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LC630 - what makes it a bit crap?

Byrd

Byrd

68LC040
Hi,

I was looking at my meagre collection the other day, which is stacked up in a wardrobe. My LC630 is almost always sitting at the bottom of the pile. I can't put my finger on it ... but why is it a bit crap? Mine is @ 40Mhz, with DOS compatibility card (coupled with an Intel Overdrive 486 DX4-100!) and a 10GB HD - but I hardly use it.

Could it be because ...

- The onboard video is slow and unupgradable, even if "accelerated" in Marathon, it still looks pants

- The mishmash of slow IDE HD and SCSI optical drive, all hobbled together

- It was released at the same time as early PPC Macs, and always played second fiddle

- The next Mac that used the same case, the 6200 was an utter dog - and this associates with it!

- The internal design is messy (especially with the DOS card perched on top of the '040 socket)

All my other Macs take a special place in history - eg. being the fastest, the most upgradable, elegant design - the 630 doesn't aspire to any of these.

Do others feel the same? :)

JB

 
I'd agree with some things and disagree with others. Sure, you'd think the last m68040s made by Apple should be something special with good performance and without too many compromises, but I suppose they didn't want people to buy these as fast m68k machines for older applications instead of PowerPC machines. That's also the most likely reason there never were any m68060 Macs - they'd have been on par performancewise with the PowerPC models.

I have a similar machine. I believe it's a Quadra 630. But what I like about it is that I can put in a ridiculously large hard drive (it has a 750 gig drive, and I can put in up to 2 terabytes if I add a SATA to IDE adapter), it has 196 megs of memory, two ethernet cards, and I even downclocked it to 25 MHz so I could add a QuadDoubler. In my case, the IDE interface and the newer memory controller both worked to my advantage, but I can certainly agree that not being able to add a NuBus video card and having cheesy video on the motherboard isn't the best design decision. I use mine as a server, so I don't care much about the video.

All in all, I think it all depends on what you do with it.

 
My biggest problem with the things is that they're noisy because of the fan; furthermore, because the fan is where it is, they're difficult to silence by way of a replacement fan. I would probably have used mine more if it weren't for the noise, as it can do things that some of the other comparable machines, like the LC475, can't do, like auto-power on, and displaying TV.

The plastics are also poor quality, or at least, haven't aged well. I have both an LC630 and a Performa 6290 or some such, and both of them have case problems, caused by brittle plastics.

 
I think for me the biggest problem is with the crappy video. I have mine configured up rather nicely, with a full '040, 52MB of RAM, a 3GB hard drive, DOS card, Video System, CS ethernet, and apart from the crappy Valkyrie chip (which is slow, chews up 1MB of system RAM, and can still only manage 832x624 at 256 colours), its really quite a nice machine to use.

Another reason you might think its a bit crap is because of the case. It looks good, but as beachycove said, the case plastics tend to fall apart rather easily, and then there's the fact that lets face it - its a terrible design...sure, the motherboard "drawer" design is a great idea, but apart from that, its really quite a terrible case to work on, especially if you have to do anything with the drives.

Apart from that though, I have to say, I actually really love my LC630, for what it is its a fast little box that can do quite a bit.

 
I adore mine, much the same as johnklos

A very fast (40MHz) compact 68k with lots of HD space, gobs of RAM, optical built-in, ethernet, dual monitors, remote, a/v connection and it's quiet.

I'd call it my favourite 68k if the Q605 wasn't as damned cute as a button :D

Dana

 
Yea, it seems that the Valkyrie chip was only finally replaced in the 5500/6500 with an ATI Rage II, which was made possible by the move to PCI in the 6360/6400/5400.

 
To be honest, I've often thought that really, my dream 68k would probably be an LC630 with the video subsystem from an LC475. Its not going to happen, but its fun to think about.

 
My one gripe about the 630 series is the case. I'm not especially fond of working inside these Macs, especially when it comes to replacing the front bezel after maintenance. Otherwise, not a terrible machine by any means.

 
I don't know about the LC630, but my Quadra 630 ROCKED!!!!!!!

The FPU/Full 040 just about matched the Radius Rocket in my IIx at work, but that had 32MB of on-board RAM. The video output to the 17" Trinitron was fine and with the TV-Tuner and AppleDesign Speakers it was all that I could ask for except a third serial port vs. Apple's standard 1.5 serial ports, but the addition of a 10bT card to the COMM Slot brought it up to a full 2 serial ports.

