Upgrading a Power Mac 7200.

Hi,
I just recently bought a Power Mac 7200 on ebay for the small sum of £1.99, and I am setting about upgrading it into something more useful.
Looking about on beay I am looking at a plethora of Mac Video cards, and one has caught my eye. An ATI Radeon 7000, and I am wondering if this will work ok in said machine as it will mean I can use a VGA monitor rather than the aging Apple 14" monitor that came with it.
Also I have a 10GB HDD to go in there but its IDE and am I right in thinking this Mac is SCSI and not IDE?
TAI
Craig

The ATI Radeon card's drivers require OS 9.2.1 or 9.2.2, which can only be installed on a 7200 that's running OS 9.1 and been updated to 9.2.1 or 9.2.2 using the third-party utility, "OS 9 Helper," and the downloadable OS 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 updates. There are older/less-expensive Mac video cards that will enable the use of VGA displays. The ATI XCLAIM Rage Pro (Mac) card comes with 4 MBs of SGRAM, with the option of an additional 4 MBs (plug-in SGRAM card). Many selling at eBay already have the 4 MB upgrade installed, and the card has both Mac and VGA ports. You can also use a Mac-to-VGA adapter, to convert the onboard monitor port for use of VGA displays. This assumes that the VRAM has been upgraded to at least 2 MBs (4 MBs is preferable).
In spite of having bought the 7200 for so little, I would discourage spending a lot of money to upgrade it. I bought a couple of 7200s in mint condition a few years ago. The 7200's power supply is compatible with the motherboard from a 7500, 7600, or 8500. I installed a pair of 8500 boards (including A/V modules) in mine, enabling the use of plug-in processor cards. With a 604e/233 MHz processor card and 1 MB L2 cache card, they were much faster than in their OEM configuration (601/75 MHz and 601/90 MHz). The amount of money I spent to boost their performance is ridiculous, given their negligible market value today. Whatever you do, don't buy one of Sonnet's 7200 G3 processor cards for a PCI slot. They've always been overpriced for what they are, and because so few were sold in comparison to the G3 (processor slot) upgrade cards, you won't find many bargain-priced 7200 PCI upgrades at eBay. In the end, the money spent on upgrading a 7200 could buy you a native beige G3 or B&W G3, both of which would easily outperform a G3-upgraded 7200. If you're upgrading your 7200 as a hobby project, choose upgrade cards that can be transferred to a newer Mac (video, ATA controller, USB and/or FireWire, etc.), because you'll never recover the money spent on them, if you were to sell the 7200 a day/week/month later.

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Might be easier to get Leo/10.5.x
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How about all the basics?
Check the LCS and any dust.
Clone the system to new faster drive.
Repair the system with Disk Warrior.
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Half the 2.7DPs have a really good solid cooling block (assume you made it this far?) and the other half are scared tomorrow will be the day!
No, you can't do more than trade/sell and invest in a new system.
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Hello,
I've found many topics in this forum helpful, but they are so spread out that I figured it would be easier to ask for help for my own computer.
I am interested in upgrading a few things on my G4. Here are my specs:
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Machine Model: PowerMac3,5
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
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CPU Speed: 867 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 2 MB
Memory: 1.5 GB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
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I do a lot of graphics work (Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, and Maya) on my computer and it's been really slow lately, even with my RAM maxed out to 1.5 MB. I was thinking of buying the SonnetDUAL G4/1.8GHz 512K L2 Cache Per Processor because I would like as much processing power as possible. What processor(s) would be the best fit for me?
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Hi there,
You have a very upgradable computer, one of the best. You didn't tell us your budget. So, I'll just assume you want to be practical.
1. I'd suggest either a Fastmac or OWC CPU. Easy to install, no firmware patches to add, simple and very fast.
2. Stay put for now, see how you like the CPU first.
3. If you need it look here. The sleep issue is one that cannot be remedied, so we live with it. I put my monitor to sleep and set the computer to never.
4. The FW 400 is perfect. If you are worried about the old internal HDD, install a second new one (128GB or less) internally and use it as your startup, the old one for storage of non essentials. No matter what you do, ALWAYS backup important data at regular intervals.
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Regards,
Dave
QS-1.5GHz, ATI 9800/ AGP-1.25 GHz, ATI 9800/ Cube-Dual 1.7 GHz, ATI 9800 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

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Thank you for any thoughts or insights.

