Exploring the WORLD'S RAREST Macintosh SE/30 Upgrade

[@ActionRetro]

Curious why we call this the Cursed Mac? Check out the full playlist. It's a heck of a journey! kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqm4fJ6Hrr5lbZo

[@andrive]

btw you used #MARCHintosh in April

[@goeland4585]

The *_cursed_* playlist

[@dbtest117]

So does this card use the original ram memory, or is it separated. I have an SE/30 with way to little ram to run anything better than System6.

[@kriswhite9324]

@22:50 I think the VRM's are singing

[@squiddobutboy]

it's cursed because you have too much stuff you can upgrade

[@seshpenguin]

Holy smokes! This is the perfect upgrade for the cursed SE/30! Also the fact that you can switch CPUs on the fly is insane. This video was totally worth all the hyping up.

[@ActionRetro]

Thank ya!

[@moduledd]

Now it is more of a SE/40 actually.

[@mndlessdrwer]

Dang that dude's drag soldering is slick. Very cool to see people so enthusiastic about their hardware that they tinker so hard they completely reverse engineer it into a superior product.

[@ganf]

OMG, I was so hyped up for this!!!! Nothing better than a Saturday and some Action Retro

[@Voidsworn]

...Finally! You sure know how to drag out the suspense.

[@Voidsworn]

I was thinking...wonder what could be done with a FPGA "soft cpu accelerator" in that slot? Could reduce the cards needed/size.

[@Superspemo]

I like your news site - so refreshing seeing a simple news site, which lets you focus on reading and isn't bloated to hell. Useful on a modern machine aswell

[@OmegaEnvych]

Ok, this is legit one of the coolest macs I've ever seen. Not that I've seen too many of them, but most try to keep their mac as factory original as possible. This one allows itself to be as insane as it could and I would be really interested in seeing Wolfenstein on this beast, that's for sure!

[@goeland4585]

You could probably try running a tiny doom port with this upgrade

[@Cyber_Horse_Studios87]

Man this is AMAZING. Imagine if someone managed to make a PowerPC Card that could fit into the SE/30. That would be INCREDIBLE!! Though heat would definitely be a bit of an issue too.

[@g3monster89]

There was one... it was for the 2ci I think with a 66mhz ppc 601 processor and was also a cache slot upgrade so the cursed Mac already has all the pre requisite requirements to make it work

[@AiOinc1]

Surely there is some way to jam an 040 to PPC 601 upgrade into that CPU socket there

[@jnjgerth]

@@g3monster89 that'd be one to see

[@Khloya69]

Still more common than RTX 3090

[@ActionRetro]

Truth

[@yolozwek_gaming]

@@ActionRetro true

[@simplyalonso]

Quite truly!

[@badcatalex]

@@ActionRetro not so much so anymore

[@weegeenumberone2]

Hell even a 4090

[@allalphazerobeta8643]

The auto setting works by using the add button which appears next to the list box that says default. This add button lets you add programs that when loaded trigger the speed change.

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Rare hardware? Now you're speaking my language!

[@JamesnLollify]

This mac is even more terrifying than a 5g nano with a large black spot.

[@RisingRevengeance]

na no

[@JamesnLollify]

@@RisingRevengeance NO

[@couldntmixapotnoodle]

@@RisingRevengeance Oh no my pk cell

[@goeland4585]

@@JamesnLollify yes?

[@awsomewe360]

That video card sounds like a good idea to get. Its sad to see, but also quite nice to see your Cursed SE/30 has finally ascended to its final form. It was a great journey.

[@goeland4585]

It's actually a cpu card :p

[@awsomewe360]

@@goeland4585 I know its a CPU, but near the end he mentions a GPU he could install.

[@goeland4585]

@@awsomewe360 Oh! My bad. I was getting hyped for it too! Haha

[@juanroldan4379]

This is a fascinating snip of history. Kudos to you and thanks to Mr. Bold for his work. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

[@cursedmacintosh2360]

I've been waiting for this...

[@StumblrNoE]

We've gone from cursed to possessed! This thing is terrifying, but it's amazing to see how far some of this can be pushed.

[@notanimposter]

While a greyscale video card sounds awesome, my favorite video upgrades are definitely the Radius full page/pivot setups. The coolest multi-monitor setup possible.

