Power Macintosh

Power Macintosh 8500

a.k.a. 8515, Workgroup Server 8550

Got a PCI Power Mac? Join our PCI PowerMacs Group.
Got a multiprocessor pre-G3 Mac or clone? Join our Old Mac MP Group.
Our Mac OS 9 Group is for anyoneusing Mac OS 9, either natively or in Classic Mode.

Power Macintosh 8500 Usingthe same case as the 8100, the 8500 wasthe first Mac minitower with a replaceable CPU daughter cards.Unlike the first generations Power Macs, the 8500 had PCI slots andused the PowerPC 604 processor, a significantly improved,second-generation PPC design.

The 8500 also has audio, S-Video, and composite video ports onthe rear.

The Upgrade Box

Details

8500/120 introduced 1995.08.08 at $4,000; discontinued
8515/120 introduced 1996.01.11; discontinued
8500/150 introduced 1996.04.22; discontinued
8500/180 introduced 1996.08.05; discontinued
requires System 7.5.2 through 9.1; Mac OS 9.2.x requires a G3 or G4 upgrade
CPU: 120 MHz or faster PPC 604, 180 MHz 604e
bus: 40-50 MHz, controlled by CPU card
performance: 5.3/5.7/6.1 (120/132/150 MHz, relative to Centris650)
ROM: 4 MB
RAM: 16 MB, expandable to 512 MB using 70ns 168-pin DIMMs (8 sockets),Apple notes "128 MB DIMMs can be used, but have not been tested" - thiswould bring total RAM to 1 GB.
VRAM: 2 MB, expandable to 4 MB
Video: supports resolutions to 1280 x 1024
L2 cache: 256 KB standard, can be expanded to 1 MB
SCSI: internal fast SCSI bus (to 10 MBps), external SCSI bus(to 5 Mbps)
CD-ROM: 4x
PCI slots: 3
microphone: standard 3.5mm minijack, compatible with line-levelinput including Apple's PlainTalk microphone
ADB: 1 port for keyboard and mouse
serial: 2 DIN-8 GeoPorts on back of computer
SCSI: DB-25 connector on back of computer
ethernet: AAUI and 10Base-T connectors on back of computer
upgrade path: CPU daughtercard
power: 225W
height: 14.0 in
width: 7.7 in
depth: 15.75 in
weight: 25.0 lb
PRAM battery: 3.6V half-AA
Gestalt ID: 69

Accelerators & Upgrades

New Type of G3 DaughterCard, Mac Daniel, 1999.05.20
CPU daughtercards. See our Guide to G3Daughter Cards and Guide to G4 DaughterCards

