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StarMax 3000/240MT Facts at a Glance
- Processor: 603e, 240 MHz
- Drive: 2.5GB EIDE
- CD-ROM Drive: 8X ATAPI
- Slots: 5 PCI
- Installed RAM: 32MB
- Max RAM: 160MB
- RAM Slots: 3, 168-pin DIMM
- Min RAM Speed: 60 ns
- L2 Cache: 512K
- Installed VRAM: 4MB
- Introduced:12/96
- Discontinued: -
- Initial Retail Price: $2,799
- Current
Price
Additional Notes
- Requires 3.3v EDO RAM
- Requires adapter to use Mac monitors
- PS/2 input port allows the use of PC devices
- Came with 28.8 modem
- Came with 5 year warranty
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When Motorola joined the Macintosh Clone bandwagon in 1996
there was much cheering from the Mac press. Finally a big
hitter, with business savvy and a good reputation in the business
community had decided to manufacture their favorite computer
and perhaps even expand the Mac market. As fate would have
it, only a few short months later Apple would completely pull
the plug on Mac cloning, putting an end to Motorola's offerings
just as they were beginning to take off.
Motorola's StarMax Macs would win no awards for industrial
design. They were solid, basic, competitively priced computers
that relied heavily on standard parts to keep costs down.
The StarMax 3000 series came in desktop or minitower form
factors and in 4 different speeds; 160, 180, 200 and 240Mhz
models. What distinguished the desktop models from the tower
ones (other than the form factor) was that the desktops came
with 16MB of RAM, a 1.2GB EIDE hard drive, 3 PCI slots, and
the case had one free drive bay. The tower models on the other
hand had; 32MB of RAM, a 2.5GB EIDE hard drive, 5 PCI slots
and the case had 4 free drive bays. Other than this the features
of the desktop machines and the tower machines are the same,
except in the case of the 240Mhz model, which only came in
a tower model and has a few unique features.
On all machine the 603e processor is soldered to the motherboard
making its removal impossible. Luckily there are several CPU
upgrade manufacturers that make upgrades for these computers
that fit into the L2 cache slot.
A L2 cache of 256K shipped with all models except the 240Mhz
machine, which has a 512K L2 cache. There are 3 DIMM memory
slots and these machines use 3.3v EDO RAM with a maximum capacity
of 160MB. Interestingly you are not able to install 8MB DIMMs
in the StarMax, 16MB being the smallest accepted size. One
MB of VRAM was standard and is upgradable to 4MB, except again
on the 240Mhz model, which came with 4MB already installed.
All machines have 8X ATAPI CD-ROM drive and came with a 28.8
external modem. There is no onboard Ethernet or internal SCSI.
To add these features you will have to add appropriate PCI
cards. Also the machines have a PC style SVGA monitor port.
To use a Mac monitor will require an adapter. On the back
of the StarMaxs are two PS/2 ports which allow you to use
PC input devices, such as keyboard, mice, etc.
Aimed at the home user the StarMax 3000s shipped with a unprecedented
5 year warranty.
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Internal Links
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External Links
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Below you will find the MacBench 4.0 results for most of
the processor upgrades available for this machine. These results
are what the individual manufactures publish for their cards.
In other words the speed trials were run by the manufacturer.
For an independent evaluation of these cards check the Processor
Upgrade Page to see if we have results available. The
bar graphs below express results as a percentage of improvement
over the base machine, which receives a score of 100%. Further
down the page you will find a table with the actual MacBench
score.
MacBench Absolute Scores
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Processor Upgrade Card
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MacBench 4.0 Processor Score
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| StarMax 3000/240 |
376 |
| Vimage Vpower PM4400 G3/240/120/512K |
749 |
| Sonnet Crescendo G3L2//240/120/512K |
740 |
| Newer MAXpower G3/260/130/512K |
875 |
| Sonnet Crescendo G3/L2/300/150/512K |
930 |
| Vimage Vpower PM4400 G3/300/150/1MB |
1039 |
| Sonnet Crescendo G3/L2/300/150/1MB |
1045 |
| Newer MAXpowr G3-L2B 300/1MB/200 |
1100 |
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