Re: Apple IIgs hardware questions (long, detailed, but worth it - I'm a convert!)

[noone@nowhere.net]

Rodney:
First off, all this info can be found in the CSA2 FAQs.
http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/A2FAQs1START.html

Best prices can be had at Thrift stores, not ebay.  In fact, if you
mention an Apple II around, I bet you can find someone who'll GIVE you
their IIgs.  (Just don't tell them it is worth anything.)

The ROM chips are not interchangable between a Rom1 and Rom3, the
motherboards are built totally different.  Pick one or the other.  I
prefer a Rom1 because they were out there the longest and are the most
compatible with most hardware.

Both units can be expanded to 8 Megs using a card in the memory
expansion slot, get a 3rd party 4 meg card, it's all you'll really
need.  (This equates to 5 meg on a Rom3, 4.25 meg on a Rom1 when you add
built-in RAM.)  I do not think aplle made more than a 1 meg card.

The 'Woz' case is just the top cover with a signature on it.  All IIgs
cases are the same otherwise.

Advantage of a 2nd 3.5" drive?  Not really.  I use a whole disk copier
to copy in one pass or I use a RAM drive to do the same.  Quite a few of
the 3.5" items will install on a hard drive so the drive is used
primarily to load.  Of course it is always nice to have a spare.  (Same
does not apply to 5.25" disk drives due to so many games requiring
swapping of disks.)

The IIgs looks best on the 12" RGB monitor compared to a composite
monitor.  But I hear you can get a 'scan doubler' to use a real VGA/SVGA
monitor if you have poor eyesite.

Hard drives: SCSI is popular, you'llprobably have to pay a premium for
the controller, then find a Hard drive for it.  I prefer the IDE hard
drive called teh Focus.  The Focus is a 2.5" drive mounted on the
controller card and comes preloaded with the OS, plug and play.

Accelerators are also scarce unless you pay a premium.  Either one works
well enough.  The Transwarp GS and the ZipGSX both do a remarkable job. 
You can find those on e-Pay frequently.

It is fairly easy to get stuff from a PC to the Apple II using a null
modem cable to hook the serial ports together or using modems.  There is
a fairly lengthy FAQ on this topic.

If you get a scan doubler, ther is no need for a third party video
card.  But if you find a  Second sight, it will allow you to use a VGA
monitor and adds other enhancements.

Most sound cards will provide a true seperate stereo sound source for
amplified speakers.  These cards will be transparent to the software,
however, much software was sritten with the assumption that there would
be stereo decoder attached.  Of course these programs still produce
excellent sound, it just gets mixed for the built in sound output.


Rodney Hester wrote:
> > 
> Much appreciation for any light anyone can shed, here - I've learned all
> this in a weekend.  =)