Online Resources

Low End Mac's bestclassic Mac OS deals. Best online prices for System 6, 7.1, 7.5.x,Mac OS 7.6, 8.0, 8.1, 8.5, 9.0, 9.2.2, and other versions.
Low End Mac'sCompleat Guide to Mac OS 9, 2008 edition, Charles Moore,Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2008.05.12. Declared dead by Steve Jobs 6years ago, Mac OS 9 remains fast and stable, but Classic softwarehasn't kept up with Web changes. What Macs support OS 9, where to buyit, and how to update to version 9.2.2.
Environmentallyresponsible retirement for old Macs, Rick Lawson, Pioneers in MacDevelopment, 2008.06.13. After you've scavenged what useful parts youcan from your old Mac, what's the most environmentally friendly way todispose of the rest?
Know your Mac'supgrade options, Phil Herlihy, The Usefulness Equation, 2008.08.26.Any Mac can be upgraded, but it's a question of what can be upgraded -RAM, hard drive, video, CPU - and how far it can be upgraded.
Leopardon Pre-AGP, MacTech, 2008.09.03. How to get OS X 10.5 running on aYikes! Power Mac G4, G4-upgraded Blue & White or Beige Power MacG3, or PCI Power Mac (or clone) with a G4 daughter card.
Why youshould partition your Mac's hard drive, Dan Knight, Mac Musings,2008.12.11. "At the very least, it makes sense to have a secondpartition with a bootable version of the Mac OS, so if you haveproblems with your work partition, you can boot from the 'emergency'partition to run Disk Utility and other diagnostics."
Purposefulreincarnation for old Macs, Phil Herlihy, The Usefulness Equation,2008.08.26. The key is to avoid spending more on upgrades than thefinal use of the machine can justify.
CreatingClassic Mac boot floppies in OS X, Paul Brierley, The 'Book Beat,2008.08.07. Yes, it is possible to create a boot floppy for the ClassicMac OS using an OS X Mac that doesn't have Classic. Here's how.
Non-Intel Mac rumors, G5 iMacpower supply failure, Leopard on a 700 MHz eMac, and more, DanKnight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2008.07.31. Also no 8 GB partition problemfor clamshell iBooks, presentations in ClarisWorks, and watching DVDson an upgraded Power Mac 7600.
The compressed airkeyboard repair, Charles Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings,2008.07.24. If your keyboard isn't working as well as it once did,blasting under the keys with compressed air may be the cure.
MacBook Air and the future ofFireWire, crippled by iTunes 7.6, Panther on an 8600, and more, DanKnight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2008.01.28. Also problems with GainSaver,who's on first?, inflated Power Mac benchmarks, and Leopard on an 800MHz iBook G4.
Vintage Macvideo and monitor mania, Adam Rosen, Adam's Apple, 2007.12.17.Vintage Macs and monitors didn't use VGA connectors. Tips on makingmodern monitors work with old Macs.
Getting insidevintage Macs and swapping out bad parts, Adam Rosen, Adam's Apple,2007.12.14. When an old Mac dies, the best source of parts is usuallyanother dead Mac with different failed parts.
Better and safer surfing withInternet Explorer and the Classic Mac OS, Max Wallgren, Mac Daniel,2007.11.06. Tips on which browsers work best with different Mac OSversions plus extra software to clean cookies and caches, detectviruses, handle downloads, etc.
PCI Power Macs greatfor Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3, Jonathan Haack, My Turn, 2007.10.30.Thanks to XPostFacto, you don't need a modern Mac to run OS X, just aPower Mac with a G3 daughter card.
Hacking Mac OS 7.6.1 so many MacOS 8 apps will run, Max Wallgren, Mac Daniel, 2007.10.30. With alittle ResEdit work and a second copy of your System Folder, you canrun a lot of OS 8 apps with Mac OS 7.6.1.
Interchangeabilty andcompatibility of Apple 1.4 MB SuperDrive floppy drives, SonicPurity, Mac Daniel, 2007.09.26. Apple used two kinds of high-densityfloppy drives on Macs, auto-inject and manual inject. Can they beswapped?
Mac System 7.5.5 can do anythingMac OS 7.6.1 can, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations,2007.06.04. Yes, it is possible to run Internet Explorer 5.1.7 andSoundJam with System 7.5.5. You just need to have all the updates -and make one modification for SoundJam.
Appearance Manager allowsInternet Explorer 5.1.7 to work with Mac OS 7.6.1, MaxWallgren, Mac Daniel, 2007.05.23. Want a fairly modern browser withan old, fast operating system? Mac OS 7.6.1 plus the AppearanceManager and Internet Explorer may be just what you want.
Format any drive for older Macswith patched Apple tools, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations,2007.04.25. Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup only work with Applebranded hard drives - until you apply the patches linked to thisarticle.
SATA and PCI Power Macs: No OSX joy, but you can boot OS 9, Nathan Thompson, EmbracingObsolescence, 2006.11.17. Weeks of experimention find that whileyou can't seem to boot a pre-G3 Power Mac into OS X from a SATAhard drive, you can at least boot OS 9 from it.
