A G3 Upgraded TAM... with SATA?!

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Today, we're upgrading our lowly quirky TAM to a G3 processor using a very weird upgrade card, trying to install a SATA controller, and turning this futuristic late 90's design showpiece into an anachronistic powerhouse!
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#Macintosh #PowerPC #TAM

[@pafawag5b6b5b]

you showed us that expanded back panel like you were ever gonna use it, i know you'll just leave it open forever lmao

[@ActionRetro]

True 😂😂😂

[@LukeIsASmurf]

whaddup

[@chumbusthings]

I love hot rodded machines like this, I have a water cooled iMac G3 with an external DVD Drive for no reason other than I thought it’d be funny (actually improves thermals and looks sick tho), love your channel and looking forward to seeing more Mac Abominations! Edit: due to popular demand, I will make a video on my machine, I don’t currently have access to it so the next time I have it I’ll make a video. In the meantime I’ll get a script and stuff ready

[@SouthPokey]

Nah what make a video

[@eletro5855]

yo you should make a video on that G3 you got that thing sounds very nice

[@drippy_rat]

Yes pls make a video on this I need to see it!

[@rhysholdaway]

I'll add to the chorus of people clamoring for this video!!!!

[@vizardb7378]

That G3 has to be amazing, please post a picture or a video I also would love to see it

[@Mr1p0d]

Regarding to the internal CD drive's laser flex, I think the best solution is to use another flex cable that comes from a scrap DVD player or something that uses them to interconnect stuff, then you can cut it to length and try it, it should work, I love how that TAM ended so much faster (and upgraded) than originally was

[@owenh933]

Since it's CD and likely a Sony mechanism, why not check out some broken discmans.. I'd wager that's all the actual read platform is..

[@0xbenedikt]

Cutting flexible PCBs to length… sure…

[@rhysholdaway]

Apparently, the Apple 600i SCSI CD-ROM (tray-loading) internally is very similar to the design of the TAM CD. Could that be salvaged for parts?

[@nickwallette6201]

@@rhysholdaway This is the correct answer. Find out who manufactured the original drive, and look at other models from that period to find a compatible optical sled mechanism, and just replace the whole sled with a working one. Swapping entire drives into that bespoke front-loader is never going to happen in a way that doesn't look jank. Using other ribbon cables is not a viable option either, unless it's truly identical (which it won't be, unless the whole sled is, and in that case, just use that.) It might be feasible to custom design a replacement, if it's really just a flex PCB with nothing special going on -- but then you probably have to solder it to the optical module, which is not going to be fun.

[@Chimpur]

I think for an optical drive; you'll need something designed for a laptop. Perhaps the Superdrive out of an early MacBook or MacBook Pro that takes SATA. Strip it all down to the bare board and then maybe line it with something to prevent shorts. The tray mecanizm would be problematic. Thats why I suggest a slot loader... minus the slot.

[@olepigeon]

Assuming your sponsor is OK with it, it would be hilarious if you used Squarespace to make a website that looks like something from 90s-era Geocities. :D Complete with the perpetual "Under Construction" sign.

[@motheroats]

All of this was necessary, I live for the day the retro community have their own semi-conductor fabs so we can truly upgrade vintage computers to the next level 💅

[@jameswalker199]

Its got to be around the corner! We have desktop 3D printers, lasers, CNC mills, and all that, so there's got to be desktop silicon fab in the future!

[@codix__]

This machine is more and more cool at every upgrade without breaking it's spirit, great job !

[@majinshinsa]

I love the nervous 'ha ha" when something that your not sure will work actually works. Videos are just full of authentic charm and I'm all for it

[@pdahandyman]

I"m sure this already occurred to you, but you could just 3D print an entire back cover which might even be able to fit that huge Mac Pro DVD drive 🤣It's be amazing to see the tray slide out from the backside 😁 Amazing work as always!

[@VeerMaharaj]

Yassss, do this!!!

[@erueratait-jamieson480]

Do it!

[@appleinfl]

I wonder if you could find an nvme ssd pci card that would play nice with it. That would save a ton of space if it worked.

