Thread
Not What It Says On The Tin
Landed a 6400 a couple of weeks ago via eBay and it finally arrived on Saturday. Ok so I thought I'd got a bargain as, for a mere £5, I'd snagged a 200MHz machine with 72Mb of RAM - WRONG!
When the delivery guy dropped it off it was making a horrible 'clunking' noise which didn't sound healthy so off came the case which revealed that a second hard drive (which I didn't know about) had been fitted but not bolted down (ouch - 2 days in the hands of DHL and rattling around all that time). Then came the surprise of seeing a pair of USB sockets on the back. The biggest shock though was seeing the Sonnet Crescendo card plugged into the motherboard. This '200MHz' machine is, in fact, a 400MHz G3 - the thing screams.
As if that wasn't enough, the unbolted hard drive (a 512Mb SCSI) still has life in it...never something to be ignored these days
When the delivery guy dropped it off it was making a horrible 'clunking' noise which didn't sound healthy so off came the case which revealed that a second hard drive (which I didn't know about) had been fitted but not bolted down (ouch - 2 days in the hands of DHL and rattling around all that time). Then came the surprise of seeing a pair of USB sockets on the back. The biggest shock though was seeing the Sonnet Crescendo card plugged into the motherboard. This '200MHz' machine is, in fact, a 400MHz G3 - the thing screams.
As if that wasn't enough, the unbolted hard drive (a 512Mb SCSI) still has life in it...never something to be ignored these days
Stuff a Rage 128 or Radeon 7000 in that sucker and install System 7.6.1 if it does not already have it installed. 
Do Radeon cards even work with Mac OS versions prior to 8.6.1 or 9.1? I didn't think they did but I could be wrong...
As for an OS you'd possibly, at a stretch, be able to run OS X on it, although don't expect earth-shattering performance. I have a Rage 128 in my 8500 and a G3/266/1M, and it turns over respectable performance in 10.3 for such an old machine.
As for an OS you'd possibly, at a stretch, be able to run OS X on it, although don't expect earth-shattering performance. I have a Rage 128 in my 8500 and a G3/266/1M, and it turns over respectable performance in 10.3 for such an old machine.
It came with 8.6 installed and seems quite happy running that - not that I've really had much time to put it through its paces
OS X is probably out as it'd need the hard drive and RAM upping massively - neither of which I really want to do
Might investigate a Rage or a Radeon though
OS X is probably out as it'd need the hard drive and RAM upping massively - neither of which I really want to do
Might investigate a Rage or a Radeon though
there are radeon7000 drivers for 7.6.
£5 for a 6400 is very good and that G3 card is worth several times that!
I got a radeon 7000 in my 8500(400MB of ram) and it actually is able to play videos in OS X which my iBook cannot do sadly :'(
Don't most older USB cards require Mac OS 8.5 or higher? The latest Sonnet Allegro now lists Mac OS 9 for USB 1.1 support or OS X 10.3 for USB 2.0 as minimums. You won't be able to use USB with 7.6.1.
My 8500 has a 500MHz G4, 512MB of RAM, a Radeon 9600PRO (flashed) 128MB card, a Sonnet ATA/133 controller, generic USB card, 60GB 8MB 5400RPM IBM HD, and a SCSI DVD-ROM drive. It runs just fine in Jaguar, although I am soon to be running panther or tiger on it. I would like to try and get leopard up and running on it.
Such a sweet machine.
/me loves my 8500.