Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What's your FrankenMac like?
- Thread starter aquajet
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
MacDuffer said:A "Frankenmac" is a significantly upgraded Macintosh computer. Like mine!
Six years ago, it started out life as a humble Sawtooth Powermac. It has since been mangled into a perversion of science!!
- Single G4/450MHz w/ no L3 cache --> Dual 1.3GHz G4 w/ 2MB L3 per CPU
- 128MB RAM --> 2GB RAM
- 20GB 5400rpm ATA66 --> 2X180GB Hitachi 7200rpm 8MB cache drive (xServe drives), running off an ATA133 PCI card as a striped RAID
- DVD-ROM --> 8X DVDRW
- ATI Rage 128 Pro 16 AGP --> ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB AGP & Radeon 32MB PCI
- Dual NEC 17" LCDs w/ 16ms response time
- Apple Pro keyboard
- MS Trackball Explorer
This Xserve comparison pits it against a more-or-less stock Sawtooth.
My sig covers where my Frankenmac was at one time (carbon date the OS version)
Wow! Isn't it amazing what you can do with a Sawtooth? I'm so glad I bought mine when I did for $900 off EBay 5 years ago (see my earlier post). It seems like the things are almost endlessly upgradeable. Mine flies-yours must soar! BTW- did the dual processor enable you to get it to 2Gb RAM? And forget what others say about upgrading- I spent a lot less on upgrading mine than getting a new computer.
I spent about $600 versus $2000 for a new one and it still kicks butt. It's faster than my year-old iBook G4.My primary system is my PowerBook Wallstreet. I upped the RAM to 512, replaced the original 4 GB drive with an 8 GB drive and move the 4 GB drive into the left expansion bay (so yes, it has two internal hard drives), replaced the original G3/266 with a Sonnet G4/500 (1 MB of L2), and replaced the CD-ROM with a CDRW drive in the right expansion bay. It was originally running Rhapsody 5.6 (Mac OS X Server 1.2) until August of 2002 when Mac OS X v10.2 was released... it has been running that ever since.
My secondary system currently is my Power Macintosh 7500. I had the RAM at 512 MB but took it back down to 384 MB when I needed some memory for another project (I still need to put that memory back in at some point). I installed a 9 GB SCSI drive in it and replaced the original PowerPC 601/100 with a PowerPC 604e/225 and added 256k of L2 cache. I had the VRAM maxed out at 4 MB, but don't really need it any more as I added two ixMicro TwinTurbo 128M video cards (8 MB VRAM each) which are running two 17" monitors. This system is running Rhapsody 5.6 (Mac OS X Server 1.2 v3).
My "classic" Mac system* (as I don't have Classic running on any of my Mac OS X systems) is a Power Macintosh 8100av. It currently has 208 MB of RAM and both the Apple AV video card (2 MB of VRAM, this was pulled from my 7100av actually) and a 24 bit Nubus video card connected to two Apple 16" displays. I have a Sonnet G3/500 (1 MB of L2) upgrade card in it. It is connected to an old SCSI scanner and a Zip drive. That system is running Mac OS 8.6.
My favorite system (even though it doesn't see nearly as much use as my other systems) is my Quadra 950. It has 136 MB of RAM in it and I maxed out the on board VRAM at 2 MB. It has an Apple PowerPC 601/66 (with 1 MB of L2) upgrade card installed and two Radius Nubus video cards which (along with the on board video) lets it connect to three 21" Radius displays. It has 500 MB main drive and a 9 Gb second drive, and I added an internal CD-ROM, and external CD-ROM and an external CDR. It is currently running Mac OS 8.1.
My iMac really qualifies as a FrankinMac as it is made up of parts and pieces from a couple of iMacs The logic board is from my original iMac 350, the monitor, power supply and DVD-ROM drive are from a dead iMacDV. And I replaced the original 6 GB drive with a 30 GB drive. It has 384 MB of RAM and is running Mac OS X v10.2.
I've been putting serious thought into moving most of the components from the 7500 to one of my 8500s that I have in storage and adding a second 9 GB hard drive and maybe a third monitor (and upping the L2 cache to 512k). But at this point I'm still just thinking about it.
