I have a 9600/300 XLR8 upgraded to G3/540 MHz w/ 264 MB RAM and a Voodoo5 5500 video card. I run Epson Stylus Photo 750 and LaserWriter Pro 810 printers off of it with ethernet to PM 8100s and a Mac II fx. I also run Photoshop 5.5 on this machine.
Pros: Very stable, very cool, very fast, lots of upgrade options _still_ exist in PCI-USB, PCI-Firewire, only a brand new G4 looks better and, as mentioned in someone's previous post 7 hard drives can be powered and cooled without any modifications to the case (you lose your floppy and CD). An inexpensive G3 upgrade exists (PowerLogix) although they _can_ be problematic. The better upgrades (Sonnet, XLR8) usually have fewer problems. The case is _very_ easy to open (5 seconds from a standing start, but carefully) and upgrade. Only the New World G3s and G4s are easier. It flies with a fast Ultra160 SCSI hard drive. 390 Watts, all the power you need, all the time. LOTS of room inside to add anything you want. Lots of legacy PCI cards for video, sound can be had for a reasonable price. Cons: Heavy, I paid too much for mine (I was in love, I'm a collector), noisy (I've added two fans to the case (80 cm, 90 cm) to keep the _hot_ Voodoo card cool. It was originally very quiet. You have to do real research to get what you want (*). There is a well documented PCI bus problem with bus mastering cards (SCSI cards, etc.) and G4 upgrades. G4 upgrades are problematic anyway for pre-G3 machines. If I had to do it again, I would a.) buy a cheap 9600/200 or /250 and upgrade. The bus speed is 50 MHz for all 9600s. Last, 9600s are usually in better shape because they were high dollar machines usually used in sound studios, video shops, design studios, etc. and were well taken care of. Their problems are well documented (see lowend mac.com) and easily fixed or avoided. I love mine and would never give it up unless it exploded. I would give the parts a good burial. Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla wrote: > > Hi, > > I was hoping PM 9600 users could give me some input as I am thinking of > getting one and upgrading it to a G3-500. I will be using this machines > mainly for Photoshop and to run an internal CD burner. What are the pros and > cons of the 9600? > > Thanks > > Gadjo -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | SPECIAL LIST PRICES - Apple PCI Video Cards from $19.99, MacOS 8.5 CD $79.99 Replacement Parts IN STOCK, Apple CDROMs from $19.99 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
