Power Macintosh 7600
| Make | Apple |
| Model | Power Macintosh 7600 |
| Release Year | 1996 |
| CPU | 120MHz PowerPC 604 |
| Memory | 120MB |
| GPU | Unknown |
| Storage | 64GB microSD card and BlueSCSI |
| OS | Mac OS 7.6.1, Mac OS 8.1, and Mac OS 8.6 |
This was a super fun computer to get up and running. It came with a BlueSCSI v1.1 and I bought a 64GB MicroSD card to put my main hard disk images on. This is my first Old World desktop Mac and my first PCI Power Mac as well. It's been a computer I've wanted for a really long time, ever since seeing Druaga1's demonstration of the A/V input capabilities on his Power Mac 7500 (which is largely the same machine, but with a PPC 601 instead of a 604). It runs Mac OS 7.6.1, Mac OS 8.1, and Mac OS 8.6 (on the main SD card, I also have other SD cards I have other OSes on).
Pretty soon after getting it, I noticed that it didn't have the 120MHz 604 card as the case badge would suggest, but instead a 150MHz card from a Power Mac 9500. It appeared this card wouldn't work entirely in the 7600 (and I was running into issues), so I was able to get ahold of a 120MHz card from a 7600 and a BlueSCSI v2 while I was at it. I also upgraded the RAM from the 48MB that came in it to 120MB by pulling RAM out of a different Mac we have. The RAM and BlueSCSI have increased the performance considerably, and the 120MHz CPU card increased reliability, and I'm very happy with how the computer is turning out. I do plan to eventually max the RAM at 1GB. I also have an external SCSI Zip drive that has been very nice to have on hand.
In terms of OS, in addition to the three version of Mac OS I have on the main SD card and Mac OS 9.1 and 10.2 (using XPostFacto) on a second SD card, I also have BeOS on a different SD card and that has been amazing to play with.
As this is a PCI Old World Power Mac, this allows me to access the OpenFirmware prompt over serial. I got it working by connecting to the Modem port with the settings of 38400 8N1 (38400 baud, 8 data bits, No parity, 1 stop bit) with both another old Mac using mini DIN-8 and with other machines using mini DIN-8 to DE-9 with the appropriate cables and adapters.