Quadra 605 upgrades?

[TheMacGuy]

I love my Quadra 605, but its not as fast as I would like it to be. I don't have a lot to spend, and don't want to purchase right now, but I wanted to get some input on the upgrades I'm thinking about.

68040 or PowerPC? This is the main one. My machine only has the 68LC040, so it has no FPU. I figure this is the main reason for the slowness. I can pickup a full 68040 on eBay for ~$20 (will it recognize and make full use of a 50MHz 040?). I can't seem to track down a PPC upgrade card. None. At least, not for sale. The addition of the PPC upgrade card mean I can't use the ethernet card it came with, because it pulls power from the PDS slot, right?

RAM? I was reading online that unofficially, the 605 supports up to 128MB of RAM + the on-board 4MB making for 132MB of RAM. I was looking, and the stick would be ~$30, so I might actually cheap out and go with 8,16, or 32MB stick, depending on how much is installed (it came with a SIMM preinstalled, I don't know how big it is though).

Case. This one is not a question. Where can I get a case for the machine? The whole thing, including the metal shields. Mine got completely demolished during shipping, any piece that could have broke, did. Every single internal brace is gone, except 2 of the FDD holders, of which 1 is partially broken. Every time I move the computer around, everything shifts around. I might post in the Trading Post for a case, as I REALLY want/need one.

 

[Byrd]

'full 040 + overclock to 33Mhz (a 25Mhz part will do fine), will provide the biggest boost. For the time being, just overclock your existing LC040.

 

[TheMacGuy]

Cool. I'll look into getting one.

Also, what about a ReCap? Is it time?

 

[uniserver]

yup and i include the 33mhz OC for just a few bucks more over a re-cap.

 

[TheMacGuy]

Yeah, I thought so. I noticed today the sound is lower then what it once was. It could be the caps or the speaker. I will look into getting the full 68040 soon, so I can put that on there before sending it to you.

I might be able to do it in a few months.

 

[LCGuy]

I wouldn't bother with a PowerPC upgrade. They're exceedingly rare, and take up the space where a PDS card would go, (don't know about you, but I can't live without my Ethernet), and to be honest I'd rather have a fast 68k than a slow PowerPC. (while I believe there were faster 3rd party upgrades, the Apple one was a 50 Mhz 601, from memory)

I have an LC475 (same machine just in a different case), which is nicely souped up. Mine has a full '040, max VRAM (a must have - the max 1MB VRAM will give you 16 bit colour at up to 832x624, or 8 bit colour at up to 1152x870, whereas the standard 512k will only give you 8 bit at up to 832x624, and 4 bit at up to 1152x870) 68MB of RAM (64MB SIMM, and yes, 128MB SIMMs do work, just be warned that with 64+ MB of RAM the startup RAM test will take ages), 2GB HDD, and ethernet. With all this, triple booting 7.1, 7.6.1 and 8.1, its a nice, fast little box.