[@erichilgart2865]

Would be super cool to see the video card upgrade, replace the CD-ROM with a DVD-ROM (OR DVD-RW!!!) and watch some grayscale movies off DVD! (With audio out to a set of nice speakers, of course!) And maybe play some video files from a shared folder on a modern Mac 😃 Super awesome video

[@gajbooks]

A 68040 would absolutely be able to play MPEG with the decoder accelerator (I have one that does), but sadly DVDs use MPEG 2. It could totally play video CDs though, or MPEG files off a DVD (if the system had DVD extensions available).

[@yorgle]

This mac is freaking awesome! I'd never imagine so much great tech could be crammed into that amount of space. :D

[@wesleymays1931]

In 2 years, it'll be a techno brick

[@UpLateGeek]

Oh yeah, I'd be taking a dremel to that heatsink to fit it in. That would totally be appropriate for the cursed mac! Now you just need a SE/40 badge for the case. Can't wait to see what happens with this next!

[@Pheckphul1]

So, is Bolle going to be selling assembled versions of these?

[@KreeperSteve]

This was definitely worth the wait

[@knghtbrd]

Sean, where would you even PUT a video card in that thing? O_O Seriously wish the original owner could see this thing now.

[@Kara_Kay_Eschel]

I was thinking that the original owner would be cleaning out stains from their pants.

[@FS--ew3se]

@@Kara_Kay_Eschel 😳

[@organiccold]

Dam that's fast... Amazing project. About the heatsink you can do like they done in the B&W G3 Power Mac and remove some a part of it with a dremel just to fit

[@flekkzo]

It’s a shame that 68k CPUs are getting more difficult to find. Especially 040/060s.

[@brendanhoffmann8402]

I've been running mini vMac with a Mac plus rom and some stuff goes too fast! I've got my system 6.0.8 (mini vMac), then my system 7.5.3 (Basilisk II) and I'm waiting on a Mac mini (2011) to run Sheepshaver for PPC emulation! Macintosh garden is amazing with all the downloads you can get for retro Macs! Wow! this is about the coolest thing I've ever seen! Love old macs. I did work experience at a Mac store when I was 15... The technician I was working with opened up a Mac all in one, can't remember if it was a mac plus or se but he touched the crt at the back and got a shock!

[@MarcDoughty]

If i recall correctly from my days with a Carrera '040 accelerator... 030 is the original motherboard CPU. 040 Medium is the 68040 with some caching disabled for compatibility with a handful of janky apps that had trouble with the 68040. 040 Fast is the 68040 with caches fully enabled.

[@nicwilson89]

Seeing a processor that close to the CRT which effectively acts as a capacitor for the tens of kilovolts from the flyback makes me nervous haha :D

[@andrewlyons9188]

should insulate the sd with fish paper. Sometimes tape can become conductive.

[@ThrashTrash120]

It's the Mac SE that keeps on giving

[@montypoes]

How cool would it be if you could put a colour CRT in the Cursed Mac? Make it into a Cursed Color Classic if you will 😁

[@kit7une_]

SE/30 hardware wouldn’t really support that unless you’re using an external monitor card

[@montypoes]

@@kit7une_ Well, he did mention something about a video card, so who knows 😎

[@alextirrellRI]

With the video card a possibility, finding a 9 inch color CRT that will fit and a way to drive it is the key. But yes that would be insanely cool.

[@Cr0frog]

What about a 9 inch lcd panel? It would trully make it cursed and would free up so much space inside the case

[@kargaroc386]

@@Cr0frog An LCD would have to be handled *very* carefully. The case is designed to look the best with a curved CRT screen in it. LCDs are flat. You *can* make it look better by making a panel that covers the sides, like i.imgur.com/hEYZUGy.jpg

[@DrDavesDiversions]

