Mr. Ksoft
Well-known member
So, my only functional Mac right now is a 6100/60av. Mostly, I just use it to write stuff and play old (almost exclusively 68k) games. But it always seems a bit pokey. I know the 6100 isn't that great anyway, but since it may be a while until I can get anything better-suited I am trying to figure out how to get the best experience out of it without buying upgrades (I'd rather put my money towards an actual 68k and a G3/G4 than upgrade this)
Current specs:
PPC601 60mhz (no L2 cache)
68 MB RAM
250MB HDD (also have a 160MB from my dead Performa 600)
AppleCD 300 Plus (internal)
Apple AV Card installed (cannot use internal video because my AudioVision 14 died)
Here's what I'm taking into consideration at the moment. Pardon if any questions are stupid-- I haven't used a Mac regularly since my early elementary school years (replaced with a series of Windows machines since), and the few vintage machines I have now are a recent adventure.
1. How to most efficiently use the hard drive space. With these old machines, I find that the biggest issue since I load up on different apps and games. Not only are the SCSI drives expensive, but adapters to just use IDE drives are too, so I'm stuck in a rut and have to make do with what I have. So, I wonder how to make the most of the disk space. Which also brings me to the next question, which is part of this:
2. Best operating system for the job. I've been running 7.6.1 on it. However, I'm wondering if it's more sensible to use a different version. 7.6.1 takes a lot of hard drive space compared to 7.5.x or 7.1.2 (actually only a bit more than 7.5 but not as much as 8.x) but it may have better performance with regards to 68k emulation and the overall OS performance as a result of being a later PPC operating system version. I've heard that 7.6 is only really worth it if you need the networking support, which I don't, but I dunno. I don't print, either. Anyway, I was wondering if some people that are more experienced in this field could give me their thoughts.
3. While running 7.6.1 I run Speed Doubler 8's enhanced 68k emulation. Does this really help or am I wasting RAM running it?
4. I assume it's good to run with virtual memory off (which I do)-- I don't see myself running out of physical memory on 68MB, and the overall disk performance seems bad anyway. Right? Also, what about the size of the disk cache?
5. Will I get better graphics performance with the Apple AV card on the HDI-45 port with a DB15 adapter? (either way I'm stuck on a 640x480 Apple Performa monitor, so I don't really care about resolution support)
6. Anything else that might help?
Current specs:
PPC601 60mhz (no L2 cache)
68 MB RAM
250MB HDD (also have a 160MB from my dead Performa 600)
AppleCD 300 Plus (internal)
Apple AV Card installed (cannot use internal video because my AudioVision 14 died)
Here's what I'm taking into consideration at the moment. Pardon if any questions are stupid-- I haven't used a Mac regularly since my early elementary school years (replaced with a series of Windows machines since), and the few vintage machines I have now are a recent adventure.
1. How to most efficiently use the hard drive space. With these old machines, I find that the biggest issue since I load up on different apps and games. Not only are the SCSI drives expensive, but adapters to just use IDE drives are too, so I'm stuck in a rut and have to make do with what I have. So, I wonder how to make the most of the disk space. Which also brings me to the next question, which is part of this:
2. Best operating system for the job. I've been running 7.6.1 on it. However, I'm wondering if it's more sensible to use a different version. 7.6.1 takes a lot of hard drive space compared to 7.5.x or 7.1.2 (actually only a bit more than 7.5 but not as much as 8.x) but it may have better performance with regards to 68k emulation and the overall OS performance as a result of being a later PPC operating system version. I've heard that 7.6 is only really worth it if you need the networking support, which I don't, but I dunno. I don't print, either. Anyway, I was wondering if some people that are more experienced in this field could give me their thoughts.
3. While running 7.6.1 I run Speed Doubler 8's enhanced 68k emulation. Does this really help or am I wasting RAM running it?
4. I assume it's good to run with virtual memory off (which I do)-- I don't see myself running out of physical memory on 68MB, and the overall disk performance seems bad anyway. Right? Also, what about the size of the disk cache?
5. Will I get better graphics performance with the Apple AV card on the HDI-45 port with a DB15 adapter? (either way I'm stuck on a 640x480 Apple Performa monitor, so I don't really care about resolution support)
6. Anything else that might help?