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Fan or no fan in IIgs?

Submitted by iamdigitalman on May 23, 2008 - 3:28am. Apple II

Hey guys, I have a pair of IIgs woz editions, and I plan to give one away for trade of an Apple IIc on the local freecycle. I took what I could from the one and put it in the other one that looks better (and has a cleaner motherboard). I swapped expansion and RAM cards, port covers, and case tops. I noticed the difference between the two power supplies is one has a big fan bolted on the side, where the round cutouts are on the other one, and a lead that plugs in to the "fan" port on the motherboard. Both these board have this plug, but only one PS has it.

Is there any significance in having a fan on the power supply? I noted the one that had it in it has the dusty motherboard, while the other one looks clean and shiny.

also, is there any way to identify how much RAM is installed without booting an OS? I have an Apple branded RAM expansion board, and all sockets are populated. This makes me really intrigued, since the one the guy on popcorn.cx has only the built in chips installed, and all sockets empty. I wonder if I am sitting with 8mb or close, since both boards have ROM 01 (2nd revision), and could handle the extra memory for a RAM disk...

thanks.

-digital Eye-wink

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david__schmidt's picture

Re: Fan or no fan in IIgs?

Submitted by david__schmidt on May 23, 2008 - 1:21pm.
iamdigitalman wrote:
Is there any significance in having a fan on the power supply? I noted the one that had it in it has the dusty motherboard, while the other one looks clean and shiny.
Yes, you've realized the significance of a fan - increased dust flow. :-) No GS came stock with a fan. They were all aftermarket affairs.
Quote:
also, is there any way to identify how much RAM is installed without booting an OS? I have an Apple branded RAM expansion board, and all sockets are populated.
It's probably the 1M expansion board; I don't think Apple made any others. So with a ROM01, you have a little more than a megabyte (there's 128k on the mobo).

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iamdigitalman's picture

ah ok, so it's better to not

Submitted by iamdigitalman on May 23, 2008 - 8:54pm.

ah ok, so it's better to not have it. I actually have canned air blaster I would not mind using, unless there is no significant advantage to having it, i.e cooler running components, longer life span. That sort of thing.

-digital Eye-wink

» iamdigitalman's Cleaning House Sale

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david__schmidt's picture

Re: Fan or no fan in IIgs?

Submitted by david__schmidt on May 23, 2008 - 10:57pm.
david__schmidt wrote:
(there's 128k on the mobo).
Sorry, the ROM01 mobos have 256k or maybe a little more. The ROM03 machines had 1MB on the mobo.

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RockinKat's picture

A little late here... but I j

Submitted by RockinKat on June 11, 2008 - 9:20am.

A little late here... but I just wanted to add something...

The Fan that installs in the IIgs is not the most efficent means of air cooling... it really more or less spins air around inside the computer...

...It also takes up space that could be used for a long card.

If you need a fan, it's much better to use something like a Kensington SystemSaver which makes a seal with the top of the IIgs and pulls air up through the IIgs with it's fan... the systemsaver also doubles as a power strip, and brings the on/off buttons for everything to the front computer... and it meshes really well with the IIgs case design too.

A stock IIgs with just a RAM card won't really need a fan... but it does start getting hotter if you add more cards. I would not run my IIgs which has almost all it's slots loaded with cards without my Kensington SystemSaver for more than the few minutes when I have it open and don't want to close it untill I have it working right after changing something inside.

» -Rockin' Kat
"Stand back! I've got an open power supply and I'm not afraid to do something stupid with it!"

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iamdigitalman's picture

thanks for all the input.

Submitted by iamdigitalman on June 11, 2008 - 7:01pm.

thanks for all the input.

I got another IIgs, this one not a WOZ edition. I plugged it in and found out it's a ROM 3 with 1152k of RAM. I added the RAM board, and that doubled it. I swapped one of the WOZ top cases, the power supply with the fan, and the other card. I also got a 5.25" and 3.5" drive, and a bunch of software. I also found a rather yellowed apple keyboard that looks like it is an original. I have a couple Keyboard IIs, this one is similar, but a little different.

So now I have a near ultimate IIgs. Makes for great gaming sessions on our old RCA 20 some inch TV playing Oregon Trail.

-digital Eye-wink

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