Sirius 4-MB card in IIGS/IIe conversion

[casa@unm.edu (Jim Pittman)]

My first Apple IIGS was an "upgrade" in an Apple IIe case. It never
got much use because it's a ROM 01 and only had a 1-meg memory card.
The 4-meg memory cards made for "real" IIGSs wouldn't fit under the
IIe lid: they were square and too high at the keyboard end.

Recently Alltech announced a new Sirius 4-meg (expandable to 8-meg)
memory card. They assured me it would fit in a IIe case. I bought one
(with an extra SIMM for 5 MB total) but - it didn't fit. The back end
of the card was too long and too high to go under the back edge of
the IIe case.

I called Alltech. They said to return it and they'd modify it to fit.
They cut a big notch at the back corner of the card and sent it back.
It fits! It's TIGHT, but it did go in there, and the lid closed with
no problem. So now my IIGS in a IIe case finally has enough memory to
be useful! The finder says I have 5376K. Great!

By the way, even for a "real" IIGS, this is a BIG card. It blocks the
right-most connector opening at the back of the case. The SIMMS are
on the back side of the card and actually hang off the side of the
card; they even overhang the right edge of the motherboard. The card
doesn't interfere with Slot 7 (the FOCUS hard-drive-on-a-card or a
SCSI card can go there just fine) and if you don't have a connector
in that right-most opening there's no problem.

I can't say anything about DMA problems with the Apple High-Speed SCSI
card or the RamFAST since I'm using the FOCUS hard drive. The one-page
manual that comes with the card claims there's no problem with 8-megs
in a ROM 01 or 7-megs in a ROM 3. (If you have a ROM 3 you must remove
the SIMM from the first bank; this is noted on the card itself.)

I installed a 170-meg FOCUS hard drive in this machine so as to have
a somewhat-more-portable IIGS. There's room in the IIe case for a Zip
accelerator and a Second Sight card. It appears that a standard IIGS
power supply (more capacity than the IIe power supply) can fit in the
IIe case as well. Does anyone know if there's a problem with this?

Alltech has another winner with the Sirius card - it's a worthwhile
addition to their fine products for the Apple II community.

By the way, many thanks to all who replied to my earlier posts asking
for help finding a way to get 4 megs into the IIGS/IIe conversion.

- Jim Pittman - University of New Mexico - casa@unm.edu