One PDS slot to rule 'em all... (Mac SE question)

[larwe]

I am trying to decide if I want to put something in the PDS slot of my daily driver SE. I currently have a BlueSCSI on it, 4MB RAM, and I use it for writing without distraction. Given that I mostly use MS-Word or equivalent - should I get an Ethernet card, an accelerator or extra RAM? Or a weird extended video card?

 

[Durosity]

Accelerators are always fun.

 

[Byrd]

The cloned Micromac Performer accelerators by MacEffects are a good price and would make it more fun:

MacEffects Performer PDS 68030 Accelerator for Apple Macintosh SE

MacEffects Performer accelerator is the perfect hardware upgrade for your Macintosh SE. The Performer accelerator features a 68030 clocked to 16mhz and a 68882 FPU (math coprocessor) to speed up CPU performance and math calculations. With the Performer accelerator you can enjoy a new level of...

maceffects.com

 

[zigzagjoe]

An accelerator and an external daynaport-capable scsi emulator such as the ZuluSCSI Slim for ethernet probably makes the most sense. Enough to open some new possibilities without losing the "spirit" of the machine.

 

[Nixontheknight]

An accelerator and an external daynaport-capable scsi emulator such as the ZuluSCSI Slim for ethernet probably makes the most sense. Enough to open some new possibilities without losing the "spirit" of the machine.

Or the BlueSCSI V2

 

[larwe]

Or the BlueSCSI V2

What's that going to do for me that my DB25 BlueSCSI doesn't already do? I looked at the announcement page for it but ... am not yet excited?

 

[Nixontheknight]

What's that going to do for me that my DB25 BlueSCSI doesn't already do? I looked at the announcement page for it but ... am not yet excited?

DaynaPORT emulation over wifi (if you use a Pi Pico W)

 

[larwe]

The cloned Micromac Performer accelerators by MacEffects are a good price and would make it more fun:

MacEffects Performer PDS 68030 Accelerator for Apple Macintosh SE

MacEffects Performer accelerator is the perfect hardware upgrade for your Macintosh SE. The Performer accelerator features a 68030 clocked to 16mhz and a 68882 FPU (math coprocessor) to speed up CPU performance and math calculations. With the Performer accelerator you can enjoy a new level of...

maceffects.com

I was looking at those just before Christmas actually hmmm. Tempting. I'm still maxed at 4MB RAM right?

 

[Byrd]

Yep, keeps using onboard 4MB. Real world performance is improved but don’t expect SE/30 snappiness. I’ve just put one in my Plus and it’s good to be able to switch between 68000 and 68030 easily.

 

[Bolle]

If you want to go beyond the 4MB of onboard RAM you'll need one of the more sophisticated accelerators.
Running more than 4MB in an SE is hacky... don't expect it to behave like a real 32bit capable 68030 machine. There are going to be things that just don't work due to the old SE ROMs.

 

[larwe]

If you want to go beyond the 4MB of onboard RAM you'll need one of the more sophisticated accelerators.
Running more than 4MB in an SE is hacky... don't expect it to behave like a real 32bit capable 68030 machine. There are going to be things that just don't work due to the old SE ROMs.

Mmmm, maybe I don't want to live quite that close to the bleeding edge. 4MB is okay I guess.

 

[croissantking]

Running more than 4MB in an SE is hacky... don't expect it to behave like a real 32bit capable 68030 machine. There are going to be things that just don't work due to the old SE ROMs.

What kind of issues crop up in your experience?

 

[Phipli]

What kind of issues crop up in your experience?

They don't support 32bit addressing, or colour QuickDraw and some functions are missing from the toolbox that you might normally expect from a 68030 based Mac.

The biggest issue for me is that F/A-18 Hornet won't run

 

[LaPorta]

They don't support 32bit addressing, or colour QuickDraw and some functions are missing from the toolbox that you might normally expect from a 68030 based Mac.

The biggest issue for me is that F/A-18 Hornet won't run

View attachment 93721

Hellcats should!

 

[nathall]

I just yesterday installed a RasterOps ClearVue, which is an accelerator and video card in one, in one of my SEs. I now have two “SE/16”s. One of these days I’ll have to do some benchmarks between the two (the other has a Brainstorm) and see if there are any notable differences. One big difference is this RasterOps supports an FPU, which I’ll have to track down eventually.

Now I just need an Apple Portrait Display to go with it.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Imho, the 030 accelerators with on-board RAM are the ultimate SE upgrade, some far exceeding SE/30 speeds and quadrupling your RAM to 16MB. Unfortunately they are not easy to find these days, and usually priced accordingly. The only issue I’ve experienced with these is some of them can be finicky with sound drivers.