[satchmo]

This has AV outputs but runs relatively slow.
Has anyone used their old 8500 in an interesting way, perhaps in an audio or video capacity?

[yukon]

Well, I personally wouldn't use it for audio/visual, as the componants may be too slow to do good framerate video. Might be a good idea if you don't really care about the high quality a/v.

I set up an older 6100 as my server and firewall. Its nice having an older computer to do the menial tasks, like modem and firewalls. It lets me run my g4 with minimal networking ability, incresing performance and decresing stalls and crashing.You might want to increse the hard drive space and use it as a file server to other machines you have.

I know these are less useful suggestions, as your system is significantly faster than my older machine.

[bluedog]

Its a perfect MP3 jukebox if you add higher capacity HDs. It can do that and do modem dialup and connection sharing if you have other computers and a HUB using software like Vicomsoft's internet gateware, or IPNetRouter.

It makes a great secondary computer if you or your kids (if you have them) wanna play networked games. Its a very capable machine.

If you wanted to just have it be a fast fileserver, I would recommend installing Linux on it though. You'll get much better performance. If you aren't a technical type, find someone who is to help you out.

BTW. I have an 8500 w/G3 450mHz upgrade card from Powerlogix. It is my secondary Mac computer used for scanning and internet browsing. I've also got a 7600 running as a server/iTunes MP3 jukebox running OSX.

Oh, actually we also use it as our television and route our DVD player and VCR into it for playing. The monitor is much better than any TV's I've seen in clarity and we have the audio out into my stereo for decent sound. its not a hifi component, but its a great use for this machine. People are right about its not being as useful for video because of the technical advances in video on the desktop. In any case...

Enjoy your spare machine!

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: bluedog ]

[The Ancient One]

Got a new Quicksilver and a cable modem, linked it to my 8500 with an Asante box and now my wife has her own web browsing machine with her own email address. She's happy. I'm happy, too - mine's faster.

[yukon]

I hooked my little network up using IPnetRouter (sustainablesoftworks.com). Its cheap, and it works. It dials out aoutomaticly on startup, and routes the connection to me. I'm thinking of going hardware as soon as I get more computers to network =)

[Cipher13]

I use my 5500 as a secondary computer, file server, and mp3 jukebox. Its online through my switch and IPNR. Awesome setup

[SpeedRacer]

I agree with Bluedog...
[list=a]
[*]Pit your 8500 with a cheap 20" display[*]Hook your VCR/DVD player into the AV-IN ports on the back[*]Hook your home stereo up to AV-OUT ports[*]Fire up Apple Video Player on the 8500 and...[/list=a]

Shazam!

You've got yourself a crystal-clear, fully remote controlled TV/VCR/DVD home theater system. Even better than the installation of a cheapo TV tuner card too b/c your VCR acts as the actual channel tuner, therefore allowing the 8500 to act merely as a conduit/hub between your audio, video, and computer needs. Ran this very same setup for 2 years in college and it worked great. Thinking about ressurecting with a nice coat of gloss black paint to match the hifi components only one problem...

Anybody know how to quiet that awful 8500 fan?!



Speed

[scope]

I have the following:

PowerMac G4 400MHz AGP
PowerMac G3 233MHz
PowerMac 6100 60MHz
PowerMac 8500 120MHz

Suggestions anyone?

[Cipher13]

Originally posted by scope:
<STRONG>I have the following:

PowerMac G4 400MHz AGP
PowerMac G3 233MHz
PowerMac 6100 60MHz
PowerMac 8500 120MHz

Suggestions anyone?</STRONG>

G4 - primary workstation.
G3 - secondary workstation; alongside the G4.
8500 - workstation for other members of the family; put it in a different room. Bedroom perhaps - she's not THAT noisy
6100 - Internet router and fileserver.

Perhaps run the 6100 as the router and the 8500 as the fileserver/workstation...

How much RAM/drive space per machine?

