I’m posting this in IMHO because i want opinions on my actions here, and perhaps some suggestions if possible. It’s not so general. I’ve come into the posession of my sisters old computer. a Mac Performa 6116CD. Wer’e talking 60Mhz, 32MB RAM, a 700MB Hard Drive, built in ethernet, HDI45 video port which i’ve already ordered the adapter for to DB15, has the CD ROM, and two serial and one SCSI ports. I managed to put together an ensemble of a mouse, keyboard, speakers, and am awaiting the ordered adapter so i can connect the thing to a switchbox. i want to network it to my PIII 500, and am planning on adding a seperate box running Linux. Should i bother trying to upgrade the Performa via an accelerator card? Is it worth it you think?
I might just buy myself an iMac as well for the HD space and processor speed, but my main goal here is to use the Performa for graphics applications i don’t feel like running on my PC. I have the same software for both Macs and PCs. All i wanna run on this thing is Photoshop5.5 and QuarkXPress4.1, maybe Illustrator8 or 9 if possible, but the Performa only runs System 7.5 if i’m correct. Any suggestions or help mightily appreciated… tanx!
For a question like this, you may want to try the macaddict forum. It might take you a day or two to get an answer, but some of those people know the Macintosh very well.
An accelerator will greatly increase the speed of your machine, but in the modern era of the very-cheap computer, I can’t recommend an accelerator unless you absolutely cannot, in any way whatsoever, afford a new machine. The money you’d put into an accelerator just isn’t worth it when, with a new machine, you’ll receive many new benefits, like USB, FireWire, faster video, faster RAM, a speedy cache, and generally better system snappiness. Unless you’re married to that machine, vote “NO” on Proposition Accelerator.
If you do decide to go for just a processor upgrade, a couple of my friends have had good experiences with Sonnet accelerator cards. They’ll bump you to a G3 or G4 of various speeds for $150-500. The actual speed benefits depend a little on your existing hardware (I’m not familiar with what limitations a 61XX has), but the speed boost is considerable.
The only drawback was an increase in crashing. Sonnet cards do not replace the old motherboard entirely; rather, they plug into either the L2 cache slot or the Nubus slot, depending on you machine, and rely on an extension to work.
But, as mentioned, you can probably get better opinions at Macaddict…
Some other good websites for this info are :
(say the letters out loud to understand what it’s about)
This is a very good site, with information on every model, plus some links to other good places.
panama jack
(who owns a mac)
thanx. i’m not married to the machine or anything. i just have it free, so i might as well make some good use of it. it’s not dead in the water, and i remember using it before when it was my sisters, i was able to do plenty of good graphic design on it. so i figured better than chucking it, use it, network it to my system at home and have myself an extra bit of space even. maybe let SETI run through it…
the other option is to sell it as a completed unit to someone who wants a decent low end home machine and take the money from that sale, plus the money you would have spent on the accelerator card, and buy yourself a bottom end brand new machine. Probably not much difference in cash but quite a difference in performance!!
I have done this myself a number of times but I do love to acquire old machines!!.. I have a Macintosh Plus in here somewhere! chuckle … or my dual CPU 486 SX33 IBM PS/2 server
MDE
This is basically a 6100 PowerMac, right? I have one of those. I don’t think you can run the latest version of Photoshop 5.5 very well, or at all, on that machine. It requires at least 64 megs of available RAM. You’d be better with Photoshop 4 on that machine. (That’s what I have on my PPC, and it has 72 megs of RAM.) A RAM upgrade would cost a lot - you have to rip out the existing RAM chips and put the new ones in. This can cost - maybe $125. And then there’s the processor upgrade, as well. I see the prices are about $200, at the least. Add that, and the RAM, and you could almost buy a used iMac. I think your current configuration could glean $60+ on eBay, more if monitor is included.
I’d sell this machine on eBay, and get an iMac, or somewhat faster beige PowerMac. Get one with PCI slots, that way you can add a USB card. A used, low end iMac is about $500-$600 on eBay. It doesn’t make sense to put money into an upgrade, and still end up with a machine that doesn’t have USB.
Oh, and do check out the forums at http://www.macfixit.com! They can give you far more specific advice, and are VERY helpful.
thanx again. yosemitebabe, this has 64MB RAM, and i can get the ram free actually, not much, but enough to push it to the 72MB RAM limit. We’ve got some old Quadra’s and an 8500 here at work, i’m using them for parts as well, they won’t let me take the machines home, but i can strip them down 
:rolleyes:
so slowly i will end up with most likely an 8500 at home inside some other type of case… sly devil that i am. but i really wouldn’t bother even selling the 6116 if it might only get me $60, i will indeed buy myself an iMac simply to have a good Mac running on my home network to do my graphics and test web pages on the Mac as well as PC. My ultimate goal again is to have a Mac, WindowsPC, and Linux box all running on one network in my home so i can do what i need to do as far as web site design and web site maintenance. But it’s fun keeping the extra littel 486’s and PPCs around connected to the network. I figure i can use them for things like Distiller servers, Mail servers, just plain extra drive space, and of course, to eventually give away to some poor kid in my hood so he can start learning on a real machine like i did.
Soulsling- MicroWarehouse carries the part dri3286 for $199 including shipping. it upgrades any 61XX series to a G3 250. I hope this helps. Email me if you want, a buddy of mine works there- I can get you his extension.
I’ve had the same question about an old Performa. I’m reaching the conclusion that upgrading is short-lived and expensive relative to the new cheap computers that are out there.
Ok. So perhaps i won’t bother upgrading then, everyone seems to be in agreement that it’s not much more costly to just get a new machine, so that’s what i’m going to do since i’ve been considering spending the money anyway. But i’m going to keep the Performa on my network regardless, perhaps i’ll find a use for it somehow. May eventually hand it down to one of the kids in the hood if they take in interest in computers.
Sounds like a plan. I am hanging onto my 6100, my mom is learning to use it. (It’ll become “her” computer. She’s thrilled.) It gets on the interenet fine, can run Photoshop 4, word processing, and still has a lot of life in it. It just isn’t going to run Photoshop 5.5 without some money going into it to upgrade.
An old PowerMac keep it’s usefulness a lot longer than an old Pentium, IMO.