Performa 630 newbie questions

[begeve]

Hello all,

I'm new here and be to the Macintosh universe. Yesterday I bought my first Macintosh, a performa 630. Having grown up with Atari st line computers this is all slightly new. I do love my performa already. I could never afford one in the 90's, so I'm happy to finally get here.

I do have some questions though.

• The machine had 40mb memory and as far as I know that's the maximum right?
• It has a working spinning harddisk that I would like to replace. Is bluescsi the way to go?
• Is there a way to get usb working? I added USB to several of my st's and it makes life easy would love to do the same here
• I'm afraid the keyboard is slightly broken. It's there anything I need to keep in mind when getting a replacement?

Looking forward to get the most out of this one!

Thanks!
Bastiaan

 

[Durosity]

• The machine had 40mb memory and as far as I know that's the maximum right?
• It has a working spinning harddisk that I would like to replace. Is bluescsi the way to go?
• Is there a way to get usb working? I added USB to several of my st's and it makes life easy would love to do the same here
• I'm afraid the keyboard is slightly broken. It's there anything I need to keep in mind when getting a replacement?

Welcome to Macintosh!

Depends on the model of logic board, some had a 2nd SIMM slot so could take more, but tbh 40MB is pretty damn reasonable for a Mac of that era

The HD in those machines is actually an IDE drive, it was the first Mac to not have a SCSI hard disk. That said you could still get an external BlueSCSI or like device to use.

As far as I’m aware there is no USB hardware for those Macs, the only exception being the BMOW wombat that lets you use a usb keyboard/mouse, but that wont work with anything like a mass storage device. For that you may want to look at the PiSCSI project which I find immensely useful for moving data across.

Basically any ADB keyboard would work. It would have came with the AppleDesign keyboard originally, but IMO it’s the worst keyboard Apple ever made, so I’d recommend an Apple Extended II But they are a little pricey these days.

 

[sstaylor]

Your 630 has 4mb soldered in, with a simm socket that will accept up to a 32mb simm, so yes, you're maxed out.
The 630 came in a CD configuration which used an internal SCSI connection, so that's an option; also there's an external SCSI connection, so bluescsi or zuluscsi or any of the others should work and may be your best bet. The internal IDE is reportedly very picky, so modern devices can be problematic. Some have gotten them to work though, in particular compact flash to IDE solutions with an industrial flash card. Consumer cards can be iffy in the 630.

Edit: Just noticed my ram numbers don't add up; you might have a later revision with 8mb soldered on, or you may have a 16mb simm and virtual memory turned on to change 20mb into 40.

 

[begeve]

Thanks! This helps a lot.

The PiSCSI does sounds very interesting indeed. I'll first open up my machine and inspect the internals. I'm curious what I'll find. But the PiSCSI is definitely on my want list

I'll see if I can somehow repair the keyboard for now but I suspect I'll be buying a replacement one soon. This keyboard is even worse than my St keyboard

Two additional questions:

• What os is preferred for this machine?
• Does a real 040 make any difference in daily use? As far as I know it only adds a fpu. Is it worth looking into?

 

[sstaylor]

BTW, one of our members here is selling a few keyboards at a price you'll certainly not see on Ebay. If I thought I might need a keyboard in the near future, I'd jump all over it.

 

[pizzigri]

Hmm 40mb, to reach that it is possible you have a two simm version logic board - one 32mb, plus a 4mb and the soldered 4….

 

[treellama]

quokkadb is another way to get USB keyboard/mouse working

I have a CF/IDE in my 640, and dual boot between 7.5.x and 8.1. The two SIMM 630 (like my 640) can go to 52 MB: 32 + 16 + 4

 

[begeve]

Just opened the 630 and it indeed has two simm slots. So I'm going to max out at 52mb. Very nice! I thought the CD drive was broken but after some careful checking connections it works again which is very nice as well.

Even more questions:

• I've read that these machines always need a recap. Is that true?
• Can I easily replace the fan with a quieter version? I did that with some of my atari's. It would be nice to have the 630 run more quiet.

And lastly I want to really thank everyone for the help and information given. It's great to explore the Macintosh universe, especially knowing there is a sprouting community out there!

