changwoo@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Chang P. Woo) (11/25/89)
I am thinking of upgrading my SE to a faster machine and like to know what options are. 1. I could sell my SE and buy a SE/30. (Surely, I would rather have IIci instead, but price is the main factor for me.) I can buy a SE/30 with internal 40 MB hard drive from the college for about $3000, and I am now *legally* allowed to sell my SE 20 (which is officially two years old, but the all parts except the hard drive is hardly five months old. It is a long story). 2. I could attach an accelerator to my SE. Well, if I choose to get an acclerator, what are my choices? I am looking for following features from an accelerator. a. 020 with PMMU socket or 030. If I am spending money for upgrading my machine, I want it to compatible with future Macintoshes. Oh, 16 mhz is good enough. I am not in market for faster CPU than 16 mhz. b. socket for FPU. I am not sure whether I would buy FPU right away, but I would like to keep it an option for future. c. RAM. I have 2.5 mb RAM in my machine. I wouldn't mind buying two more 1 mb SIMM, but I don't want to throw away my current 1 mb SIMMs (120ns). I should be able to use it directly (Radius accelerator does it, doesn't it?) or should be able to put my SIMMs to the accelerator. d. Price. Again, as a poor college student, price IS a main consideration. If I can sell my SE (what would be a right price to sell?) and buy SE/30 with less money than I would otherwise spend from the accelerator, I would definitely go for SE/30. Thanks in advance, Chang -- Chang P. Woo | Chang.P.Woo@dartmouth.EDU (preferred) | changwoo@eleazar.dartmouth.EDU | HB 4489, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (11/25/89)
In article <17248@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> chang.woo@dartmouth.edu (Chang P. Woo) writes: >I am thinking of upgrading my SE to a faster machine and like to know >what options are. > >1. I could sell my SE and buy a SE/30. (Surely, I would rather have IIci >instead, but price is the main factor for me.) You could also just get the motherboard swap upgrade kit for the SE to the SE/30, which retails for $1939.30, but would be somewhat less with the university discount. This is more economical than a complete trade, I'm sure. (You might also want to get the FDHD drive upgrade, which is $299.40 undiscounted.) The SE/30 Upgrade Kit is part number M0713, and the FDHD internal drive is M0247. (You can only use the FDHD drive with an upgraded SE -> SE/30, by the way; getting just an FDHD for the SE costs more and is part number M6052.) The SE/30 is a 16MHz 68030 processor, which could be expected to run three or four times faster than an 8MHz 68000 like the standard SE. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com If you vote for clowns, you have no right to complain that only clowns make it to the ballot.
chris@sunset.ncsl.nist.gov (Chris Schanzle) (12/08/89)
changwoo@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Chang P. Woo) writes: >I am thinking of upgrading my SE to a faster machine and like to know >what options are. [upgrade to SE deleted] >2. I could attach an accelerator to my SE. >...looking for following features from an accelerator. [features are 68020/030, 16MHz, 68881FPU, RAM, and price wishes] When I was considering upgrading my Plus, I saw a great ad in the back of MacWeek from Total Systems (99 W 10th Ave, Suite 333; Eugene Ore. 97401; (800) 874-2288). The board is called the Gemini 020/030 and can work interchangeably in 128K/512K/Plus *and* SE. It's a board that has sockets for BOTH 68020/030, 68881 OR 68882 math FPU, high-speed SCSI chip (no more of this 1:5 or 1:3 interleave B.S. - 1:1 is where it's at!), 1 to 4 Mb RAM (fast), built-in Video expansion, and utility software. The utility software used to include a pgm to copy the ROMs into the higher speed RAM on the board for quicker access. Ram left on the motherboard is accessable at the "top" of memory (e.g., as you fill up w/MultiFinder, the last big application may run slightly slower). I talked to the guys at length since they were the only ones who would sell an accelerator board WITHOUT a CPU for a significantly less money. [I have a 68020 hanging on my wall from a 20Mhz workstation.] The board can use the Virtual INIT, and they promise System 7 compatibility. Note, however, it doesn't have a socket for a PMMU, so you MUST use a 68030. I decided not to upgrade since I don't use my Mac at home much anymore and I wanted to SEE System 7 to see if it (sys 7) was worth it. However, I'm sure I would have purchased from them -- they were very knowledgeable and courteous and were willing to work with me. The board (8 months ago) cost around $800-$900 bare (w/o CPU, FPU, or RAM). I suggest you look at other vendors for lower cost chips (especially RAM) for your specific needs. >Thanks in advance, >Chang P. Woo | Chang.P.Woo@dartmouth.EDU (preferred) ...anytime... #include <std_disclaimer.h> ____________ "Time is simply a fiction created Chris Schanzle, Computer Scientist to explain why everything doesn't NIST chris@sunset.ncsl.nist.gov happen all at once."