Centris 650 OS

Question

Centris 650 OS

I have a Centris 650 with either 4 or 8 mb of ram (I havn't recieved it yet.) ($.48 on ebay!) But the max os is OS 8. Which should I put on? I'm assuming it has 7.1. What should I put on? I have a OS 8 cd. Should I stay with whats on it or not? Oh by the way, can I network it with a Mac Mini? just for internet/ text files.

mac Mini 1.25 Ghz 512 MB of Ram, Combo drive., Mac OS X (10.4.3), And a Top-o-the-Line Centris 650 with 8 whole MB's of ram!

Posted on Nov 30, 2005 7:31 PM

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Answer 1

Denis Eddy

Level 4

3,571 points

Dec 1, 2005 3:33 AM in response to Patrick Gillen

Patrick
It's less apparent now than it was in February 1993, but the Centris 650 (full 68040 with FPU, but hobbled back to 25MHz), is a good machine. It's difficult for it be assertive with the base 4 or 8MB of RAM, but augment it to 132 or 136MB (72-pin FPM RAM, 4-32MB sizes only, 80ns, which can be interleaved), and with its three NuBus slots and an 040 PDS slot it can easily run OS 8.1 and take advantage of HFS+ formatted HDDs for improved storage efficiency. If it's not already occupied by a CD-ROM, there is space (5.25-in) for another hard drive. There was a good variety of logic board upgrade paths available, at the time, for Quadra and Centris alike. RAM is the sensible first upgrade.

Ethernet (built-in AAUI, or NuBus card) is available for networking. So are NuBus fast/wide SCSI cards. The World is your oyster, but watch your pocket ...

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Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,350 points

Dec 1, 2005 8:03 AM in response to Patrick Gillen

Patrick,

You wrote:

I have a OS 8 cd.

Is it an Apple universal install, or full retail, OS8 CD?

The reason I ask is that a restore disk or system disk shipped with another make of computer may not work correctly The older Macs used a dizzying array of "system enablers" alone or in combo. The retail installer has all the enablers at hand, and polls the computer hardware to know which set of enablers to install. A disk that shipped with another model will probably not act so cleverly.

Allan

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Answer 3

Dec 2, 2005 7:57 PM in response to Allan Jones

The 8 CD broke... It is (was) the regular one you can (could) buy at a store. So Scratch that... Could I install a 32mb ram thingie from an original 1mac 233mhz???

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Answer 4

Denis Eddy

Level 4

3,571 points

Dec 3, 2005 8:42 AM in response to Patrick Gillen

Patrick
Your Centris uses 72-pin 80ns FPM DRAM SIMM thingies. An original iMac uses 144-pin 10ns SDRAM SO-DIMM thingies. RAM is not interchangeable between these Macs.

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Answer 5

Dec 3, 2005 1:05 PM in response to Denis Eddy

Thanks for clearing that up. I probably won't upgrade the ram because don't wish to spend too much money on this. Oh, by the way can I use a vga moniter or do I need an adapter?

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Answer 6

Dec 3, 2005 1:09 PM in response to Patrick Gillen

You would need a Mac to VGA or VGA to Mac adapter (depending on which way you think about it). You can either get one off of eBay or buy one at a local computer store. Though I wouldn't recommend going to a store like Best Buy or OfficeMax as they have barely any Mac stuff available.

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Answer 7

Dec 6, 2005 10:18 PM in response to Patrick Gillen

If it still only has 4MB of RAM, I'd stick with System 7.1. If it has 8MB, 7.5.5 would be a good choice. Only if it has more than 8MB would I put OS 8 on. But if you are lucky, and it has more, 8.1 would be your best bet. With an AAUI-to-RJ-45 adapter (to convert the funny little Ethernet port into a more usable one,) you can connect it to DSL/Cable router, and use iCab to browse the web on it perfectly well. (I use a PowerBook 520c this way.)

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