Hi all,
Hi Steve, and welcome to the world of Old World Power Macs.
Just joined as I have a 7600 beige desktop. What is the max processor I can use in this configuration? Does it support dual processors?
Kinda open-ended questions with more than one simple answer to each.
It will run any of the stock 604 series "daughtercard" processors from other similar models, with two notable exceptions:
1) The "Mach V" 604ev cards from the 86/9600 Kansas motherboards. These were the last 604 series processors before the advent of the G3, and featured a full 1 MB of "inline" cache on the card (as opposed to "look aside" cache on the motherboard) running at 100 MHz (double the 50 MHz system bus speed). There were 250/300/350 MHz versions. Any 300 MHz or faster 604e is a Mach V that will only work with a Kansas 86/9600 motherboard. Apple 250's are Mach V's as well; but there are some "clone" 250's that will work just fine with your system, most notably from Power Computing. 2) Many Power Computing processors for their PowerCenter/Pro and PowerTower (NOT Pro) models have too high a bus speed for your system. Their 604/166 ran on a 55.3 MHz bus, which the 7600 may or may not tolerate, and their 604e 180/210/240's used a 60 MHz bus which the 7600 almost certainly can't handle.
604e daughtercards (including multi-processor units) from clone makers Power, Daystar, and Umax should work just fine. AFAIK, Apple's MP cards from their 95/9600's should also work.
All of this is moot if you want to go G3 and/or OS X, and the "rules" change even more.
Virtually any "daughtercard" form G3 upgrade will run in the 7600. XLR8 and PowerLogix upgrade cards are adjustable, while Sonnet and NewerTech cards aren't. These "early" G3 upgrades topped out around 400 MHz because of the 8x bus multiplier limitation of the first G3 CPU's.
There were also similar G4 daughtercard upgrades, and these tended to max ~466 MHz or so due to the 9x multiplier of early G4 CPU's. Same makers and caveats as the above G3's.
I'd like to be able to use OS X so I heard that I need more processor and ram. Has Mac OS 9.1 in it now.
Maxing the RAM is a good first step - OS X will love you for it. I consider 512 MB the practical minimum, and wouldn't go below 256 for any reason.
Now, about the "max processor" for the 7600....
You can easily get up to 600 MHz with a G3 or G4 ZIF on a carrier card, but getting there could cost you more than it's actually worth. A carrier card and a newer high speed ZIF could easily add up to half the cost of a newer and much more powerful Mac. If you find a real deal on a XLR8 MACh Carrier (the only brand for me, YMMV) then go for it. More recent ZIF's (750cx or later G3, unsure of which G4's) have higher bus multiplier limits and will work well in beige Power Macs on a carrier card. There are 700 MHz+ G4 upgrades for older Power Macs by Sonnet, but they still cost more than upgrading a 7x00 is worth, IMO.
What is the max hard drive I can use in this combination.
As big as you can physically fit in the drive bay. Your biggest limitation is the 10 MB/sec data transfer rate of the onboard SCSI controller. Still, a bigger/newer/faster hard drive will noticeably improve performance.
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