Upgrading 9600/200MP

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rustedhalo's picture
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Upgrading 9600/200MP

OK, so I just picked up an XLR8 ZIF carrier card and took my 9600/200MP out of storage from my mom's house and it's time to see what it can still do. I have a G3 350MHz ZIF pulled from my G3 B&W and a G4 400MHz MAXpowr ZIF. RamDirect has 128MB 168pin DIMMs for $14.99 but I noticed that Daystar has 256MB sticks at a whopping $89.00. So what if any other 256MB sticks out there will work in a 9600? Also where can I find a good deal on 128MB sticks? I plan on running some classic apps on this baby only using OS 9.2.2. Mostly video editing apps. Don't tell me about upgrading to a newer machine I have a G4 and even a AMD 2GHz Windows machine I just wanna see what this old 9600 can still do. Push it to it's limits and hopefully not blow it up. Thank you for any help.

Take Care,

Danny

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throw OS X on her

That is a start. Use XPostFacto. Google for it. make sure that the ZIF will accomodate the CPU's that you will be putting in there. Most likely it will with the G3. Couldn't hurt to try with the G4. I wouldn't suggest overclocking it though. You might need another fan in there with the G4's. I heard the early ones run a bit hot. So that is a major need. Get a USB 2.0 card when you have 10.x on there, make sure it is 10.2 or higher. I am pretty sure .4 will not work on it, even with XPostFacto. For the video editing, FireWire is deffinatly the way to go. If you are doing it with composite in, Get a PCI ATI TV card, or something similair that will work if you have OS X. I would not really suggest staying in OS 9, mainly b/c if you browse the web with it these days, you will need a newer browser, newer than what is available for classic.
also, you really can't take advantage of a G4 with OS 9. Ummm...
for ram, you CAN NOT use PC-XXX. You must use ram for the 603/604 machines. Ebay is the best way to go. You can get some really cool deals out there on Ebay. Most likely someone has a large stash as they are parting out old school/work computers and the Ram is being sold all in one auction. I really would suggest getting 2x 128MB and interleaving them (a1-b1, a2-b2, a3-b3, and so-forth) it will definatly make the machine faster. I can testify to that. having 1x 256MB and only that is a waste of money, and it won't work as fast as having 2x 128MB.

Just my 2¢

rustedhalo's picture
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The whole point of this is to

The whole point of this is to keep everything classic, No OSX. I know not to use the PC100/133 SDRAM, but was just currious as to if anybody else had heard of or tried any 256MB sticks. I have the manual for the 9600 and Apple doesn't even support the use of 128MB sticks in it but we all know it works. I have an old USB/FirwWire combo card that will do for now. I may be changing this whole project a bit now though. I found my 8500 that I forgot I had. It'd be interesting to make use of the composite and S-video in/out. Either way I go RAM sems to be my main concern right now. Ebay is a pain nowadays and you get ripped off in the S&H. RamDirect does sales on eBay and $14.99 for a stick of 128MB seems like a good deal. Still if anyone reading this has some lying arround in an old machine I have tons of computer related item to trade of cash is always an option. I would like to hear some thoughts of the using 8500 vs. 9600 pro's and con's.

Take Care,

Danny

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5v 256MB DIMMs

I've never before seen a 5v 256MB DIMM (for pre-G3 machines.) There's no specs on the DayStar item page, nor have I been able to find any other docs about this.

Too bad it's $90 per stick. I wonder if a fully-loaded 9600 could see all 3GBs?

dan k

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Getting your 9600 buff

The RAM I've bought from RAMDirect off eBay has all been top quality, and you know what you're getting beforehand. I would buy 128mb sticks in pairs and interleave for sure. This is the first time I've ever heard of 256mb 5v sticks. I personally wouldn't trust them. Every once in awhile I've seen lots of 128mb sticks on eBay recently, but the owners didn't know exactly what they were--EDO or only FPM--and the lots of 1GB went for about $60 plus shipping. And there's some crappy chips on some of the 128mb sticks out there. The best way to go is to use only EDO and match them in exact pairs--identical chip sets--especially if you're going to try video.
Here's a good place to check the stats on DRAM:
http://www.chipmunk.nl/DRAM/ChipManufacturers.htm

If you're going to stay in OS 9, then instead of the 8500 video ports, get an ATI Xclaim 128 VR video card with the Xclaim TV box. The TV box has composite and S-video input, and the Xclaim software works very nice. The box does not work in OS X though and only works with the ATI VR card. Another way to go if you're going to use firewire is to get a Formac Studio TVR box. There are two versions, the silver which is the older and works in 9 through Jaguar, and the newer white version which works through Panther. You should probably be able to pick up one of the silver version for as cheap as $50 on eBay. With that box you could use any video card you wanted, so you could put in a powerful Radeon and then not have to worry about DVD decoders.

Another thing to watch out for is your firewire/usb combo card. I've not had the experience myself and don't have one in my 9600, but I've read many times of people having compatibility issues with the combo cards and other PCI and G3 cards.

You'll also want to disable the 9600's onboard L2 cache. Check this site out:
http://www.geocities.com/pm9600g4
After disabling the cache via the XLR8 and the Powerlogic extensions, Gauge Pro shows that my 9600's RAM is doing 86+ mb/s (!!!) with my 450mhz G4 Sonnet upgrade.

Hawaii Cruiser's picture
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Formac

It occurs to me that I've never actually tried my Formac box on my 9600--it works great on my B&W in OS 9--so you should double check beforehand if it's compatible with 9600's 50mhz bus, if you ever think of considering it.

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