Hi Sean - wow, nice! Neat that the accelerator fit and looks like you'll be able to sink the heat from the CPU, even though it's close the the CRT. Amazing that the Carrera control panel lets you change CPU settings without a reboot. 27:10 By my calculations from this Speedometer result, your machine's CPU rates 1.37x the speed of my A-Max/Amiga/68040-based Hackintosh from 1991 using Mac Plus ROMs. I've been tracking other classic accelerated Macs to compare performance with my "#MARCHintosh​: The fastest Mac Plus ever?" (68040 @ 25Mhz) and your CPU result here (1.4x Quadra 605) are the best I've seen on an accelerated classic Mac. In the video "One fast Macintosh Color Classic!", Adrian Black runs Speedometer after replacing its motherboard with that a Macintosh LC 575 (introduced 1994), which sports a 68EC040 @ 33 MHz. It looks like his machine runs ~10% faster than mine, the latter having a 68040 @ 25 MHz. He also tested his machine using a version of Speedometer that uses the Quadra 605 as its standard, and got a relative CPU measurement of 1.15. 27:23 For your Disk score in Speedometer, try bumping your disk cache up to 2.5MB, in control panel, if you have the memory. That yielded the highest score for me, also on a SCSI2SD.

[@mikemoyercell]

Excellent content. I really enjoyed watching. Must be fun to max that Machine as far as it can go with the org mobo. Those add on cards look to be high quality too.

[@TheMalMeninga]

Great video! What an interesting upgrade too, it's gone from cursed to...blursed?

[@MistahMatzah]

There are no color CRTs that will fit. They're all too deep.

[@TheMalMeninga]

@@MistahMatzah I think you might have replied to the wrong comment here, mate.

[@santospoland]

You have an exclamation mark in the PCBWAY link. Great video, thanks!!

[@ActionRetro]

Ah thanks!

[@3rdalbum]

I'm utterly amazed that you can literally switch CPUs on the fly, on an operating system that never expected to have more than one CPU in a computer. How is it even accomplished? I take it that both CPUs are on (after the control panel loads) and when you switch CPUs it copies the CPU cache and registers from one to the other and then tells the card which one to start sending instructions to? Fantastic piece of reverse-engineering and fantastic original engineering job by that company in the 1990s. Great video.

[@gajbooks]

Given that it crashed with a program open, it may just do some sort of funky system reset and leave non-operating-system tasks in an invalid state. Given that the entire OS is co-operatively multithreaded, I'm not sure why that has to be the case.

[@gregwtmtno5437]

I saw the 68k news website on hacker news , and I didn't even connect it to one of my favorite youtubers!

[@ryancallaghan3888]

I wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to go for a cheeky overclock, with a heatsink and fan blowing in the general direction you should be able to squeeze a few extra MHz out of it, even on the worst versions of the 040, apparently the final revision could get to around 50.

[@TheRetroMess]

How the Auto setting works it that you have to tell the control panel with which app it needs to automatically throttle down. That's why you have a list below that with an Add button. You have to explicitly tell it which app it auto throttles with. It's not obvious at first, but the list grays out when you take it out of Auto mode.

[@ActionRetro]

Ohhhhh! Thank you!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

I bought my Mac Plus that very year and a brand new IIci 2 years later. There was also a company called Sonnet which made CPU accelerators. I think they are still around.

[@The_Wandering_Nerd]

I used to browse the web on an unmodified SE/30. Even using the Lynx text-only browser while dialed up to a university Unix server, it was far from optimal. Thankfully by the time I actually had to use the graphic web in the 90s my college roommate had handed me down his Power Mac 6100 which was a considerable improvement.

[@duodave]

I had that micron card, it was awesome. It’s only flaw was every 6 months or so you had to pull it off the CRT and clean the connectors.

[@heh2k]

specs at 2:48. It's a 50mhz 68040, compared to the stock 16mhz 030.

[@katchakill7237]

Great vid! But why have you put on that Apple-Sticker? Have i missed out on sth? Idk but with the oroginal logo it looks better i thibk

[@jonasthemovie]

The bondo job was botched.

[@UmbertoAmante]

I installed OpenBSD on my SE/30 around 2001 and then thought about the futility of such an accomplishment considering I had an IBM Power 5 based server on order that would run Suse Linux 11, AKA, a real machine running a top OS.

[@MrLurchsThings]

Just checked the 68k thread you linked to, looks like it went dead at the beginning of February. Is the project still happening? What’s happening regarding availability?

[@gutless_worm]

You could immediately tell that it was running off the 68040. What an amazing difference.

[@bokexd3173]

4:53 i have the same tweazers,although diffrent font,and that SONNET e gpu case....

[@RichardiOS275]

you should definitely try chuck in a colour CRT in that thing

[@ZacharyButcher1334]

seeing that old website reminded me of the OG spacejam website - what a beautiful time-capsule!

