Thread

Powermac 6500 MB in Performa 6400?

68kMLA Hardware 21 posts Mar 24, 2009 to Jun 11, 2009

#1 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 - 23:08 68kMLA

I have always wondered if the motherboard from a Powermac 6500 could be used in a Performa 6400. I've had a 6400/180 for years and thought it would be cool to stick a 300MHz board from a 6500 in there just for kicks. About the only difference I can see is the lack of built in RAM and the 6500's graphics card. Has anyone ever tried to do this?

#2 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 - 23:10 68kMLA

Yes, it's a straight swap

Not sure what you mean by the 6500's graphics card, it's pretty similar to the 6400.

JB

#3 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 - 23:14 68kMLA

Well MacTracker lists the 6500 as having an ATI Rage IIc with 2mb of SGRAM and the 6400 as having no card, but 1Mb of DRAM. Also, I just realized I put this in the 68k forum, sorry about that.

#4 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 - 23:27 68kMLA

Yup, I've done it more times than I can count. The 5400 and 6400 are identical, and the 5500 and 6500 are identical. So I've often popped the 5500 board into the 6400, and vice-versa.

Other than a speedbump, graphic, and memory differences, power requirements and all that are pretty much identical with the 5/6400 and 5/6500 series.

#5 Wed, 25 Mar 2009 - 00:00 68kMLA

I have a 6500 MB in my 6400. The built in video is ATI on the 6500 and some crappy Apple one on the 6400. Just a simple swap.

#6 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 - 04:12 68kMLA

Cool. Maybe if I have some spare cash this summer I'll buy one. I never really use the thing anymore, but I'd love to have a Pre-G3 system running at 300MHz. I figure with an ATA hard drive, it has pretty good potential as a dedicated 9.1 machine.

#7 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 - 04:39 68kMLA

The ATA on the 6500 isn't that great (ata/33 I think), but usable. I run 7.6.1 on mine I think or 8.1. Mine has the TV tuner which is worthless these days.

#8 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 - 13:24 68kMLA

Mine has the TV tuner which is worthless these days.

Those are total garbage. I have several in my Macs, and the quality is horrid.

#9 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 - 14:14 68kMLA

Not to mention that when analog telly goes off the air, they'll be rendered useless anyhoo...you'll have to get a digital STB and connect it to the ports on the Video System card.

#10 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 - 14:28 68kMLA

Not to mention that when analog telly goes off the air, they'll be rendered useless anyhoo...you'll have to get a digital STB and connect it to the ports on the Video System card.

I would be willing to bet that most people in the US have a set top box of some sort.

#11 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 - 21:32 68kMLA

The ATA on the 6500 isn't that great (ata/33 I think), but usable. I run 7.6.1 on mine I think or 8.1. Mine has the TV tuner which is worthless these days.

Ya that ATA sucks, but its a lot easier to find decent sized ATA drives than SCSI ones like on most older Macs. Who knows, I'd have to get more RAM in it though.

#12 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 - 22:54 68kMLA

You could always fill one of the PCI slots with a SCSI or faster ATA card. I think the 6400 Zone has info on that:

http://zone6400.com

#13 Wed, 1 Apr 2009 - 10:34 68kMLA

Mine has the TV tuner which is worthless these days.

Click to expand...

Those are total garbage. I have several in my Macs, and the quality is horrid.

They appear to sample the TV signal at 320x240, so the result is really blocky. You can eliminate static with a good antenna or analog cable service, but you can't get rid of the blockiness.

The ATA on the 6500 isn't that great (ata/33 I think), but usable. I run 7.6.1 on mine I think or 8.1. Mine has the TV tuner which is worthless these days.

I don't think it's even ATA/33. I think it's the older 16 MB stuff. The stock 4 GB hard drive in a Power Mac 6500 is slow as hell though. Almost any newer drive will be faster and speed up the 6500 significantly.

#14 Thu, 2 Apr 2009 - 04:16 68kMLA

Stick a G3 upgrade in the L2 cache slot, a Sonnet Tempo Trio in one PCI, and a better video (in and out) card in t'other.

#15 Thu, 2 Apr 2009 - 12:36 68kMLA

Stick a G3 upgrade in the L2 cache slot, a Sonnet Tempo Trio in one PCI, and a better video (in and out) card in t'other.

You are aware the Sonnet's page only lists Windows XP/Vista? I'm going to assume that you can just plug it in and use it without drivers/extensions.

#16 Mon, 6 Apr 2009 - 12:48 68kMLA

I wouldn't assume that if I were you. I contacted Sonnet about that, and was told that they had discontinued the Mac version of that card.

You can however still pick them up occasionally on you-know-where.

#17 Tue, 9 Jun 2009 - 18:48 68kMLA

http://cgi.ebay.com/Power-Mac-6500-series-MOTHERBOARD-extra-video-ethernet_W0QQitemZ330336445832QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ce9962588&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A2102|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

#18 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 - 18:31 68kMLA

http://cgi.ebay.com/Power-Mac-6500-series-MOTHERBOARD-extra-video-ethernet_W0QQitemZ330336445832QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ce9962588&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A2102|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

Are you the seller by chance? I was actually just looking at that board. Since it has the AV inputs and outputs, is it safe to assume its at least 250MHz? Or was it possible to add that stuff to a slower board? I'd really like to get a 275-300MHz board, but I guess 250 isn't all that bad.

#19 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 - 19:09 68kMLA

No, I am sorry, it isn't mine...just thought it'd be useful. There were 225 Mhz versions. I found it hard to tell the difference between the 225, 250, and 275 ones. I had a 300 Mhz one once, and it overheated a lot.

#20 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 - 23:05 68kMLA

Or was it possible to add that stuff to a slower board?

The video input card is an Apple Video System card, which will work on any Performa with a video-in slot. the Video outputs look like they connect to the auxuilary external video connector on the logic board, which leads me to assume that that too should work on any Performa with that slot.

#21 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 - 03:39 68kMLA

Found out its a 250MHz board. I'm tempted, but at the same time I feel like if I'm gonna blow the money on a useless machine, I may as well shoot for at least a 275-300MHz board.