. | Mac Daniel #37I Want to Upgrade My 7500
Burned by 7200 Upgrade Options- 21 December 1998
If you use a Power Mac or Maclone, consider joining the
PowerMacs email
list. I Want to Upgrade My 7500GS writes: I was interested to read your advice to
a 7200 owner saying that he
would be better off upgrading to a 7500.
I have a 7500 and am mulling some upgrade questions. - I have the built in 500 MB hard drive that came with
the machine. I'm out of space (even using my external
Zip). Do I replace the functioning internal drive I have?
Do I go external? Should I make a long-term investment in
the faster versions of SCSI my current system can't
handle?
- Then there's that G3 chip. Boy, it's fast. I have one
at work. Do I put one into the 7500?
- Lastly, when my machine came out there was a lot of
talk about the fact that it didn't have an L2 cache. Is
this something I should be looking at?
Like so many, I covet the new G3s, but I can't
rationalize the expense when my 7500 is still performing
adequately. Mac Daniel responds: Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's G3. ;-) - You can add a second internal drive to the 7500,
right below the current drive. I've seen some great deals
on new drives that simply aren't as big as today's hot
drives: 1.2GB Apple drives for US$99, 3-4GB drives for
under US$200. And by putting the drive inside the
computer, you take advantage of the faster internal
SCSI-2 bus (external is SCSI-1).
- You haven't mentioned how fast your 7500 is today. If
you have a 601 card and just find it a bit slow, there
are great deals on 604 and 604e cards pulled to make way
for G3 upgrades. And some of the G3 cards are now under
US$400, making them very tempting.
- Yes, you absolutely want to have an L2 cache in your
7500. You can probably pick up a 256 KB cache for under
US$25, but a 1 MB will offer up to 50% more speed than
that for around US$100. (I wouldn't have believed it, but
then I put one in my 7600 at work. Wow!)
As a Mac user on a budget, I always recommend staying at
least one step behind the state of the art (aka the bleeding
edge). Computers are much more affordable and better values
a step or two from the overpriced bleeding edge. Especially
with a computer like the 7500, you have so many upgrade
options that it's hard to justify replacing it. I feel burned by 7200 upgrade
optionsJB writes: I have a question about upgrading the
Power Mac 7200. I am rather
irritated because, when I bought the machine in winter
95/96, the 7200 was advertised and promoted as upgradeable
(to a 7300). Having been burned twice before with Macs that
had no upgrade path, I thought I was making a wise
decision. Now it turns out that of all the Power Macs in the
universe, the 7200 is the only one that is not
upgradeable to G3. Every number before and after 7200 has a
future but mine. And no one even talks about upgrading the
7200 to a 7300 anymore, so I assume that's no longer
possible. Do I have any options for getting more speed and
performance out of the 7200? Anything approaching G3 speed
and power? And am I justified in being rather angry about
the situation? Mac Daniel responds: I can sympathize. The only
upgrade Apple offered the 7200 owner was to a 7500,
7600, or 7300
motherboard -- plus a CPU daughter card. However, that path
is still open to you, although the motherboard may cost more
than a used 7500 (US$550 and up). In fact, it may even be possible to replace your 7200
motherboard with one from a Power
Mac G3. (Nobody will tell me it's possible, but the case
seems identical -- and nobody says it can't be done,
either.) Finally, I know of no reason Vimage and others can't take
the technology that created a cache-slot accelerator for
several other unupgradable Power Macs (6360, 6400, 6500,
4400, and some Maclones) and turn it to the 7200 cache
slot. The motherboard in the 7200 runs between 37.5 MHz and 45
MHz. The G3 can run at up to eight times bus speed, meaning
a 300 MHz upgrade for a 7200/75 may be possible. Likewise,
the 7200/90 with a 45 MHz bus could theoretically support a
360 MHz G3, while the 7200/120 and its 40 MHz bus could
handle a 320 MHz G3. The market is probably large enough to justify the
accelerator, whether it runs at 200 MHz or anything
faster. Recent Mac Daniel & Friends columns- Upgrading an LC 575, Julie Fugett,
2/29/2000
- Online with a Performa 636, Julie
Fugett, 2/22/2000
- Raising the dead, part 2, Manuel
Mejia, 2/14/2000
- Setting up a Mac web server, Charlie
Ruggiero, 2/11/2000
- Backing up your Mac, Charlie
Ruggiero, 2/4/2000
- Connecting Macs, Chris Lawson,
2/1/2000
- Raising the dead, Manuel Mejia Jr.,
1/18/2000
- 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
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