Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Forums
« previous next »
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: Possible uses of an old Powermac  (Read 5651 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline nagaflasTopic starter

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2004
  • Posts: 99
    • Show only replies by nagaflas
    • http://www.twitter.com/shaun_fossett/
Possible uses of an old Powermac
« on: August 10, 2004, 11:21:58 PM »
This might be a dumb question, but here goes...

Is there any way I can install some sort of native Amiga compatible OS on my old Umax C600 SuperMac? Can MorphOS or something be installed on this machine? If so, it would be a good investment, eventhough the thing has a 603e running at 166mhz.

 :-D Leshaun Fossett
Memphis, TN
Logged
 

Offline Ilwrath

Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2004, 11:46:28 PM »
Not that I know of.  :-(

If you find one, let us know.  I've got a PowerMac 7200 (603 @ 120mhz) that is currently serving as a paperweight.
Logged
 

Offline amigamad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 2159
    • Show only replies by amigamad
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2004, 12:05:49 AM »
Quote
If you find one, let us know. I've got a PowerMac 7200 (603 @ 120mhz) that is currently serving as a paperweight


Thats what they were built for. :-D
Logged
I once had an amigaone xe but sold it .

http://www.tamiyaclub.com
 

Offline Ilwrath

Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2004, 12:36:41 AM »
Quote
Thats what they were built for.  :-D


Tell me about it.  It's the only computer I've ever regretted saving from a dumpster.  haha!
Logged
 

Offline Cyberus

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2003
  • Posts: 5696
    • Show only replies by Cyberus
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2004, 12:55:03 AM »
get yourself a sonnet crescendo g3/g4 upgrade card, then you can run OSX (should you want to), MacOS, YDL, etc...
Logged
I like Amigas
 

Offline Ilwrath

Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2004, 01:13:27 AM »
Quote

get yourself a sonnet crescendo g3/g4 upgrade card, then you can run OSX (should you want to), MacOS, YDL, etc...


Well, that's good in theory, but in the US, they cost as much (or more) than a complete used G3 system.  Plus they are slower, not officially supported for OSX 10.3, etc....

As it is, it'll run OS 8.5 and several flavors of Linux.  I think mine has an old RedHat 6.2 PPC installed, though I also messed with YellowDog.  Really, the box is quite useless.  I haven't fired it up in over a year.  I'd strip it and take the SCSI HD and CDROM out of it and chuck the rest, if it weren't serving the valuable purpose of keeping some old SGI IRIX installation notes from blowing away.  ;-)
Logged
 

Offline nagaflasTopic starter

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2004
  • Posts: 99
    • Show only replies by nagaflas
    • http://www.twitter.com/shaun_fossett/
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2004, 01:31:02 AM »
Oh, well. Looks like I'm gonna have to buy a Pegesus. Thanks, guys.
Logged
 

Offline DonnyEMU

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Sep 2002
  • Posts: 650
    • Show only replies by DonnyEMU
    • http://blog.donburnett.com
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2004, 04:10:24 AM »
Have you tried it using BeOS with it.. the PPC version should work fine and BeUAE probably would work..
Logged
======================================
Don Burnett Developer
http://blog.donburnett.com
don@donburnett.com
======================================
 

Offline ManRaven

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Feb 2004
  • Posts: 28
    • Show only replies by ManRaven
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2004, 04:30:31 AM »
Check out Debian. It has a good track record with PPC's,
as far as I know. You could probably run UAE on top of
Debian. It won't be very fast though. I used to run Debian
on my 604e. Never tried UAE on it though.
Logged
 

Offline XDelusion

  • Alien Breeder
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 5089
    • Show only replies by XDelusion
    • http://starwarslegacy.net/
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2004, 05:44:50 AM »
Old Macs are crap...

You will only be able to use BeOS with it if it has PCI slots, but then again there is now very little PPC software written for BeOS.

I have an IMac and and the PPC model right before it, and no thankx to apple not releasing info on there hardware, they serve as nothing but dead weight. I'd be happy to run Mac OS 8 or 9 on them if the OS was anywhere near as kool and responsive as Amiga OS, or even Winblows for that matter. I could run winblows 98 on a machine of the same specs a LOT faster without having tons of low memory issues, and all the crap that goes along with using Mac OS.