* Actually the 8100 is one of two "classic" Mac systems I use regularly. The second is my PowerBook Duo 2300c which is set up as a school system for me. It doesn't qualify as a FrankinMac though as the only change I made to it was maxing out the RAM at 56 MB.
My secondary system currently is my Power Macintosh 7500. I had the RAM at 512 MB but took it back down to 384 MB when I needed some memory for another project (I still need to put that memory back in at some point). I installed a 9 GB SCSI drive in it and replaced the original PowerPC 601/100 with a PowerPC 604e/225 and added 256k of L2 cache. I had the VRAM maxed out at 4 MB, but don't really need it any more as I added two ixMicro TwinTurbo 128M video cards (8 MB VRAM each) which are running two 17" monitors. This system is running Rhapsody 5.6 (Mac OS X Server 1.2 v3).
My "classic" Mac system* (as I don't have Classic running on any of my Mac OS X systems) is a Power Macintosh 8100av. It currently has 208 MB of RAM and both the Apple AV video card (2 MB of VRAM, this was pulled from my 7100av actually) and a 24 bit Nubus video card connected to two Apple 16" displays. I have a Sonnet G3/500 (1 MB of L2) upgrade card in it. It is connected to an old SCSI scanner and a Zip drive. That system is running Mac OS 8.6.
My favorite system (even though it doesn't see nearly as much use as my other systems) is my Quadra 950. It has 136 MB of RAM in it and I maxed out the on board VRAM at 2 MB. It has an Apple PowerPC 601/66 (with 1 MB of L2) upgrade card installed and two Radius Nubus video cards which (along with the on board video) lets it connect to three 21" Radius displays. It has 500 MB main drive and a 9 Gb second drive, and I added an internal CD-ROM, and external CD-ROM and an external CDR. It is currently running Mac OS 8.1.
My iMac really qualifies as a FrankinMac as it is made up of parts and pieces from a couple of iMacs The logic board is from my original iMac 350, the monitor, power supply and DVD-ROM drive are from a dead iMacDV. And I replaced the original 6 GB drive with a 30 GB drive. It has 384 MB of RAM and is running Mac OS X v10.2.
I've been putting serious thought into moving most of the components from the 7500 to one of my 8500s that I have in storage and adding a second 9 GB hard drive and maybe a third monitor (and upping the L2 cache to 512k). But at this point I'm still just thinking about it.
* Actually the 8100 is one of two "classic" Mac systems I use regularly. The second is my PowerBook Duo 2300c which is set up as a school system for me. It doesn't qualify as a FrankinMac though as the only change I made to it was maxing out the RAM at 56 MB.
Frankenstein is one of my favorite books!
Oh yeah... exchanging parts between models... definitely FrankenMac.
That has to be the most pimped cube I've ever heard of. (like zflauaus I'm also interested in how you keep it cool...)
I must be a cruel master... since unnatural case mods don't seem to fit that definition.
And allow me to take "Frankenmac" to a new level... when I was overclocking my PowerMac, it didn't work at first. It was very much dead. I had to go back in, re-solder the jumper, and before I could put the heatsink latches back on (they had become warped, from too much use) I had to keep my hand pressed on the heatsink while I pressed the power button. And the monster was born.
I think Shelley would be proud.
RacerX said:
Oh yeah... exchanging parts between models... definitely FrankenMac.
Hector said:
That has to be the most pimped cube I've ever heard of.
(like zflauaus I'm also interested in how you keep it cool...)MacDuffer said:
I must be a cruel master... since unnatural case mods don't seem to fit that definition.
And allow me to take "Frankenmac" to a new level... when I was overclocking my PowerMac, it didn't work at first. It was very much dead. I had to go back in, re-solder the jumper, and before I could put the heatsink latches back on (they had become warped, from too much use) I had to keep my hand pressed on the heatsink while I pressed the power button. And the monster was born.
I think Shelley would be proud.
for the graphics card i just use come copper ramsinks and a nice vantec copper cooler, for the cpu's i just use a akasa blue LED fan (25cfm 21db) which keeps everything cool.
i'm sure there is someone by now that has a dual 1.7 cube with a 9800 and or a larger HD (you can overcome the 128GB limit with a patch)
i'm sure there is someone by now that has a dual 1.7 cube with a 9800 and or a larger HD (you can overcome the 128GB limit with a patch)