[@ulrichkalber9039]

it could also channel cooling air from a 120mm NOKIA fan to wherever it is needed.

[@SnipE_mS]

Dude how do you not have more subs?! Your videos are awesome! Not just the run of the mill stuff but showing innovative things to do with these old beauties. Keep it up!

[@bad_collector]

Agreed. There is absolutely nothing quite like this online really getting into the TAM and messing with stuff. Even the ifixit is wrong on how to disassemble this thing, it's annoying. Action Retro is an unsung hero

[@rhysholdaway]

I am not even a Mac fan and I love this channel. Found this looking for info on the Toshiba Libretto as a portable DOS machine. His Toshiba Mac mini was genius. Wish more people made videos like this.

[@jaydylantyler]

It’s because of the very annoying and completely distracting over the top hand waving

[@chrisj.1608]

impressive i am glad the TAM is getting the love it deserves

[@chadmasta5]

Old Mac: *exists* Sean: "This has always been a grail machine for me."

[@ActionRetro]

not wrong

[@alphaLONE]

could you run Mac OS X on it thru XPostFacto while using the G3 upgrade? would be cool to see

[@SkellyPacks]

Love seeing the TAM pop up again so quickly!

[@A1L2E3X44]

I love the projects you do. Especially the extreme ones!

[@carlsaucke9944]

Awesome! Back in the day, I upgraded my TAM to the G3 500MHz processor, and installed an 802.11b Wi-Fi card in the PCI slot so I could stream Internet radio to it!

[@KiraSlith]

That boot time is incredible. So used to seeing classic macs take an age to boot.

[@stephensalex]

Insane, yet fun to watch! Keep up the great work.

[@xenotiic8356]

This feels like you climbed a summit for this channel, a culmination of so many upgrades and so much work! Congrats!

[@joeconti2396]

As always this is ridiculous in all the right ways. It's amazing to see how far you've come from earlier videos! Look forward to these videos every week!

[@AerFixus]

The broken ribbon is attached to the laser. You should be able to look at the model number and a replacement for it. I highly doubt Apple used a custom part number for this. It's almost certainly shared with another device that you can pull the laser, and attached ribbon, from. Or, you may be able to still find them new old stock!

[@3lectr1c]

Really enjoyed this one, great job!

[@theanalogkid7]

I see my TAM on the floor right now, being jealous of these speaker grill covers.

[@trulyirrelevant17]

Some hate it but I love it. Making old rare machines into so much more

[@Mojames1984]

I enjoyed the heck out of the TAM revamp. Awesome!!

[@neob9017]

Been waiting for this!

[@GendoPrime]

I've been inspired by this TAM to wildly upgrade my Performa 6400.

[@cian87]

Those L2 G3s are now insanely expensive, as are the FPM DIMMs and even L2 cache sticks (well, I might not be searching right for those) so I hope you've got deep pockets. Only been able to go for max RAM, SATA to IDE adapter on an SSD and a DVD/CD-RW on my 5400 without breaking the bank.

[@docCCCCC]

Truly amazing!

[@organiccold]

This was a hell of a video. The TAM is the king of upgrades .... This left me interested in getting one of Crescendo cards for mine :)

[@GalenlevyPhoto]

Wow this is awesome. You literally bypassed everything to make it work.

[@bryans8656]

I've upgraded different Macs in the past, older machines that could actually be upgraded, but I've never done anything as creative (crazy?) as what you do. Which is why I subscribed in the first place 🙂

[@jayl9482]

Been watching awhile mate, after watching Your last Tam video yesterday and this today not being subscribed just doesn't sit right, love the high effort content and the clear passion for vintage macs, looking foward to more surely

[@kirishima638]

I laughed when you bought out the Apple made extended back plate. That’s insane. Great video.

[@robertchamberlin2362]

Loved all the upgrades ,Awesome!!!!!!

[@MrREDSTAR20]

Expansion cards and conversion technology in one video awesome

[@smartperson1]

The TAM is so closely related to my Power Mac 6500 it was fun to see inside. By the end (2003) I had gradually upgraded it as far as possible: Crescendo G3/300, 64MB of RAM, Voodoo 4 Graphics Card, USB PCI card, Ethernet CommII slot card, CDRW, AND the Apple TV/AV upgrade in the AV slot! It was slow as heck in 2003, but I still played so many awesome games on that machine over the years.

