SE/40 and CC/40AV

[Bunsen]

Gentlefolk, your suggestions are invited for the following insanity, spun off from discussions here: Your dream 68k setup?

SE/40AV - it's a Quadra 840AV-based Mac stuffed into a SE/30 shell / this is physically impossible.

I don't think it would be impossible if you made the case longer.

I'm not sure if you meant "longer" as extending the front-to-rear dimension, or the height ("taller")
To me, the only remotely aesthetically acceptable way of extending a boxmac shell would be to use a contemporary zero footprint hard drive case to drop the floor. That would create about enough room for full length Nubus cards to go in vertically, but the 840 logic board is still just a smidge too wide to fit vertically at one side {ie front-to-rear}, and an inch or so too wide to fit vertically side-to-side behind an LCD.

Even if you restricted yourself to half length Nubus cards, which rules out most of the ones I'd like to install, there still seems to be no way of making it work.

Now, a 660AV, or an 840 in a CC on the other hand....

The ZFP HD false bottom hack would be more problematic on a CC, because of the height of the feets and the curved and inset case shaping around the bottom. This creates a larger gap between the two cases than with an SE or other boxmac. On an SE, this could reasonably be disguised or filled in with Bondo (for a continuous look) or some inset black foam (for the illusion of separation)

My rough eyeballing ruled out the 840 in SE (as described above), but immediately suggested the 840 in CC. I'll eyeball that shortly.

A Centris 610, Powermac 6100, or 660AV logic should fit in an original-size SE or CC shell without much difficulty, but they all have only one available slot, and require rare PDS to Nubus adapters.

I have the adapter for the 6100, and I am in search of the one for the 660AV, for mounting a SpigotPro AV. That would make a nifty little video recording/watching station.

A IIsi also has the single slot/PDS adapter problem, and would still require case hacking. Might as well stick with an SE/30 board.

So your nominations are invited for:

• Small logic boards with two or more Nubus slots, and/or
• Useful Nubus cards of less than 12" length, especially audio

 

[Mike Richardson]

IIci or IIcx are the smallest. Maybe IIsi is a little smaller.

 

[Bunsen]

Thanks. I'll eyeball the ci and cx as well. I did have good look at one point at the ci (because it can take the Daystar upgrades natively) against the SE, and couldn't see a way, but I'll have another look.

Also, it would be nice to use a native '040 board if possible. A 475/605 would be the obvious choice if I wasn't after Nubus.

I have loads of SE type shells, but only a couple of CCs - and I'd like to keep one as stock as possible.

A IIsi also has the single slot/PDS adapter problem, and would still require case hacking. Might as well stick with an SE/30 board.

 

[Strimkind]

I have no idea on the size of these motherboards, but perhaps a 7100/7200 mobo might fit?

 

[Christopher]

I was meaning extending it front to back.

 

[Mike Richardson]

7200 is the same as 7500, massive board, and PCI.

7100 is more square-ish compared to the 6100 but it's still a large board.

 

[Bunsen]

Well, the IIci is looking like a winner for the SE, barring a proper eyeballing, for the following reasons:

• Boots System 6 [] ]'> to 7.6.1
• Daystar '030/'040 PDS upgrades, with Quadra Overdrive for added insanity
• 128MB max RAM
• Onboard video - frees up a Nubus slot
• fastest SCSI in the II series
• 32-bit clean ROM

And last, but by no means least:

• I have one
  

OTOH, the Quadra 700 logic fits in the same case.

Good:

• Full '040 onboard
• Ethernet onboard
• 040 PDS
• Better onboard video

Bad:

• 68MB max RAM
• Two Nubus slots, one inline with the PDS >
  
• No System 6
• Don't have one

I also don't have a 7100 logic to eyeball - I've passed on liberating several of them because I couldn't imagine a use for them . :?:

I have these greyscale SVGA 9" CRTs I could use, but that's going to cut down my internal space a heck of a lot, with or without the drop floor. So the next step is to try and find an affordable LCD. Greyscale would be fine - mono even.

 

[Bunsen]

I was meaning extending it front to back.

IMHO, way too fugly

 

[Bunsen]

7100: No freakin way would be my guess

PCI: Smallest boards would be the beige G3 and the 6360-5500 type

 

[Charlieman]

For the record, both G3 beige and B&W boards are the size of a sheet of A4 paper, give or take a few millimetres. The long side is the one with the ports. Stuart Bell has demonstrated that a beige G3 will fit a Colour Classic (mounted vertically) but the CC is a bit fatter than an SE etc.

 

[MacMan]

A similar project was this one from the 2007 Retrochallenge (read page from the bottom upwards) where the contestant shoehorned a LC475 motherboard and the circuits from a 12" Apple display in the case of a Classic II. Pretty neat hack in my opinion but not one for the faint hearted by the looks of it! Final product was a 68LC040 compact capable of displaying 256 greys on the original 9" CRT.