[ 09-20-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]

[otis52]

I have a 8500/180 that i bought in 1997 for around $3,500 ouch... So it.s hard for me to just put it off in the corner. This month I am going to put a G3/500 Sonnet card, and a 40 GB IDE hard drive with PCI Host Adapter. Soon to follow will be a GeForce2 PCI video card and 4/128MB RAM chips which for under $500 will make a nice little gaming and work station.....

I use a loaded 8500, Radeon PCI, Newer G4 350, 512mb ram, 18 GB LVD Fujitsu & Miles U2W card.

I also have a G4 667 & NeXTstation Turbo on my home network, the 8500 is great for playing games on when one of my friends come round, they use the G4 I use the 8500.

You can pick loads of parts up very cheaply on ebay to make them a bit more up to date.

Im glad I found this thread.
My 8500 is pretty ballsed out too like &lt;brams&gt; above,
ATI Rage Orion 128/32mb pci video card, Powerlogix G3 350 clocked up to 373, 512mb ram, 20 GB seagate on the external scsi bus as main HD, and USB PCI card. Two monitors (sweet, couldn't go back I don't think).
Here's my issues.
1) Bus speed. - There's no escaping it..47.7 is top speed and that doesn't cut it for Quake or alot of other stuff which sucks because my processor and vid card would be screaming.
2) Memory - No matter who the third party chip, my box will only see 1/2 the amount per card with 64MB or 128mb dimms.
I put in a 64, it sees 32 of it...a 128, it sees 64 of it. That's annoying as hell.

Generally speaking, It's an mp3 workhorse, pumping out 8 GB of music randomly whenever it's running.
I'm a GUI nut, so I find myself ResEditing the hell out of my system to tweak it left and right, and the thing runs absolutely as fast as possible.
I wish motherboards were as readily swappable as pc boxes, I'd be up at 100MHz Bus speed tomorrow.

[otis52]

NoSloppy would you say with the 47.7 bus speed it would be stupid to spend the extra money on a 500 MHZ upgrade. Should I just get the 350MHZ??? Same as video card 32 or 64 ???

[gpublic]

I have an 8600/300...

Got it off eBay. It's the Zipless flavor with all the AV goodies... Stock everything.

What I did with it was this:

Bought a gig of RAM, sold the four 16 meg modules on eBay. I used it as my primary system, with Mac OS 9, until my iBook came back from the shop.

After that, my iBook ran OS X while I turned the 8600 into a Darwin workstation. I run CVS on it for my web and coding stuff, Darwin Streaming Server so it's an MP3 jukebox, and Apache, Perl, PHP and a few other things for serving and testing my work. It also serves files to my other Macs and PCs.

With this much RAM, the 8600 will be able to do these things for years, the only limitation being the hard drive space, which can always be augmented.

It doesn't do connection sharing but could-- I have dedicated hardware doing that now.

[zac4mac]

Top bus speed is definitely not 47.7 MHz. I have a 7500 running that bus speed on a stock 9500/604e-233 processor card. It talks to my DSL modem and does S@H.
My old 8500 I've had since '97 is running a 56.8 MHz bus with an OEM G3 ZIF 400 in an XLR8 carrier @ 454/277. I use the 4MB VRAM to push a 15" NEC monitor and an UltRez 3D card for a 17". It has the floppy torn out and replaced with a SCSI Zip-100, the Apple CD changed to a Plextor 12/20 variable speed CD-ROM, a 2 GB Quantum and a 9 GB UltraStar server drive, a USB card with a Logitech 3-button optical mouse and sometimes my Intuous tablet and camera. I just added a firewire card and a 25 GB 7200rpm Maxtor HD in a Firewire case, now I've got room for some MP3's. Found a place Friday that had EDO RAM for it , so I ordered a half-gig for 110.00. sweeet. It has a Labtec subwoofer and a pair of Yamaha YST-M10's for sound. It has to live under the desk; it has 7 extra fans and sounds like a jet.
I use it at work instead of the Dell P-III 500 POS they gave me to use. It's almost twice as fast as the Dell in everything productive, especially photo stuff.