[@andre-le-bone-aparte]

@12:34 - Would be great to see a seperate video about "Price to Value" upgrades using these types of benchmarks for those looking to upgrade older macs!

[@davidhastoomanyinterests6361]

Props for the Shirt! Love your videos, keep em coming bro :)

[@Natures_Intentions]

those are some amazing upgrades. that g3 is amazing and the playable fps was awesome!

[@john_ace]

The broken CD ribbon cable can be fixed. You can glue a plastic strip to the back of the cable and scratch the solder-mask from the broken traces on the other side. Either use some thin wire or use just solder to bridge the ripped traces.

[@ArniesTech]

Gotta love a nice retro build 💪🙏

[@Kikay0n]

You sir are a gem.

[@ScarlettStunningSpace]

I love the TAM! Reminds me of my iMac G3

[@kwsths499]

Now that's a spicy TAM for sure!

[@mattpierce5009]

Love anything where an AIO gets hotrodded. I had a G3 AIO years ago that was a lot of fun to tinker with, especially after modding the internal video cable for VGA

[@SullySadface]

That cable management is legendary

[@aswxwing]

Amazing stuff as usual! I've always wanted to see a TAM in persion, maybe one day.

[@nachiopistachio]

This was such a silly journey and I enjoyed every bit of it!

[@CodeProfessor]

You are a true nerd when you run a power cable through a machine and refer to the back as the front. I aspire to your computer nerdy excellence. 👍

[@_sabot]

Build that SuperDrive in the bottom of that subwoofer

[@fredericksonRules]

This and the G3 AIO "Molar" Mac are my favorite "they're so ugly they're beautiful" Apple products haha

[@squeeeb]

Love it! Just gotta get that front mounted CDROM working :)

[@white_mask13]

I miss the whiteboard guy lol, great Druaga1 mod btw XD continue the amazing work!

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

SeanThat G3 Sonnet upgrade card makes that thing move thats the same G3 upgrade I did on my tam years ago. I did get the Puma OS X on mine and it ran pretty descent

[@typedrat]

You should have saved it for St. Patrick’s Day next year. Think of all of the TAM O’Shanter puns!

[@TheMetalMag]

Love your videos, you can have fun with those old machine

[@David-gr8rh]

Dude I love your videos, your funny informed and make fun of everything just great stuff. I'd like to see you try a PCI graphics card on the Tam

[@ShinGoukiSan]

Massive Props for the Descendents shirt!!!

[@jimi-w]

Very much enjoyed the disc name "Macintosh CD"

[@ordinaryk]

Awesome shirt! I just saw the Descendents live last month.

[@nickwort123]

Love the shirt!

[@retmetro5402]

12:58 "and we're gonna use this dual SATA riser card" meanwhile plugs a dual PCI riser card in

[@bluephreakr]

Legends reborn, and recreated from myth to manifestation. You're doing fine work Sean.

[@natuski5263]

Gutes Video

[@alejandroalzatesanchez]

you tamed it!

[@treyparker8303]

As soon as I saw the thumbnail I was like oh no, but great job! Maybe you could hack Windows NT 4 ppc or Solaris 2.6 ppc, never made for mac ppc but I bet you do it! Try ppc hackintosh on something like an old IBM.

[@ncot_tech]

That's insane 😂 10/10

[@JapanPop]

Price to performace 😂 Buck over bang!

[@contytub]

Yeah i have seen only the first few seconds of the video and i've clicked like already being sure that the content will be amazing and it was hehe

[@MSmith-Photography]

It's the FrankenTAM! Perfect for the Halloween season. 🤣🎃

[@techfluidity7881]

Duuude! Nice Descendents shirt!

[@LuxorVan]

I'm just going to say since that TAM only had a 4x cd drive and someone said something about sony try looking at the replacement lasers for the PS1! Something like the KSM-440AEM.

[@bibasik7]

19:58 We need white board guy to keep your puns in check.

