G3/L2 Upgrades on Ebay

[trag]

There are more than a few companies selling Sonnet Accelerators for MUCH higher prices than they can be had on Sonnet's own site/online store!

I find those funny when I see them. The NuBus accelerator is the one that springs to mind. The 400MHz version is what?, $30 on Sonnet's site with another $20 for the PDS passthrough adapter. Ebayers are often asking $100 for them.

Even funnier is that Sonnet's on-line store has two different prices.

Let's see:
https://secure1.sonnettech.com/index.php?cPath=22_91&osCsid=72c98574cc51e982e02b9602e5919b81

has the adapter for $19.95 and the G3 upgrade for $29.95.

But https://secure1.sonnettech.com/index.php?cPath=51_52&osCsid=72c98574cc51e982e02b9602e5919b81
has the G3 upgrade for $39.95.

A few months ago that was reversed. The "Special Deals" link was $10 less than the regular CPU upgrades link. Now it's the other way around. I wonder what the price would be on the phone...

However, I can't see much point in putting a G3 upgrade in a NuBus machine these days when One could buy a G3 or G4 machine in similar box for much less.

For special cases/form factors such as the 6500, and the 20th anniversary, and maybe the 6100 I can see it. But not for something like a 7100 or 8100. And even with the 6100, I'd be tempted to hack a Beige G3 board into a low profile case or something.

My feeling about earlier Macs is similar. I can see putting a Turbo040 in an SE/30 because it's such a cool form factor, it's worth adding performance and keeping the original look and feel of the machine. But for a IIci or some such, why not just get a Q650 (or hack a Q650 logic board into a Q700 case)?

[Unknown_K]

Since you bring it up I can't see spending $25 for a G3 in a 6400/6500 either, they are just too RAM limited. Or worse you could get a G4 upgrade for a Nubus PPC machine, what would be the point of that?

Some upgrades are more usable then others, but we each have a price point in mind to where we say what the hell and just do it.

[trag]

Since you bring it up I can't see spending $25 for a G3 in a 6400/6500 either, they are just too RAM limited.

Honestly, I feel much the same, but there are some 6500 fans on this thread... And the 6500 is an interesting machine--not especially interesting to me, but the built-in subwoofer and video capabilities interest a number of people.

My interest arose because of my "smallest 7.6.1" computer project. I want PPC power, so a 6500 logic board seems the way to go, and to get the best performance possible, I need a G3/L2 upgrade. Of course a 500MHz, 1MB L2 upgrade would be better, but for $20 vs $100+ I'll settle for 400MHz and a 512KB cache which I may be able to upgrade to 1MB later.

Also, I think I'll be able to get the ram up to 160MB from 128MB. I have this 32MB EDO DIMM which seems to have exactly the kind of memory chips for which the logic board has pads...

That would still be kind of low for OS9, but for 7.6.1 I think it's probably plenty.

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I caught the Specials/Regular pricing boo-boo on Sonnet's site too!

As far as the NuBus G3 & HPV Adapter, I got those for my Radius 81/110, which is waaaayyyyy cooler than an 8100. I'll get an HPV Card and get this up and running some day for VidCap Playtime.

Meanwhile I'm setting up either my 8500 in its own skin for PCI era VidCap or my 9600 inside a fake Radius 81/110, just like the one I'm building for my UbuntuGIMPbox™. If I can find a fourth front Panel I'll have the Columns for the start of a MacShelf unit to display some Compact Macs including:

The [url="MacintoshClassicIIIColorTVp™ Hack]http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=12737[/url] and some relatively stock 128k/Plus Conversions, my 8500 and IIsi.

The reason the 6400/6500 boards are worth upgrading is that they're fun to play with using the TV Tuner/CD/Power-on-off features of the TV Tuner's remote control. This makes a nifty little AV Setup. The CC guys were doing the 6400/6500 based "Takky" hack for the longest time. Other than a Mac Mini, the 6400/6500<->Q630 boards are the only worthwhile MoBos that'll fit into a Compact Mac case for a "Short Bed Takky" hack.

Anyway, there's a lot of fun to be had stuffing these little puppies into all kinds of places. Two PCI Slots and a CommSlot II 10/100bT card cost less and are a lot more interesting than playing with a Mac Mini, IMHO!

[Gil]

Since you bring it up I can't see spending $25 for a G3 in a 6400/6500 either, they are just too RAM limited.

Same here, but they're just so frickin' rare, I couldn't NOT buy one.

[Unknown_K]

Some items you just have to pass up, rare or not, because of room and money for things you actually want to use.

Sometimes you do regret passing those things up...

[bbraun]

FWIW, there was no mistaking mine for new. I just got it today, and it came with no interior shrinkwrap, the empty backing of what the manual says should have been a sticker, the floppy was unreadable, and the cpu card its self was loose in the box. It apparently slid out of its unsealed anti-static bag during shipping.