 

[Durosity]

• I've read that these machines always need a recap. Is that true?
• Can I easily replace the fan with a quieter version? I did that with some of my atari's. It would be nice to have the 630 run more quiet.

Generally most machines with electrolytic caps will need them replaced at some point.. the ones used at around this time are now starting to leak and cause issues (particularly if they’ve been in storage for some time then used again) so yeah, it’d be sensible to replace them else it may cause damage to the board

As for the fan.. yeah if you can find a quieter one (or 2.. did the PSY have its own or did it just use the main system fan?).. I don’t think the ones back then had any fancy PWM controls or anything so if you do decide to get a replacement noctua or something make sure it can work without that kind of control.

 

[Durosity]

On a side note, these machines have a listed maximum of 36MB of RAM, but that was just what Apple officially tested it up to.. in reality that machine will probably take a 64MB simm in each of the slots, plus whatever is onboard. In fact I think it may take a 128MB?

Here’s an interesting article on it:

How Much Memory Does My Vintage Mac Really Accept?

How Much Memory Does My Vintage Mac Really Accept? In the early days of Macs, Apple stated the theoretical maximum memory a Mac could use. But with the Macintosh II, a mixture of issues meant that …

stuffandnonsense.elephantandchicken.co.uk

That said, 40MB is almost certainly more than sufficient.

Also speeddoubler is a very handy add on for that machine, especially if you’re planning to use old 68k based programs.. it can speed them up a LOT!

 

[treellama]

The 630 is a 68LC040. I don't think SpeedDoubler would help much!

 

[Durosity]

The 630 is a 68LC040. I don't think SpeedDoubler would help much!

Good point, I’m getting my 630 and 6200 mixed up!

 

[killvore]

I swapped in a Noctua NF-R8 redux for my Quadra 700 PSU and it works great! I just had to swap the black and red wires around and ignored the yellow completely This picture is from before the swap - top is the noctua, bottom is the original fan.

 

[pizzigri]

I have a 630 with two 64 mb simms in it. Be advised that the second slot only takes single sided memory simms, so you’re limited to 64mb in the second slot and 128 in the first. I did not try 64+128 as I don’t have a 72pin simm in this size, however the two single sided 64 i have work great in this machine. The two simm slot version of that board accounts for possibly 30% of the total 630 machines made and is highly sought after sometimes commanding 20-30% more that the standard LB.
i think it was built for the “DOS compatible“ machine although some bare boards show up in random 630’s.

 

[nathall]

I had a Performa 630 back in the 1990s. I sold it decades ago and don’t remember its memory configuration but it was a good machine.

 

[micheledipaola]

Hi guys, I am tinkering with a 630 DOS compatible... I added an ethernet card in the comm slot, but it doesn't seem to be recognized... do you have any experience with it?
Also, I am trying to replace the IDE HD with a IDE2SD card, but it shows up on the Drive Setup utility only from time to time, and when it does, if I go and initialize the SD, the Activity led on the IDE2SD will not blink, and after the process, the SD will not be initialized. Should I try and change SD? or test another IDE2SD solution? The disk is currently working but I'd rather replace it anyway.

@pizzigri I will check how many slots this has, but I am quite sure it has 2, plus another one on the DOS compatibility card which is used by the x86 cpu only.

 

[Byrd]

The 630 had a very early implementation of IDE (for Apple), I've had difficulty getting solid state drives working on mine and ended up getting a quiet fast mechanical 2.5" IDE HD in the end. Try a CF to IDE first over SD (more complexity), and a smaller older CF card 1-2-4 GB.

Unsure about the CommSlot ethernet apart from cleaning the slot and contacts of the card.

 

[François]

I once tried an IDE2SD card in a TAM and it wouldn’t work. I would think that the 5500/6500/TAM has a better IDE implementation, and the problem lies with IDE2SD cards… They are very complex, having to translate IDE commands to SD cards signals, whereas CF cards are natively IDE.

 

[LaPorta]

I use simple, $10 ATA to SD adapters in my PB 1400s and they work just fine without issue...and the 1400 is known to be finicky. They simply work: I don't have to do anything. I am not sure why people seem to have such issues.

 

[Realitystorm]

The CF2IDE with an industrial card worked for me in my 630 DOS system https://www.savagetaylor.com/2023/12/17/ide-replacing-your-old-ide-drive/