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LC / Performa

Upgrading LC 580

Author	Topic
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 06:50:59 I've heard you can stick a PPC mother board into one of these without much trouble? If so which motherboard is the best one to put in?
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 07:37:43 You need a Performa/PowerMac 52xx, 53xx, 62xx, or 63xx (except 6360) mobo into the LC580 with no trouble at all. 6360, x400 and x500 boards will work fine, although you will need a 3.3v regulator for those to boot, although x500 boards will boot fine, however to use expansion cards or add a G3 upgrade to a x500, you WILL need the 3.3v Hope this helps! "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 08:21:45 Thanks a lot for the info. Do you know of any place on the internet with instructions for changing the motherboard? Pictures or drawings are a plus, but at least some type of step by step instructions. I've done a bit of work with the insides of Macs but I've never replaced a motherboard before. One other thing: is there a specific board you would recommend? Is there one that has better speed or options than another one?
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 08:45:51 In any case, I'd get the 6500/300 mobo. It's the fastest of the lot, and unless you want to add PCI cards or a G3 upgrade, will just slide in without a 3.3V regulator. However, with an x400 or x500 mobo, you will have to use 168 pin 5v EDO DIMMs, rather than your 72 pin SIMMs. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 10:30:50 I've been looking around the net and it looks like the most common motherboards/computers are the 75MHz 62xx and 52xx series, and 250-275MHz 65xx series. If I went with the 6500 series what would I have to get (you mentioned a 3.3v regulator) to make it completely usable? Would the PCI slots work? Would a G3 accelerator be possible in the future? Practical? Any idea how much I could expect to spend on the whole upgrade?
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 19:27:07 To make the new 6500 mobo completely usable you would need a 3.3v regulator, as i said before. This will allow you to add a G3 upgrade, and to use the PCI slots. If you don't add a 3.3v regulator, it will still work, but you won't be able to put anything in the PCI slots, nor will you be able to go G3. As for how much it will cost, i have absolutely no idea. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 19:45:30 Anybody have a spare 6500 motherboard? I gather from the name that a 3.3v regulator changes the voltage from 5v to 3.3v, but where would I find one of these and how much would one cost? Also, how hard is it to put one in? Does it require soldering or wire-cutting? Sorry for all the questions but this is the only place I know of that can answer them. You may have already seen that I have my LC for sale in the Trading Post. I had already fixed it up as much as I could and was going to sell it so I could buy another old Mac, but as soon as I found out you can upgrade it I kinda felt like trying the mobo swap . It's still for sale, but while I'm waiting it can't hurt to upgrade it a bit can it?
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 20:04:47 Yes, the 3.3v regulator changes 5V to 3.3v. As for where you can get one, and how much it will cost, i have no idea. For installation, you might wanna check some of those ColourClassic upgrade pages...they use the same 3.3v regulator as what you will be using. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 21:07:05 Well it looks like I'm going to upgrade with a 6500 mobo if I can find one. 62xx and 52xx boards are a lot more common but I just don't think a 75MHz 603 would be worth upgrading (I do everything big). I can always add a 3.3v regulator later if I decide I want to add PCI cards. Thanks for your help
mypojam Junior Member Malaysia 192 Posts	Posted - 10 Jun 2003 : 21:52:45 hey thequietman, is tha an LC 580 your upgrading ? can you put in a powermac mobo ? that's great. maybe i'll do it too. --------------------- i liberated a performa 580 !!! it's running wild!!! 68k GO !
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 11 Jun 2003 : 00:13:15 Yeah, you can do it too, pojam. Like i told thequietman, get a 6500 mobo if you can....you can use x200 and x300 boards, but they had quality problems, and you won't notice an increase in speed. ALso, x400 boards will work, but you will need a 3.3v regulator to do anything, even to just get it booted. Thats what's so great about the 5500 and 6500 mobos. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 12 Jun 2003 : 08:14:16 Me again . I have a choice between a 6290CD for $10 and a 6500/250 for $50. Is it worth getting the 6500 or would I still get a performance boost from a 6290?
