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MacEgo · Dec 13, 2001, 09:25 PM

I have an old 6500/300 powermac w 64 mb ram that runs 8.5.1.
I've run photosop 5.5 on it - it's not like my Ti500 but it works. I like to use 6.0 and gain some speed. Obviously I'll buy some more ram but should I upgrade the old OS - and to which? Is 9.2.1 to demanding with no benefits - should I choose 8.6 which I think some people has mentioned as faster than 8.5?
Any thoughts....

thanx

as2 · Dec 13, 2001, 10:19 PM

I have a 6500/300 at home running Mac OS 9.2.1 and I've had no problems what so ever.

It runs photoshop 5.5 with no problems at all, and the same goes for Illustrator 8, and QuarkXpress 4.

It obviously isn't as fast as my iMac, but it still works great. It's my parents, and they just got a USB card for it so that they can use their digital camera on it.

The only thing I would reccomend you do is get some more RAM for it, although because it is not very standard RAM it is slightly more expensive than that for the iMac's etc.

I hope this helps, and you don't have any problems.

Adam

babble · Dec 13, 2001, 10:41 PM

Go to 8.6 and stay with it. Unless you need features only available in 9. It's not really faster than 8.5, just more stable. You only see a difference in speed in a PowerMac between 8.1 to 8.5.

But if you got more RAM (add at least 64MB to what you have) to put in you can easily go with 9 or 9.1 (you don't need 9.2).

MacMonster · Dec 13, 2001, 10:51 PM

OS 8.6 is great for older Power Macs, if you don't use the features in OS 9, for example, Software Update, Multiple Users, etc.

OS 9.2.x is useless if your Mac don't have OS X, because OS 9.2.x just improve the classic compatibility in X.

waffffffle · Dec 14, 2001, 03:19 AM

Hmm. I have a 6400/200 with 80 megs. I have 9.1 on there, but it has always been disgustingly slow since I installed OS 8 (over 7.5.something) then I jumped right to 9.0.

I am planning on installing linux this weekend when I get home. The only reason why the computer is still in use at all is that it's the only computer in the house that has a burner and the burner is scsi so it has to stay there. it also has a nice large 20 GB HD. However I get too many coasters because the machine is so slow. I wish the thing would run X, but linux instead will give me speed. I am excited to get a file/web/ftp server that I can log into from anywhere in the world if I happen to know my IP at the time. I think I'll write some sort of script that uploads my IP to my school's web server as an html file or something that way I always know what it is.

Hopefully the installation will go smoothly. I hope to get myself a nice OS 9-like window skin and get Mac on linux and netatalk to work properly. I have a feeling this will take a few days to get done.

Cipher13 · Dec 14, 2001, 05:18 AM

8.6 if you're low on RAM; 9.1 if you've got plenty.

rjc3 · Dec 16, 2001, 10:55 PM

my vote is for 8.6. I have a 6400/200 with 64MB RAM and OS 9 (and 9.1) were just way too slow. 8.6 is pretty zippy on my 6400. maybe the extra 100mhz on a 6500 would be enough to push OS 9 properly?