Ah, this is why one should not post late at night with little sleep. Thank you all for the answers and kind responses of help.
Very good suggestion to reinstall the system and I shall do so. I believe this is the MacPro forum, is it not? Should I still repost? I used everymac.com to determine my system BUT posted the results incorrectly (corrected below and yes, it is a 2006). My apologies. I ran the software that THE HATTER suggested and have the results below. I'm not opposed to spending money to either upgrade or purchase a new(er) machine-- simply looking to spend the money necessary wisely for the best possible return. Thank you again for the help.
ETRECHECK:
(I'm only posting part of this-- I don't know if there's a posting limit or protocol on posting). I am running CS5
Hardware Information: ℹ️
Mac Pro (Verified)
Mac Pro - model: MacPro1,1
2 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon CPU: 4-core
6 GB RAM
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1
2 GB DDR2 FB-DIMM 667 MHz ok
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2
2 GB DDR2 FB-DIMM 667 MHz ok
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1
512 MB DDR2 FB-DIMM 667 MHz ok
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2
512 MB DDR2 FB-DIMM 667 MHz ok
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3
512 MB DDR2 FB-DIMM 667 MHz ok
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4
512 MB DDR2 FB-DIMM 667 MHz ok
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3
empty empty empty empty
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4
empty empty empty empty
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Video Information: ℹ️
ATY,RadeonX1900 - VRAM: 512 MB
VX2336 SERIES 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
hp f1703 1280 x 960 @ 75 Hz
System Software: ℹ️
Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) - Uptime: 89 days 2:15:37
Disk Information: ℹ️
WDC WD2500AAJS-41RYA0 disk0 : (232.89 GB)
- (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 249.72 GB (18.35 GB free)
Hitachi HDT725050VLA360 disk2 : (465.76 GB)
- (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
500GB (disk2s2) /Volumes/500GB : 499.76 GB (92.11 GB free)
WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 disk1 : (931.51 GB)
- (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
1TB Drive (disk1s2) /Volumes/1TB Drive : 999.86 GB (760.73 GB free)

Upgrading my Power Mac G4 (MDD) (to do 3D animation/video editing stuffs)

Hi,
I have a Power Mac with 1GHz PowerPC G4, 1 MB L3 cache, 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM.
I'm wondering, is it good enough to run those 3D softwares (Lightwave, Maya, Cinema 4D) and video editing apps (After Effects), if I upgrade it to 2 GB RAM.
I did a little googling and found that I can upgrade my processor to 1.6 GHz Dual. (from http://lowendmac.com/musings/07/0522.html)
My Mac is very slow for me. I'm wondering if I should upgrade it. I do not have the money to get a new mac as I'm still a college student. Doing a little freelance to get some money.
Should I do the upgrades (2 GB RAM, 1.6 GHz Dual) or should I wait for few more years to get enough money to get a new Mac?
By the way, about RAM, are there faster speeds for my mac? Or these are the only ones my Mac can support?
I'm using two 512 MB DDR SDRAM, PC2100U-25330 and the 256 MB DDR SDRAM, PC2100U-25330 that comes with the Mac.

That much upgrading could cost as much or more than a newer Mac that does what you need. The architecture of the MDD limits the number of processor upgrades available; the only one that OWC currently lists for the MDD is a dual 1.8 and it costs US$600. That's probably more than a 1G MDD is worth on the private sale market.
Even if you do upgrade the processor, you still have a relatively slow 133mHz system bus.
Your RAM is correct for your 133mHz bus. If you install RAM like PC2700 (used on the faster 167mHz bus of later MDDs) that RAM will clock back and run no faster than your 133 bus can support. So no gain.
If you figure out how much you are willing to spend on upgrades to your current computer, you might wish to check the market and see if that sum will buy you a used G5 machine or faster. You may be surprised.
I have upgraded processors before and was taken in by the processor speed numbers alone without considering the effects of the slow bus on an older machine. The end result was slower than I expected. I bring up these things only to caution you to consider every aspect. It's quite easy to put $1000 worth of upgrades into a $400 computer and end up with a $500 computer.

Upgrading a Power Mac 7200.

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