on 16/08/2001 20:24, (PCI PowerMacs) at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I saved that one because I plan on getting a pci-ide card for my > 7600/200...although I've been thinking of just spending that extra 400 on a > beige G3 tower on ebay...suggestions?? > > Justin While I like the Beige tower a lot, I think you'd still need the ATA controller in any case, as the Beige's IDE is pretty anemic. The ATA controller would allow you to bypass the Beige's potential IDE and master-slave problems, while offering multiple-drive software RAID ability, improved compatibility with many/most ATA peripherals (e.g., CDRW), and naturally provide a huge speed boost. Check out www.xlr8yourmac.com and its Drive Compatibility Database for feedback on the Mac and IDE card in question. As for going with a Beige, memory is super cheap these days, i.e., $25 for 256MB! (see OWC <http://eshop.macsales.com/specials/MailList.cfm>). That's about $100 for an IDE controller and 256MB, with new IBM 60GXP drives going for around $100 and up. It all depends on what price you'd pay for the Beige, and what you might resell your 7600 for. I wouldn't want to spend a lot on a Beige, though if you can get a bare system for next to nothing, it's easy and cheap to upgrade. Around $125 for 512MB and an ATA/66 controller, maybe add a G4/400 Zif at $199 (smalldog.com), or a G3/333/1MB at $59 (OWC), and two ATA/100 HDs for around $200, rather than one big HD (to take advantage of RAID): giving you a G4/400 with 512MB and a striped RAID array for a little over $500 (plus purchase price, of course). I recently went thru all these calculations as I had a line on a stripped down Beige that someone was more or less discarding, though unfortunately the deal fell thru. I probably would have gone with an XLR8 G3/400 Zif and Carrier card ($185 from OWC), as I had someone interested in the Carrier card with original Beige G3/233/512k processor for their 7500, which would have brought the price down to about $80 for me: giving me a G3/400/1MB with 544MB (32MB originally), an ATA/100 controller and 2 x 30GB ATA/100 IBM drives, for about $550, including the cost of the Beige itself. Oh well; keeping my eyes open... Chris H -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 740 Printers refurbished $79 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