[@Dex99SS]

You should just modify that heatsink and use it now, immediately. Either cut it to contour, or just cut some fins short, it'd work. Also, does "Medium" speed do the same thing with the video clip sound issue?

[@AmaroqStarwind]

This reminds me of my 68k dream machine. A seamless fusion of the Macintosh SE, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Atari Jaguar, Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), and so on... Just merged into one machine as if it were always meant to be that way. Unfortunately, the machines are all so different that it just wouldn't actually happen IRL. The only thing they have in common is the 68000-family processor at their heart.

[@JapanPop]

Now for an 040 with a faster clock oscillator…one wonders is the 060 is compatible with the 040 architecture.

[@jonasthemovie]

The Carrera Auto mode isn’t auto. It is preset, you have to add the different programs to the list I reckon.

[@ActionRetro]

Ohhhh that makes sense

[@moccamixer]

I had a hard disk upgrade for the mac 512 which allowed to connect a hard disk. Since there were no scsi ports it clipped to the buses on the mainboard. Crazy times

[@OMightyBuggy]

I wish there was more love for the Mac Plus. Can't find any accelerator cards for it.

[@brydon10]

I love the work you put into your videos man. Keep it up.

[@jeffyp2483]

i love this video! i love to be able to see this! (please do a follow up, im curious how the auto setting works with the example for why the shifter is there* *no spoilers ;)

[@VladoT]

JLCPCB cameo in a PCBWAY sponsored video. Haha, great 🙂

[@samuelsaady9909]

Im curious if you can put this in a 68000 SE

[@cyricm2000]

I wonder if the make a lcd screen replacement for Macintosh se

[@robertking7584]

So funny that you think a minute 39 is slow when a typical Windows desktop in 2021 takes double or worse that.

[@kbhasi]

(17:47) That now reminds me of the 'turbo' button on PCs of the time…

[@cylurian]

Are there any more of these cards sold? I would love to have an SE/40.

[@akaJughead]

Sorry if this is off topic, but thank you so much for Frogfind. You actually gave me a reason to connect my retro PC to the internet.

[@kargaroc386]

You need a Micron Xceed with the grayscale adapter in this, its the only way.

[@bokexd3173]

4:36 ersa i con pico is one of the best modern soldering irons ,although veller is better,but its old

[@codys4668]

With a 256 color video card you can even play DOOM (very slowly) on a stock SE/30. I'd love to see how this performance upgrade handles it!

[@Gunstarrhero1]

theres a step up expansion board for the 040 to 060, you should look for it on ebay.

[@Kiyoshi_9606]

As far as I know there is no product ever to upgrade a Mac to an 060.... But I would like knowing if I'm wrong.

[@Gunstarrhero1]

@@Kiyoshi_9606 its called the 040 to 060 converter. something along those lines, it lets you interface an 060 to an 040 socket.

[@Kiyoshi_9606]

@@Gunstarrhero1 do link! Maybe it can make a, dare I say, Mac SE/60?

[@jorisw_]

Could have sworn you were gonna be wrong about live switching processors with the system still running. But there it was in TattleTech, back to the 030. So the upgrade board live switches to looping back to the 030 processor on demand. Crazy.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

That is awesome. The 605 was a pretty cool machine.

[@bamdadkhan]

can i buy one of these for my beloved iici?

[@aidan5125]

1:55 no way I have one of these and I still use it today for basic things

[@carlweston4808]

The Quadra 605 was my first mac, got it from sam ash here in nyc...

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Now I want an "Improved Clone" of the GPU in the original XBOX. Something that would be both Pin-and-Binary compatible with the original, but a lot more powerful.

[@artisticleo]

Do they have add-on cards like this for the prior model SE Superdrive at all? Cant find the SE-30 or any of the accelerator cards for less than one lung and a kidney anywhere.

[@onigvd77]

the link to the 68k site for the card just goes to the homepage, is there a better link out there to the article for these upgrades?

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

WoW Sean That Is One Sweet UpGrade I Think The Curse Has Faded Away

[@AngeloTelesforo]

Loved it! I’m also an accelerator freak. I got a PerformerPro for my Classic, but I could not install it because I’m moving and I’ll have to wait till I set to the new home.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Most of the 040 speed comparisons I’ve seen have been on Amigas, good to know the difference is about the same on a classic Mac!

