Everything you know is wrong! or, Apple mis-advertised Quadras

[Luca]

I don't know if anyone cares, but I just found out that Apple mis-advertised their Quadras way back in the early 90s.

http://www.micromac.com/FAQ/FAQmain.html

I always knew that there was something about a "clock input" and Quadras were sometimes referred to as being 50/25 MHz or 66/33 MHz, but I never knew that the lower speed was actually the bus speed! Now, I have no idea why Apple would advertise a computer with a 66 MHz processor as a 33 MHz computer based on the bus speed, but that's what they did. It doesn't really change much, but it does give you a little self-esteem boost if you have a Quadra lying around. That means the Quadra 840AV, advertised as 40 MHz, actually had an 80 MHz CPU and a 40 MHz bus. It makes the NuBus PowerMacs (60, 66 and 80 MHz originally) look worse in comparison.

I just thought I'd point this out since I kinda like old Macs and this was something I had never heard before.

[Akumulator]

Yeah, my Color Classic is 66/33... I was a little confused when I got it a few years ago.

[Luca]

Huh? It must have an upgrade, because the Color Classic used the LC II motherboard, which had a 16 MHz 68030. Even the Color Classic II, which had a 33 MHz processor, used a 68030 and not a 68040. You must have some sort of modification of it, perhaps using the motherboard from a 66/33 MHz LC 5xx.

[Flounder]

Ahh, my dad got an 840 AV for his classroom at school.

That was one sweet machine. It was certainly a great last hurrah before the advent of PPC.

[Akumulator]

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
Huh? It must have an upgrade, because the Color Classic used the LC II motherboard, which had a 16 MHz 68030. Even the Color Classic II, which had a 33 MHz processor, used a 68030 and not a 68040. You must have some sort of modification of it, perhaps using the motherboard from a 66/33 MHz LC 5xx.

Oops, sorry should have said it... yes, it has a Sonnet Presto upgrade (68040).

Edit: found it... http://www.sonnettech.com/product/presto_plus.html I guess it was the upgrade that originally confused me about the 66/33. It's been years since I upgraded it... and haven't even started it up on aver a year.

[Luca]

Originally posted by Akumulator
Oops, sorry should have said it... yes, it has a Sonnet Presto upgrade (68040).

Edit: found it... http://www.sonnettech.com/product/presto_plus.html

Wow, I really wanted to get one of those for my old LC III+ a while back, but it was just too expensive to justify the cost. It was hard enough spending $15 for an ethernet PDS card.

That must be one nice little Color Classic you got! You could probably make quite a bit of money from selling it, but I'm sure you don't want to do that.

[Akumulator]

I used to really enjoy it, but I really have no use for it. I'll probably hang on to it though.... it's nice for writing.

[Splinemodel]

Originally posted by Akumulator
I used to really enjoy it, but I really have no use for it. I'll probably hang on to it though.... it's nice for writing.

There are some guys out there with a color classic fascination. Apparently, the PM6500 boards can fit into the Color classic, and modification to the monitor wiring can be made to make it display 640x480.

[Luca]

And, if you put a PowerMac 6500 board in there, you can also put a G3 upgrade in it.

Someone's even gotten a Cube to fit inside the case, and it even uses the built-in monitor. What's funny is that he didn't hook up the CD/DVD drive because he didn't have a long enough IDE cable... I mean, if he put all that effort into doing such a cool modification, why not spend the $5 needed to get a good long IDE cable? Anyway, the hack is at www.applefritter.com but I couldn't get to the site when I tried just now. I guess you'll have to try back later.

[Akumulator]

Try this link: http://www.mac512.com/ccpmg4.htm

I was going to try the 640x480 hack... but lost interest.