I know these are very rare and hard to get, but hey, I'll give it a try. The title pretty much sums it up, I'm looking for a LC 4xx / 5xx compatible PowerPC upgrade card, such as the "APMPU", DayStar PowerCard 601, Sonnet Presto PPC 605. Can't give an estimate on how much I'd be willing to pay, but let's put it that way - "reasonable" - I'll appreciate any offer! Thanks!
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B . Dressler / at / gmx . net
WTB: LC 4xx / 5xx compatible PowerPC 601 Upgrade Card
January 31, 2005 - 1:37am
#1
WTB: LC 4xx / 5xx compatible PowerPC 601 Upgrade Card
don't know if this is what you are looking for , but i have a DayStar Turbo601 card. can't remember what i took it out of.several stickers on it but looks like around '93 or '94 vintage.
AFAIK the Daystar card that fits an LC 4xx/5xx is always called the PowerCard. The Turbo 601, I believe, is a NuBus card that is not compatible with the LC-PDS slot - or the small interior room - of the LC 4xx/5xx series.
FWIW I have one of these cards (installed in a "PowerMystic" Color Classic), and while it's great fun to have it, and while it does provide some speed increase over the original '040 CPU, I can confirm online reports that it doesn't provide much of a speed boost in everyday operation.
If you bump up an LC 4xx/5xx's CPU from an 'LC040 to a full '040 - and if you overclock it to, say 40MHz, you'll probably wind up with a system that's competitive with a 66MHz PowerCard-based unit in most respects. Similarly, if you up the RAM and put in a bigger (which usually means newer and faster) HD, you'll get some performance increase as well, at a fraction of the price of a 601 upgrade card.
Of course, the 601 card does allow one to run PPC-native software. And if you can find one of the incredibly rare 100MHz versions of the 601 card, then you should jump at it (assuming it's less than $100).
Matt
Daystar's Turbo 601 directly fits the IIci cache slot, plus worked in II, IIx, IIsi, (more?) with adapters.
Those PowerCards are scarce! I've got a couple of the slower version, one in a working Mystic and the other in storage with a couple of broken pins.
I figured I'd try and fix it somehow, just haven't got around to it (yet.)
I always wanted the 100mHz version, last one I saw on eBay sold for well over $300, might have been two years ago now though. I bet even now a 100 would beat $200 easily, crazy as it might seem.
dan k