9600/200 Upgrade Ideas

I run a 9600 with a Sonnet G3/400 card, 100mbit ethernet, 384mb RAM and an HP CD-Writer - it is quite a nice system - dirt cheap too. I haven't tried installing OS X yet because I don't have any media, but I'd like to know how well it would work - anybody with experience in this?

about three years back, I was running a Umax S900, close relative of the 9500/9600 series, with 112 mb of RAM, Newer Tech G3 275 card, and the stock IMS Twin Turbo card. Under Mac OS X 10.1 via Xpostfacto, it worked pretty well. Well, as good as 10.1 will do. I ended up giving it to a now ex girlfriend, but it seemed to be a pretty solid rig at the time.

- iantm

One of our esteemed members here, powersurge9600, has a website showing off his impressive modded 9600:
http://www.geocities.com/pm9600g4/index2.html

I've had a 9500 forever, replaced with a 9600. Those six PCI slots mean you can stuff most everything you need in there, including an ATA card, USB, FireWire, UW scsi, multiple displays, etc. At the height of my 9600 desktop's glory, all slots were filled and it looked something like this:

Mac OS 10.2.x
450MHz G3
1 GB ram
2 x Radeon Mac Edition 32MB driving a pair of 20" Apple MS displays
USB
FireWire
10/100 realtek-based NIC
VST ATA card
6 HDs totalling about 120GBs - 1 in top rear, 1 in floppy spot, 2 in middle front bays, 2 on floor

Funny thing about the HD in the floppy spot. I had pulled the floppy cable out the side, just in case I needed to use the floppy, I could plug it in externally and boot into 9. The funny part is in the 3 years or so using it like this I never once used the floppy.

I replaced this setup with a 667 DVI TiBook and a Quicksilver, but except for gaming the 9600 was (for all intents and purposes) just as snappy and usable as either of the G4s.

hth,

dan k

PS: in 6-slot Macs, avoid combo USB/FW PCI cards all of which have an onboard PCI bridge that almost never plays nice with the logic board's PCI bridge.

I appreciate all the advice everybody has given me—I knew you wouldn't let me down! Special thanks to powersurge9600's site: man, that's some real work!

He's done almost everything I wish to do to mine. Because of all this new information, I have a few questions.

As noted, w/ the stock L2 motherboard cache enabled, the 9600 system wont see performance boost above 500mhz (though depending on the card, performance can vary.) According to powersurge9600, by manually disabling the jumper for the cache, the system won't recognize the stock cache and I can decrease the bottleneck significantly. Now, while I have been building and upgrading computers for a long time, I've never actually done any work of this magnitude (i.e. soldering). Does anybody have any advice to remove this little bastard (see said site)?

The PS is stock for a 9600/200. I plan to upgrade this thing to the max—1.5 gigs, G4, Video, et al. With such an increase in power usage, should I eventually change the power supply or can this beast haul it? If I change it, what does anybody recommend?

The fans in this beast, while for its age are quiet, are LOUD compared to my iMac G5. I plan to do some heavy modding to the case to increase cooling, but am not quite sure what fans to get for this specific model that will help w/ the sound. I've seen a few on eBay and other places, but have never actually received any recommendations. I know I have very little hope in this regard w/ the ps, but the other(s) surely can be quieted.

Finally (for now), I'm shopping for parts. Anybody w/ spare 9600 (or compatible parts) that they would be willing to sell/donate would be appreciated. This would include, but would not be limited to, RAM, vid and proc cards. Any recommendations would also be appreciated. Again, thanks for everybody's help!

(P.S., if you wish to donate because you are such a wonderful person, I will pay s&h )

Jacobahead@gmail.com
AIM: shadowboxer47
YAHOO: jacobalanhead
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Dude, you got to get it back from her. Even if you have to break the law!