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Mac Daniel #3Upgrading a Power Mac 7200 or 7500- 24 October 1998
Can I upgrade my 7200/75 to a G3?TJ sent this letter: I thought I'd ask you for
advice regarding whether or not it would be worth it to
upgrade my Power Mac 7200/75 to a G3. I know it probably sounds crazy, but I don't see the use
in spending $1,400 on a new G3 with a new hard drive and
brand new memory when I can get a 7500 motherboard for $450
and drop in a G3 card into it for another $400. I already
have 2.5 GB of storage (which I haven't filled up yet) and
32 MB of RAM, which is fine for me. So, what do you think? When I bought my Mac three years
ago, it was the most Mac I could afford at the time (on a
student budget). The price difference between my 7200 and a
7500 was on the order of $500, and I couldn't afford that at
the time. Anyway, I knew that the processor wasn't
upgradable, but I needed a Mac. The question is, should I do the motherboard transplant
or not, or wait until January when the new Macs come
out? Mac Daniel writes: Your 7200
was a nice computer in its day, but a limited one. To keep
it from competing with the 7500,
Apple intentionally designed it so you couldn't upgrade the
CPU. Prices on used Power Macs are a moving target, but one
generally moving downward. As Mac OS X approaches, I expect
prices for pre-G3 models to continue dropping. A look in the back of Macworld shows one dealer selling a
used 7500/100 with 16 MB RAM, 1GB hard drive, and CD-ROM for
$695. The same dealer is selling a 7200/75 8/500/CD for
$499. In light of that, I wouldn't recommend a motherboard
transplant at $450, then another $400 for a G3 card.
Instead, find a nice used 7500, drop your hard drive and
memory into it, put the drive you remove from the 7500 into
your old 7200, and then sell your 7200 for $400-500. Net
cost: $200-300, depending on shipping and exactly what you
buy and sell the computers for. Now, instead of budgeting $400 for a slow G3 card, budget
$600 for one with a faster CPU and larger and/or faster
level 2 cache. Spend the rest of your savings on memory to
reach 48-64 MB total. (For more details on G3 upgrades,
visit my Guide
to G3 Daughter Cards.) Not only is this a good value for you, but it will give
you the opportunity to help someone step up to a Power Mac
with your old 7200. Upgrading a 7500 for graphic workRB sent this letter: Got a user who has a Power
Mac 7500 and says its running too slow for his graphics
intensive applications development (Photoshop, Illustrator,
Web stuff). He suggests a daughterboard and L2 cache
additions vs. a new motherboard. How about a whole new computer? What do you think? P.S. I'm not a Mac person, (PC) so I need all the help I
can get to make an intelligent decision Mac Daniel writes: The 7500
was a very nice computer, albeit slow. The original came
with a 100 MHz PowerPC 601. It was a decent performer, but
not a high end machine. (I know, I used to have one on my
desk.) The 7500's saving grace is the CPU slot that allows you
to pull that ancient 100 MHz 601 and replace it with a 604,
604e, or G3. It can make a world of difference. For instance, I'm using a 7600 at work. It came from the
factory with a 256 KB L2 cache and 132 MHz 604 processor.
This was a big improvement after my 7500 and made a much
better design computer (FrameMaker, Freehand,
Photoshop). We have a bunch of Power Macs in our design department,
all but the newest with CPU slots. At this point, we've
upgraded 4 of them with G3 cards. Two have Newer Technology
250 MHz G3 cards with 512 KB backside cache, which cost use
about $1,200 when we bought them. Two more were just
upgraded with 300 MHz Newer Tech cards with 1 MB backside
caches. The improvement is incredible, even for users who had 180
MHz and 200 MHz 604e cards. Even though I'm not a power user (I'm an information
systems manager and part-time graphic designer), I've
managed to upgrade my 7600 with the castoffs from these
older computers. For quite a while I had a 180 MHz 604e
card, but not I have a 200 MHz card and a 1 MB L2 cache.
Subjectively, this seems a lot more than 10-15% faster than
the old 180 MHz setup. What it boils down to is this: your user is right, it
makes more sense to put a faster CPU daughter card in the
old 7500 than replace it with a whole new computer. Whether
you drop in a $200 200 MHz 604e card or $2,000 400 MHz G3
card, you'll see a huge and immediate jump in performance.
And the G3 upgrades come with an onboard L2 cache, so you
don't have to make a separate investment. (For more details
on G3 upgrades, visit my
Guide to G3 Daughter
Cards.) Best of all, you can invest some of the savings in other
things that can increase productivity, like more memory
and/or a larger hard drive. And if the budget's a bit tight, there is an active
market in used CPU cards pulled during upgrades. Even a 132
MHz 604 (maybe $50) offers roughly double the throughput of
the 100 MHz 601. (On the other hand, you'll hear upgrade
rumblings a lot sooner if you don't at least triple
performance.) Recent Mac Daniel columns- Mac Ripoff: Performa 6218CD, Dan
Knight, 6/8/00. One user's experience with Apple's all time worst
Road Apple.
- Holy Grail: The Mac IIfx, Chris
Lawson, 6/6/00. There's something special about owning the "wicked
fast" IIfx, a model that originally sold for $10,000.
- Not raising the dead, Manuel Mejia
Jr, 5/22/00. Sometimes it doesn't make economic sense to revive a
dead Mac, but even in death their parts can save others.
- Field Testing the Carpenter's PB 100
Fix, Manuel Mejia Jr, 5/9/00. Building and using a battery
adapter with the PowerBook 100.
- A larger hard drive, Chris Lawson,
5/5/00. "I'm running out of hard drive space. Should I purchase an
external hard drive or a Zip drive?"
- Follow Up on the 6100, 7100, and
8100, Adam Robert Guha, 4/27/00. A look at upgrade
options.
- more on the Mac Daniel index
Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check
the index to see if we've already addressed
your problem recently -- and look in the
archive if it's not in the recent columns. If not, visit our
staff page for the names of several people
who may be able to help you. Dan Knight, webmaster, Low
End Mac
Elsewhere on Low End Mac- The Celeron effect, Dan
Knight, Mac Musings, 6/8. Thanks to an on-chip L2 cache, Intel's
cheap Celeron rivals Pentium III performance. IBM's enhanced G3s
may offer similar benefits to the Mac user.
- Flash Cards: a solution for
low memory Macs, Maxwell Cabral, My Turn, 6/8. A novel use for
Compact Flash cards.
- Stone flecked
Classic, CustoMacs, 6/8. This popular process covers the drab
beige or platinum finish with a stone-lick appearance.
- Observers closing on Team User
Friendly, SETIonMac, 6/6. Team Mac Observer is less than two
weeks from moving past them.
- A Love of Simple Elegance,
b.b., My First Mac, 6/6. Luddite discovers Macintosh, becomes
hopelessly addicted.
- Always have a backup
plan, Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 6/6. In our wired
society, how do you connect to the Internet when your main
connection goes down?
- Holy Grail: The Mac IIfx, Chris
Lawson, Mac Daniel, 6/6. There's something special about owning
the "wicked fast" IIfx, a model that originally sold for
$10,000.
- New @ Low End Mac:
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