Quadra 700 Appreciation - Stories - Got one?

[uniserver]

The speaker and how the speaker Mounts/holds motherboard is the same. Q700/IIci - last similarity I could think of.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

IIci's a nice carriage horse, the Q700 is an Arabian.

 

[CelGen]

I had one 700 originally and then I got a second. They started (in)breeding shortly after and now I have four.

 

[markyb86]

The 700 is just so cute, and begs the question, why 900?, why?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Slot$SS, Baby, SLOT$$$$$!!!!!!!! :approve:

. . . and less Spindly Plastics required for the taller form factor as well, no monitor to support.

CelGen, you're lucky yours are interbreeding, two of the triplets here have sucked the lifeblood out of larger Macs and left nothing but empty shells. The nasty one's named Shelob and the B@^$#!^ crazy one goes by Hrunkner Underhill. Elmo is the tame one, he's a sweetie!

 

[trag]

Yep, the slots. The fact that the 900/950 had sixteen SIMM sockets was just mind blowing in its day. Of course, 72 pin SIMM sockets were not far in the future at that point, putting the same capacity in two or four SIMM sockets ultimately.

One of these days, I'm going to see if I can get the Q650 logic board in the Q700 case. I adore the IIcx/IIci/Q700 case design, but the Q650 has several advantages over the Q700.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

One of these days, I'm going to see if I can get the Q650 logic board in the Q700 case. I adore the IIcx/IIci/Q700 case design, but the Q650 has several advantages over the Q700.

A Quadra 650 MoBo should be exactly the same form factor as the 7100's. There's a 7100 MoBo in Shelob's gullet, everything lines up perfectly, reset switches, LED light tube, speaker carrier/MoBo retainer and two of the Slots. She ate the @$$ end off the 7100 too, so she's got all the NuBus Slots clear as well as the PDS VidCard's backplane.

If you're not worried about the third NuBus Slot, the 6500 ought to be plug and play.

But if you stick something without any need for the backplane plate or access, like a STORM DSP Card, into the inboard slot that's not even a worry. You should be good to go for a totally stealth upgrade with all slots in use.

Tell me what's better about the 650 MoBo besides the speed bump and the extra NuBus Slot? :?:

Elmo might just develop an appetite for a 650 after all! [}] ]'>

 

[uniserver]

You know how dvd's usually have the directors cut,

I wish Mac's came with a Engineers Cut video/or audio/or blog even.

Including prototype blunders

I wonder what they would say about the Quadra 700,

There had to of been, Situations where the apple engineers made the systems exactly like something even them selves would drool over.

( if was offered by another company )

It would be killer to own a Q700 in a clear case.

 

[bbraun]

There had to of been, Situations where the apple engineers made the systems exactly like something even them selves would drool over.

Hah. Thanks for that. The naivete of youthful optimism made me lol.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine

 

[uniserver]

by the way that pic i made is from the LCD LID of a prototype macintosh portable

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I used a Q700 when it was brand new in high school, I was working on the yearbook, and we got two of 'em (plus one Q950) for yearbook use only!

Later got one of my own right after I left college, followed by "collecting" two more. One is fully decked out (max RAM, nice fast/large SCSI hard drive, fast accelerated video card, etc,) and in good physical shape, the other two are in various states of disrepair (one had its power supply yanked to put into a failing IIci.)

In 2002-2003, I configured one as a internet machine for a friend. Worked just fine with iCab until she got a modern computer of her own. Sadly, they've all been sitting unused in storage for a few years now.

 

[trag]

One of these days, I'm going to see if I can get the Q650 logic board in the Q700 case. I adore the IIcx/IIci/Q700 case design, but the Q650 has several advantages over the Q700.

A Quadra 650 MoBo should be exactly the same form factor as the 7100's.

Yes, I believe that the case for the IIvi/IIvx, the C/Q650 and the PM7100 were all the same or essentially the same. But while that case has the spot for the optical drive, there's still something about the IIcx/IIci/Q700 case that I like better.

Tell me what's better about the 650 MoBo besides the speed bump and the extra NuBus Slot? :?:

Twice the memory capacity. And I have all the 72 pin 32MB SIMMs on hand that I could ever use and very few 30 pin 16MB SIMMs. Hence the perpetual $3 32MB SIMM sale.

I'm not sure how the on-board video compares. I looked at all this stuff when I came up with the idea more than five years ago, but other than acquiring a Q650 logic board and a few Q700s, I haven't done anything with the idea.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I figured it would be the memory, but I didn't feel like doing the research . . .

. . . and it's a lot more fun to hash this stuff out in the open.

I'm guessing the Video is a lot better for that entire desktop series, as 16" & 17" monitors were becoming standard fare by then. The Mac II series was never really intended to support a medium size monitor beyond the Portrait. You needed to buy a monitor support for anything that wasn't large enough to stand on its own tilt/swivel base with tiny little rubber feets.

Now I need to collect two more . . . ahem . . . one more Q700 and feed stock . . . so Elmo can remain stock. [}] ]'>

 

[bbraun]

The djMEMC memory controller contains a DAFB variant. Which means the Q700, 900, 950, C/Q 610, 650, 800, 605, and Performa/LC variants thereof have basically the same video controller.

 

[uniserver]

this sync on green thing the quadra 700 does is slightly annoying,

it may just be the adaptor i am using db15 to vga, but the only mode that works with out messing up the colors is VGA mode, but that stops at 800x600

the q605, the colors come in just fine at higher resolutions.

 

[Bunsen]

Tell me what's better about the 650 MoBo

The 650 introduced a higher speed SCSI bus to the Macintosh line as well as accelerated internal video. It also used interleaved memory to squeeze out about 10% more performance. All this made the Quadra 700 obsolete

Built-In Video on the Macintosh Centris 610/650 and Quadra 800

 

[uniserver]

so again what boards will work in the q700 case with out moding the case?

 

[trag]

Nice link Bunsen. I did not know that the Q650/800 did memory interleaving. It sounds a bit like a pre-cursor of the PCI PowerMacs. We should hunt down Dale Adams and interrogate him.

I'm particularly keen to know whether the memory banks can be made to support 64MB without hardware modification. In my tests, a 128 MB SIMM was seen as 64MB -- probably two banks of 32MB, given that a 64MB SIMM is seen as 32MB. Rob, do you have any insight on this? I know you've been experimenting in this area a bit.

I'm a bit miffed to see that the Q650/800 video system has less maximum bit depth than the Q700, but if one can live with 16 bit color it makes sense.

 

[bbraun]

I've been having a heck of a time getting my hands on a 650 or 800. After several purchases that never materialized, I have paid for one that in theory was shipped 6 days ago. Only time will tell if it has actually shipped, and if it will ever arrive.

Doug kindly sent me a couple simm sockets in preparation for its arrival.

I am hopeful I will be able to get ~512MB working.