Performa 6205 - YUCK!

[bigmessowires]

Yesterday I received a Performa 6205, and I quickly found that I hate it. Compared to all the other vintage Macs I've ever used, it's super heavy, loud, and an incredible pain to disassemble. I got so frustrated trying to take the thing apart, I almost smashed it to pieces with a hammer just to get some satisfaction.  [}] ]'>

The good news is that it works. It also contains a couple of cards that I assume aren't standard equipment: one with RCA video and audio jacks that's in a slot on the logic board, and another with an external coax connector that's attached to an internal cable. Some kind of TV cards or video capture? Both say "Apple Computer" on them, but I didn't see any other product identification.

I'd planned to swap the logic board for a naked Quadra 630 board, but I'm having second thoughts after discovering how much I dislike this form factor. What's a good option for a 68040 machine that's small, light weight, easy to disassemble, and not super noisy? I really wish there were a stock machine like a Mac IIsi but with an '040. 

• Quadra 700 might work, but for some reason those seem to be crazy expensive.

​

• I think the Quadra 650 is the same form factor as a Power Mac 7100? I have a PM7100, and have similar gripes about its size and weight and noise.

• Wait for Floofies to finish his MicroQuadra case, then copy whatever he does.  [] ]'>

• Maybe the Quadra 605 / LC 475 is my best bet, although the pizza box consumes more desk space than I'd like.

 

[Juror22]

I love the Q605, but you are correct about it being a desktop hog (by the time you plug cables in the back, it occupies another third of its length), so I used to stuff mine onto a stereo equipment shelf, back in the day.  They are easy and relatively cheap to upgrade (full 040, ethernet, max RAM, VRAM), but you do have to recap them (PSU's, too) at this point.  It also seems to have had a minor price jump in the last year or two.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Fan tech has come a long way in 20 years. A much more quiet, higher CFM replacement should be easy enough to source.

I've always used my (bought refurbed when current) HackStation's 6360 (same form factor) without its plastics, you could easily screw a pair of wide stance 1x2 wooden Feets™ vertically to keep the dust intakes clear of the floor/carpet. Mount them offset to the  left side of the case, flush with the right and lean your new, quieter  SkinnyMiniTower against side side or back of your workstation on sticky rubber bumpers.

I also orient the case backwards for access to the ports and for pulling out the drawer. LOVE the design in bare sheet metal. The plastics are what make it a PITA.

You've got the TV/Tuner setup, pull the Tuner Box out, it's useless. If you ever want TV, using an analog converter box with S-Video out to feed the input of the expansion card is the only way to go.

Move your stupidly extended video out card/VGA adapter combo over into your newly vacated expansion bay. There's a picture of mine mounted to a bit op plexi for the tuner's tracks somewhere around here.

There's a nifty DSP MPEG decoder card for its LC PDS slot you might want to play with at some point.

Give it a chance, torn down to its utilitarian basics, you might just end up liking the form factor too.

edit: maybe I'll make a sheet metal duct out of super cheap, thin flashing sections to mount a large diameter, quiet fan above the opening.

 

[nglevin]

Takky upgrade for Color Classic is probably out of your price range.

Allegedly, a 580 could be used if you swapped it out with the right back panel. I see a few Performa branded variants on *shudder* eBay.

 

[Themk]

Im with trash, the metal chassis is nice, plastic is optional [)] ]'>

I never found my 630 to be terribly loud, though a modern fan replacement would be nice to do, swapping it shouldn't be a big issue. MedusaMess may not be the most convenient for accessibng the inside cables, but the pull out logic board with integrated handle is super nice to have. Metal makes it very rugged too.

 

[Cory5412]

These systems perfectly encapsulate everything about Apple in the '90s. I personally say it would be worth keeping.

In the realm of a compact '040 system though, 405/605 come closest and they are around the same size as the IIsi. They are shorter and might be an inch longer. You can just run one vertically behind an LCD display if you need. Next, it's the 630, which uses the same case as the 6200/6300 family, so you're already familiar with that.

The a/v system you mentioned is one of the advantages of the 630 over any other quadra, but my next suggestion is 650/800/840, mainly for compatible with linux/bsd and a/ux and on the 840, for that stock 40MHz speed.

There's also the 610, but it has a much larger desk footprint.

There's also the 575 and 580, but they have 14-inch CRTs built in, which if space is at a premium, might not work well for you.

The 700 is there, but it's nearly the same footprint as the 630/6200 and also fatter, and it's also around the same size as the 650 and 800.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

610/6100 case makes a wonderful vertical cleat mount, side of desk kneespace workstation config candidate for either side.

Mine's a much neglected G3/HPV unit wedged against the wall atop the bedroom computer hutch/hack station by storage boxen. Looks cool, ask Carboy7, he spotted it right off. Under a desk would be great.

 

[ArmorAlley]

If you want to minimise deskspace, get a P475, replace the fan with a much quieter one and replace the SCSI HD with a SCSI2SD or SCSI2CF. Replace the 68LC040 with a full 25 MHz '040. The bus-speed can be upped to. 33MHz with a change of crsytal. Place it on its side behind the monitor and you will find that it takes very little space. It won't look very elegant but it will save you a lot of deskspace.

 

[Johnnya101]

I forget, but won't a 040 board possibly fit in a powermac 7100? Its the same form factor as that IIvx or whatever. The tall face with CD Rom. Not really a IIsi, but close.

 

[Cory5412]

It might be cheaper to buy a 650 than a 700/650/800 board and a 7100 to gut and put it in.