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 12 Jun 2003 : 17:06:45 Yes you would. The 6290 will let you run PowerPC software, but its going to be nowhere near as fast as the 6500. Plus, a lot of 6290s had quality problems with the ROMs, and good ROMs for them are very hard to find. The 6500 board is worth it, trust me. You'll have to replace your RAM, but you'll have a good, solid, fast system. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 12 Jun 2003 : 18:04:03 I just read the article on LowEndMac.com about the x200 and x300 series being very undesirable computers. Thanks for the confirmation though, I'm definitely going for a x500 series mobo, either a 5500 or 6500 since they're basically the same. Thanks for all your help, I'll probably be back with more questions soon .
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 12 Jun 2003 : 18:24:18 I'd go for a 6500 mobo....they come in flavours up to 300 Mhz. The 5500 only went up to 225 or 250 Mhz, even th ough they're compatible with the 6500/300 mobo. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 12 Jun 2003 : 18:58:13 The real factor is availability, and I haven't even seen a 6500/300 mobo, just 250 or 275. So as I see it there isn't much difference between a 5500/225 and a 6500/250, not enough to spend a lot more on the faster one . Besides, I've been used to a 33MHz '040, anything in the 200MHz range will be fast .
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 06:02:23 Good luck. Oh, and remember, you'll have to get new DIMMs for your 6500 board, as there are no 72 pin SIMM slots. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
cory5412 68KMLA Comrade-in-Arms USA 4679 Posts	Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 21:46:13 just for clarification AGAIN all 6500 and 5500 motherboards are identical except the speeds they were offered in :P howwabout getting the IRBOX from a 6500 into that 580? doesn't te 580 have the IRbox already or is that just volume and the IR was only on the macTV ??? Official 68k videographer Official MLA TourGuide "I'm just a normal computer geek who somehow landed a social life"
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 23:44:31 Nah, apart from the Mac TV, no 5xx series machines ever had an IR sensor. However, I'm willing to bet that seeing as th ough the 580 has the same wiring harness as the 630, that with a bit of hacking, you could get both a TV tuner, and the infared censor/box in as well. It'd take a bit of case hackign though. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
mypojam Junior Member Malaysia 192 Posts	Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 23:48:29 someone help me. i think my battery just gone out. when i unplug my 580 from the mains and plug it back and turn it on, my date would go back to 1956. and my cache goes down to 128k (i set it at 1024k). i'm guessing it must be the pram battery. damn, now i don't unplug it from the mains. i just turn the power off from the keyboard and left it like that. (580 got a power switch at the back of it) is pram battery to blame ? Edited by - mypojam on 19 Jun 2003 01:13:56
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 01:02:19 Yeah, you have a flat PRAM battery. Good idea for keeping it plugged in. I'm not sure if that keeps the PRAM going though...seeing as though i have to unplug my comps every night when I'm at home, I've never had the opportunity to try that on my 630, which is basically a monitorless version of your 580. I've heard that those new RAYOVAC PRAM batts cost an arm and a leg though... "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 07:55:53 Yeah my PRAM battery has been dead a long time . It keeps the right date and time if you just leave it plugged in.
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 09:08:35 Lol, I've never had a good PRAM batt in my LC630. And those RAYOVAC ones are exxy, so i can't be bothered. "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1
thequietman Junior Member Canada 127 Posts	Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 12:42:31 Hopefully my new mobo will have a working PRAM battery on it .
maclover5 LC Doctor/Hot Rodder Australia 5830 Posts	Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 12:51:28 Very nice! "**** em" - Jobs in regards to customers Warrior maclover5 68kMLA Official 68kMLA Detective Number of 68ks Liberated: 7 Number of Contraband (PPC) Liberated from the Dumpster: 1

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