OSX would be an option, but alas, like all Linux distros with a decent GUI is bloatware and would be ungodly sloooooowwwwwww.

I'm keeping mine around just incase AROS ever gets ported to them.
Logged
Earth has a lot of things other folks might want... like the whole planet. And maybe these folks would like a few changes made, like more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and room for their way of life. - William S. Burroughs
 

Offline evilrich

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Nov 2003
  • Posts: 25
    • Show only replies by evilrich
    • http://www.rcdrummond.net
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #10 on: August 11, 2004, 05:50:57 AM »
Quote
Check out Debian. It has a good track record with PPC's, as far as I know

Yes. I run Debian on several Old World Macs with good success. One is a 5400 which shares the same motherboard as the U600 (the Alchemy mobo). Debian works much better on old Macs than YDL 3.0 and above does. I haven't tried Gentoo on PPC myself so I can't comment on that.

A vanilla U600 isn't really up to running the latest Linux desktop environments, but with plenty of RAM, a lighter window manager and sensibly-chosen apps it would make a serviceable desktop machine.

Alternatively, you could always put the machine to use as a server. I have a Starmax 3000 which acts the file and print server and network gateway for my local network. This is based on a derivative of the Alchemy mobo - the Tanzania - and it runs Debian well (and also has the benefit of being silent since I ripped out all the fans - it still never gets warm). In this case, however, I upgraded with a G3 card (they plug in the cache-RAM slot on the Alchemy, Tanzania and Gazelle boards - look for a Sonnet Crescendo or something similar). Memory is always going to be a problem, though - the Alchemy is limited to 136 MB, AFAICR.

Quote
You could probably run UAE on top of Debian. It won't be very fast though. I used to run Debian on my 604e. Never tried UAE on it though.

It'd be almost unuseable on a 166 MHz 603e. Look for a G3 upgrade card - or nag somebody to finish the PPC JIT. ;-)

Cheers,
Rich
Logged
 

Offline lorddef

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Apr 2002
  • Posts: 1149
    • Show only replies by lorddef
    • http://
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #11 on: August 11, 2004, 01:35:28 PM »
Quote

Ilwrath wrote:
Not that I know of.  :-(

If you find one, let us know.  I've got a PowerMac 7200 (603 @ 120mhz) that is currently serving as a paperweight.


7200s had a 601 cpu.

The best use I could find for my 8200 was use it as a pop server.
Logged
Restraining orders are just another way of saying I love you!
 

Offline Ilwrath

Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #12 on: August 11, 2004, 03:13:43 PM »
Quote

7200s had a 601 cpu.


Ooops.  I just glanced at the front fascia and it said 7200/120.  I just assumed it was a 603, because I didn't think the 601s went past 100mhz.  Silly me.  So mine is even MORE useless than most.  I really regret saving it.  haha!
Logged
 

Offline amigamad

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 2159
    • Show only replies by amigamad
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #13 on: August 11, 2004, 03:26:05 PM »
I hated an o40cpu one i bought it was so iritating i took the 32mb of ram out of it and the hard drive and threw it out. :-)
Logged
I once had an amigaone xe but sold it .

http://www.tamiyaclub.com
 

Offline Floid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2003
  • Posts: 918
    • Show only replies by Floid
Re: Possible uses of an old Powermac
« Reply #14 on: August 11, 2004, 05:00:20 PM »
Quote

nagaflas wrote:
This might be a dumb question, but here goes...

Is there any way I can install some sort of native Amiga compatible OS on my old Umax C600 SuperMac? Can MorphOS or something be installed on this machine? If so, it would be a good investment, eventhough the thing has a 603e running at 166mhz.

 :-D Leshaun Fossett
Memphis, TN
You could run NetBSD, though it will take a bit of hackistry to install, and a PCI video card and further fiddling to enable video.  That's more than enough horsepower for a home router or simple webserver to fiddle on, though, whether or not you can get graphics up.

The 7200 is more screwed - per that site, the 601 is soldered with no opportunity for expansion.  Rather than pitch it in the dumpster, pair it up with OS9 and the next Imagewriter you find in the trash, and donate it to anyone who could make use of a basic word processing box (Boys' and Girls' Club, local school, homeless shelter for typing resumes)...
Logged
 
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up
« previous next »