[@XalphYT]

Hi, new viewer here. I have a question: What makes this Mac “cursed?”

[@ActionRetro]

Welcome! I found this thing already with the paint job, and all sorts of crazy stuff inside it. Check out the playlist! kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqm4fJ6Hrr5lbZo

[@robertlaunder638]

Love that single bit asteroid picture

[@macpb2892]

Hi! I own 2 sccelerator cards: the Hypercharger 020 and the Siclone si3033, do you have manuals and / or drivers for those cards? Thank's!

[@runningat50hz]

I have a Micron on my SE/30, but the grayscale adapter is nowhere to be seen. They're as rare as you can get. I had some emails from the original owner of this SE/30 I have where he spoke to Micron themselves asking about compatibility with Mac OS 7.5.5, which was absent. I can't get any of the original files anymore (OG 250MB Quantum HDD died), but I remember the answer was "only runs on 7.5.3 rev 2", so if you happen to get one, keep that in mind. I don't think anyone has made any hacked drivers for newer version of Mac OS, and the original files are already a nightmare to find, so keep that in mind if you happen to get one. Even if you can't get the grayscale adapter, the Micron can output to a secondary monitor on it's own, in glorious 640x480, 256 colors! I think that's very awesome by itself!

[@MikieLAX]

Search Google; there is a guy who reverse engineered the Yoke card and now manufactures them.

[@MikeStavola]

I wish I could figure out how to cram one of my 68060s into a mac SE/30...

[@ladronsiman1471]

I recall back in the day i saw an SPARC accelerator for a PC ..turning a PC into a SUN Sparc systems ..I wonder if there was such a thing for a MAC?

[@DanaDoesStuff]

This is fantastic! Makes me want to do this upgrade to my SE/30 too!

[@aljelja]

yessss,was waiting for this long time

[@Darknecros7]

I would love to see that Mac upgraded to full greyscale. If you haven’t already, you should make it your mission to make the cursed Mac the most powerful Mac possible that can fit into that form factor.

[@bjoern2x]

Do you know anything about the Supermac Superview graphics card for the SE?

[@5553371]

i'd like to see a color crt the same size as the original b&w one i bet with the new video upgrade it would be possible... Color SE/40 or even a 68060 then it would be a Color SE/133

[@nilswegner2881]

Color would make this computer much more useful. I never really understood why apple would want to build a black and white pc while amigas and even commodore 64s already had plenty of colors...

[@JeremyLevi]

@@nilswegner2881 Basically the trade off between colour and the sharpness of monochrome on small CRT tubes available at the time. 9 inch colour tubes had a horrible dot pitch at the time the original Mac was developed. You would have needed a high end 14 inch colour tube to match the same level of sharpness on the monochrome Macs, which obviously wouldn't fit into the small form factor.

[@nilswegner2881]

@@JeremyLevi I still prefer my amigas over any monochrome mac...

[@nilswegner2881]

@@JeremyLevi but what you say makes sense.

[@JeremyLevi]

@@nilswegner2881 Same for me. The Amiga was the one I was drooling over when it first came out as a replacement for my C64, and eventually that's exactly what I did when I bought an A500 in late '88 as a high school student funded with a part time job.

[@APOTwixx]

Great upgrade!

[@thomasb.900]

I have a radius rocket 68040 accelerator card, and a macintosh iisi, i plan to put it in it, would you happen to know if the extension in the video might be compatible with my original card? I can find the original radius extension but i think it only works with system 7.1, would be cool to try and have a 68040 iisi running 8.1

[@alextirrellRI]

That's an incredible accelerator combo. Processor and ethernet with space for video -- fantastic.

[@Caddy666]

can you put an 68060 revision 6, overclocked to 95Mhz in there?

[@leontechtalks]

i wanna see a color screen se/30. that'd be sicko!

[@tekk9995]

The sound problem is still a thing though. I think 'they' released a 1.8 version with the problem fixed.

[@opless]

Totally get that video card!

[@auteurfiddler8706]

If he would add 256 shades of grey to replace the one bit per pixel resolution, it would be far better. The super rare cards from the old days that changed the on screen display to grey scale (and maybe even had color output for an external monitor) really made the SE/30 look nice.

[@DigiSpaceProductions]

Curious, would it be possible to contact the person who made that card and get one? and could it, in theory, work on a Macintosh SE?