Which is the better PM 9600 mainboard?

[CD5150]

I will be picking up a Power Macintosh 9600 later this week and would like to know the differences between a "Tsunami" and "Kansas" mainboard. Wasn't "Tsunami" the codename for the PM 9500 and any clone that was based off it? Overall which one would be better?

 

[Phipli]

I will be picking up a Power Macintosh 9600 later this week and would like to know the differences between a "Tsunami" and "Kansas" mainboard.

Congratulations - post about the config interesting to see what CPU, and PCI cards it has!

Wasn't "Tsunami" the codename for the PM 9500 and any clone that was based off it?

Yeah, there is very little difference between the 9500 and 9600. Basically the Tsunami 9600 boards are just a 9500 board with a different power connector.

Overall which one would be better?

Not really much difference.

Tsunami Pros
Works with BeOS

Kansas Pros
Slightly better G3 / G4 upgrade compatibility due to cache on CPU card Works with 250MHz+ Apple 604ev Processors

 

[CD5150]

Ok. All I know right now is that it's a 9600/200, and has some ram.

 

[Unknown_K]

I think the later version of the 8600 ROM that fixed G3 upgrade issues won't run anything before OS 7.6.1.

 

[CD5150]

I think the later version of the 8600 ROM that fixed G3 upgrade issues won't run anything before OS 7.6.1.

I think you mean 9600 which has 6 PCI Slots. The 8600 has 3 PCI Slots even though it uses a similar if not identical case to the 9600.

 

[Phipli]

I think the later version of the 8600 ROM that fixed G3 upgrade issues won't run anything before OS 7.6.1.

What did they change in the ROM and when? I haven't heard of this.

Both of my 9600s (tsunami and kansas) happily boot 7.5.5 and even 7.5.3 even though it isn't officially supported. Preventing 7.5.5 (what I understood to be the Apple quoted minimum OS) from trying to boot a 9600 would have needed a new machine gestalt. The 9500 and 9600 all have the same gestalt, which is why 7.5.3 boots a 9600 - it thinks it is just a 9500 (which it basically is).

Edit
Ah, I think I know what it is. Apple often quote the OS a machine shipped with as the "Minimum" and this is what thevApple site and everymac say. It sometimes isn't true, for example here.

 

[beachycove]

The 9600/200 was a 604e-based machine more or less the same as the 9500 — only a later iteration, and thus modestly improved over the 9500. I think, for instance, that its cache was expandable, and that you’d be far likelier to get a 233mhz 604e card (rare) running stably in it than you would in an early 9500.

A Kansas machine ran a 604ev processor at 250, 300 or 350mhz, as I recall. The 604ev was smaller than the 604e, was cooler-running, and had an integrated 1mb cache, among its refinements.

One advantage of the 9600/200, however, is that it allows experimentation with dual processor 604e cards. No workie in a Kansas board, so far as I know.

I’d jump at a 9600/200.

 

[CD5150]

I struck purple! G3/300 with 512k of cache! It's effectively the Power Express 9700 that we never got. Best $125 I have ever spent. And yes, it works. PRAM battery was also replaced. It had 272MB of RAM (4 x 64MB + 2 x 8MB) but sadly 2 of the 64MB modules are causing the system to be unstable. It also has the stock floppy and CD-ROM drives. 12x maybe? Had Mac OS 9.1 installed on a 4GB SCSI HDD and there is another 9GB SCSI drive as well. I wiped to slate clean and reinstalled 9.1 on the 4GB drive as there were personal files on it. It's yellowed a bit. Is retro brite an option?

 

[Phipli]

sadly 2 of the 64MB modules are causing the system to be unstable

Start by cleaning their contacts, and spray contact cleaner in the RAM slots. Dirty contacts is the issue more often than failing RAM.

 

[Phipli]

Is retro brite an option?

Personally I let them be. I've heard it makes the plastic go more brittle and the yellow comes back quicker.

At 25 years old, they're allowed a little colour change. My beard's been greying for years.

 

[Phipli]

I struck purple! G3/300 with 512k of cache! It's effectively the Power Express 9700 that we never got.

That combination will happily run PPC BeOS on a G3

MacOS running on SheepShaver on BeOS, on a 466MHz G3 in a 9600 :

 

[joshc]

S

That combination will happily run PPC BeOS on a G3

MacOS running on SheepShaver on BeOS, on a 466MHz G3 in a 9600 :

View attachment 60793

Silly question time... So is that a virtualised PowerPC or still emulated? So just emulating a PPC on a PPC?

 

[Phipli]

S

Silly question time... So is that a virtualised PowerPC or still emulated? So just emulating a PPC on a PPC?

Virtualised I believe, but wouldn't say with confidence. While not looking great on screen with the tests it has done so far, I think it scored fairly well overall. Well into the beige PPCs.