 

[waynestewart]

If you don't mind not having slots then the motherboard from a tray loading iMac should be an easy fit. The slot loading iMac motherboard would be too big

Wayne

 

[Bunsen]

tray loading iMac / LC475 / G3 beige and B&W

I've run just about every conceivable iteration of Mac small form factor, slotless logic board and compact Mac shell through the ole neural-network 3D modeller upstairs over the last few years. That's not the point of this thread.

Slots. I demand SLOTS!!! } [/lightning]

Although I admit I hadn't considered the B&W G3 - that was headed into a 1U rack/6100 case.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Methinks this topic belongs in Hacks & Development.

Take the clear plexi construct route for your project.

A ClearProtoHoaxMac™ Hack would rock, especially if done from one of FrogDesign's studies:

The squarish CRT woud be problematic . . . soooo . . .

From: origin-of-the-iphone

I'd do it with a 3/4 or 4/5 aspect ratio'd LCD, offset to one side or the other for a NuBus Architecture MoBo. A lot of production Macs, from the 128k through the outriggers, wound up with bits from Design studies in the Snow White tradition featuring asymmetry.

Bonus points for putting the FlopOptical slot on the bottom, cooling vents on the top and installing the LCD in a pivot (think gun turret) through a full 180 degrees for left/right hand mouser offsets . . .

. . . and portrait display addicts. )

For a PCI Mac the aspect ratio depends upon what Graphics Card you've got, but a small WideScreen LCD would be a no-brainer for an AGP Architecture MoBo.

 

[Bunsen]

Your images aren't showing up - which ones are you referring to?

To be honest, I'm unlikely to go the route of fabbing up a case from scratch, at least at the moment - though I have taken note of a few Apple protoype designs around the web that IMHO need bringing into the real world.

My thoughts on the OP projects are hovering around the following logic boards:

• LC475/Quadra 605
• Centris 610
• Quadra 660AV
• Quadra 640 with AV and MPEG
• Powermac 6100
• Rev. A iMac/333MHz CPU/floppy/serial
• Beige G3
• G4 Cube
• MicroATX Core2Duo PC/Linux/Hackintosh

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

DrAT! I'll snag the images and put 'em up on ImageShack. :-/

edit:

(INTERESTING TYPO) #$@%@#$%^#$@ cAPSlOCK!

That should be better!

If you had one live and one DOA 12" GS or RGB 'zaBoxTopper, or a pair of DOAs along with a DOA IIsi, you could easily do a (non-rotating) version as a stealth ProtoHoaxMac hack.

1) Use a IIsi shell's top/face bezel, narrowed to match the width of the 'zaTopper's sides.

2) Match the stepback of the bottom plate to the front of the face bezel and sides = to or + the lid's thickness.

3) Split the narrowed IIsi parts to make up the top and bottom sections of the hacked 'zaToppers.

4) Mount MoBo of Choice:

__a) inverted in the top section and hinge it to flip backward for access/changing Cards.

__ B) into the base, hinging the CRT section to flip forward for same.

__c) horizontally or vertically for 12" NuBus correctness. (I'd use a Sonnetized 6500 MoBo per above config B)

5) Display:

__a) retain original CRT for Compact Mac Correct/CC like resolution.

__ B) replace with available (?) SVGA CRT of choice.

__c) replace with available (?) SVGA LCD of choice with vacuum formed plexi face and inner LCD bezel.

You'd wind up with a more correct form/style factor (and less fugly, IMHO) ProtoMacCC or a, period correct, TenthAM . . .

. . . or not! }

 

[Bunsen]

To be honest, I'm unlikely to go the route of fabbing up a case from scratch

The OP idea is to stick as far as possible to fitting everything into the case of an unmolested compact. I would sacrifice expandability and power to stick with that plan.

BTW, after measuring up, there's no way in heck an 840AV logic is going to fit in either an SE or CC case, even with a sub-basement. The best, expandable, 040 board that will fit in there is the 630/640 series.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Never mind . . . I know what you're attempting . . . I was taking it waaayyy over the top, musing in .TXT again. :-x

I'll start my own thread about the ProtoMac. [] ]'>

Have you sourced an LCD or are you using a VGA CRT for this hack?

I'm thinking LC Series with a PAS16 . . . that'd cost less to ship than a double height ZFP . . . }

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I also don't have a 7100 logic to eyeball - I've passed on liberating several of them because I couldn't imagine a use for them . . .

IIRC, it should be the same board that's in the 8100 or the same form factor as the Q650 or Radius 81/1x0 if you have any of those.

If you don't, I've got a 7100 to hold up against the side of a 128k/Plus.

Have you sourced or identified an LCD or are you still trying to wedge the board in beside your 9" VGA GrayScale?