive work? Or do I need some sort of controller card? I'm not very knowledgable about this stuff.

I look forward to your advice, thanks in advance.

Tom King

Lateralus · Nov 25, 2003, 10:19 PM

1) Yes, any PCI Mac graphics card will work.

2) The 7600 will not accept IDE drives, it will accept any SCSI drive however. If you want to use IDE drives, you will need to buy an IDE PCI controller card, but they cost more than the machine is worth.

Dr. Wahnsinn · Nov 25, 2003, 10:21 PM

A Rage 128 card would be a nice addition as long as you're using the minimum OS supported by the software drivers for the card. $20 is a good price. However, you still have a slow processor and, in my opinion, a G3 upgrade would be a better upgrade for that Mac. And yes, any PCI video card desiged for the Mac will work in the 7600.

As for the hard drive, the 7600 has a SCSI hard drive but you'd be better off to purchase an IDE controller card and get a larger capacity IDE hard drive to replace the SCSI drive.

This all costs money (about $100-$150 at prices for used items in my area) and you'll have to answer the question of whether it's worth it. You'll probably also hear people tell you that it's stupid to upgrade an old Mac and that you should just buy a more recent model. As an example, I can purchase 266MHz G3 desktop Macs for about $50.

WizOSX · Nov 25, 2003, 10:25 PM

Originally posted by Madison

1. Will any PCI graphics card for the Mac work in it? I was looking at a cheapo ATI Rage 128 card with 16mb RAM on it for about $20, that way she can play all her <a href="http://go-all.com?go=games" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: games';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">games</a> with no trouble and nice graphcs..

Yes, just about any Mac PCI card will work. Certainly the Rage 128 will work just fine as long as you are in OS9 (which I assume that you are).

Originally posted by Madison

2. Do I need to do anything special to replace the hard drive? The 1.2 gb unit is obviously way too small. Will any IDE drive work? Or do I need some sort of controller card? I'm not very knowledgable about this stuff..

No, IDE drives do not work in the 7600 because it is SCSI. You would have to buy an IDE controller card to use an IDE drive. The conbination works just fine. I have a Sonnet IDE card in by 7600 along with a Western Digital 40gb hard drive and the combination is very quick and fairly quiet. The only negative is cost. The best you would probably do would be about $100-$140 for a used card and new hard drive together. You then have to ask yourself if it is worth putting a total of $160+ into an old machine.

DrBoar · Nov 26, 2003, 01:20 AM

In a 7600/200 a good PCI card will about double the 2D speed and for 20 dollars that not bad but as other have stated if you buy
1. ATI card 20 dollars
2. A IDE card 60 dollars
3. A IDE disk (second hand) 20 dollar
4. A G3 card 100 dollar
and then you are into the price range of a B&W G3 that is far better computer than any upgraded 7600

Madison · Nov 26, 2003, 09:47 AM

I forgot to mention in the post that it already has a 450mhz Sonnet card in it. So the video card upgrade is well worth it in my opinion. Also, it has a USB port upgrade on it as well, so I guess a slow USB external drive is another option...

By the way, this machine was free, including a 17" monitor, so I wouldn't mind putting $150 into it to make it a pretty decent machine...as always, thank you all for the information.

UpgradeManiac · Nov 26, 2003, 03:12 PM

Originally posted by Madison:
I forgot to mention in the post that it already has a 450mhz Sonnet card in it. So the video card upgrade is well worth it in my opinion. Also, it has a USB port upgrade on it as well, so I guess a slow USB external drive is another option...

By the way, this machine was free, including a 17" monitor, so I wouldn't mind putting $150 into it to make it a pretty decent machine...as always, thank you all for the information.

It's always good to set a price limit for upgrades. Over the years, I've put enough money into upgrading my 7600/120 to buy an iMac or two

. However, it's also been the Mac that has lasted me through OS 7, 8, 9, and X. Ha!

Both ATi Rage 128 Orions and Radeon 7000s have issues, particularly with OS X. The best resource for tweaking these cards is xlr8yourmac.com

When it comes to hard drives, the most reliable is the 4GB IBM Apple ROM UltraStar 50-pin SCSI. I've also been able to get an 18GB IBM (non-Apple ROM) UltraStar 50-pin SCSI to boot OS X. There are issues with 68-50 pin SCSI adapters. Don't try the 80-50 pin SCSI adapters (notoriously unreliable). IDE cards may give you the most GB/$, but be prepared to do your own tech support.

__________________

G5 1.8 | 512MB | 250GB | ATi 9600Pro | Bluetooth
7600/120 | XLR8 MACh Carrier G3 300/200 | ATi Rage 128 Orion | XPostFact OS X 10.2.8
(apple ][+ | Mac Plus | Mac IIsi | Newton 2100)

AC Rempt · Nov 26, 2003, 11:41 PM

The 7600 is an incredibe machine. I have my running 10.2 on a G4 500Mhz card. This is a hobby machine for me, but it keeps pace pretty handily with my newer G4s.

Don't dis the 7600, people. It's a killer machine.

WizOSX · Nov 27, 2003, 09:18 PM

Originally posted by AC Rempt

The 7600 is an incredibe machine. I have my running 10.2 on a G4 500Mhz card. This is a hobby machine for me, but it keeps pace pretty handily with my newer G4s.

Don't dis the 7600, people. It's a killer machine.

I agree. I've had OSX on mine for almost 2 years now with no problems. And it only has a 604e processor! No G3 or 4. And yet it is still usable for light work. I put 448mb RAM in it which was quite cheap--no more than if I'd put the same amount in an older G4 machine. However, I'm not sure its worth putting a G4 card in it when machines like the eMac are so cheap--an 800mhz eMac G4 right now costs about $200 more than an 800mhz Sonnet G4 card! And the eMac would give you a copy of Panther.