Well, maybe it's time I returned here again, as I appear to have started the rain on aphetica's parade.
More positively, I rather like the 6400/6500, and applaud your efforts to breathe new life into one. Under OS 8.1/ 8.6 either of the two is rather snappy; the sound is great with (a couple of speakers and) the built-in subwoofer; they can be expanded to 128mb of ram, which is enough and more for running the software the 6400/6500 series was designed to run. They can serve as TVs with the add-in cards. The machines were essentially HOME multimedia stations for c. 1996-97, and they run the gaming software of the time nicely.
A decent graphics card will also make a world of difference to a 6400 in particular, the graphic capabilities of which were limited. So by all means, upgrade your unit. I merely suggested that it is not the sort of project that ought to absorb great wads of cash, as the high-end graphics cards and the 6400/6500 are not a good match. I agree with a previous post: an IXMicro Twin Turbo or similar would be a good match for the machine, and complement its native abilities very well. My 6500 with the Voodoo 3 runs very well, and will even play something like the early Tomb Raider games. It's best, however, in 2D mode.
More positively, I rather like the 6400/6500, and applaud your efforts to breathe new life into one. Under OS 8.1/ 8.6 either of the two is rather snappy; the sound is great with (a couple of speakers and) the built-in subwoofer; they can be expanded to 128mb of ram, which is enough and more for running the software the 6400/6500 series was designed to run. They can serve as TVs with the add-in cards. The machines were essentially HOME multimedia stations for c. 1996-97, and they run the gaming software of the time nicely.
A decent graphics card will also make a world of difference to a 6400 in particular, the graphic capabilities of which were limited. So by all means, upgrade your unit. I merely suggested that it is not the sort of project that ought to absorb great wads of cash, as the high-end graphics cards and the 6400/6500 are not a good match. I agree with a previous post: an IXMicro Twin Turbo or similar would be a good match for the machine, and complement its native abilities very well. My 6500 with the Voodoo 3 runs very well, and will even play something like the early Tomb Raider games. It's best, however, in 2D mode.