Upgrading a powermac 7200/90

[Jon183]

HI everyone,

I have a fully working 7200/90 with a 1GB HDD and 128MB RAM which runs OS 9.0, I plan to use as a way to get software from my PC to my Macintosh classic and SE.

What PCI graphics cards, usb cards, and wifi cards would work with it?

I could probably get a wireless extender to plug into the Mac's ethernet port if proper wifi isnt an option.

 

[Jon183]

Plus not classic

 

[Compgeke]

Just about any old USB 1/2 card will work, but best results tend to come finding a USB 1 over USB 2. At least, that's been my experience.

For PCI graphics, you can go all the way up to a Mac Radeon 9200 in one but there isn't a whole lot of reason to, I can't imagine OS 9 is fun on that 90 MHz 601 and a 9200 needs OS 9. If the onboard graphics prove to be too bad a Rage 128 should be cheap and it'll work perfectly.

When it comes to wireless, there are none. Your best bet is a wireless extender hacked in/on. Something like https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/31078-adding-wi-fi-to-my-mac-se30/should work.

If you want to avoid possible speed negotiation issues, you can pick up a 10/100 ethernet card dirt cheap. The RTL8139 cards are like $3 shipped from China or a couple bucks more from your local ebay. You can get manufacturer drivers for OS 8, OS 9, BeOS 4, BeOS 5, etc from http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=6&PFid=6&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false .

 

[Zippy Zapp]

In addition if you want to use the built in 7200 graphics you can purchase up to 3 VRAM DIMMs.  It will give you a few more choices for colors and rez.  You can also add a cache DIMM which makes a noticeable improvement in system performance.

 

[omidimo]

USB Card : http://www.ebay.com/itm/222551136137(Aussie Seller!)

Video Card : http://www.ebay.com/itm/200710223413(Flashed PC Card, need to install drivers to get working, but decent card)

Network Card : http://www.ebay.com/itm/371191933208(AsanteFasts are cheap and plentiful)

For WiFi, you could use a bridge/extender with a ethernet port, but it might a little configuring. 

 

[Jon183]

Well thanks everyone for giving an idea to all the parts I can buy, I believe most of these parts are selling in my city on gumtree.com.au. I wish I still had my rage 128 from a powermac g3 I used to have.

 

[register]

Consider to pick up a G3 accelerator card from Sonnet, like the G3 Crescendo PCI for the PowerMac 7200, one lucky day. I know one 7200/90 that is totally maxed out with such accelerator card, memory, storage, graphics, faster Ethernet etc. It works like a charm and still is in use in the office of a small store. Just be aware of the fact that these accelerator cards do not support Mac OS 9.2. With the old driver there is no way to get the update running. We just set up a system consisting of the most recent working software components manually, you could call it Mac OS 9.1.5

 

[Unknown_K]

I would not bother with a PCI slot based G3 upgrade, they are rare and expensive and slow. A 7500 motherboard with a cheap Sonnet G3 would be a better option but I would suggest not bothering.

 

[register]

Agreed, I would not throw much money into a PCI slot G3 upgrade for the 7200. See it more as a suggestion, just in case you stumbled across such rarity

The housing of the 7200 is nearly the same as for the beige G3, so you might as well pick up an original G3 for nothing, which is a quite decent machine, and cover it with the 7200's top cover, still leaving some interesting update options. However, how much is left from your 7200, then? I have used an original 7200/90 for professional work some years and found it to be quite useful for my purpose.

 

[Zippy Zapp]

The 7200/90 is a great machine for running older software.   As mentioned you could find a logic board to a 7500/7600  and then you can bring it up pretty cheaply.  I did this to my original 7200/75 directly from Apple.  It cost quite a bit in 1996 but it was a good upgrade and since the case and Power Supply on the 7200 are identical it was pretty easy.  

I have a 7200/90 and if it were me I would install L2 Cache, VRAM and RAM as I have done and use it.  Those upgrades make a noticeable improvement.  Although the G3 Desktops use a similar case, is the internal mounting the same?  I thought I read that it is different.  Hmm I will have to check my G3 for comparison.  

 

[Cory5412]

If the only purpose of the machine is as a bridge machine, don't really bother upgrading it.

It'll run system 9.0 to 9.1 (perhaps 9.2.2, I forget the exact point at which the reqs become different) with no trouble, and the only thing I can see wanting is perhaps USB to make non-networked file transfers from modern computers to the 7200 and thus your vintage ones easier.

I think it's great to discuss the options, although today at the point of discussing getting a 7500/7600/7300 or beige G3, you should just buy the newer system and get it done with, but for the stated task, no upgrades are needed to do the work well enough.

 

[Jon183]

I should really only need a USB card or maybe none at all if I just use a cd-rw, I want to put files onto a usb from my pc and plug into the 7200/90 then use its floppy drive to write disks for my older macs including the Macintosh Plus, I stumbled across a cheap pile of old Mac floppies including ms word, system utilities and other stuff and a lot appear to be 800k disks so ill see how it goes without any upgrades, i would buy a rage 128 and usb card if I find a good deal just so I dont need to use my Mac to vga adapter and transfer files quicker than disc.

 

[Unknown_K]

I would probably run OS 7.6.1 on that machine and find some useful SCSI external removable drives for it.

 

[Zippy Zapp]

Yeah, if your goal is to transfer files from a PC or use it to write floppy images you really don't need anything else and upgrades aren't really going to change that.  You have a CD drive and it is easy to use that as a transfer medium.  

 

[Cory5412]

Zip, Jaz, Magneto Optical, and other similar formats plus the PC file compatibility extension, and the 7200 would be a good intermediary. (Zip/MO are going to be easiest, because there are USB drives that should still work with the newest Win/Mac/Linux but MO is a way better format than zip.)

Failing that, a USB card and system 9 will work well, if you'd prefer not to waste time with CD-Rs and CD-RWs. That's really a personal decision, but as you say, if you just burn a CD with the stuff you want to use, then you don't immediately need any upgrades for the 7200 at all.