As for the IDE HDD, it was a Godsend, finally I could swap out the fast, but way too costly, undersized SCSI HDD in all my other Macs, with a HUGE Inexpensive Industry Standard HDD for the rugger's SuperPaint PlayStation/my "after the kid fell asleep" home workstation!

The height was a PERFECT fit and it took me about 90 sec. to figure out that cutting a hole in the rugger's desk overhang for airflow straight up instead of blowing into the cable mess out back was just about perfect.

All I've read about the every LC/road apple ever produced (with the notable exception of the 475) was that it didn't live up to the customer's expectation of having an unhindered Non-LC Mac.

You gets what you pays for! :o)

 
Yeah, but it's really good at....

uh...

Well, there's the fact that....

hrm...

Oh, but it has...

er...

Yeah, I got nothing. It's the Edsel of Macs.

 
Cheap drive options, up to 132 (196 on some) megs of memory, compact form factor... two expansion slots (comm and LC-PDS)... TV / video option... It certainly isn't a horrible Mac...

My LC 630 / Quadra 630 type machine (the one on which I give out shell accounts) is getting an external hardware mirrored 500 gig SCSI drive in place of a single IDE. It's nice to have both options.

 
. . . and the P6360 "son of Q630" is just freakin' AWESOME! :approve:

. . . especially so w/G-3/466 Crescendo, a PCI Video Card and Second 21" Graphics Level CRT sittin' next to it with a MultiScan 17" TV/Graphics CRT sittin' on top! [:D] ]'>

 
If the LC630 had been released in place of the LC475, we'd have thought it was wonderful. As it was, it was only ever going to be the "cheap" Mac, not the "good" Mac.

The main things that give me bad memories re the LC630 are:

a) Same case as those awful, slow, clunky 603e PowerMac 6200 machines with the buggy logic board that caused intermittent crashes. Apple kept blaming this on user software. As a techo with a reseller, I was caught between rightly aggrieved users and and unmoving and uncaring manufacturer. Eventually, Apple were dragged kicking and screaming into admitting that there was a hardware fault and replacing the 6200 and 6300 logic boards under warranty. Bad memories.

B) The sticking volume up/down buttons. Yes, Apple released a new nose cone to fix this (at no charge) and yes, a bit of work with a scalpel soon fixed it if you came across a machine in the field. The problem is that it left an impression of poor build quality.

 
Eventually, Apple were dragged kicking and screaming into admitting that there was a hardware fault and replacing the 6200 and 6300 logic boards under warranty. Bad memories.
Click to expand...
Yea, the Repair Extension Program and 5xxx/6xxx Tester. BTW, you can partly thank Open Transport for this.

 
I don't know about the LC630, but my Quadra 630 ROCKED!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
I totally agree about the Quadra 630. That is still my favorite Mac to this day. It was also the best early CD recording platform too. Well at least in 1993-1994 when I got mine. Early Astarte Toast ran extremely well on it since the Pinnacle CDR (2x) wasn't being hindered on the scsi buss. Never a buffer underrun on that machine.

Now the 6360 was also a nice machine and in fact I have another Q630 sitting in the basement that got upgraded to the 6360 with the case plastics upgraded too so everything matched up.. It has OS 8.6 on it and some version of YDL too.

 
Shred makes some interesting points about quality. It seems as though most Spindler and Amelio era Macs were made of inferior materials or were deliberately crippled in design. This wasn't anything new--the LC, Classic II, and IIvx were all released earlier--but the worst came from 1993-1997. Remember how the 630s had the older SCSI controller installed? How about the PB150 without an ADB port? I think we all know the troubles with the 5200s/6200s.

Many of these moves were designed to save money on the consumer end, but don't forget about Apple wanting to cut corners as well. Quality did suffer and a lot of the serious Mac folks went ahead and bought clones instead. Some were better than anything Apple put out in the mid-90s. In fact, Apple didn't get themselves back on the map with some serious machines until the G3s--and even the first generation used the uninspiring designs of the older Power Macs/Quadras.

 
- The mishmash of slow IDE HD and SCSI optical drive, all hobbled together
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The first Mac to switch to ATAPI optical drives was those based on the Tanzania or LPX-40 motherboard, used by Mac cloners and Apple in the 4400.

 
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