Upgrading PPC 6500 - can do??

[Sparky's]

I have a friend at work who bought an Apple ppc6500 (who knows when) and is crying over the fact that he can't do anything with it anymore. I am aware of all kinds of 3rd party chips, software, and other goodies, but not owning such a machine I myself can't steer him in the right direction. I was wondering if anyone out there is familiar with what can be done with them (and I don't mean make a door stop out of it). He tried to tell me the model was a 6502 but when I do a search for that all I come up with is operating code developing 6502 for an Apple IIi or Ii

Any help?

 

[blue&whiteman]

I have a friend at work who bought an Apple ppc6500 (who knows when) and is crying over the fact that he can't do anything with it anymore. I am aware of all kinds of 3rd party chips, software, and other goodies, but not owning such a machine I myself can't steer him in the right direction. I was wondering if anyone out there is familiar with what can be done with them (and I don't mean make a door stop out of it). He tried to tell me the model was a 6502 but when I do a search for that all I come up with is operating code developing 6502 for an Apple IIi or Ii

Any help?

first off this thread belongs in the hardware discussion and help area.

a 6500 can be upgraded to a G3 at the highest. they can only take about 128mb ram also.

http://sonnettech.com/product/crescendo_l2.html

a G3 500 and the max ram would let it run os 9 pretty well and even play games like quake 3 and what not if he also upgrades the video. you can get older rage 128 pci card cheap. I just sold one for 30$. those play quake, shogo and other good pre 2000 games. if he wants osx then tell him not to invest anything because there is no way it would run on that tower.

 

[Horrortaxi]

It's over 7 years old so it will be limited in terms of what it can do. It'll run OS 9 well and will make a a good web/email/word processing computer.

I wouldn't upgrade this computer. For $250 you would make it a G3 500mhz (maybe less) that maxes out at 128MB and has a 50mhz system bus. You could probably run OS X, but it would be painful. You could take that same $250 and buy a tray loading iMac which would be an overall stronger computer.

What does your friend want to do with the computer? That will tell him what he needs.

 

[Sparky's]

My bad, please disreagard the Thread.

First I thought since this was an older Mac it belonged here.

Second I got my info wrong, the computer in question is a 6205 not a 6500.
I will repost this thread in the appropriate place.

Folding is the way!!!!

 

[live4ever]

I have one of these 275mhz 6500's as well. I was also wondering if it can be run as a server with something like 10.1.5, what would be needed I know little about older Macs.

 

[Blackstealth]

I have one of these 275mhz 6500's as well. I was also wondering if it can be run as a server with something like 10.1.5, what would be needed I know little about older Macs.

Unfortunately whilst it is possible to install 10.1.5 on the 6500 you'll face the not so small problems of OS X not being able to see your CD-ROM drive (you have to install by copying the installer CD to it's own HD partition) and not being able to use the network card (if you're using a Comm slot card, you should be alright with good PCI cards). XPostfacto details the problems with installing 10.x on these machines. However it is possible to get 10.1.5 up and running.

If you don't mind getting your feet wet with Linux then, from experience, I can recommend YellowDog if you've got 128Mb of Ram in there. I've been running a 6500/275 as an intranet webserver for a few months using YellowDog without any trouble, it's pretty snappy but KDE is painfully slow.

The Mac OS alternative to Linux would be installing an older version of AppleShare IP but it's not that cheap, and IMHO, not all that brilliant either.

Anywho, the 6400 Zone is a useful resource for these old Gazelle machines.

 

[jamdr]

I'll buy it

I'm actually looking to buy a PowerMac 6500, if one of you wants to sell yours to me. I want it to run Mac OS 8 and use some of my really old software.

I've had some experience upgrading the processors of older 603 and 604-based Macs to G3s, and I really don't think it's worth it. You can usually buy a Blue & White G3 or even a G4 for nearly the same amount of money or a little more, and the newer machines will have a higher RAM capacity and better video chips. Plus, I think the max speed these older machines can run is G3 500MHz, which really isn't enough to fully enjoy OS X and all of its software anyway.

 

[Horrortaxi]

the computer in question is a 6205 not a 6500.

Not worth the upgrade. Performa is 9 years old, maxes out at 64MB, 40MB bus, 75mhz processor. Once again, if you want to run OS 8 or 9 and use it as an email/word processor you'll be happy. Anything more and it'll choke.

Just for fun, unplug the hard drive and boot. The death chime on this model can't be beat.

 

[applemacdude]

Not worth the upgrade. Performa is 9 years old, maxes out at 64MB, 40MB bus, 75mhz processor. Once again, if you want to run OS 8 or 9 and use it as an email/word processor you'll be happy. Anything more and it'll choke.

Just for fun, unplug the hard drive and boot. The death chime on this model can't be beat.

Do seti on that machine

 

[vollspacken]

I got my info wrong, the computer in question is a 6205 not a 6500.
I will repost this thread in the appropriate place.

forget it, the 52xx/62xx machines are worthless pieces of junk... throw it away or cannabalize it for parts... don't even think about upgrading it (complete waste of money..!)

if you had a 6500, now that would be a fine machine indeed

more info 'bout your PPC on www.lowendmac.com/ppc/6200.shtml

vSpacken

 

[applemacdude]

maybe if youre lucky itll do a seti wu in a week and a half....but hey any wu counts

 

[Horrortaxi]

Do seti on that machine

It'll just barely run it. Would it even be practical to run seti on a 9600 baud dialup account? This computer won't support anything faster.

 

[blue&whiteman]

It'll just barely run it. Would it even be practical to run seti on a 9600 baud dialup account? This computer won't support anything faster.

I don't know about seti but I do use folding. I have a 5mbit connection and folding uses anywhere between say 2.2 - 5.4 k/sec down and never more than 100 bytes or so up per sec. it idles around 3 k. this low low rate shows it doesn't run based on your connection speed. I think a 28.8 modem would be the lowest you could go but who knows.

 

[kettle]

6500 with Avid Cinema?

I have a 300 6500 with an avid card that is still a very worth while machine to have around, it is excelent for editing analog video for VHS or VCD quality work. This is definitely a Mac with a good working life span.

Look on the back to see if it has video composite and s-video outputs.

You could have a winner.

so it's a 6205, hmm that no good for video, he he.

 

[Sparky's]

a little FYI here, Folding and Seti are not connection speed oriented. The WUs are downloaded, crunched based on your CPU speed, then the results are uploaded back to the main server. Its your HD speed at question here.

and compared to my G4-500 a 6205 would probably take 10-20 times longer to crunch a WU. I just finished a "Gromac" that took 40+ hours (I run 24/7), imagine the 6205 trying to crunch that.

Anyway, I will inform this friend of mine that he should (as he already believed) just trash the box and look for a used G4 on e-Bay or something. He's almost 60 (yes one of the not so computer literate) and just uses it to download pictures and e-mail, but he started to try and download videos and couldn't. He's stubborn (uses AOL) and can't seem to except change.

 

[applemacdude]

Well cant he just get a refurbed emac for 700? or is that out of this price range? anyways a nice b/w g3 will do him good

 

[vollspacken]

Well cant he just get a refurbed emac for 700? or is that out of this price range? anyways a nice b/w g3 will do him good

yeah, he should get either a B/W G3 or an Rev. D iMac (400Mhz DV)

vSpacken