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Ca$h68 · Oct 2, 2002, 06:17 PM

I got a free Performa 6400. I have a 12 gig drive I'll put in tonight, but I want to know somet things: Are there any CHEAP CPU upgrades for this thing? Right now its 200mhz. I'm looking for like a 300mhz G3 upgrade...something under 150 bucks for it to give it a little boost. Also, can you install two drives in this sucker?!?! And here's my plan: Ethernet card (so I can use it as a server) and would any video card work on this that could display SVIDEO out? My plan is to get a very small (5") LCD and install it on the TOP of the case, hook it up to be the monitor, that way I could have a standalone MP3 server.

- Ca$h

Paco500 · Oct 2, 2002, 06:57 PM

The 6400 has a PCI slot, so you should be able to find a vid card that does s-video.

Finding a card could be a pain, however, and it costs money. There are small LCD's on the market that take VGA, they just cost more. Balance the cost of more expensive panel vs. less expnsive panel + video card.

Add to that, the VGA panel will be much higher quality/easier to read.

I know the 6400 doesn't have VGA onboard, but a cheap adapter will fix that.

Ca$h68 · Oct 3, 2002, 12:19 PM

Good idea. I'll have to look for them. What MP3 player should I use? Its only 200mhz and right now I'm running 8.6 and using Macast

- Ca$h

lothar56 · Oct 3, 2002, 02:52 PM

http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.ht...search=+Go%21+

Cabrio works just dandy on my sis's 7100/80 with 40 megs of RAM, so it should zip on your comp. you can also make custom skins for it with a program called Skinventor.

file size is less that 1mb for the os 9 version, 1.05 for X. Great, useful app.

Ca$h68 · Oct 3, 2002, 03:03 PM

Anyone know of any small VGA LCD screens for this project? I've been looking but all I find are tv LCD screens....

- Ca$h

l008com · Oct 3, 2002, 10:25 PM

The 6400 has two PCI slots and a COmm 2 slot. Ideally, you would wanna get a Comm2 ethernet card and leave the PCIs open, for say a video card and another ATA card, but Comm2 ethernet cards were damn expensive last time i checked. I'm not sure is this machine has two IDE buses, or one IDE and one SCSI, but either way, you can add more hard drives, though it may take some fun fun modding. If I were you though, i'd sell it for parts on ebay and do what you are doing to a 7500/8500. It has no onboard IDE, which is a (-), but it does have the ability to run OS X. And after being on X< I hate going back to classic for anything. My server is on X. If I get my mom an iBook, it will be on X. X X X Interestingly enough, i Originally bought my 6400 to put in my truck as an MP3 player, specifically because it was fast, and had IDE built in. That plan fell through, it just wasn't worth the effort. But your still looking at a couple hundred dollars for the LCD. My new plan for the truck is to get a nice DVD/Nav radio with a 7" widescreen LCD from someplace like crutchfield, and get one with AUX inputs, and get an iPod.

Evinyatar · Oct 4, 2002, 08:46 AM

IIRC there's preliminary support for 6400's in XPostFacto, so you probably could run MacOS X on it. If you'd ever want that. Or you could install Linux on it and try to get a VFD and UIRT (infrared remote control) working with mpg123 or so

That would be way cool.

Ca$h68 · Oct 7, 2002, 12:19 PM

Infra red remote would require USB though... soo..... meh. Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated. I found some 6400 site thats really helpful. I don't plan on running OSX either. 8.6 is really stable, especially if its a bare-bones OS.

- Ca$h

Evinyatar · Oct 8, 2002, 07:26 AM

The UIRT infrared remote control works over RS232, so just the standard serial port on the Mac. The same goes for the VFD.
I also just remembered my Performa 6320 had an infrared remote control receiver built in. If this is present on your 6400 you can use any Sony remote control. Unfortunately the software for this still has to be written (there was an app that did this for MacAMP but it seems to have vanished).

waffffffle · Oct 30, 2002, 03:28 PM

I actually own the official Apple remote for the 6400 if you're interested. My 6400 model didn't actually come with a remote but I bought it once and found that I don't use the thing. It can turn on and off the computer, control volume, and the CD player. Also if you buy the special video editing tv system the computer can act as a TV and this remote will control that too The IR receiver is right above the volume control on the front of the case. Maybe some hacker can write software for this thing. I was always hoping someone would.

Let me know if you're interested in buying the remote for a couple bucks.

greenG4 · Oct 30, 2002, 05:21 PM

I have a service source pdf for the 6400 if you want it.

JonA572 · Nov 7, 2002, 10:50 PM

Originally posted by Ca$h68:
I got a free Performa 6400. I have a 12 gig drive I'll put in tonight, but I want to know somet things: Are there any CHEAP CPU upgrades for this thing? Right now its 200mhz. I'm looking for like a 300mhz G3 upgrade...something under 150 bucks for it to give it a little boost. Also, can you install two drives in this sucker?!?! And here's my plan: Ethernet card (so I can use it as a server) and would any video card work on this that could display SVIDEO out? My plan is to get a very small (5") LCD and install it on the TOP of the case, hook it up to be the monitor, that way I could have a standalone MP3 server.

- Ca$h

I still use a moded-up 6400 as an everyday office machine. Runs quite well, but have not tried OS X.
Mods added over time include:
-Two hard drives- 2 Gig SCSI (main drive) plus a 10Gig IDE
- ATI 4MB video card (Xclaim VR chip)
-Sonnet G3/300 processor w/1Mb cache (great speed increase)
- Farallon Com 2-slot ethernet card
- PCI USB card
- 96 MB RAM

It would not be cost effective to build such a machine from scratch, but I got there piece-meal over the years.
There is a great site called 6400 Zone (or something similar) devoted to this venerable platform.

Jon

jaisun · Nov 8, 2002, 02:36 PM

Ca$h: I'm building up an MP3 jukebox from a 7500 and instead of buying a video card that will do S-Video I opted for the Apple Presentation System (Focus L�TV Pro). It's merely an outboard scan conversion unit that works with any VGA capable computer (there are a few exceptions...though all of them are older and less powerful than your 6400). It does S-Video, composite/RCA, and VGA output. You can find them in their original shrinkwrap on eBay for roughly $20 w/shipping.

Just a thought