Andre Sean Brown <ASB110@psuvm.psu.edu> (03/29/91)
I have a Mac SE and I intend to upgrade it to a color machine. However, I can't make up my mind as to which route I should take. Should I try to upgrade my SE to the SE/30 and then later buy a 8-bit color board for the '30 direct slot in the SE/30, or should I sell my 1 meg SE and try to buy a Si? It seems that the price difference is not significant since I'll need to shell out money for the video card anyway if I choose to upgrade my SE to a SE/30. But I would need a math coprocesser if I decide to buy a Si. What do you people think? Has anyone out there actually have done the SE to SE/30 upgrade? What is the cost? Does the upgrade include memory increase and conversion of the 800k disk drives to FD/HD drives? What if I have dual 800k drives? Do I get 2 super- drives in return? What if I take out one of the 800k drives and sell it? Would I still get a superdrive since I would still have one 800k drive left? Please send your response to me via e-mail. Thanks in advance.
afry@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Alan R. Fry) (03/30/91)
In article <91088.131742ASB110@psuvm.psu.edu> ASB110@psuvm.psu.edu (Andre Sean Brown) writes: >I have a Mac SE and I intend to upgrade it to a color machine. However, I >can't make up my mind as to which route I should take. Should I try to upgrade >my SE to the SE/30 and then later buy a 8-bit color board for the '30 direct >slot in the SE/30, or should I sell my 1 meg SE and try to buy a Si? It seems >that the price difference is not significant since I'll need to shell out money >for the video card anyway if I choose to upgrade my SE to a SE/30. But I would >need a math coprocesser if I decide to buy a Si. What do you people think? >Has anyone out there actually have done the SE to SE/30 upgrade? What is the >cost? Does the upgrade include memory increase and conversion of the 800k disk >drives to FD/HD drives? What if I have dual 800k drives? Do I get 2 super- >drives in return? What if I take out one of the 800k drives and sell it? Would >I still get a superdrive since I would still have one 800k drive left? Please >send your response to me via e-mail. Thanks in advance. I went through this myself a couple of months ago, and I ended up buying an SE/30. Here were my main reasons: - Price. I could get an SE/30 with color and a 13" monitor, 8 meg RAM, and a 105MB hard drive for about $3300. The similar IIsi would have only 5 meg RAM, an 80MB hard drive, and I would have to get a coprocessor extra, all for about $3700. - Portability. I don't move my SE/30 around much, but it is nice to be able to with out much difficulty. The same is not true of the IIsi. - Memory. The IIsi can only have 5 meg with 1 meg simms (although it can have 17 meg with 4 meg simms). I didn't feel like shelling out the bucks for the 4 meg simms, and I didn't want to be stuck with only 5 meg (since there are only 4 simm sockets). Furthermore, the built in video on the IIsi takes up system memory, and it slows down the processor somewhat. - Configuration. At the time, I was able to get an SE/30 with no hard disk. This allowed me to buy my own hard disk at substantially lower prices than what Apple charges for theirs. Unfortunatly, you can no longer get the diskless SE/30, so this argument doesn't apply much to your situation. - Power. There are some cards that just suck up too much power for the IIsi power supply. This wasn't a big consideration, but it might come up if you got a 24 bit color card. - Screen space. If you do get a 13" monitor and card, you still have the 9" SE/30 screen at your disposal for whatever. I still haven't found the bucks to get a color monitor, and the 9" screen is pretty cramped, but for now I'll survive. Here are some of the thing I gave up by not getting the IIsi. - Speed. The IIsi is a bit faster (20MHz vs. 16Hz) than the SE/30. I am a speed junky, but the SE/30 seems to be fast enough for now. Eventually I will probably get an 040 card, so it won't make much difference then. - 512K ROMs. In principle, Apple could release these on a simm, and I could just plug it in to my SE/30, but it might be a looooonnng time before they do that. For the most part, though, this isn't going to affect me any time soon. I still have Quickdraw, virtual memory capability, etc. with my 256K ROMs, so again, no real complaint. - Expandability. If you get the Nu-Bus expansion card for the IIsi, you have a lot more options for expanding the IIsi than with the direct slot in the SE/30. This wasn't a very big consideration for me. There are always things like external expansion boxes you can get (for almost any Mac) if you are really serious about expansion. - Sound input. Something that would be fun to have, but I seem to get along without it. Still, it is pretty sharp to have your computer say (in your voice) "Hi there!" when you turn on your computer.... I hope this input helps you decide. Cheers. Alan -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Alan R Fry | You know what I hate? | | afry@uhura.cc.rochester.edu | Rhetorical questions. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+