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Most powerful Mac (PowerMac) config for OS 9 ???

WardC

WardC

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 17, 2007
2,727
215
Fort Worth, TX
I know this question may seem a bit odd, or out of the ordinary. We all know that a decked out 8-Core Mac Pro with a generous amount of RAM is the way to go for a killer OS X system, but there are still alot of great apps out there that are only on OS 9...ranging from graphics, to audio production, to games.

Given this, I sort of know generally where Apple stopped support of OS 9 on the Mac, somewhere in the G4 line. No G5 mac will support OS 9, as far as I know. I am guessing the best option is a G4 tower (AGP, Digital Audio, or Mirrored Drive Door model) with a Sonnet dual processor 1.8GHz upgrade, and a good amount of RAM...I mean, heck that would SCREAM!, with any OS 9 app you could throw at it.

Basically I am asking, what is the top-notch Mac (as far as you can go) that will support Mac OS 9? As far as clock speed, RAM capacity, and such. I am guessing it's the MDD G4 tower model (which I think was the last PowerMac to support OS 9), and this model with the 1.8GHz Sonnet dual-processor upgrade would give you, at least, what I THINK is the fastest. I haven't looked into it much, and I was thinking y'all would know more about it :) Heck -- we ALL have a use for OS 9 every once in awhile. RIGHT??

-Ward
 
pastrychef

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Sep 15, 2006
4,753
1,450
New York City, NY
Yes, the PowerMac MDDs are your best option. As for CPUs, you could go with either the Sonnet or look for dual 1.42GHz G4s from the last MDDs (which did NOT do OS 9). The problem with the Sonnet option was that they had less cache, but made up for some of it with MHz. Look for some comparisons.

I still have very fond memories of OS 9...
 
P

product26

Cancelled
May 30, 2005
777
9
so long as the CPU upgrade is os 9 compatible, it sounds like you've got it.

those MDD g4s had the fastest bus speed of any dual boot system.

But keep in mind that they did not run a retail version of os9. they ran a slightly modified version to accommodate the bus speed (or something like that). So you will need an original disc for those machines.
 
N

netherfred

macrumors member
Oct 24, 2004
49
0
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/mdd-power-mac-g4-1.25-ghz.html

These go for about €500 here in the Netherlands, but the G4/1.8 Sonnet upgrades are also €500!
I really don't know why you would want to spend that kind of money on such an ancient system... Anyway, I would just settle for the non-upgraded one, because OS9 can only address 1.5Gb of RAM, so you're bottleneck would be the amount of RAM, not the speed of your processors IMHO.
 
E

Einherjar

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2003
115
0
Lord Zedd said:
All G5 models running up to 10.4 will run Classic applications, usually faster than even a dual 1.42GHz G4 could natively.
Click to expand...

It's not a question about classic mode, it's a question about native OS 9...especially for apps that don't work in classic or when you need a native environment.

G4 MDD Dual 1.42 with 1.5GB RAM is just that...the best OS 9 native performance you can get. A cheaper option might be an old 733 or Dual 800 Quicksilver with a second-hand processor upgrade from eBay.
 
MagnusVonMagnum

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
I dunno about the MDD, but suffice to say my Powermac Digital Audio running a 1.8 GHz Newer Tech 7448 with 1.5G of PC133 222 and a Sonnet Sata card with two brand new Western Digital 500GB drives (all motherboard hard drives have been removed from system) runs OS9 at smoking speeds (single 1.8GHz 7448 scores 85.6 on Xbench 1.3 CPU test; Hard Drive test scores around 78-80; user interface almost 100; not too bad for a machine from 2001). It also now has USB 2.0 (PCI card) with an internal USB 2.0 and Firewire combo hub replacing the old zip drive on the front panel. Then there's the question of the fastest video card for OS9. I believe it's an Nvidia card of the 47xx series. I wanted OSX performance so I went with a 9700Pro, although you can now use the Nvidia 7600GS in in the Digital Audio, which produces some pretty mean PPC gaming performance on that old platform. If the Ebay flash-rom guys weren't overcharging for them (I got a 7900GS AGP for my PC for $150 after rebate; the 7600GS goes for more like $100 so charging $250 for a reflash of a $100 card is a bit much, IMO).

The main things I haven't liked about OS9 since getting this Mac is the lack of a decent (or should I say recent?) web browser and a far less stable environment than OSX (i.e. it crashes and/or locks up more often... well that's to say Tiger almost never crashes, even after being up for months at a time. OS9 is much easier to crash).
 
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