Mac SE converted to SE/30 + Case

[Brooklyn]

Hey guys, just bought a Mac SE/30 on craigslist from a professor on a college campus. This is my first 68k Mac purchase in awhile. Anyway, I noticed an "800k" decal next to the floppy drive. I did a little research online and find out there were upgrade kits for SE's to convert them to SE/30's. I'm pretty sure thats what happened here. There is even an SE/30 decal on the back, which looks to be placed directly on top of the original SE decal! See some pics below...

I plan to at least upgrade the memory & floppy drive, and hopefully find an 030 based processor upgrade card. I read I should use "non-composite 30-pin simms" for the memory. How can I tell composite from non-composite? Will I run in to any issues upgrading this mac as it was an SE?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The face looks like it's entirely SE/30 original (other than the sticker.) The SE had two "full width grooves", one for each floppy slot; whereas the SE/30 only had the one or its one floppy slot. Your system only has one groove, so the face is obviously a full SE/30 face. That strikes me as *VERY* odd for an upgrade. You'd think they would have just given stickers.

 

[bigmessowires]

Have you been able to boot it up, or check inside the case?

I believe "non-composite" SIMMs means there's one chip per bit, so you would see 8 or 9 individual chips on a 30-pin SIMM.

 

[Byrd]

What I like most is that aluminium case - do you have another pic of it, it's perfect!

 

[Brooklyn]

I thought so too, however on wikipedia it says " a logic board upgrade was available to convert a regular SE to a SE/30. The SE would then have exactly the same specs as an SE/30, with the difference only in the floppy drive if the SE had a 800k drive. The set included a new front bezel to replace the original SE bezel with that of an SE/30." So it all adds up to an upgraded SE/30.

I did boot it up. System 7, 4mb ram, 40mb hard drive.

Yea it is a pretty cool case. Apparently the PO was a physics professor who carried the Mac back and forth from UIC and CERN in the case. Its got some cool software on it like Mac Fortran and such. I'll try to snap some extra pics.

 

[Dog Cow]

I thought so too, however on wikipedia it says " a logic board upgrade was available to convert a regular SE to a SE/30. The SE would then have exactly the same specs as an SE/30, with the difference only in the floppy drive if the SE had a 800k drive.

That's how my SE/30 was. It was an SE/30 logic board plus SuperDrive inside of an SE case. It said SE on the front.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

"...The set included a new front bezel to replace the original SE bezel with that of an SE/30." So it all adds up to an upgraded SE/30.

Huh, did not know that. I guess it all makes sense, then. Seems odd to replace the entire bezel rather than just giving a sticker.