TAM Upgrades that can be reversed back to stock

[jsarchibald]

I've been unashamedly a huge fan of the TAM, and whilst many of the negative points people raise are in relation to it's original price, or how the internals are pieced together, it's easily my most favourite Mac of all time.

System 7 is my fave OS, and this machine, especially with a G3 card, crushes that.  Add in great sound with plenty of bass, a multitude of connectivity options, and that sexy shape, and it's the perfect vintage Mac for my tastes.

So, I thought I would create a thread that contains all possible upgrades for this great machine, in order to give me inspiration when I want to make it even better.  Now you could add DVD burners, replacing the guts with a Mac Mini, or all sorts of other upgrades that are fairly permanent, or require modifications, but I'm chasing a list of things you can do and easily reverse to make it the ultimate Mac.

My list would include:

- G3 card, up to 500MHz (mine is a 400, still chasing the elusive 500)

- Max 128MB of RAM

- Install USB and Firewire card in the back (did make USB work with 7.6.1 once, cannot remember how I did it, starting to think it never happened)

- CF adapter and CF card to replace the hard drive (nice and easy to add software with a modern Mac, have mine running 7.6.1, 8.1, 8.6 and 9.1 on four partitions)

With this machine, I can indulge in a game or two of SimCity 2000, F/A-18 Hornet 2.0, as well as playing mp3's off a thumb drive in the back, and connect to the net via Ethernet (yet to try out my powerline adapters, but think it should work).

Anyone else have any ideas?  Ever got OS X to work on one?  Let us know!

 

[omidimo]

I got the 500MHz card back in 2005 when Sonnet was dumping them super cheap, I have been on the lookout for another to go into my 6400, but no luck as of yet. The FireWire/USB card thing can be super frustrating, since some cards work, some don't. Sonnet's second revision was problematic with 6500/TAMs, but earlier models were okay.

For storage I got a KingSpec 8GB PATA SSD off eBay for $25. It's nice to have a clean looking internal setup. I recall any drive over 10GB used to brick the system temporarily, so I never used anything over that. 

Overall, the upgrades you listed cover all the bases, but most importantly, every TAM owner will have to deal with the Buzz repair eventually. 

 

[blitter]

I have the 400Mhz Sonnet G3 installed in mine-- there is a CDEV you can get I believe called "Sonnet Overclock" that should let you overclock the accelerator to 500 or beyond, but I haven't tried it yet.

I did pick up a Farallon 10/100bT CS II Ethernet card a few years ago to max out its network capabilities. 100mbit CS II cards seem pretty rare but I've been lucky with this one so far.

I have both a rev. A and a rev. B Tango Trio card. I couldn't get the rev. B to work in the TAM, or any of my other Macs for that matter. I suspect it might be flashed for Windows. Will try the rev. A card soon.

Only other thing I wish I could mod is the internal video-- with alternate ATI drivers you can drive 640x480 at a higher bit depth but the Rage chip inside the TAM doesn't do 2D scaling like the Rage 128 and later chips do. Ah well.

 

[Byrd]

When finances permit (or when the parts get cheaper), it's time for an IDE to mSATA enclosure and 64GB drive in mine.  The TAM can be picky about hard disks though, it hated a couple of 80GB and 120GB drives I trialled in it a while back giving terrible performance.  Another upgrade would be adding a ethernet to wireless bridge.

I've yet to find a combo FW/USB card that works in the TAM.

 

[techknight]

I run a 40GB drive on my TAM and I have 0 issues. I ended up buying a NuPower G3 back in the fall and it failed miserably, I think it needs a particular driver. 

 

[haplain]

I really like the CF card to IDE adapter. I got an adapter and 32GB 800x card (from Amazon) for about 40 bucks. On my "main" TAM I've got a 128GB card in there for about 60GB of music and a dual OS. 

I've yet to find a combo FW/USB card that works in the TAM.

I successfully have a working Sonnet USB/FW card in my TAM. It's a Rev. A, and to my understanding, the only rev that will work in the TAM's. Its really nice having the speed of the FireWire and convenience of the USB as well. 

Additionally, I forgot what one has to install on the TAM, but you can push it to Millions rather than Thousands in the display control panel. If I recall, you install an ATI extension and it allows that as a option within the preferences. 

 

[haplain]

My TAM's all have Sonnet 500 chips so I have installed a dual fan setup near the heat sink of the Sonnet card to keep things cool. There isn't much to keep everything cool down there without the extra fans.