Free Power Mac 6100/66

[gobabushka]

Well, I took a trip back to Astro Too in Melbourne, Florida, and they had an old PM 6100 with AppleCD 300 sitting in the corner. They just gave it to me, so ive been playing with it since last night. Gonna use it as a system 7 box. Any other suggestions? Also looking for a dos or AV card!

 

[coius]

I would suggest 8.1 minimum. It has PPC Code that would accelerate the system tremendously. Also, up the RAM as much as you can. Do that, and you will have one Kick-@** system

 

[Cory5412]

I'd actually go with 7.6 unless you can get a *lot* of ram, 8.1 is nice, but 7.6.1 can be really speedy, and System 7's bad 68k emulation code can be replaced (and many apps tremendously sped up) using Speed Doubler 8, which can be had from http://www.system7today.com

7.6.1 also seems to handle low memory availability a little bit better than 8.1, because it's got those few fewer things built in, many of which you might not even notice the absence of.

I also recommend not using virtual memory if you can help it at all, VM slows things down significantly.

Other than that, congrats on the 6100 and the cd drive, especially if that cd300 is the external type, those are really valuable for use with older Macs, since even A/UX supports them. (and A/UX is super picky about cdrom drives)

 

[Christopher]

You could put OS 9.0 on there if you wanted.

 

[paws]

You could put OS 9.0 on there if you wanted.

You really don't, though.. sluggish doesn't even begin to describe it..

+1 for 7.6

 

[Cory5412]

Obviously there are a lot of things that could be done with it, some people like to strive for whatever OS has the "best performance," some people (myself included) like to go with whatever will be most appropriate for the machine, or failing that, whatever the machine shipped with, and some people like to put the very latest/greatest software they can on the machines.

I typically prefer using System 7 since most of the apps that'll run well on those early powerPCs will run better under 7 than 8 or 9, because 7 has significantly lower overhead, meaning more power is available for your actual app. System 7.6 runs a nice selection of apps to boot, but really, the choice comes down to what OS discs you have, and what you think will meet your needs the best.

My recomendation is to try a few different systems on there, maybe put OS 9 on there and see if it's got everything you need and see if it's fast enough. Then wipe that and put OS 8 in and see if that has your apps and if it's fast enough. (Probably you'll use the same apps as with OS 9, and notice that the system is faster overall), then wipe that and put in System 7 (probably with 7, you'll run a slightly earlier version, like IE 5.1.7 instead of IE5.2.whatever, and find that said apps run pretty fast, at least that's been my experience.)

 

[gobabushka]

yea, ive got 7.6.1 and speed doubler, and it kicks butt!i just need to get an aaui adapter, av card or dos card, and more ram (only 16 mb)

 

[funkytoad]

sounds like a sweet machine

 

[jkoci]

Nice. I had a couple of 6100s a while back. As I remember I maxed out the ram and ran 8.1 on them.

 

[aphetica]

I'd actually go with 7.6 unless you can get a *lot* of ram, 8.1 is nice, but 7.6.1 can be really speedy, and System 7's bad 68k emulation code can be replaced (and many apps tremendously sped up) using Speed Doubler 8, which can be had from http://www.system7today.com

I searched everywhere, but I can't find a download link on the site for the life of me.

What page is it on?

 

[The Macster]

You could put OS 9.0 on there if you wanted.

You really don't, though.. sluggish doesn't even begin to describe it..

9.1 (the max - I did try the Tiger CD in it once to see what happens, but you just get a Sad Mac... ) works on the one I have, but they're not great machines and will never be what one might describe as "fast" - the OS itself is not too bad (after waiting several minutes for it to start up), but apps are slow on it. I can browse the web and everything on it, but that is very slow too. The built-in graphics are absolutely horrible though, I would want at least an AV card if I was going to use mine.

 

[porter]

Any other suggestions?

I run MkLinux on my PPC 6100.

 

[alk]

Get a G3 upgrade (cheap on eBay). Best upgrade for a 6100, period.

Peace,

Drew