re Performa 5320CD Replacement
From Pete Tyler
You had suggested to Pablo [in Replacing a
Performa 5320CD] that he go for an iMac or G3 Power Mac. I'd differ
from that slightly. I'd tell him to buy 7300 or 7600 series Power Mac with a G3
upgrade and a cheap generic PCI USB card. These are cheap, highly
reliable, and easily upgradeable boxes. You can't go wrong with
'em.
Hi Pete,
There are any number of upgradable PCI Macs or clones
that would do the job. I was thinking of something with built-in USB
and ethernet.However, my son and I both have Umax S900s upgraded with USB and FireWire
cards, and they work great. Baucom Computers has 200 MHz
S900s for $55 plus shipping.
Charles
About the 5320 Upgrade
From Carlos Bragatto
Hello LEM-mates
About the 5320 upgrade,
the user can do the following quite cheaply:
Get a complete 5400/5500 motherboard (by complete I
mean complete with PRAM battery, PCI slots riser and memory), a cheap
Realtek 8139C based PCI ethernet card, and a cheap USB PCI card.
Getting a 5500/250 motherboard would be pretty nice, since it already
has ATI Rage 3D onboard video and can be easily overclocked to
300 MHz. It may become a pretty smart machine; all you have to do is
pull out the old motherboard and put the newer one in. The performance
boost will be unbelievable.
If you want, you can get a Comm Slot 2 ethernet card and leave one
PCI slot free, and get a USB+FireWire PCI card, spending a little bit
more.
I believe that the user won't spend more than US$70 to do all that,
offers for such items pop in every week on LEM Swap list. On
eBay, look for the user olde-mac-milt; he usually has them all.
See ya.
Carlos Bragatto, Americana/Brazil
Thanks Carlos. Useful tips all.
Charles
Re: Replacing a Performa 5320CD
From T R
I don't think I can count the number of times I've explained that
there is no SCSI to USB adapter.
SCSI is a general-purpose system bus that's faster than USB, but the
economics are just against making a USB adapter for SCSI. To make a USB
adapter, the manufacturer would have to make a whole new USB host
controller (there are three types on the market now, two for 12 Mbps
USB and one for 480 Mbps USB) or a complicated device complete with CPU
and PCI controller and software so it could operate under the control
of the Mac. Then you have to have a driver on the Mac. All this for
slow computers belonging to a small and shrinking market.
As I remember, there used to be printers, scanners, ethernet
interfaces, even a display adapter, all that used SCSI. Now it's
apparently not worth the effort.
On the other hand, to make a PCI USB adapter, the manufacturer can
contract out to one of the existing makers of USB host controllers, use
Apple's existing drivers, and set up marketing. Much cheaper and
easier, and probably more profitable.
And, according to the 5260
profile that you have linked in your article, you can indeed get a
PCI slot by replacing the motherboard and back plate. I call that a
relatively easy operation.
Now, there are adapters to go between USB and SCSI, but those are
strictly to attach SCSI peripherals to USB-equipped Macs. Unless some
have been updated for USB 2, they're also deathly slow. I guess those
could be profitable because they're intended for a growing market
segment, and it's probably relatively easy to send SCSI commands
through USB.
For a given USB to SCSI adapter, one way to be reasonably sure that
it's meant for SCSI peripherals is to check what type of USB port it
has. Since USB is strictly host-based (disregarding USB-to-USB cables
meant for connecting laptops to desktops or such), the adapter should
have a plug that looks like the plug on the end of a mouse cable, or a
jack that looks like the jack on the back of a printer. If the adapter
has a jack that looks like the jacks on the back of computers, then it
very well might be a USB adapter for SCSI Macs.
Thanks for the informative tutorial. ;-)
Charles
Jason Walsh's Question
From Walter J. Ferstl
Hello Charles,
referring to Jason Walsh's question in Another
WallStreet Tale, Free WordPerfect for Mac, Dictation Software, and
More:
P.S. Quick non-PowerBook question. Do you know what I need to connect a
Silicon Graphics 20" GDM CRT monitor (Sony tube) to my Blue & White
G3 (or WallStreet PB if it'll ever get resurrected)? It's a fixed-sync
screen and is 'sync-on-green' with a 13w3 connector. ---
Jason's problem may be solved possibly with one of the adapters
available from Software
Integrators.
Even more probably one would need two of these adapters combined,
one of the adapters 7011 or 7012 for the 13w3-to-VGA adaptation and
another one (out of the 7041, 7052, 7053 adapters) for handling the
sync-on-green conversion part.
Similar adapters are available from Ram
Electronics and
Griffin Technology.
Regards,
Walter
Fixed Frequency Monitor and Mr. Walsh
From Mark McKenney
Dear Mr. Moore:
I previously sent a blurb about Griffin Technology and how they may
help Mr. Walsh determine if his B&W G3 could work with a SGI
monitor (Dec 8, 2003 column). I found another source that claims to
make a PCI card to work with a fixed frequency monitor, and also say to
call them for Mac "solutions" (it is an 800 number). The product page
mentions Windows drivers but nothing about Mac OS, so I do not know
just what Mac OS coverage they provide with their video cards. I have
not personally dealt with this company, as I do not own any fixed
frequency monitors.
http://www.si87.com/Products/Videocards/videocards.html
You may want to pass this on to Mr. Walsh.
Yours truly,
Mark McKenney
Sun/Apple Video Cable
From David Doyle
Charles,
Send this link off to Jason Walsh - http://www.cable-connection.com/cablec8.html
- they may have exactly what he needs, can't guarantee it'll be
cheap....
BTW, I'm giving up the Pismo to fund a Quicksilver, but it won't be
far off, my brother is getting it. Now needing a laptop, a friend had a
coffee stained 12" iBook with no backlight and a few dysfunctional
keys. After finding the right info and parts (inverter was shot), it's
back up and running. Lost some screws though. Lesson here: Don't drink
and compute.
Cheers,
Dave Doyle
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the cable link.
I destroyed my Macally iceKey keyboard last week by
spilling a drink into it. First time I've done that in more than a
decade of computing. :-(
Charles
re SGI Monitor Problem
From Christopher Yip
Charles
A good place to look for monitor cables is Software Integrators
Graphics Solutions.
I picked up a cable set from them that let me connect an SGI (nee
Sony) GDM17E11 fixed monitor to my PC/Mac.
Hope this helps.
Chris
SGI Monitor Cable
From SuperProz
http://www.reputable.com/indytech.html#PeeCee
Good info there. Also http://www.13w3.com/ (based in UK, might
have to ask about US shipping)
http://www.extron.com/product/product.asp?id=13w3vgaadapter&subtype=61
Wherever he purchases from, I think he might want to be mindful of
the return policy.
http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/13W3HD15MM.htm?x=21&y=8
That might do the trick. Or if the guy wants to make his own,
heh:
Interesting to note that there are several 13w3 connectors but
they are different for each vendor. Doh. Gotta be sure he gets
an SGI cable/adaptor.
Monitor Adapter
From David Deckert
Jason is already ahead of the game if knows the particulars about
his SG monitor. He needs an adapter, maybe like
this one or
this one from Griffin Technology
Griffin also lists a Mac to 13W3 Cable which he may also need, or
perhaps it takes care of everything by itself?
David
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