OLD Mac fans? (pre OS X)

Question

alc6379 120 Cookie... That's it

20 Years Ago

I've personally amassed a decent collection of older Macs. I love these little boxes-- I can still make them do all kinds of things, as old as they are! I'm curious if there's anyone else here that loves the older Macs, or maybe just still uses them. Here is my arsenal:

Power Mac 8600/250 (Rodan)
PPC 604e 250mhz chip
4GB SCSI drive
252MB RAM
Running OS 8.6 w/Speed Doubler
sometimes I get the unction to run Debian Linux, too!
USB card add-in

Power Mac 8500/120 (Mothra)
Upgraded G3 300mhz chip w/512k cache
252MB RAM
2x4GB SCSI drive
4 port USB card
Running OS X.2 through XPostFacto

Powerbook 5300c (Horatio)
100mhz PPC 603 chip
32MB RAM
6GB laptop ATA drive
PCMCIA 10BaseT NIC
OS 8.6 w/ Speed doubler

Mac IIci (Martin)
Upgraded 68040 40mhz Presto chip
48MB RAM
2GB SCSI drive
external CD-ROM
external 650MB Magneto Optical drive
external Syquest 44/88MB drive
NuBus 10BaseT NIC
Runs System 7.1, eventually going to run Debian m68k Linux!

These are the machines I have set up right now. In addition to these, I've got other IIci's sitting around, a bunch of all-in-one LC 5xx series boxen, some Mac Classics, a Mac 512k, an SE/30 and an SE. All of them run great, too! Of all the ones I own, I'm most proud of the IIci I listed-- I've had it for a few years, and I've transplanted the guts into a newer IIci chassis. It looks brand new! The only thing about it, though, is that as it is equipped, it would have been worth well over $20,000 US back in the early 90's. Now, You could probably put the same setup together for under $100! But, the thing still runs like a champ!

What about any of you other folks? I'm not the only OLD Mac afficionado here, am I? :?:

apple-hardware

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12 Replies
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2 Years Discussion Span
Latest Post 18 Years Ago Latest Post by quantico

Gary King 37 PHP/vBulletin Guru

20 Years Ago

You call those old Macs? I remember my mac, was a 1988 model or something? (I wasn't much of a computer fan back then, if you know what I mean :p) I only used it for playing chess against an AI :D I can't quite remember the exact model (I'd have to find it in my junk pile first), but I'm sure it was older than anything you have here :D

Dani 4,310 The Queen of DaniWeb

20 Years Ago

I have an Apple IIGS ... not hooked up at the moment, but when I disconnected it back in the day in favor of a 386, it was working like it was right out of the box! :)

fuzzylogic 12 Newbie Poster

20 Years Ago

I used a IIci for years and years, it was maxed out, last ran on OS 7.1 (I think), hooked up to a 20" SuperMac monitor. Finally I had to get a new one because it couldn't keep up while surfing the web, that was about 5 years ago, and I got a G3, ran on OS8.6 until a few weeks ago, when the hard drive died on me. Now I have a 20" iMac. I still have the IIci, and I think I'll hook it up one of these days just for kicks. ;)

alc6379 commented: great to hear someone else has a REALLY OLD mac! +12

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alc6379 120 Cookie... That's it Team Colleague · Answer 1 · 2003-12-29T10:58:25+00:00

I dunno... my 512k's pretty old... of course, mine's "pimped out"-- it's got a FAT ;) external 20MB hard drive!

Big Max 0 Light Poster · Answer 2 · 2003-12-30T08:49:35+00:00

Greetings,

My G3 B&W by today's standards is considered to be old, although not as old as the Powermac 7200's I cut my teeth on. I remember the first time I worked with System 7. My Microsoft entranced Boss was so annoyed when he put me in charge of deploying and supporting 150 Powermac 7200's in building 2 at a local Cigna office because not only were my support calls on that unit fewer than the PC group, but I was able to fix most of the issues remotely with Timbuktu. Ah... those were the days...... ;-)

kc0arf 68 Posting Virtuoso Team Colleague · Answer 3 · 2004-11-16T02:31:07+00:00

Hello,

My first computer was an Apple IIe back in the day.

First Macintosh was a Mac LC in 1991.

Then the PowerMac 7100 in 1993.

Then the Powerbook 520 in 1995.

Then the Powerboog G3 in 2000.

The 7100 is in use with an accelerator card by my cousin in college, along with the Personal Laserwriter LS that I got with it. The Powerbook 520 is geared for emergency use with ham radio equipment and terminal programs. The G3 is my current machine. The LC was given up for charity. The IIe is in a box for historical meaning for me.

Christian

ngambing 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 4 · 2005-01-11T07:53:39+00:00

Hello! i have a powermac 7200/90 machine which i bought in 96, i was thinking of using it as a web host. Suggestion anyone i'm all ears...

alc6379 120 Cookie... That's it Team Colleague · Answer 5 · 2005-01-11T08:03:19+00:00

Hello! i have a powermac 7200/90 machine which i bought in 96, i was thinking of using it as a web host. Suggestion anyone i'm all ears...

That's an "okay" machine, actually:

http://lowendmac.com/ppc/7200.shtml

You shouldn't have any problems shoehorning Linux on there, and using the BootX loader to load it all up. Since it's a PCI Mac, you can even think about installing a 10/100 NIC in it to supplant the built-in 10BT NIC that you're stuck with otherwise. It's just been my experience, but the NICs from those machines are pretty slow, but YMMV.

ngambing 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 6 · 2005-01-11T08:19:26+00:00

Thanks! By the way do have any advise on how to about doing it ;)

bolander 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 7 · 2005-03-28T04:07:11+00:00

i've recently ugraded from a 7200/90 to a 7300/200. my good it flies in comparison. i think in terms of archetecture and upgradeablity it has to be one of the finest of computers ever. classic cars - we should have the equivalent of the brighton rally for computers by now surely?

ngambing 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 8 · 2005-12-30T08:27:29+00:00

Hi cookie..
My mac is a bit worn off currently running mac os 8.6 and a bit slow, the spec are as below :
Power Mac 7200/90 (Catalyst)
PPC 601 90mhz chip
1GB SCSI drive
48MB RAM
Running OS 8.6
No add on card installed

(I too have the urged to port linux but don't know how) :cheesy:

quantico 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 9 · 2006-02-27T22:13:10+00:00

This post is coming from my 1997 power Computing / power tower Pro 225 mhz / 5 fast wide scsi drives . I love the machine a lot , but it's replacement should be here in the next couple days. I have usb and firewire in my power tower pro.

I run 8.6 on the power computing machine and my powerbase 180 / 603e smaller tower machine. I also have a 6400 performa 180 which has been a reliable machine as well.

Of interest is that nasa purchased many of the power tower pro machines. These machines were serious power at the time. My brother in law's 1996 power tower pro came with 4 hard drives each 4 gig or better , he was running 1 gig of ram back then.

These older machines were tough and easy to service , and had lots of upgrade capability. The only thing I can't remember how to do is to open up the performa 6400 to add a second drive. The top or front upper panel come off, but I don't remember exactly how any more. If you remember ... drop me a response or a note thanks ...