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Quadra 950 Quick Start Guide?

mkinn

Well-known member
I can't find an owner's manual anywhere using Ebay, Google, Bing, etc. Please suggest an alternate source for this item.

Also need advice on SSD drive performance vs real HDD's, max throughput specs, vs price, and is it worth it?

For use in classroom/teaching/demos

 

beachycove

Well-known member
I would not go the SSD route, as there are multiple cheaper/ more conventional alternatives, and the machine is not really able to take advantage of SSD speeds on the SCSI bus anyway. If I really wanted speed, I'd invest in a pile of 16MB RAM chips and set up a ram disk with a System and main software installation, using some of the old utilities which are able to manage it and preserve its contents on shut-down. But a RAM disk would be useful only if running System 7/8 rather than A/UX.

I have some suitable 50-pin SCSI hard drives here, or dial up Uniserver and ask him about the (newer, larger and faster) 2.5" drives that he has adapted for old Mac use (and ask too about their suitability under A/UX). I think Other World still sells the RAM.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
gamba2 appears to be down ATM, so I can't find the filename for the User Manual or Quick Start guide, but maybe the Service Manual will help you get started?

quadra_900.950.ws_95.pdf

Ditto beachy's RAM suggestion, but keep an eye out for SCSI II cards to better the stock 950's 4.4 MBps max.

ATTO's SiliconExpress Fast/Narrow card might help, dunno the specs.

The FWB JackHammer Fast/Wide card woud definitely speed things up and let you use the the little 2.5" Savvio server HDD's capabilities to the fullest extent of the 950's NuBus interface.

That's the best I can do until I get some coffee into the system.

 

CelGen

Well-known member
The service manual is the best you're going to get. Like most macs they never really had an owners manual. Just a quickstart booklet which told you how to plug peripherals in and the OS users manual which generally isn't machine specific. If you aren't intentionally going to need a fast SCSI bus you can get away with using an old 4 or 9gb SCA scsi disk (they're pretty cheap and easy to find these days) with an 80 to 50pin adapter which will max out the bus and for the most part won't be annoyingly slow. NuBus SCSI cards have a reputation for being quite expensive.

 
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