$4.95 Performa 6400/180 . . . & it booted right up!!!! =8-O

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I was feeling a little down, I'm on vacation for 11 days, but came down with an aweful cold and had to cancel my trip up to MA for Christmas with family up there . . . so I decided a little "thrift shop therapy" was in order!

Right after finding a VHS tape of the classic "Reefer Madness" for $.99 at the first shop, I hit the second and nabbed an "evil block company" motor/power unit for $.99 and a Keyboard/MousPad holding, wide aspect, Kensington KBD Drawer for $3.99 and then I REALLY hit paydirt at the third and last stop!

I LOVE these Apple TV/Video System capable, IDE HDD equipped, transitional Quadra 630 - G3 machines! The only visible flaws on this 6400, aside from slight yellowing, are a smudged identity plate on the front bezel and a single black rub mark on the left side panel. Of course the obviously missing case top would be a problem if I didn't detest these wussy lookin' mid-tower designs. No cache or accelerator in it, but there's 16MB, an Ethernet card in the CommSlot and the MoBo tray is the perfect backup for my 6360 and 6500 boards . . . not to mention the correct power supply for a re-casing hack of this fugly duckling! [}] ]'>

No offense intended to those who like this somewhat peculiar case design! [] ]'> [)] ]'>

p.s. All is well for Christmas! The rug rat made plans right away for flying in from Philly instead of me picking him up on the way north. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if my lovely, wonderful ex-wife is picking up the tab for it. I must be the luckiest divorced guy on the planet! [] ]'>

 

[Bunsen]

Nice score!

 

[trag]

No cache or accelerator in it, but there's 16MB, an Ethernet card in the CommSlot and the MoBo tray is the perfect backup for my 6360 and 6500 boards . . . not to mention the correct power supply for a re-casing hack of this fugly duckling! [}] ]'>
I must be the luckiest divorced guy on the planet! [] ]'>

Excellent on both fronts. Now, if it turns out that the 6400 can support three PCI slots will you want to do the hack?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

THX, on both counts!

Dunno, that 6400/PCI thread is waaaay over my head . . . 8-o . . . which is basically analog . . . the wetware upgrades to digital topped out somewhere between the TTL era and the late NuBus/PDS Architecture Days. :-/

I'm a hardware guy who dabbles in software when he has no other choice. I've enlisted, begged for and even paid for or partnered in business to cover that end of the computer spectrum!

If it's as simple as making a Custom PCB prototype, building or machining new case parts and noodling out I/O sneakarounds, then I'm you guy. My favorite notion was to hijack the parity traces on the IIfx MoBo as additional memory select lines/bits to increase its addressable memory space. That would entail using newer memory formats on a custom IIfx memory SIMM/DIMM adapter card and most likely a Virtual Memory scheme like the 32MB SE Accelerators back in the day. Nobody jumped in to figure out if it was doable from the firmware/software end of things . . . but . . . nobody ever called it an EVIL MEMORY HACK or RFI transmission scheme . . . even over on 'fritter! [] ]'>

If I thought it was possible and that I could swing it, my 6360 would have had a new 3 slot riser and a taller case YEARS ago! }

p.s. when Apple decided to intentionally hobble its low-mid end machines, they usually did a pretty good job of it . . . in my experience anyway.