[comp.sys.mac] SE accelerator/upgrade questions

long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Richard C. Long) (01/08/90)

I'm thinking of either an accelerator or upgrade for my SE.  From MacWorld,
January 1990, it looks like Macproducts USA has the best price on a 68030
based accelerator (manufacturer is Magic) : $599.  Alternatively, they also
sell a SE -> SE/30 upgrade (which I assume would also give the FDHD upgrade)
for $1399, which is much less than Apple's list.

Some things I'm concerned about with the accelerator route:

1.	I have 4MB of RAM now; is any of this usable (as installed on the main
board) by the accelerator? 

2.	Do I have the choice of booting from either it or the 68000, perhaps
by software control?

3.	Is the expansion slot preserved, for the addition (maybe) of a
large-screen monitor?  

4.	How hard would it be to later add a FDHD?

With the SE/30 upgrade, I guess there'd be no compatibility problems, but is
it user-installable?

Thanks for any comments on either or both of these.
Also, how is Macproducts to deal with?

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gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (01/10/90)

I have a similar question ---

Where do the ROMS for 3rd-party upgrades come from?  I.e.

128K -> MacPlus		implies the upgrade contains MacPlus ROMS
MacSE -> SE/030		implies the upgrade contains ColorQuickdraw ROMS

Does Apple sell ROMs to 3rd-party upgrade manufacturers?  Are these
upgrades built *only* by Apple?  Where do these ROMs come from?

Fabian@cup.portal.com (Fabian Fabe Ramirez) (01/11/90)

The ROMs can ONLY come from Apple Computer, Inc. and there are Apple upgrades
(ie Mac Plus, SE/30, IIx upgrades) and then there are third party accelerator
products (ie SuperMac's SpeedCard, the Radius Accelerator, TSI's Gemini, etc.)

Fabian Ramirez
SuperMac Technology

fabian@cup.portal.com
sun!cup.portal.com!fabian