Musings on low-end SATA cardsin PCI Power Macs, Nathan Thompson, Embracing Obsolescence,2006.11.06. Thoughts on why the inexpensive SATA card might almostwork in a pre-G3 PCI Power Mac.
Old Power Macs and SATA not amarriage made in heaven, Nathan Thompson, EmbracingObsolescence, 2006.11.03. The PCI SATA card said blue & whiteG3 or newer and Mac OS 8.6 or later, but maybe it would work in anolder pre-G3 Power Mac....
System 7 Today, advocates ofApple's 'orphan' Mac OS 7.6.1, Tommy Thomas, Welcome toMacintosh, 2006.10.26. Why Mac OS 7.6.1 is far better for 68040 andPowerPC Macs than System 7.5.x.
Mac OS 8 and 8.1: Maximum size,maximum convenience, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations,2006.09.11. Mac OS 8 and 8.1 add some useful new features andtools, and it can even be practical on 68030-based Macs.
Installing Linux on a PCI PowerMac, Part 1, Larry Stotler, Linux on the Low End, 2006.09.05.Preparing your PCI Power Mac (or clone) for Linux and gettingopenSUSE Linux installed.
Preparing your Mac's hard drivefor Linux, Larry Stotler, Linux on the Low End, 2006.08.09.Before you install Linux, you have to partition your hard drive. Alook at three different hard drive strategies for Mac Linux.
Customizing Mac OS 9,Nathan Thompson, Embracing Obsolescence, 2006.08.01. Fiddling withthemes, picking a browser, and making the Classic Mac OS work justthe way you want it to.
The ins and outs of bootingLinux on the Mac, Larry Stotler, Linux on the Low End,2006.07.31. "Old World" Macs can't boot directly into Linux. Theyneed to boot the Classic Mac OS first, then pass control over toLinux.
Preparing your PCI Power Macfor Linux, Larry Stotler, Linux on the Low End, 2006.07.26. Howpowerful a CPU do you need? How much memory? Do you need a fasterdrive controller? Are some video cards better than others?
Floppy drive observations: Acompleat guide to Mac floppy drives and disk formats, ScottBaret, Online Tech Journal, 2006.06.29. A history of the Mac floppyfrom the 400K drive in the Mac 128K through the manual-inject 1.4MSuperDrives used in the late 1990s.
ATI Radeon7000 Driver for Mac OS 7.6.1, System 7 Today, 2006.05.29. ATI'sinstallers don't support System 7.6.1, but System 7 Today's does,making this the fastest video card to work with Mac OS 7.6.1
Getting the Mac digitaljukebox up and running, Nathan Thompson, EmbracingObsolescence, 2006.05.08. Connecting your PowerPC Mac to yourrstereo and remote control options for running a headless digitalaudio jukebox.
System 7.6.1 is perfect formany older Macs, John Martorana, That Old Mac Magic,2006.03.24. Want the best speed from your old Mac? System 7.6.1 cangive you that with a fairly small memory footprint - also helpfulon older Macs.
System 7.5 and Mac OS 7.6: Thebeginning and end of an era, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations,2006.02.15. System 7.5 and Mac OS 7.6 introduced many new featuresand greater modernity while staying within reach of most earlyMacintosh models.
Web browser tips for theclassic Mac OS, Nathan Thompson, Embracing Obsolescence,2006.01.03. Tips on getting the most out of WaMCom, Mozilla,Internet Explorer, iCab, Opera, and WannaBe using the classic MacOS.
The best browsers for PowerPCMacs and the classic Mac OS, Nathan Thompson, EmbracingObsolescence, 2005.12.16. Two browsers stand out from the pack:iCab 3 is modern and remains under development, and WaMCom bringsMozilla to older Macs.
Why you should use Mac OS 7.6 toget the most out of vintage Macs, Thomas Ahart, The ProductiveMac, 2005.12.12. Although you may be able to run OS 8 or 9 on yourold Mac, you'll generally find better performance using Mac OS7.6.
Sonata SD,Sonnet Tech, 2004.06.01. First new PCI video card for the Mac inages sells for just US$99, supports OS 7.5.3 and later plus OS X10.1.5 and later, works with VGA or old Mac monitors, 16 MBVRAM.
Getting to the Power Mac 8500motherboard, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2003.05.28. "It'sbeen a few years since I've been inside one of these, but I canpretty much walk you through it from memory."
Review: Sonnet Tempo Ultra ATA66Macintosh PCI Host Adapter, Dan Knight, 2000.07.28. The mosteconomical way to put IDE support in a PCI Power Mac.
Upgradingthe Power Mac 7500, Chris Lawson, 2000.07.18
Mac Daniel: Upgrading a Power Mac7200 and 7500
Guide to G3 Daughter Cards
Apple Specs for Power Mac 8500/120, 8500/132, 8500/150, 8500/180, 8515/120 (Japanese)

Cautions

Apple discontinued support and parts orders for this model on2001.10.15 (2001.10.22 in Canada), except in California. You may beable to find dealers with parts inventory either locally or on ourparts and service list.
Apple Computer will consider this computer vintage as of2001.07.16 in the United States and 2001.07.23 in Canada. As ofthat date, service parts will only be available for units purchasedin California and being serviced within California.
G3upgrade cards unstable?, MacWeek

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