Mac Daniel's Advice

Mac II, IIci, LC III Questions

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Damon sent this letter:

I was hoping you could help me with a couple of things. I wanted to know if the LC III can take the same type of 72-pin SIMM as your standard Intel machine? Also, can an LC III support more than 36 MB?

Mac Daniel writes:

I can't answer definitively on other 72-pin SIMMs, but they should work. And the LC III is limited to 36 MB of memory.

KH sent this letter:

I picked up a IIci for $5 at a thrift shop just so I could put in a NOS (new old stock) MediaVision audio I/O board I saw that elsewhere for $35. Last Saturday, I found a NOS video digitizer board (stills only) for $1.50. I love finding old, cheap expansion cards, especially when they're "new." My question is, how will performance on this be improved by replacing the stock 32k cache with the 64k cache that Digitek is clearing out for $9?

Mac Daniel writes:

Back when the IIci was hot, MacUser and Macworld both tested an assortment of 32 KB, 64 KB, and even 128 KB cache cards for the IIci. None provided a noticeable improvement over the Apple card - and some required special software drivers that were never updated for newer versions of the Mac OS.

Because you already have a cache card, there's no reason to replace it. (For anyone with a IIci who doesn't have a cache card, however, it's a must - it boosts performance 15-30%.)

JS sent this letter:

I want to give my daughter my old, original Mac II, which I have upgraded over the years (030/50 MHz accelerator card, 2.2 GB hard drive, 20 MB RAM, using 0S 7.5.3, etc.) and works fine but, of course, somewhat slow. However, the original Apple RGB 14" monitor is no longer sharp and clear. I would like to upgrade to a compatible monitor, and I guess I will need to upgrade the video card as well?

Do you have any advice? I would prefer a 15" new monitor (Apple or other) but are there any compatible with my Mac II as presently setup?

Mac Daniel writes:

The folks at Griffin Technology <http://www.griffintechnology.com/> make a host of adapters for using new monitors with old Macs, old monitors on Power Macs, and PC monitors on Macs, along with a few other neat Mac peripherals.

Over the years Apple has made some changes to their video circuitry, so some of the "universal" adapters won't work with your Mac II video card. Their Griffin II Series Video Adapter lets you use a Macintosh or PC monitor, even multisync, with the ancient Mac II video card. At $28 plus shipping, this gives you a lot of monitor options. (Griffin makes separate versions for the Mac DB-15 video connector and the PC HD-15 video connector.)

Knowing that, finding a good, affordable monitor becomes a lot easier.

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.

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