I finally got a TV a couple of weeks ago, haven't had one for several years. I used to watch on the 8500, using a VCR as a tuner, but lost that ability when I "upgraded" to a dual 500 last year.
Speaking of, Voyager's on. Later

[SpeedRacer]

Well this thread got the geek-juices flowing and i pulled the 8500 back out of storage to see if couldn't resurrect the machine as a high-clarity TV/internet box.

Problem is the clarity is not much greater than the standard TV and i've got some nasty horizontal scrolling going on in the backdrop of the screen (some sort of intereference going on?)

Also, i'm not getting sound routed properly. Watching anything broadcast in surround sound produces output to the speakers equivalent to a mono sound source.

I've go the standard setup:

VCR -&gt; 8500 -&gt; ProLogic Reciever -&gt; speakers

Any ideas?

And has anybody tried throwing in a DVD drive in to an 8500 and pumping that into a TV/stereo? Worth it/not?

And then there's that jet-engine power supply fan...

Speed

[mitchell_pgh]

I have a great setup using an old Performa 6400

I use it as an answering machine plus!!!

Apple script works like a wonder on is machine...

1) Use Mega Phone (came with the computer) to record the incoming calls
2) Have Sound Jam (or any AIFF to MP3 converter) convert the AIFF file to an MP3
3) Have the OS encrypt the file
4) I have Outlook e-mail the MP3 to your work account...

It's secure, and you have a record of all of your voice mails... I have it go every half-hour on the half hour... the files are around 300K each (rather small)

[mitchell_pgh]

I have a great setup using an old Performa 6400

I use it as an answering machine plus!!!

Apple script works like a wonder on is machine...

1) Use Mega Phone (came with the computer) to record the incoming calls
2) Have Sound Jam (or any AIFF to MP3 converter) convert the AIFF file to an MP3
3) Have the OS encrypt the file
4) I have Outlook e-mail the MP3 to your work account...

It's secure, and you have a record of all of your voice mails... I have it go every half-hour on the half hour... the files are around 300K each (rather small)

[bluedog]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
<STRONG>
I use it as an answering machine plus!!!

Apple script works like a wonder on is machine...

1) Use Mega Phone (came with the computer) to record the incoming calls
2) Have Sound Jam (or any AIFF to MP3 converter) convert the AIFF file to an MP3
3) Have the OS encrypt the file
4) I have Outlook e-mail the MP3 to your work account...

It's secure, and you have a record of all of your voice mails... I have it go every half-hour on the half hour... the files are around 300K each (rather small)</STRONG>

OMG! That is Uebergeekdom! I have to try it myself.

[AJ]

Now that is one sweet use of an old machine . Wow.

AJ

[Oink]

Ipnetrouter (better with a 2nd ethernet card), a fax server, an ftp server, MP3 player, a scanning station (scsishare), and a rendering node for Aftereffects or electricimage. Hook in a laser printer and you will be able to print to your printer from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The SCSI port and the floppy drive will comes in handy. If you don't care too much and your place is not too hot, take out the fan. You can also take out the monitor and run Timbuktu to remote control it.

[Eug]

Originally posted by otis52:
<STRONG>I have a 8500/180 that i bought in 1997 for around $3,500 ouch... So it.s hard for me to just put it off in the corner. This month I am going to put a G3/500 Sonnet card, and a 40 GB IDE hard drive with PCI Host Adapter. Soon to follow will be a GeForce2 PCI video card and 4/128MB RAM chips which for under $500 will make a nice little gaming and work station..... </STRONG>

Hmmm... Workstation yes. Gaming machine, I wouldn't count on it.

[cdhostage]

MP3 player all the way... trash pile otherwise.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally posted by cdhostage:
<STRONG>MP3 player all the way... trash pile otherwise.</STRONG>

That's not true at all. with an upgrade card its more than functional. I mean will i take it over a G4, no. But its still very useful on a home network.

