I'm a little torn on this one myself...
To be sure, Mac OS 9 has a lot of bloat compared to System 7. On the other hand, OS 9 has a lot more PowerPC native code than any other system. I'd try to find a happy medium. System 7.5 or OS 7.6 will be slower than strictly necessary on that Mac as a result of 68k emulation on already slow hardware. I've generally found that I actually get _better_ performance from 8.6 than from 8.1 (after the startup is complete, anyway) on NuBus Power Macs. Have you considered 8.5.1? That might provide a nice balance between modernity & speed.
OS 9 is a RAM hog. The more RAM you have, the better. I've run 9.0.4 on a 6100/60 w/ 72 MB of RAM and was reasonably pleased with it's speed. I even used AOL 5 to browse the web on that setup. It was no speed demon, but it got the job done. I didn't try 8.1 or lower, but I had been running 8.6 on it for quite some time with great success.
A 6100, while technically slower than the 75 MHz 6200, might compare favorably to a 6200. The 6100 doesn't have the same design compromises that make the x200 and x300 so underwhelming. And the PowerPC 601 is actually faster than the 603 in FPU performance. So when all is said and done, the two might get about the same results in terms of "feel" when operating one. And if you add an L2 cache to the equation on the side of the 6100, you've actually got a pretty fast 60 to 66 MHz Mac. L2 cache is one of the best upgrades you can give any Mac...
Peace,
Drew
_________________
Power to the PowerPC!
To be sure, Mac OS 9 has a lot of bloat compared to System 7. On the other hand, OS 9 has a lot more PowerPC native code than any other system. I'd try to find a happy medium. System 7.5 or OS 7.6 will be slower than strictly necessary on that Mac as a result of 68k emulation on already slow hardware. I've generally found that I actually get _better_ performance from 8.6 than from 8.1 (after the startup is complete, anyway) on NuBus Power Macs. Have you considered 8.5.1? That might provide a nice balance between modernity & speed.
OS 9 is a RAM hog. The more RAM you have, the better. I've run 9.0.4 on a 6100/60 w/ 72 MB of RAM and was reasonably pleased with it's speed. I even used AOL 5 to browse the web on that setup. It was no speed demon, but it got the job done. I didn't try 8.1 or lower, but I had been running 8.6 on it for quite some time with great success.
A 6100, while technically slower than the 75 MHz 6200, might compare favorably to a 6200. The 6100 doesn't have the same design compromises that make the x200 and x300 so underwhelming. And the PowerPC 601 is actually faster than the 603 in FPU performance. So when all is said and done, the two might get about the same results in terms of "feel" when operating one. And if you add an L2 cache to the equation on the side of the 6100, you've actually got a pretty fast 60 to 66 MHz Mac. L2 cache is one of the best upgrades you can give any Mac...
Peace,
Drew
_________________
Power to the PowerPC!