Upgrading a
Macintosh 660av

The Macintosh 660av was kind of an oddball Mac because it shipped with a DSP or digital signal processor. This gave this machine some special audio visual capabilities as well as allowing it to use the brand new Geoport modem. This was a pretty cool piece of equipment because through software included with the Geoport you could do a number of things from normal modem use to fax and even use your Mac as an answering machine. On the rear of the machine were two RCA video plugs which allowed you to input and output a video stream.

The interior component layout of the 660av is identical to the Centris 610 and the PowerMac 6100. Very easy to install upgrades such as memory and other components. Why Apple made other Macs so complicated to work on is beyond me. The 7100 is a nightmare to install memory into because you have to remove the power supply pull out all the wiring for the hard drive and CD as well as the floppy and power. The 8100 wasn't much better.

Though 64 mb and 128 mb simms will fit into the slots on the 660av, the machine will not work with them. The most memory I have been able to run in this machine is two 32 mb 72 pin simms. The 660av does have a pds slot.

Comments? Feel free to e-mail me at kevino@newsroom.net.