SE/30... best Mac ever?

[iMac600]

I suppose your point remains valid... although this is the Compact Macs forum so in that case, yes, the SE/30 is the best compact Mac ever.

Out of every computer ever developed, maybe not. It was certainly a good design, and at least it's still better than the Amiga...

 

[TylerEss]

Just how much can you mod an SE/30 and still consider it an SE/30? For example (assuming it were even possible) putting a IIci motherboard in there?

Way to take a perfectly silly "first post" thread and make it serious and informative. *grin* I mostly just wanted to see the reaction to the Stalin-esque "yes/yes" poll.

This is a really hard question, indeed, because you're basically dragging the whole philosophy of being into the 68k Mac forums. I've been through this discussion on the CC board and the turbo-dodge car board, and I think I know the (easy) answer: "As much as the owner thinks they can mod it."

There's a distribution curve where a few people claim it's totally changed at the slightest disturbance, and a few people will get *really* wild with it (Taco CC), and there's a big peak of "dropoffs" near the middle.

For example, most people think that a Mystic is still a CC, though many of them wouldn't go as far as the Takky surgery. It's basically a bell-curve.

Now, if that wasn't cutting straight to the trivial answer, I don't know what else could be.

Personally, I like to see the original motherboard, case, analog, and tube. I don't really like the color-SE/30 hacks or the "LCD+MiniITX+Basilisk=fast" hacks. They're cool, but they're more SE/30-themed customs than SE/30 upgrades, to the way I look at things. I don't mind the "swap floppy for internal CD" or "axe floppy to make room for IIsi adaptor" or even "fab up fabulous new PDS cards", and still think of those as upgrades.

How about you? Where do you fall along the distribution function?

 

[pzler]

for me it's two simple points.

1 does it still boot with the original os? (without emulation)

2 does it still have the original look?

if both are yes then it is an upgrade.

 

[iMac600]

I have to agree with TylerEss on this one. You can drop an LC575 board in a Colour Classic case. I may have booted 7.5 before, and it's booting 7.5 now, but it's still not a Colour Classic. It's a Compact LC575, IMHO.

There are lines between upgrades and complete overhauls.

 

[MacG4]

not much choice in the poll question

 

[iMac600]

I think that's the point actually. A Yes/Yes situation.

 

[MacG4]

I think that's the point actually. A Yes/Yes situation.

yeah i guess so

 

[mongo]

The IIci is a great computer - but the PSU on mine went up in smoke... :-(

That's too bad...

You can get a full IIci for $12 on eBay right now, or you can buy just the PSU from IT Equipment Express for $76 (refurb). I sometimes wounder if ITEE ever sells anything... I mean $76... sheesh!

As for the SE/30, it depends on how you define "best". For me the best old Mac is the one that's the most fun to tinker with. Unfortunately I don't have anything to put in my SE/30. Parts tend to be rare and cost a little more than I'm willing to pay.

 

[Quadraman]

I'm not going to vote, because there is no "No"
I think that the 840av was the best 68k mac out there. I know it's slower than the 950, but if you look at the AV card, the thing just kicks butt!

As far as the best mac I have seen, I say the 9600 Takes the cake. Wicked fast, maxes out at 1GB memory, all those PCI Slots, and best of all, it can also do AV. Yes, I know the G3 could do that, but if you look at the initial release of the G3, the G3 was slower in real world tests than the 9600 initially. even the 366 was slower than the 9600. just because there was no software to take initial hold on the IBM 750. so, for a while, it was kinda useless.

Ummm...I always thought the 840AV was faster. It runs at 40mhz and has a DSP. The 950 only runs at 33mhz and doesn't have a DSP.

 

[bluekatt]

where is the no option ?

because all the fancy expansion abilities and options dont amount to much if you cant find them

and where i live just finding a working compact is a smal miracle let alone finding a daystar 040

 

[TylerEss]

where is the no option ?

You don't get one, because this is just a cutsey "first post" thread. It's meant to be a joke that you can choose any answer you want, so long as it means yes.

 

[FunnymanSE30]

where is the no option ?because all the fancy expansion abilities and options dont amount to much if you cant find them

and where i live just finding a working compact is a smal miracle let alone finding a daystar 040

Ethernet cards are pretty common, and work much better than a SCSI ethernet solution you'd have to use on the classic II.