Performa 6360 added

[sunvalleylaw]

So, ... I ended up with a Performa 6360 nearly free ($25), along with a purchase of an Apple "Trinitron" CRT and another vintage computer a local seller was offloading very inexpensively before moving. )He even through in a 6116CD with a missing HD for free. I took it because the pizza box case was in good shape.

The 6360 is not something I was seeking, but it is a bit nostalgic for me as I had the 6200CD as my main computer when I went out on my own as a solo lawyer in 1995. that machine got me through a year or two, along with some peripherals and a HP 5MP printer that worked for me until into the 2010's sometime (amazing machine from when HP seemed bulletproof). Along with work, I enjoyed my 90's alt rock music on the Launch CD-ROM mags, and played Myst (poorly, but enjoying the scenes and vibe).

So anyway, the collection grows.

 

[Trash80toG4]

6360's a great machine. Got a refurb from the User Group Connection when it was current with memory upgrade and Sonnetization planned. Pulled the speaker out of its nook and hooked it up to stereo speakers. Bent the harness backstop out of the way and installed a full length Radius VidCard to splay 1600x1200 pixels across the 21" Radius TPD as my main graphics workstation setup. Still have it!

 

[GiGaBiTe]

I think you'll enjoy the 6360 far more than the 6200CD you had decades ago.

The 6200CD was a turd of a design, Apple basically took the Quadra 630 and removed the 68040 and jimmy rigged a 603 CPU on it. It was a 64 bit bus CPU on a 32 bit bus at half the CPU speed, and it had a bunch of problems from the 680x0 bus conversion ASICs they used to make the old support chips work.

I had the fastest variant of that design 20 odd years ago, the 6320CD. Even with a 120 MHz 603, it was still very slow. I wasn't too upset when the PSU died and took out the logic board. The only real use for them is they have a 68030 style PDS slot, which can be used if you have old LC style PDS cards kicking around.

If you pick up one of those Comm slot Ethernet cards, you can use the single PCI slot for a faster video card. Or if you want to move some stuff around inside the case, you can install a dual PCI slot riser from a 6400/6500 and have two PCI cards.

 

[Trash80toG4]

. . . if you want to move some stuff around inside the case, you can install a dual PCI slot riser from a 6400/6500 and have two PCI cards.

That doesn't work out so well, took a look at it. But if I finally get around to learning to use current PCB layout tools or rope someone into designing the boards for me this TwinSlotPCI riser for 6360/5400/5500 and another just for TAM are eminently doable:

Twin PCI Riser Project for TAM, 6360, 5x00 Single Slot PowerMacs.

Silly question: has anyone ever removed the backplane plate and RJ-45 connector to fit a CSII NIC directly into mobo slot? Looks like there might just be room enough to do that. You can trim quite a bit off that end of the board too. Lop it off right up to the thruholes for the RJ. The only...

68kmla.org

 

[GiGaBiTe]

It's been a long time since I put a dual slot riser in my 6360, but I remember it colliding with the frame where the TV tuner board sits. I remember being able to make it work, as long as the upper card didn't need any external connections, if the metal frame was removed. This limits its usefulness to things like disk controller or wireless cards. Or if some soldering was involved, rerouting ports to different locations.

I was more thinking along the lines of having a split board with a ribbon cable between the two, with the upper slot being in the bay where the TV tuner would go. This of course would mean you couldn't remove the logic board through the back of the case, you'd have to remove the lid first and disconnect parts before you could pull the logic board out.

Not entirely sure how the PCI bus would deal with signal integrity on a ribbon cable, but with weird backplane shapes with the likes of LPX and NLX risers, I'd figure it'd be fine for just a couple of inches.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Yep, I took out the shelf space for tuner, but the fan is in the way for a full height card IIRC. A low profile card in the top slot worked for you? The bottom slot doesn't align with the backplane cutout when using the 6x00 PCI Riser if memory serves.

Cable based PCI risers for 1U conversions are commonly about five inches long and work fine for a single card. I need to chop mod a pair of them to lay the personality card over for my BeigeG3/2U build. ATM it's a 3U experimental which works fine, but 2U is the goal . . . with a custom PCB to lay the card over.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

The cards I was trying definitely weren't full height. I think I had a low profile NIC and an Adaptec 50 pin SCSI card that was mediumish profile and barely fit.

I forgot the size of the fan, but I wonder if using a slim fan to replace the fat fan would give enough room for a full height card.

 

[Trash80toG4]

IIRC the fan config can't really be modified in terms of where it vents from the PSU, but I'm running on fumes ATM.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

I'm not saying to move the fan, just use a thinner fan. I think the stock fan is 20 or 25mm thick. You can get 15mm fans fairly easily, and there are also some super slim ones down to 11mm like this: https://akasa.co.uk/search.php?seed=AK-FN076

I don't remember if the 6360 uses a 80 or 92mm fan, but there are slim fans available in both sizes.

 

[Trash80toG4]

My concern is at what level of the fan housing air is extracted from the PSU. If it's not at the bottom of the fan housing as I very vaguely recall, then it might be workable, but likely not.

Methinks this is a good point to break this tangent out into a dedicated thread?