> Seriously, I have a chance to trade some PC stuff for either a IIsi or
>a IIci. Both are barebones - no harddrives, adapters or RAM. Looking
>at LowEndMac and Apple support, I'm leaning toward the IIci, but I
>thought for once I'd take advice *before* the aquisition. It'll
>probably run either A/UX or Linux/m68k.
> My main concern is RAM. They'll both take <100ns 30-pin non-parity,
>right? Any other gotchas? Yes, I have a Nubus video card.
Since you mention your main concern to be ram, the IIci is the better
machine. It tops out at 128mb (8 x 16mb), vs the IIsi max of 17mb (4 x
4mb + 1mb on mobo), so if RAM really matters to you... the decision is
clear.
But for a quick run down:
The IIci is going to be the better unit. It has 8 ram slots, and handles
16mb chips (IIsi has 4 slots, 4mb chip max). It also has 3 NuBus slots,
along with built in video (so 3 usable slots... although you will
probably fill one with an ethernet card). And it has 2 ADB ports
(although for the most part, you will only ever need one, since the mouse
will daisychain thru the keyboard, and you can always get an ADB splitter
if you need an extra with the IIsi). Oh, and the IIci is 5Mhz faster (25
vs 20 for the IIsi), and all IIci units have the FPU (IIsi it was
optional, and most did NOT have it, but many right angle adaptors had it
installed).
The IIsi is only better in my book in two repsects. 1: it is slightly
smaller, 2: the single slot is a combo NuBus/PDS slot, so you have an
option of what to add (but in my experience, most cards that were PDS
were also available as NuBus... but NOT the other way around, there are a
number of video boards that were NuBus only). Oh yeah... the IIsi has a
mic port, the IIci does not.
So if you don't need the PDS slot, and don't care about shaving a few
inches off the height, and don't need a microphone... the IIci is the far
better machine.
-chris
<
http://www.mythtech.net>
Received on Sat Feb 02 2002 - 23:49:36 GMT