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PowerMac 8500/150 Facts at a Glance
- Processor: 604, 150 MHz
- Bus Speed: 50 MHz
- L2 Cache: 256K (Max 1 MB)
- Installed RAM: 16MB or 32MB (Max 1 GB*)
- RAM Slots: 8, 168-pin DIMM
- Min RAM Speed: 70 ns
- Installed VRAM: 2MB (Max 4 MB)
- Drive: 1.2 or 2.0 GB SCSI
- Internal SCSI: Fast SCSI 10MB per sec
- CD Drive:4X or 8X
- Removable Drives: Floppy Driv
- On-board AAUI and 10baseT
- Slots: 3 PCI
- Drive Bays: 2 (5.25")
- Additional Ports: ADB, 2 Serial - Printer &
Modem , SCSI, composite
and S-video
ports, audio ports
- Supported MacOS: 7.5.3 - 9.x
- Introduced: 4-22-96
- Discontinued: 9/96
- Initial Retail Price: $4,700
- Current
Price
Notes:
- *128MB DIMMs can be used, but have not been tested
- Has composite and S-video ports
PowerMac Upgrade & Troubleshooting
Discussion
Forum
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January 22, 2002
The Power Macintosh 8500/150 represented a speed
bump for an already existing Macintosh model. Part of the
second generation PowerMac family it was released in the spring
of 96 when there was a great deal of competition from the
then existing Macintosh clone makers, such as Power Computing.
The 8500 was considered a good, if expensive,
performer and was a mid-level machine aimed at in-house publishing,
media authoring and technical market segments. It distinguished
itself from other machines in its class by having near broadcast
quality video circuitry built-in. The machine is capable of
24-bit video input/output and has both composite and s-video
connectors.
The 8500/150 sports a 604 PowerPC processor
which was the fastest PowerPC processor at that time. The
604 processor would lastonly a relatively short time, to become
replaced in successor machines by the 604e. The 8500's processor
resides on a separate daughter card making it easily upgradable
to a faster processor.
The machine has 3 PCI slots, an extra drive
bay (internal Fast SCSI - 10MBps) and 8 memory slots for a
total possible capacity of 512MB of RAM. Adding PCI cards
or drives is relatively painless. However adding RAM requires
almost a total dismantling of the machine.
The 8500 shipped with 2MB of video RAM and the
ability to add 2MB more. It also had a 256K L2 cache.
Resources
The Mac8500-l
User Group Support Page and Mailing List - Mac8500-l is
a majordomo mailing list forum created to discuss and share
common problems and solutions in using Apple Power Macintosh
8500/8600 computers. Mac8500-l promotes positive awareness
to the benefits in using and supporting the 8500 and 8600
Profiles
in Networking - From a networking perspective, the 8500
is ready out of the box with built-in AAUI (transceiver) and
RJ-45 (twisted-pair) Ethernet ports. Faster network speeds
come via PCI cards, but the regular Ethernets 10 megabits
per second (about 1 megabyte) capacity is a heady improvement
over LocalTalks 230 kilobits (which the 8500 still supports
through its serial ports)
Optimizing
the Power Mac 8500 for Media How to get the most from Apple's
ultimate media machine - The Mac 8500, with its fast SCSI
buses, even faster PCI expansion slots, and enhanced audio-
and video-capture features, has captured the hearts of audio
and video producers. The 840AV and the Power Mac 7100/80AV
and 8100/100AV remain workhorses for producers who own NuBus-based
hardware, but the 8500 wears the AV crown. Some quirks and
subtleties behind the 8500's AV skills, however, are documented
poorly if at all. Here's a guide to optimizing the 8500's
built-in AV features, and a road map for when the built-ins
aren't enough
8500
Series Logic Board Removal Procedure
Optimizing
Video on the 8500/8600, Version 2.0 - I purchased my 8500
to do video. It seemed easy, but I found there were parts
of its use which were confusing and poorly documented. My
machine could capture nearly 30 fps at 320x240 sometimes.
Using what I'd read, benchmarking information, and months
of trial-and-error, I slowly found what was necessary to maximize
my video performance
8500
and 8600 Benchmark Results, Version 1.0
Installing
OS X On a G3 Accelerated Power Mac 8500 - I had eagerly
anticipated the (twice-delayed) date for several months. This
was the day that Sonnet made the world of Mac OS X accessible
to my G3-upgraded Power Mac 8500. The installer was available
as a $29.95 download from Sonnet's web site. It was posted
for all of 24 hours before I decided to take the plunge
Quadra
8xx Series, Power Mac 8100/8500 - This model is one of
the hardest models to open. To get the case off, first remove
the 4 screws from the back panel. Next, use a screwdriver
to pry the back apart from the top. You can then slide the
case off
Welcome
to Apple Manuals - Here you can download Apple manuals
and other instructional materials
Surviving
the Upgrade - A Day in the Life of Marion - It should
have been fairly simple and easy to upgrade my 8500 with a
G3 card. I had been dreading the task because it was my understanding
that I would have to remove the cache card from it. For those
who don't know, getting to the business end of the motherboard
on a Power Mac 8500 is not a simple task. The computer needs
to be almost completely disassembled in order to put in (or
remove) cache, vram or main memory.
Power
Macintosh: Difficulty Using Floppy Disks - I have a Power
Macintosh 8500/180 computer, and recently I have been having
some difficulty using floppy disks. For example, when initializing
or erasing floppy disks, an error message occurs stating that
the disk is damaged
The Apple Online Museum - Power
Macintosh 8500
Recording
the Macintosh Screen to Video Tape - All decent computer
monitors today refresh all pixels on screen at a signicantly
faster rate (72 hertz or so). These factors combine to make
computer monitors appear to flicker when recorded onto video
tape via a video camera and also to make most computer video
routed to NTSC devices like VCRs look very bad. 1. To overcome
this limitation, you need a device which allows you to display
computer video directly to NTSC and to compensate for the
lower quality of NTSC in an intelligent manner. The best method
I have encountered is the built-in Video out on Power Macintosh
8500 & 8550 machines. This is the method I will outline below
Additional Resources
Apple
Reduces Prices on High-Performance Power Macintosh Computers
- Consistent with its strategy to offer high-value, competitively
priced personal computers to the corporate and professional
marketplace, Apple Computer, Inc. today announced that it
is lowering prices to its United States authorized resellers
for most of its flagship line of Power Macintosh computers.
The price reductions, effective Nov. 2, 1996, range from 9
percent to 30 percent on these Power Macintosh computers
Project:
Power Macintosh 8500 - Anyone who has been inside of an
8500 know what a physical pain these machines can be to work
on, but I kind of like the fact that I have to tinker with
it for a hour just to get at the RAM. The slick new Apple
machines just don't feel as good when you work on them because
you're not diving into the guts of a machine unless you disembowel
it like you have to do to an 8500. For a tech-geek, an 8500
is a perfect machine, and you can find used ones for pretty
cheap around the Net
Below you will find the MacBench 4.0 results for the current
processor upgrades available for this machine. The bar graphs
below express results as a percentage of improvement over the
base machine, which receives a score of 100%.
** Note that MacBench does not take advantage
of the Velocity Engine (AltiVec instructions) of the G4. For
AltiVec accelerated applications
you can see a 0 to 4 times performance improvement over the
G3, depending on the application and the functions you are
trying to perform.
For G4 Application specific scores - Click
Here
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