Mac Daniel's Advice

Have Quadra, PowerBook, Want Power Mac

Dan Knight - 1999.01.20

EK writes: I own a PowerBook 540c and a Quadra 650. I feel as if I got left at Penn Station watching the train of technology zip by.

Here are the details: PowerBook 540c 36/325 and 19.2 kbps internal modem. The Quadra 650 has 24/240 and a 14.4 kbps modem. I am interested in a Power Mac, but with my extremely small budget (I am a teen), I am not sure which to buy, if any.

Mac Daniel responds: In a house full of Macs, we only have one Power Mac. It's mine - and its the computer everyone wants to use because of the speed (and ability to play PowerPC-only games). It was just six months ago that I upgraded from a 20 MHz Centris 610 to a 180 MHz 604e-based SuperMac J700 speedster, so I know the feeling of being left behind.

My oldest sons, both teens, have 68040-based Macs (my old Centris and an LC II with an accelerator) and would also love Power Macs. I have a feeling that will be the first major purchase for each.

My advice is to buy a Power Mac with the standard CPU card, which gives you the option of dropping in a faster, more efficient CPU in the future. The most widely available and generally least expensive one is the Power Mac 7500, which usually has a 100 MHz 601 processor and sometimes sells for under $600. Good alternatives, if you can find them, are the SuperMac J700 and Power Computing PowerCenter.

For a bit less money, you may be able to find a SuperMac C500 or C600. Both have ZIF sockets for the CPU, and it is possible to upgrade either to a G3. These were the least expensive Maclones designed for processor upgrades, although the upgrades must be specifically designed for their ZIF socket.

There are upgrade options for other Power Macs and Maclones, but they were never designed with such upgrades in mind. This means the upgrades won't be as widely available or affordable as on models with CPU cards.

One more option should be available soon, the Presto PPC upgrade from Sonnet. Their news release promises 100 MHz PowerPC 601 performance (including a 1 MB cache) for $399. The card should be practically plug-and-play with your 650, since it plugs right into the processor direct slot (PDS) on the motherboard.

Based on a design by Apple and Daystar, the Presto PPC may be the most practical way to move to a PowerPC and greatly improve performance (up to five times faster) if you're otherwise satisfied with the capabilities of your Quadra.

The upgrade should be available by the end of the month. I've contacted Sonnet in hopes of obtaining one to review. More details if that works out.

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Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

Recent Mac Daniel columns

How to Recover from a Beige G3 Startup Error, Dan Knight, 2012.07.19. If you're not careful, installing OS X 10.2 Jaguar can create an unbootable Beige Power Mac G3. How to fix it - and how to avoid the problem.
Port Wars: Thunderbolt vs. USB 3, PCIe Cable, and FireWire, Dan Knight, 2012.06.14. Thunderbolt is very fast, USB 3 half as fast, FireWire is on the ropes, and PCIe Cable could blow away Thunderbolt.
OWC Legacy SSD Tested in Mystic Power Mac G4, Dan Knight, 2011.07.15. G4 Power Macs don't have built-in SATA support, and most SSDs are SATA devices. OWC's legacy SSDs work on the older Mac's IDE bus.
More in the Mac Daniel index.

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