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Performa 6116 liberated.. and today I went back for the 6400
- Thread starter aphetica
- Start date
Do you think I'll see a considerable loss/gain in speed if I switch to 9?You can get Open Transport from http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html which should do the trick (or put a more modern OS on there, 7 is not good for PPCs anyway as it's mainly 68k code - Mac OS 9.1 is the newest the machine can take and will have everything you need straight out of the box)
The Macster
Well-known member
Opinion seems quite divided on it, some people say use older OSes whereas others (such as me) always run the absolute latest-and-greatest OS that a machine can take. 9.1 will be slower than 7.5 as the extra features outweigh the more PowerPC-native nature of 9, but I feel the trade-off is worth it as it is so much more modern and 7 is not really a PPC OS. If you wanted to meet more in the middle between speed and modern-ness, 8.1 or 8.6 might be worth a look as they are lighter than 9 but have more PPC-native code and are still somewhat more modern than 7.x. This machine will never be a speed demon though (unless maybe if you install some serious upgrades like a G3 card), I have a 6100 with OS 9.1 and the OS itself is reasonably responsive but it takes literally minutes to boot and apps are slow on it - since getting my G3 I don't use it any more, it's too much of an unpleasant experience and there's no reason to use that rather than the G3, which I've been enjoying even more since getting a G4 upgrade for it. I haven't used anything other than 9.1 on it so I don't know how much slower 9 is than the older ones though. If you have a spare hard drive you could always try 9.1 on that and see what you think of it though
So today I went back for the 6400...
It cost me $25, but I really couldn't just leave it there to fend for itself.
Knowing the kind of abuses that the 6116 suffered, I knew it had to be saved... and plus when I asked the woman how much ram it had, she told me 512.
Knowing a 6400 tops out at 136mb, I did a search for "Performa 6400" and "512", and I got a bunch of returns about upgrade cards, so I thought maybe that was what she was talking about.
So anyway, I brought it home along with yet another monitor, printer, and scanner, which I don't need. All of them were disgusting and looked like they had never been cleaned.
I pulled the mobo and discovered a 56kmodem, a whopping 8mb of ram, a 1.4gb hdd, and a stock processor. Crap.
Nevertheless, I cleaned the case and gave it a fresh install of 8.6.
Anyone have any ideas about what I should do with this thing? I already have a 6400 with better specs than this one.
It cost me $25, but I really couldn't just leave it there to fend for itself.
Knowing the kind of abuses that the 6116 suffered, I knew it had to be saved... and plus when I asked the woman how much ram it had, she told me 512.
Knowing a 6400 tops out at 136mb, I did a search for "Performa 6400" and "512", and I got a bunch of returns about upgrade cards, so I thought maybe that was what she was talking about.
So anyway, I brought it home along with yet another monitor, printer, and scanner, which I don't need. All of them were disgusting and looked like they had never been cleaned.
I pulled the mobo and discovered a 56kmodem, a whopping 8mb of ram, a 1.4gb hdd, and a stock processor. Crap.
Nevertheless, I cleaned the case and gave it a fresh install of 8.6.
Anyone have any ideas about what I should do with this thing? I already have a 6400 with better specs than this one.
Usually that would make sense, but the only thing I could use from this machine is the motherboard. (if anything should ever actually happen to my good one)
I guess I could always put the 8mb stick in one of the 63dozen ram slots in my 7600. I never understood why those had such a high ram capacity... :?:
Franklinstein
Well-known member
If the modem is really 56k and you have no desire to keep it, you might try selling it on eBay; internal 56k modems for pre-B&W G3 Macs are relatively rare. Somebody out there may be in need of a CS II 56k modem for their old box... I may have one of these at most in a beige G3, the rest are 28.8 or 33.6, though of course I don't use dialup anymore (except when I use my 540c as a fax machine).
As for the rest of it, I can't think of anything I'd do with it. I'd probably keep it for parts - you never know when you may need a spare drive, or power supply (if you can get it out of there, haha). The motherboard is also interchangeable with a number of models if fitted with a different rear plate and PCI riser (6360 and 5400-series), plus more if the power system is modified (6200/5200, maybe the 630).
As for the rest of it, I can't think of anything I'd do with it. I'd probably keep it for parts - you never know when you may need a spare drive, or power supply (if you can get it out of there, haha). The motherboard is also interchangeable with a number of models if fitted with a different rear plate and PCI riser (6360 and 5400-series), plus more if the power system is modified (6200/5200, maybe the 630).
Franklinstein
Well-known member
The 64/6500s were the only ones with dual PCI risers - the 6360 and the 54/5500-series had single PCI risers.
