These are a few of the hacks I've done over the years. Some were worth the effort, most weren't.
Upgrade: Plus upgraded to SE/30
Date: 1992
Details: Installed a Radius 16 mhz 030 card into a Mac Plus. This made it an SE/30 equivalent with an 8 mhz bus and only 4 megs of ram maximum. The daughtercard would come loose very easily, necessitating me removing it after a year or so. It's not easy to put a daughtercard in a compact Mac as there is very little room.
Advantages: Much faster, 030 chip runs more software.
Disadvantages: Card kept coming lose, would not run System 7 or up, still only 4 mb ram max.
Time: About 45 minutes
Cost: $600 for the Plus (a good deal in those days...) Free Radius card (Valued at about $100)
Upgrade: 128 upgraded to Plus
Date: 1997
Details: Took a Plus motherboard out of a bad Mac Plus and put it in a Mac 128 that didn't work. Had to create wholes on the back for the scsi port. This amounted to breaking off the existing area in the case where the ports are and leaving this area exposed.
Advantages: Mac Plus has 4 megs ram, SCSI port, can run up to system 7.5.5.
Disadvantages: Had to destroy lower rear portion of original 128 case; REAL Mac Pluses were going for $5 at this time.
Time: About 15 minutes
Cost: $10 ($5 ea for 128 and Plus)
Upgrade: SE upgraded to SE/30
Date: 1998
Details: Popped SE/30 mb into SE. Had a little trouble getting the power cablel to fit into the SE/30 mb - you have to gently push the motherboard down and force it to move about 1/16th of an inch in order for the cable to slip into the slot on the mb.
Advantages: Much faster than SE, 128 mb ram max instead of 4, 030 chip runs muchmore software, including my answering machine and Linux. Has PDS slot for my Micron Exceed color video card.
Disadvantages: REAL SE/30's were going for $20-30 at this time.
Time: About 3 minutes
Cost: $20 for SE/30 mb.
Upgrade: IIsi (20 mhz 030) upgraded to 50 mhz 030
Date: 1999
Details: Put 50 mhz 030 Diimo card into nubus slot of a IIsi.
Advantages: Faster than a IIfx.
Disadvantages: 50 mhz PPC Macs were going for $40 at this time.
Time: About 3 minutes
Cost: $10 for the IIsi, $5 for the Diimo card.
Upgrade: IIci upgraded to 25 mhz 68040 Quadra 700
Date: 1999
Details: I didn't actually do this one myself... Someone put a Q 700 motherboard into a IIci. It fits fine except for the rear ports... the plastic case where the ports show thru the wholes was completely removed and a new metal rear portion was installed.
Advantages: Much faster than a 25 mhz 68030 IIci; because it was a mb swap, no chance for bad connections; onboard ethernet, 6 (!) VRAM slots.
Disadvantages: Real Quadras were worth about $15 at this time.
Time: N/A
Cost: FREE
Upgrade: Color Classic upgraded to 33 mhz 030
Date: 2000
Details: Took a Performa 550 motherboard in a Color Classic. Added 512k of VRAM and 36 mb of ram. No soldering needed.
Advantages: Much faster (tho still too slow for usuable web surfing), thousands of colors, 36 mb ram instead of 10.
Disadvantages: REAL 33 mhz 030 Macs were going for $20 at this time.
Time: About 15 minutes
Cost: $70 for the CC, $15 for the 550 mb.
Upgrade: Loaded Debian Linux into an SE/30
Date: 1999
Details: Loaded a free Unix OS onto a Mac which was nevre intended to run anythign but Mac OS.
Advantages: More stable, can load Apache web sierver, email server, etc... Fun to show off to my PeeCee friends.
Disadvantages: Unbelievably slow, horrible install process, many many headaches.
Time: About 2 months (no I am NOT kidding!)
Cost: FREE (unless you consider the many hours that could have been spent looking for a girlfriend)
Upgrade: Upgraded a Power Computing clone to a G3
Date: 1998
Details: Put a PowerLogix 250 mhz G3 (the fastest at the time) card into a 210 mhz 604 Mac
Advantages: Unbelievably FAST when doing everything
Disadvantages: None
Time: About 90 seconds
Cost: $700 for the Mac with 32 megs a 17 inch monitor and the fastest G3 on the planet. A great deal then.
Upgrade: Upgraded a 7500 to a G4
Date: 2001
Details: Put a PowerLogix 500 mhz G4 (the fastest at the time) card into a 100 mhz 604 Mac
Advantages: Unbelievably FAST when doing everything
Disadvantages: None
Time: About 90 seconds
Cost: FREE (gift)
Upgrade: Upgraded a 7500 to a run OS X
Date: 2001
Details: Installed XPostFacto to allow older MAcs to run OS X.
Advantages: I can use OS X on an unsupported Mac, if I futz around with the Unix underpinnings and screw something up, I'm not screwing up my main OS X Mac.
Disadvantages: Somewhat slow with a 50 mhz bus and slow onboard video, but works. About as fast as a 180 mhz Mac running OS 9. Lots of peripherals are not supported.
Time: About 45 minutes
Cost: $129 for OS X
Upgrade: Upgraded a 233 mhz iMac (1998) to a G4 500
Date: 2002
Details: Popped in a PowerLogix iForce G4 500/200/1 card along with a 60 gig Western Digital 7200 rpm drive.
Advantages: Screemz! I can rip MP3's 6x faster, run OS X with ease, use iPhoto, VPC, etc...
Disadvantages: Still not quite as fast as a real G4 due to slow bus speed and limited video.
Time: About 30 minutes
Cost: $70 for the drive, $350 for the G4.
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