 

[Themk]

I think a few are missing the point. The idea was to overclock a quadra to 40MHz. After seeing mine, and other members here on this boards' success with overclocking a 63x series logic board, he decided he wanted to try it himself. So, he picks up a cheap Performa 6205, with the intention of installing a 63x series logic into it.

Steve, you can move your AV system into your Quadra 630 logic board too, which makes it nice. I've used mine a few times, you can even record to the hard disk.

but my next suggestion is 650/800/840, mainly for compatible with linux/bsd and a/ux

Cory, the 630 supports linux/bsd, but does NOT support A/UX. I've been running NetBSD 7.1 just fine on mine. And yes, IDE/ATA HDDs work.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Always keep in mind that you can hack that wonderful MoBo-in-a-Drawer and its MedusaMess into just about anything, including a compact redundant Compact Mac.

If I were in your situation as regards developmental testing, I'd hack a good selection of MoBos into something on the order of the BrickOven™ conservation concept model.

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/16834-brickoven%E2%84%A2-pizzabox-hack-revisited/

https://68kmla.org/forums/archive/topic.asp.TOPIC_ID=1523.html

 

[Cory5412]

Although, once he had the 6205, he decided he hated it and is now asking for suggestions on other machines. Perhaps there is context elsewhere, but that's not happening now, because the form factor is disliked and another machine is desired.

Interestingly, the guiding metric leads to only one machine, which was disqualified itself as being too big, so there's no one stock Apple-built machine that's probably the "best" in this case.

Re-housing a 475/605 is probably going to be easier than re-housing a 630 and might be worth looking at. You can turn up the power supply on its side, remove or move the floppy and diskette drives and build the whole thing into a box a little smaller than a IIsi in a pretty similar height, then  you don't need to wait on the Micro 6x0 work or even do things like build or move the wiring harness.

At the end of the day, the 630 case is definitely the closest of the '040s to the IIsi, and if that's what you want, that's what you get unless you decide to compromise and get something that's bigger (650) or smaller (475/605). Any of these machines, as has been pointed out, can be run vertically as well, if needed.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

A day long first impression and a rant about a first time experience with an unfamiliar case design does not a final case make. I'll bet he'd have the same reaction to an 8100 after working on that pestiferous case the first day.

I've done LCs and several IIcx-PSU case form factor board re casings as well. The 630's definitely the easiest, just having the backplane detach from the case all hooked up to the mobo and that stretch it any which way cabling harness arrangement is well over half the battle. Those crazy, all plastic clip together cases are a nightmare by comparison.

My first re-casing was putting the 630's giblets into a Sharp Typewriter case in one manic overnight frenzy fifteen years ago. I've still go it!

 

[Themk]

I'll bet he'd have the same reaction to an 8100 after working on that pestiferous case the first day.

The RoadApple case???

Yeah, I'd take metal MedusaMess over spindlyPlastyBreakingClips any day of the week.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

62xx is on the the lowest, slowest branch the 6xxx RoadApple PPC family tree. It's a Quadra with a built-in PPC upgrade card. But I'd bet it spanks a IIci or Quadra with a comparable 601 card in it, nobody made fun of those. It's all in how you look at it. A 6290 worked great for running PPC code during its tour of duty in the kiddo's custom built computer desk. The 630 it replaced got built into a Typewriter.

I'm liking your notion for an LC re-casing, Cory. I'll look into designing a clear clear plexi MicroTower that's easily wall/desk mounted. I fired up the 100 year old plexi bending wire yesterday and I've got LOTS of scrap available for playtime.

 

[bigmessowires]

Thanks for all the input. Yes, my original thought (stated in a previous thread) was to use this Performa 6205's case to house a Q630 logic board, since I couldn't find a Q630. And then overclock to 40 MHz. But I don't have a Q630 logic board yet, and now I'm thinking a different machine might suit me better, even if it won't get me to 40 MHz. Maybe the Q605 is more my type, especially since it can be used fairly easily without any case, or in a custom case.

I have the 6205 case stacked with a IIsi, and I guess you're right it isn't that much bigger. It just feels bigger, because it weighs a ton. The difficulty disassembling it was largely due to expecting to just pop off the top, like a IIsi or IIci. And then when I clued in to the correct method, many of the parts were stuck with dirt and rust, so it seemed like it wasn't working. It seems pretty loud, but I don't have anything to measure. A replacement fan or two may be a good idea, if I stick with it.

Can anyone point me to more info on this A/V setup? I assume the TV tuner is the part with the coax connector, and I see why that would be useless now that broadcast analog television is gone. But what is the other card in the logic board slot? Is it video in, video out, or both? It looks to have a composite video connector, L/R audio connectors, and some kind of mini-din connector I don't recognize. Same size as an s-video connector, but it has a lot more pins.

Move your stupidly extended video out card/VGA adapter combo over into your newly vacated expansion bay. 

I didn't understand what you mean there, sorry. Move which card where? 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

NoPro, apparently nobody can understand my descriptions. :-/

/monthly_03_2017/post-902-0-51535200-1489587809.jpg">View attachment 12065

Simple little hack you can do to considerably reduce the case's footprint. Winds up taking up a lot less real estate, shelf space in my case. The plexi "drawer" slides back another couple of inches than pictured. You can bury the longest of VGA adapters deep enough in there to start the cable bend inside the box. Speaker's just sitting there in the video output/power button(?) card's old location.

Performa 6360 dual PCI slot mod

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Couldn't stop the music: 6400 MicroTower - Clear Plexi Case Hack