PCI Power Macs Great for Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3
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My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your submission to Dan Knight .
- 2007.10.30
The Power Mac 8600 provides a very cheap OS X capable machine. With a Sonnet Tech G3/500 upgrade or larger, the machine can easily run OS X Jaguar (10.2) with the aid of Sonnet's PCI X Installer. From that point, run XPostFacto 4 (which requires 10.2.8 to be running), and then install the Panther CD set.
Although it is possible to get Tiger to install, less of the programs that the OS will allow you to install will work when it comes down to it. It is true that even in Panther certain parts of the iLife suite that are dependent on large graphics operations will not function properly.
Panther, however, provides the 8600 with the speed of a more modern OS, a fully functional iChat AV, and more full FireWire support without the slowness of Jaguar or the incompatibility issue of Tiger's applications.
I will include pictures, later, of a G3 500 8600 running OS X Panther with only 140MB of RAM. Thanks, enjoy. Haack.
Editor's note: The Power Mac 7300-7600, 8500-8600, and 9500-9600, as well as several clones from SuperMac and Power Computing support 1 GB or more of memory, have 3 or more PCI slots, and the used same family of CPU "daughter cards", making them a popular choice for "unsupported" OS X installs. To learn more about running OS X on older Macs, join our Unsupported OS X List. dk
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
Recent My Turn articles
- Using Low End Macs for Internet Radio, 08.18. When the local public radio station moved classical music to HD radio, it was time to find another way to listen. An old iMac with iTunes solved the problem.
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- My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28. The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard.
- More in the My Turn index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Mac IIci, Sep. 1989 - The fastest Mac to date, the 25 MHz IIci was a real workhorse and a big hit.
- Group of the Day: Macintel List for discussion and support of Intel-based Macs.
- January 8 in LEM history: 02: Lament for a budget iMac - Macs get the job done - 03: Big 'Book, little 'Book - Things I really like about Jaguar - 07: One thing OS X should learn from Windows - Shiira 2.0b2 - 08: Mac Pro (2008) - Xserve (Quad Core) - This old Pismo - DRM in OS X anything to fear? - G3 iMac upgrade resources
Recent Content on Low End Mac
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- Apple's Worst Business Decisions: Another Perspective, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.07. Apple's poor business decisions predate the Macintosh. Let's hope they learn from their mistakes.
- The Ill-Fated Apple III, Jason Walsh, Apple Before the Mac, 01.07. "...not only was the Apple III mind crunchingly expensive, it was made with none of the passion of the Apple II or Macintosh."
- 2 Apple Failures: Apple III and Lisa, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.07. Apple's two not-so-great product lines between the Apple II line and the Macintosh.
- Apple III Chaos: Apple's First Failure, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.07. Apple had known nothing but success with its Apple II product line, but when it tried to enter the business world with the Apple III, the learned the cost of failure.
- 17" Unibody MacBook Pro, 01.06. Thinner and lighter than ever, the unibody model tops out with 8 GB of RAM and a 2.93 GHz clock speed.
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- No, an Overgrown iPod touch Is Not a Netbook, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.06. BlackBerry pretends its Storm is a netbook, but a netbook needs to be big enough for a typable keyboard.
- Apple IIe Nostalgia: A Reunion 15 Years in the Making, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 01.06. Sometimes nostalgia is all you remembered, like when you get to recreate your first computing experience from the Apple II era.
- Apples from Other Orchards: Apple II Clones, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.06. Before the IBM PC spawned compatibles, companies around the world cloned the Apple II - some with more success than others.
- VisiCalc and the Rise of the Apple II, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.06. "VisiCalc was first released for the Apple II, which quickly became an invaluable tool for businesspeople - at least until IBM moved into the 'personal computing' market in 1981."
- Interview with Dan Bricklin, Inventor of the Electronic Spreadsheet, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.06. Until 1979, a spreadsheet was something you did by hand. VisiCalc changed all that and gave personal computers the first 'killer app'.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best Mac Pro Deals, 01.08. New 2.8 GHz 4-core, $2,099 after rebate; refurb 8-core, $2,399; new, $2,589 a/r; 3.0 $3,398 a/r; refurb 3.2, $4,099; new, $4,099 a/r.
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- Best Power Mac G5 Deals, 01.07. Used 1.8 GHz single, $500; dual, $629, 2.0, $700; dual-core, $929; 2.3, $999; 2.5 dual, $900; 2.7, $1,089; 2.5 Quad, $1,399.
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