10.3 knocks 10.2 out of the water. At least on my G4 server, it did.

Is there a really big difference? I mean, should I get a G3 or G4 upgrade card?

Thanks :D

10.3 plus a G4 upgrade card compared to stock 604e running 10.2?

Like comparing an M80 firecracker to ten tons of TNT.

OSX was optimized to make full use of the AltiVec extensions. I once had a WallStreet PowerBook with a G3 500 MHz upgrade card, and then later had an otherwise identical WallStreet with a G4 500 MHz upgrade card. Being of that vintage, it could boot OS 9 (or 8.x for that matter) natively; under OS 9, I didn't notice much performance diff, but the G4 took that OS X to its heart and did things with it that the G3 of identical speed could never touch.

And yes, 10.3 is noticeably snappier than 10.2 on the same hardware.

Thanks, so the search for RAM and upgrade cards is on!



PS is the any USB cards available for it? I couldn't find any.
PPS my internal HD is about 4 GB, and my external HD is about 6 GB (you know, the old types, that require a huge port on the back. It has a power button and a power cable. The device sounds like the PowerMac itself), would OS X run on the external HD?, or does it need the internal one. Does XPostFacto allow installing on external HDs?

That would be an external SCSI hard drive. Yes, some folks using XPostFacto have had good luck booting from those. Ideally you should get one a bit larger than 6 gigs. But 6 is enough for Panther (10.3) if it's mostly empty otherwise.

www.ramdirect.com has 128mb sticks of Ram compatible with G3/G4 upgrades for $10 each.
Four of those babies for $40 plus shipping and you'd have 512mb+

Sonnet have a "Tango" Firewire plus USB2.0 PCI card and they pop up on ebay every now and then.
Just be aware though that USB2.0 can only be used with OS10.2.6 plus.
OS9 will only let you use the card at USB1 speeds whereas the Firewire ports can be used from OS8.6 and up.
Belkin and Macsense also make USB2.0 PCI cards for Macs.
Also be aware that you may run into sleep issues by installing a USB card.

Stewie

Thanks man, also, what is the difference between "EDO" RAM cards and "FPM" RAM cards?



It is mostly empty. I only have Office 2001, some other small program, and a backup of my OS 9.1, and 9.2 System Folders.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3063
and...
http://www.oempcworld.com/support/Ma..._Explained.htm
give a rundown on the two and whether you can use the two together ( you can as long as they are Mac compatible esp the right voltage - see the second link)
The memory supplier should be able to give you the right sort anyway.

I should have pointed out also with the USB2.0 cards - a Mac only USB2.0 PCI card will usually cost quite a bit more but there are a number of PC only cards that work just as well for a lot less.
To get optimal results from a USB 2.0 PCI card to run in a Mac, get a card that has the NEC chipset. Via and Ali chipsets are problematic - mostly sleep related issues, and should be avoided.
Some USB 2.0 cards that have the NEC chipset are:

Adaptec 3100LP
BAFO BF-460
Belkin F5U220
GWC UC-160
IOGear GIC250U
IOGear GIC251U
Keyspan U2PCI-5
O'toLink U2-C2B
O'toLink U2-C2A
O'toLink U2-P20N
O'toLink U2-P50
Ratoc PCIU5
USBWholesale UII-PCIP

Stewie

Do these cards have Firewire?

I don't think any of them do.
I've used the Belkin and Keyspan but they are both USB2.0 ports only.
I'd look at getting a separate firewire card.
Buying a cheap card like one of the above and then a no-names firewire card is probably cheaper than buying a FW + USB2.0 card, something like the Sonnet Tango.

Stewie

I had a PM 8500 and used external 9GB SCSI drives with XPostFacto 3 with 896 MB of RAM. I partitioned the drives so I had 1 GB for OS 9.1 and 8 GB OS 10.3.9 and 10.2.8. I had 2 internal drives the original 1.2 GB for OS 7.6.1 and a 18 GB with OS 9.2.2 with OS 9 Helper both with the old HFS file system. The externals drives use the HFS+ file system for OS X . I used this machine for over 10 years and gave it to a friend who is using it today.
Join the XPostFacto Forum for more help.

Accordingly

That totally rocks... to be able to natively boot 7.6.1 and then reboot into 10.3.9!

That's quite some range :)

With XPostFacto 3, I boot from OS 9.1 where it resides as a Control Panel on a partition with OS X to either OS 10.2x or 10.3x. On the OS X partition is another copy of XPostFacto 3. Also on the machine you can force a boot into OS 9.x by holding down the option key during the boot.

Ivan

On my WallStreet PowerBook, once having installed 10.3 I did not have to touch XPostFacto ever again; to boot back into MacOS 9 (actually 9.0.x or 9.2 or 8.6 or 8.1) I would do a shutdown then a power-reset and boot. To change back to 10.3 I would open the Startup Disk Control Panel and simply select MacOS X 10.3 and boot from it.

Cool, I'm going to see what is the lowest OS on my PM 9600

I'm wondering, what is the latest CRT display that would work on my Power Mac? Also, What is the PC Compatibility Card for Mac, and if I want it, how can I use it? Could I dual boot with Windows and Mac like with OS 9 and OS X using xPost Facto?

The PC compatibility card was essentially an entire PC motherboard which would use your Mac's peripheral devices and ports. Might have its own RAM or might swipe some memory from the MacOS, don't know. It would probably give you a 266 MHz PC or something in that neighborhood.

You might get better performance (at least by some measures) running VirtualPC, once you've got that G4 upgrade in there.

Alright. Anyway, what is the latest LCD display I can use with my Mac, I accidentally typed CRT.

That will depend on the graphics card you have or are going to put in the 9600.
Look at the max rez that the video card puts out then look at the LCD you want to buy and see if they are compatible.

Stewie