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OS 9 and the PM 7300 Upgrade
- Thread starter rpaxton32
- Start date
equill
Well-known member
Given more RAM, to at least 256MB, preferably matched and paired (interleaved), and an upgrade to at least OS 9.1, or 9.2.2 with OS9Helper, much better. 'Better' however, depends on what you wish to do with it. The 7300 was amongst the last of the Beige 'G2' models, despite its lower model number than the 7600, and can give a good account of itself as long as you do not expect that it will equal a native G3 machine in all respects.
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Unknown_K
Well-known member
Depends on the G3 you purchased and how much cache it has (512K or 1MB). To get a faster system you need more RAM, an ATA/66 IDE card or a fast wide SCSI card and some decent HDs.
For example my 8500 has 704MB RAM, g3-400/1MB, a rage 128 video card with 16MB RAM, an ATA/66 IDE card with 24x IDE cdrom and 2 x 10GB IDE HDs, plus USB/Firewire. The machine feels much faster then the stock configuration. if you look around on ebay and LEMswap on google groups you should be able to find the parts you need to upgrade failry cheap over time, if you want to keep and upgrade that system. If you want something faster with less investment you can get a fast Beige g3 or B&W G3). I have upgraded Beige G3s and B&W's but I still like upgrading the older machines.
For example my 8500 has 704MB RAM, g3-400/1MB, a rage 128 video card with 16MB RAM, an ATA/66 IDE card with 24x IDE cdrom and 2 x 10GB IDE HDs, plus USB/Firewire. The machine feels much faster then the stock configuration. if you look around on ebay and LEMswap on google groups you should be able to find the parts you need to upgrade failry cheap over time, if you want to keep and upgrade that system. If you want something faster with less investment you can get a fast Beige g3 or B&W G3). I have upgraded Beige G3s and B&W's but I still like upgrading the older machines.
equill
Well-known member
At a guess, based on the many Sonnet processor upgrade cards that I have, both ZIF and PDS, yours will have at least 512kB of L2 cache, and very possibly 1MB. Sonnet is always more generous in this respect than was Apple, at least in the model generations being referred to here.
System RAM and VRAM upgrades will allow you to make the most of your 7300 and a newer OS. Unknown K makes the valid point that either or both of whether you wish to push the 7300 to its limits just for the sake of doing so, or whether you wish to devote it to a specific task will influence your further choice of upgrades: drives, bus controllers, specialty PCI cards, and so on.
Perhaps an extreme example is my 9600/G4/800MHz with 45GB of storage in four fast SCSI drives. That's an extreme ratio of processor to bus speed, but the 9600 appreciates the change from being what was a fine machine in its day to a yet finer Mac.
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System RAM and VRAM upgrades will allow you to make the most of your 7300 and a newer OS. Unknown K makes the valid point that either or both of whether you wish to push the 7300 to its limits just for the sake of doing so, or whether you wish to devote it to a specific task will influence your further choice of upgrades: drives, bus controllers, specialty PCI cards, and so on.
Perhaps an extreme example is my 9600/G4/800MHz with 45GB of storage in four fast SCSI drives. That's an extreme ratio of processor to bus speed, but the 9600 appreciates the change from being what was a fine machine in its day to a yet finer Mac.
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Bunsen
Admin-Witchfinder-General
Even another 64MB or so of RAM will certainly help pick up the pace, and I second the call for maxing out the video RAM.
OS 9.0.4 should be upgraded forthwith to 9.1, through the free download from Apple. os9forever.com will tell you how to get the rest of the way to 9.2.2
OS 9.0.4 should be upgraded forthwith to 9.1, through the free download from Apple. os9forever.com will tell you how to get the rest of the way to 9.2.2
Quadraman
Well-known member
Here's a little Photoshop comparison from BareFeats
http://www.barefeats.com/Photo.html
The single G3 300 easily beats even the dual 604e 200.
http://www.barefeats.com/Photo.html
The single G3 300 easily beats even the dual 604e 200.
Unknown_K
Well-known member
The point I was making is that just slapping in a faster processor does not realy speed up the machine a whole hell of alot because other parts are holding it back. You can slap a G4 into an old Nubus PPC machine and it will still be slow because of slow video, scsi, and low ram limits. It would not be as usefull as the same chip in a beige g3, which would not be as fast as the same chip in a B&W g3, which would not be as fast as the same chip in a real G4 machine.
The major issues with CPU upgrades is people are tempted to install a much newer OS because of the upgrade, and the slowness of the other components or hardware limitations come to light as a result.
If you upgrade the CPU and keep everything else the same you will notice speed increases depending on what you are doing, but sometimes a faster HD or more RAM might have been a better option.
Quadraman
Well-known member
Just remember the old saying. RAM is the cheapest accelerator you can buy. You should bump up the RAM as much as you can afford before you start playing around with CPU upgrades, video cards and faster hard drives. You also need to be conscious of the limitations of your hardware. Don't waste money buying super fast components that your computer can't fully utilize. Once you reach the machine's throughput limits, anything beyond that is overkill.
sircabulon
Well-known member
You can get a G4 for a nubus mac?????
Unknown_K
Well-known member
Yes g4's exist for Nubus, a slow one not worth bothering with (240Mhz?). Any apps that would make use of a G4 would choke on a Nubus machine.
If you already have the CPU then stick it in and see how it goes. It might turn out that the CPU boost is not what as expected and further money sunk into the project might not be worth it. I still upgrade my PCI macs, but the cost is almost nothing since people are dumping them for free or almost free. I would love a G4 1Ghz for my 8500 (currently with a g3-400) but I sure as heck would not pay much for it since a real G4 with a 133Mhz memory bus would be a much better investment.
From a collectors standpoint it is better to wait for equipment to get to the worthless for "real" work stage and snag it then to grab it when it is still usable or has gone up in value as a collectors item. I might have waited too long to snag a 9600.
From a users standpoint it rarely is worth it to upgrade machines more then 5 years old with prices so cheap today.
If you already have the CPU then stick it in and see how it goes. It might turn out that the CPU boost is not what as expected and further money sunk into the project might not be worth it. I still upgrade my PCI macs, but the cost is almost nothing since people are dumping them for free or almost free. I would love a G4 1Ghz for my 8500 (currently with a g3-400) but I sure as heck would not pay much for it since a real G4 with a 133Mhz memory bus would be a much better investment.
From a collectors standpoint it is better to wait for equipment to get to the worthless for "real" work stage and snag it then to grab it when it is still usable or has gone up in value as a collectors item. I might have waited too long to snag a 9600.
From a users standpoint it rarely is worth it to upgrade machines more then 5 years old with prices so cheap today.
sircabulon
Well-known member
haha it is all pretty much nostalgia, but it is my hobby! My beige is 128MB of being maxed out!
