This page is a work in progress. To the original author, I've moved your content to a new page. No offence, but there are people using oldschool ppc hardware still.

The general rule for PPC BeOS compatibility is that the machine must have shipped with a 603(e) or 604(e) processor (unless it's the PowerMac 7500, in which case you can upgrade it to a 604 for like $5), must not be a laptop, and must not be one of the 350 MHz power macs Apple shipped before they moved to G3s. This generally corresponds to all Apple x400, x500 (with the aforementioned caveat of the 7500), and x600 machines (with the exception of all the 350 MHz models and some of the 300 MHz ones), in addition to some x300 series machines, most notably the Performa 6360. All clones work, with the exception of some of the very early Power Computing ones that didn't have PCI and/or had 601 processors and some fairly rare Motorola knock-offs. I should also note that the BeOS doesn't recognize the Adaptec SCSI card in Power Computing PowerCenter Pro machines - to solve this, move the internal hard drive to the onboard SCSI bus.

All BeBoxen, of course, work, but no other non-mac-compatible PowerPC machines do.

Many G3 upgrade cards work, although I am not sure about G4 upgrades.

Links and info:

The best source of ppc BeOS info is at the BeBox Zone. Check out their forums for help and pointers. There are mainly BeBox people there, but there are also Mac owners.

Be's Exhaustive PowerPC Compatibility List This lists every single PowerPC mac ever made, pretty much, and tells you whether or not it supports BeOS, and if you need to do anything special to use it.

( See the mirror of Be's PPC Ready list at TyCom Systems. As far as I'm aware, it's the final Be list with no additions what so ever. )