[comp.sys.mac.hardware] II -> IIfx mother-of-all-boards upgrade info needed

Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca (Sundar) (04/13/91)

Yo netters,
One of my profs is interested in converting his MacII into a IIfx. I want 
to know what Apple dealers on campus at other Univs are charging for a 
IIfx motherboard swap. Also, how much extra is the SuperDrive (1.44M) and 
does the dealer's price include any rebate on the old MacII motherboard ?

It seems there was an article in a recent MacWeek on design flaws in the 
IIfx. If that report is correct, is it worth going on this upgrade trip in 
the first place ? Thanks in advance for any pointers.
 

Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca  <Internet>
userffa3@ubcmtsg           <Bitnet>
Civil Engineering
UBC, Vancouver V6T 1W5
CANADA                     <Snailnet>

mjkobb@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (04/13/91)

In article <1991Apr12.230716.23547@cs.ubc.ca> Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca (Sundar) writes:
>
>It seems there was an article in a recent MacWeek on design flaws in the 
>IIfx. If that report is correct, is it worth going on this upgrade trip in 
>the first place ? Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Eh?  I must have missed this.  Can anyone elaborate on these supposed design
flaws.  I'm considering the IIx --> IIfx upgrade myself.

Thanks!

-Mike

philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (04/14/91)

In article <1991Apr12.230716.23547@cs.ubc.ca>, Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca (Sundar) writes:
|> Yo netters,
|> One of my profs is interested in converting his MacII into a IIfx. I want 
|> to know what Apple dealers on campus at other Univs are charging for a 
|> IIfx motherboard swap. Also, how much extra is the SuperDrive (1.44M) and 
|> does the dealer's price include any rebate on the old MacII motherboard ?
|> 
|> It seems there was an article in a recent MacWeek on design flaws in the 
|> IIfx. If that report is correct, is it worth going on this upgrade trip in 
|> the first place ? Thanks in advance for any pointers.

What's the current rumour on 68040 models? If they are due out soon,
surely this is the thing to go for.

-- 
Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu

teener@apple.com (Michael Teener) (04/16/91)

In article <1991Apr12.230716.23547@cs.ubc.ca> Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca 
(Sundar) writes:
> It seems there was an article in a recent MacWeek on design flaws in the 
> IIfx. If that report is correct, is it worth going on this upgrade trip in 
> the first place ? Thanks in advance for any pointers.

The MacWeek article is really just "manufactured news".  For example, it 
points out that the Mac OS doesn't currently use SCSI DMA, and without it, 
the SCSI runs slightly slower on the IIfx than it does on the IIci.  
Frankly, I don't think anyone will notice the difference.  You *will* 
notice, however, that the entire system seems a *lot* snappier on the fx 
... even disk ops seem better because the fx is better at keeping the 
drive busy.

Just between the several thousand of us, the peak SCSI rate is not really 
that important compared to the actual access time of the disk drive 
itself.  If you want better I/O performance, get a disk with 10ms access 
time, not a system with 10% faster peak transfer rate.

Note that AUX uses SCSI DMA on the fx, so it is not wasted hardware.

---- Michael Teener -- 408-974-3521 ---------------------------------+
---- Internet teener@apple.com, AppleLink TEENER                     |
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