[@ActionRetro]

😂

[@cieludbjrg4706]

OOhhh! I upgraded my PM 6500/250 with one of those Sonnet G3 processor cards! Now it’s a blindingly fast PM6500, but of course, stuck in 9.2.2, since PM’s can’t run OSX. Still, for the while I used the 6500, it was defintively worth it! :D

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

I was the tech lead on HDT 3.0. All the versions before that were crap. Next you need to do the PowerMac 4400. It was one screwy Mac.

[@bwgti]

The least amount of computing from the greatest amount of money… Doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to watch. Glad this was more successful than usual!

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Wow!! Can you stick anything else in the TAM?? Awesome!

[@dogdive]

Nice Descendants shirt.

[@d2factotum]

Actually surprised the SATA card performed so much better than the IDE adapter, given that the limiting factor for the SATA card would be the max PCI bus speed of 133Mb/sec, about the same as top-end IDE.

[@jaydylantyler]

Holy hand waving Batman

[@andresbravo2003]

SATA? Well, you bet you do, and congrats for 50K Subs! 🎉

[@UpLateGeek]

Only 50K subs? That's criminally low for such a great channel!

[@sweintz]

awesome milo shirt.

[@stepanrumyantsev6098]

Thanks for the video! Great fun! This TAM should be perfectly able to run Mac OS X, should not it? It's no worse than the iMac G3, that supports it officially. Would be happy to see you installing it onto this TAM. Thank you!

[@3rdalbum]

Since the G3 requires an extension in order to work, and OS X doesn't officially run on anything lower than a G3, it wouldn't really run. You might be able to hack it to run, but it would use the inbuilt 604 CPU since the extension isn't available on OS X, so performance would be poor.

[@RGamer2009]

Time to upgrade the OS!!

[@gtrdriver27]

congrats for the 50k subscribers Action Retro, for 50k special cursed mac should have a 68060 and the fpu in the system :v

[@GilliamVespa]

Consider modifying the front cdrom door to accommodate a macbook superdrive with sata cdrom adapter. you could also fit a mini media card reader in the same space.

[@aubreypwd]

Fix that CD Drive!!!! :) Great video!

[@thcoura]

For God sake if you go to use two power supplies, use the same source and check the voltage cross supplies. I had a horror experience in my life with this. Back 2000 I was working for a company which provides solutions for printing and scanning for large formats as A0 paper. One day I was installing in a customer a printer and the scanner. The catch was that 220v outlets in the same room were coming from different industry transformers. When I, with naked hand, went to connect the SCSI cable between the scanner and printer there was a 440v difference. The short was so intense that toasted both machines completely. I almost got killed.

[@westtell4]

i think its kind of fun watching this on a mac 1000's of times more powerful then even the TAM after the upgrade

[@rmcdudmk212]

Yes time to make that TAM into a powerhouse ... at least a powerhouse for a TAM 🤣

[@steve-852]

Subscribed twice

[@XeonProductions]

I'm getting some cursed macintosh vibes from this whole project.

[@mahdihassan523]

Nice

[@topfacemod]

Milo sighting!!

[@greggv8]

Send that flex from the CD-ROM to PCBWay and see if they can make a good copy, possibly properly strain relieved so it won't break again.

[@mausmalone]

Considering how thrown-together the whole affair is - I wonder if that dead CD-ROM ribbon cable comes out of a MacBook from the era as well.

[@LabCat]

I really, really want an iMac G4 M9290 now to experiment on. 20" flat panel lampshade goodness... mmm 🐱

[@garfieldepicmoments]

I can't believe Apple gave the TAM PCI expandability by having you hang the PCI cards off of the slot with no mounting, that's hilarious. To fix the CD drive, I would look for another laptop drive that uses the same kind of laser and swap the lasers out.

[@alextirrellRI]

Super impressed with the dual PCI riser -- though is that going to size limit the use of the Comm Ethernet? Skeptical about the CD drive as well -- I'd think you'd need a top loader to repair. Too bad nobody's found a way to replicate those thin ribbon cables yet.

[@chasewilliams3949]

Nice Descendants shirt!