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Powermac 9600 w/ 400 MHz G3 Upgrade

Posted by: Compgeke on 2016-05-25 16:03:58 Found this on ebay and somehow won the auction dirt cheap. Making it better, I was close enough for local pickup rather than shipping. Anyways, It's a Powermac 9600/233. It's been upgraded a bit however. Inside we find a SCSI card, a video card (had two when I got it), 3 hard drives and an odd processor board. CPU is a 400 MHz Newertech MAXpowr G3. Looks like a Powermac G3 chip hacked into an adapter, never seen an upgrade like it before. Has plenty of ram, 6x 64 MB and 2x 32 MB for a total or 448 MB.  The three expansion cards it came with are a Radeon 7000(?), a Radeon 9200 Mac and an ATTO ExpressPCI UL3D. With both video cards in I wasn't getting a boot screen off either so I just removed one, I don't plan on running 4 monitors anyways. Has three hard drives, a 4.5 gig Seagate, a 4 gig Quantum and a 74 gig Fujitsu. The Seagate and Quantum are running off the internal 50-pin SCSI and the Fujutsu is connected to the ATTO controller. And it boots! Has Mac OS 9.1 with that Newertech G3 splash screen.

Posted by: omidimo on 2016-05-25 16:40:58 So so pretty! congrats on such a fine find! Pardon my envy.

Posted by: trag on 2016-05-25 16:48:02 The CPU upgrade is called a ZIF Carrier card because it is an adapter into which one installs a ZIF CPU module. G3 and G4 modules were made, but the 9600 requires a particular model of ZIF Carrier for the G4 to not cause PCI bus issues, IIRC.

Posted by: Byrd on 2016-05-25 20:27:27 Nicely loaded 9600! One of my favourite Macs still to this day, as it can be cheaply upgraded to become the ultimate OS 8/9 Mac - but I don't think you'll need to search for too many additional upgrades with yours.  Assuming the G3 is a 400Mhz part, you could probably increase the bus speed to ~ 55Mhz and get 440Mhz, and also look out for a faster G3 500 CPU.  I'm pretty sure getting a G4 CPU in it isn't as easy a task.

Posted by: Powertrip on 2016-05-26 04:04:26 Amazing find! The 9600 tower is my favorite of the Apple designs, and you got a well configured example in what looks to be amazing shape!

Posted by: quinnmacdonald on 2016-05-28 18:26:39 That is an amazing find!

Posted by: Unknown_K on 2016-05-28 21:48:54 Very nice machine. You can never have too many 8600/9600 Powermacs.

Posted by: l008com on 2016-08-23 05:42:07 I'm curious about the bays on this thing. Is that a real hard drive bay above the power supply? And what about the four "External" bays, are they all 5.25" bays with metal tray adapters to turn them into 3.5" bays?

Posted by: omidimo on 2016-08-23 06:29:55 The system drive is 3.5" mounted the above the PSU. The trays have the screws holes for both types of drives. Generally, most power users of the day (primarily AVID) tended to have external SCSI raids. There was a kit sold that allowed users to house 4 more drives internally, but it was mostly meant for 8600s even though marked 9600 as well. Why anyone would give up three PCI slots is beyond me.

Posted by: just.in.time on 2016-08-24 13:29:44 That is a sweet machine.  😀

Posted by: Carboy7 on 2016-08-24 19:24:53 Say, does that model have that amazing, beautiful, freakishly fragile Spindler plastic??

Posted by: CC_333 on 2016-08-24 19:34:04 I don't think so. Its case is basically the same one used in the Beige G3 (albeit somewhat taller to accommodate the extra PCI slots), and the plastics in that seem to hold up pretty well. c

Posted by: omidimo on 2016-08-25 03:08:50 The most common part that is prone to breaking is the floppy bezel, but that is due to poor packing and the pressure causing the break. The internal chassis is metal, so its quite rigid.

Posted by: Anonymous Freak on 2016-08-25 06:00:40 While it's not a huge difference, the Radeon you have labeled as "7000(?)" is actually the original Radeon, which didn't have any numbers.  (That one is specifically the "Radeon DDR PCI" And, VERY Interestingly, yours also has the "ATI Rage Theater" chip, which means it should be capable of video in over the small round port.  Does that port look more like a classic Mac mini-DIN serial port (lots of pins, no plastic 'keying' lug?) than an S-Video/ADB port? (fewer pins, with the plastic keying lug.)  If it has more pins with no lug, it's almost certainly the connector for the video-in breakout box:

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