Upgrading old Powermac 7500

I used to have a PM6500 275MHz. To get USB 1.1 I added a Belkin F5U005 2-port USB PCI card. You can't use the newer multi-port PCI cards. If you get a 2-port PCI card, you may have to reinstall OS 9 for the card to be recognized.

I'm not sure, but I don't think you can use Firewire on this model Mac.

For A/V use you should add RAM & greatly increase the HD size.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

Since you're limited to a PCI graphics card, ATI's Radeon 9200 with 128 MBs of DDR memory would be the newest/best option. It can still be found on the web, even though many retailers have depleted their stock. The 7500 will support a FireWire PCI card, as well as a USB card. USB 2.0 speeds require OS 10.2.8 or better. Macs seem to have better compatibility with USB PCI cards having an NEC chip. As for the A/V IN ports, you need to open the Sound control panel and select the sound input, where you'll see the available options. You should also download/run the Mac OS 9.1 Update, which includes newer USB support drivers than previous OS versions. The 7500 uses 5-volt, 168-pin DRAM (not SDRAM) DIMMs, either FPM or EDO. Memory interleaving can occur when identical DRAM DIMMs are installed in corresponding slots: B4 & A4, B3 & A3, etc., although users who installed G3 processor upgrade cards reported problems with interleaved memory. No matter how much $$ you spend on hardware upgrades, the computer's overall performance is still limited by its inherent architecture, such as the 7500's 50 MHz system bus speed and DRAM memory. I am reminded of this every time I add up the money invested in my fleet of upgraded Power Macs.

hi all

I was able to install a USB card on my 8600 and wasn't sure if I'm getting a 2.0 output. I'm running OS 9.2.2 Also, if I were to install a firewire card, will it output 400mbps?

Thanks
web dude

Unfortunately you cannot get USB 2.0 on a 7500 or any other "beige" Mac. Thay can only use USB 1 speeds. Hence things like an external USB CD burner are iffy. That's why i got a Sonnet ATA card. Now i have an IDE/ATA CD writer inside my 8500 and it works fine. So an IDE/ATA card is another useful upgrade, but it's not essential. Otherwise, i've had pretty good luck with USB cards as long as they're the 2-port kind (USB 1.1). Of course, an external SCSI burner like you have is ideal.

I did put a firewire card in for awhile and it worked fine. Not sure what brand, but it was a little thing--firewire only. USB was a separate card and is still in there. I took the Firewire card out bec. i had to use that slot for the IDE/ATA card! However, the Firewire card was fast enough to capture from my DV camcorder. This was on my Mac 8500/G4/700.

As for graphics cards, a great place to get one is out of an old Blue&White G3. Those were PCI just like the 7500 and 8500. I have an ATI Rage 128 (16 MB) in my 8500 now. You can get a Radeon 7000 or even 9000 series i think (PCI) on ebay which is a bit better.

Have fun with that 7500--it's basically a horizontal 8500.

Message was edited by: paulpen

Very interesting. I have just upgraded a 7200 to 7600 as my SCSI scanner 'driver'. I found a Sonnet G4 800Mhz processor for £12 ($19) on ebay. - Patience was the trick. The Altivec engine would help you. I would concur that there are interleaving memory issues mentioned previously so you may have to juggle these if you're upgrading to (up to) 128Mb cards. I bought two cheap 2 slot USB cards (GMUPC-861 from Hong Kong). Remember you MUST do a limited custom reinstall of OS9.1 and ensure ALL USB items are installed. They will NOT be under 'recommended' install. I concur with the above re USB2 and 5 slot USB pci cards, some sellers advertise these as compatible with OS9.1, mine was not. I have also had problems with USB/Firewire combo PCI cards. I was given a cheapy 3 slot Firewire PCI card which seems quite fine.

Upgrade your Video Ram to 4 Mb if not done already.

OS 10.2 or 10.3 perhaps? Although I haven't done it, with XPostfacto4 you can upgrade here but you need 2Gb spare on your HDD. Lots of reports on this and your G3 should be OK. The sonnet web site points you to it too. You can of course add a second HDD below the standard position.

Don't upgrade to the later 7600 Logic board - it's 10% slower.
Don't lean on the expansion card cover - the lugs break easily!

The advice on a Graphic card above is good. Good luck

Okay, i checked my Firewire card and it's a "Startech". Small, generic-looking, only one IC chip that says VIA (stylized logo) VT6306 on it. Any brand with that chip will likely work.

As for USB, mine says OPTi on it so it's not an NEC, yet it works fine.

As for IDE/ATA, that might be why my 8500 could capture through firewire because that's a much faster interface than the 8500's (and 7500's) built-in SCSI, although the SCSI is fast enough to capture through the RCA port. Or, it could have been that my SCSI drive was just too slow. My card is a Sonnet ATA/66 card, but they also made ATA/100 and ATA/133 cards. The faster the better i suppose, though my ATA66 is fast enough. Cheers.

According to the system requirements listed for Sonnet's SATA controller card, anything older than a B&W G3 isn't supported. You should check eBay for the (now-discontinued) Sonnet Tempo ATA-133 controller card. They sold for $100 before being discontinued, but pulled ones can be purchased for less now.