[kbbaucom]

Before I got my Dual 450, my 8600 was my main computer, so it's pretty upgraded. It has a G3 424MHz, 512MB of RAM, and 3 HDs totaling 62GB. It runs IPNetRouter, and it's an MP3 and anime server (17GB of MP3s, 40GB of anime). I have it connected to the home theater, but I really just use the TV as a screen when changing or fixing something on the 8600. I've thought about using it as a VCR. I already have a VCR, but it would be cool to program my 8600 to record something, over the internet (like if I'm visiting my parents') [That's program over the internet, not record over the internet]. It's running SETI@home right now also.

[Mac Write]

I love my Beige G3. I got it @ (rather ordered it from Microwarehouse Canada) on Wednesday June 3, 1998@11AM P.S.T. I blew the remainder of my trust fund to get it (Worth it, the $3,000 the previous fall not worth it). I also am using my Sony 17 200sf I bought on December 14, 1996 for $1,125.00

Specs:

• Beige G3 MiniTower Revision A
• ATI Rage II+ 2MB
• 32MB, Microwarehouse Added 128MB before the computer was sent to me.
• 70BaseT Ethernet
• 2 Serial ports (Rember those?)
• ADB port
• 6GB IDE 5400RPM
• Floppy Drive (remember those?)
• Internal SCSI Zip (Bootable)
• A/V Personality Card
• Mac OS 8.1
• $4,219.47 Shipped

• June 1, 1999 Epson Stylus Color 740 $460.54

Now fast forward to this year, and I have made the following upgrades: "Would you like to charge it?)

• March 03, 2001 OrangeMicro USB/Firewire PCI card $235.39
• March 23, 2001 Palm USB Connect kit (returned April 9, 2001 after frying my Palm III (and Palm wanting $200 to replace it) Orginal Palm III
• March 23, 2001 USB Cable for my Epson 740 Printer
• April 06, 2001 Yamaha Firewire CDRW 16x10x40x (from my near fatal "?," and "Can't read partition format?"
• May 24, 2001 IntelliMouse Optical (left handed to replace the Logitech cordless mouse I was given for my birthday (they person who gave it to me took it for themselves, and gave me the money for the IntelliMouse$79.79
• July 21, 2001 Maxtor 7200RPM 60GB to replace my overly cramped 6GB (I would have gone external firewire for being to parinoid about X being picky). $366.10
• July 31, 2001 256MB RAM upgrade $174.42
• November 28, 2001Radeon PCI 32MB DDR $348.00
• ????, ??, 2002 2x 256MB RAM $228.00

Now this computer has to last me until @least 2004+

So do I have a good system? and of course I am running Mac OS 10.1.1/Mac OS 9.2.1 with no problems @all (well when I add the Radeon I may loose Audio (shudder). I need my RCA out for playing Music on my AIWA Junker Stereo (only Radio/Video in works).

[ 11-28-2001: Message edited by: Mac Write ]

[Paco500]

I have a 6100/av I just got my hands on that I had/have glorious plans for. I popped in a 13GB drive and a 12x CD-ROM, hooked up the built in s-video out to my TV and the sound out to my stereo. I have an old (can't remember the manufacturer- it's somewhere in my attic- have to find it) RF presentation mouse- basically a handheld trackball with several buttons- black, sleek- maybe logitech?

The concept was/is to make this an MP3 jukebox. Painted black- it fits in nicely with the other stereo components.

My big problem is the lack of an effective user interface for the player. Whoever manufactures the mouse, when I looked a year ago, had no drivers of even an acknowledgement that the ever made the thing on their website. So all the buttons do is click. If I could figure out how to map them to other keys, I might be able to use applescripts for FF, REW, Play/Pause, etc.

The keyspan remote would be great- but USB can't be added (nu-bus slot only, and it's filled with the AV card anyway). Does anyone know of any ADB device w/ this functionality? Or even a wireless ADB keyboard. Or perhaps a universal driver for multi-button ADB devices?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Paco