Re: [PCI] Best value upgrades to a 7300/200?

Fri, 24 Sep 2004 14:38:00 -0700

On Sep 24, 2004, at 2:15 PM, PCI PowerMacs wrote: 
So, I've a recently acquired PowerMac 7300/200 that I'd like some
upgrade options for:

        L2 cache: 256 KB standard, I'd like to expand it to 1 MB
        (assuming I don't get a CPU upgrade with integrated cache).
Cache generally always speeds things up regardless of the system being used. Some G3 upgrade cards will use the old onboard cache as an L3 cache. So investment in cache is probably not a loss no matter which direction you go. 
        RAM: I'd like between 256MB - 1GB (max. amount supported) extra
        RAM, depending on price (64MB currently installed).
RAM has been a cure all for Macs for a long time. More will not cause you problems. Newer OSes and applications will make good use of it. If you stick with System 7.5.5 and applications from that era anything beyond 128Meg is probably overkill.

       Processor upgrade cards - any particularly good deals low - high
        end, and if they're a G3 card - how big a cache do they have
        onboard?
       Graphics accelerator cards - best deals from the low to high
        end.
Good deals can be had on processor cards, but good deals can also be had on G3 computers. At this point in time a G3 upgrade card strikes me as largely pointless. Video accelerator cards in an older OS will only be useful if an application can make good use it. 
       Are there any Video cards that would support older low colour
        depths like 2 bit, 4 and 8 bit colours? I'd love to be able to
        play certain older games again.
The stock video and an older OS will meet this need without any additional parts required. 
        Hard drives: large internal SCSI drives or ATA PCI card (7300
        was SCSI only) plus IDE drives? Will I find any multi-gigabyte
        SCSI drives these days? Is IDE the only way to go?
You need a drive big enough and fast enough to handle the data you will be working with. Plug and play SCSI drives up to 4 gig seem relatively plentiful. Most bigger SCSI drives you see will require an adaptor to work with the built in SCSI. For huge drives ATA is probably the most economical over all.

USB/Firewire combo PCI card or USB 1.1 and/or 2.0 only card (so
for a start I can get a better mouse than the ADB Mouse II! :-) 
USB cards require OS 8.5.1 as a minimum.

Ok, it would be silly to do all the above, but what should I concentrate 
on to get the best speed possible for the least amount of money? Also,
I'm trying to keep the minimum system as low as possible (hopefully
7.5.5 - so that would rule out a USB/FW card for starters) - is that
practical?
The 7300 will run 7.5.5. That is the system that came with it. It will run very quickly. It will network with OS X. A 7300/200 running 7.5.5 and applications of the same vintage is an impressive performer. 
What would my options be if I did want to go all out and cared less
about which system I'd be stuck with?
Color Classics with lots of upgrades can run OS X. A 7300 is really only limited by your resources and imagination.

bill
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