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| PowerBook 1400c / 166 with G3 upgrade card | |
| Posted by: 68kAlex on 2013-08-29 04:42:05 So, on the lookout for spare parts for my 1400cs (with dodgy screen caps) I picked up a 1400c for £20 on Ebay, without knowing much about it. Turns out this unit has a 2GB hard drive, Sonnet G3 processor upgrade, maxed out RAM, and a ZIP drive! I've struck gold 🙂 | |
| Posted by: bibilit on 2013-08-29 07:42:31 Congrats 🙂 IIRC the 2 Gb HD was standard on those (mine has the same HD) Pictures required !! | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-08-29 08:35:13 Fabulous find there, congrats! Which speed is the Crescendo/PB G3 and how's the LCD? OS9 on the /466 in Beater is da bombe! :approve: | |
| Posted by: 68kAlex on 2013-08-29 08:56:23 It's 333MHz and currently running a minimal installation of Mac OS 8 from a Compact Flash drive. Blazing fast! | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-08-29 09:03:26 😎 | |
| Posted by: 68kAlex on 2013-08-29 09:44:54 It's kind of hard to see, but here's a photo of the screen bezel where it says "G3 Powered by Sonnet". The System Disk is my Compact Flash card. I've left the 2GB hard drive in there for backup / data storage.  | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-08-29 10:03:26 I've got that sticker in the Zip-Loc file along with the Sonnet 1400 Philips Screwdriver, docs, box cover, etc. I bought the CrescendoPBG3-466-1M back in May '05 for $299.95 direct from Sonnet. Does yours have the 1M or 512k L2 backside cache? From Nov. '04 until I got HP_Mini in April '09, running Beater on the free Wifi downtown was my only way of getting online for posting here. The speed increase of the G3 and upgrade to OS9 made it a lot more pleasant experience after that first 6 mos. | |
| Posted by: 68kAlex on 2013-08-29 10:17:07 I don't know how much L2 backside cache it has to be honest - it isn't mentioned in Apple System Profiler. Either way I'm happy with my bargainous purchase 🙂 Can't believe how fast the machine feels - it plays Heretic faster than I remember my old iMac G3 playing it (probably because the iMac was running 9.2). | |
| Posted by: Macdrone on 2013-08-29 10:20:24 I'm sure the memory card speeds things up also. No spin up or down time. | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-08-29 10:45:47 Check for a diagnostic utility called Metronome, IIRC. That should tell you everything you want to know about the Sonnet card and how it's working. | |
| Posted by: 68kAlex on 2013-08-29 11:43:24 Thanks for the tip, I'll dig it out. Now managed to get the 1400c online via iCab (not sure if it's the best browser to use) and networked to my PC via FTP. Happy days! | |
| Posted by: sambapati87 on 2013-08-29 16:32:34 Lucky score! My 1400c also has a Sonnett upgrade (400mhz) but the L2 cache is bad so I don't get too much of a speed boost 🙁 | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-08-29 21:06:34 Metronome ought to be installed on your 1400/G3 already. It's part of Sonnet's software for the CrescendoPB. 😉 | |
| Posted by: Byrd on 2013-08-29 21:54:52 That's awesome - I had similar luck with a $19.99 PB 540c some years back - sporting full RAM and a NewerTech 166Mhz 603e upgrade, would never had guessed until I fired it up. | |
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