What is the oldest mac that can be used as a 20G+ MP3 player?

[Cecret]

I like old macs and want to turn one into an mp3 component for my stereo, what is the oldest one I can put a 20 gig hd in and has enough of a sound card/processor/software to run a decent mp3 program.

[NavyIntel007]

I've seen somewhere you could take the motherboard from an old imac and put it into a rack mount case. That, with Yellow Dog Linux and you should be ready to go.

[Cecret]

I was thinking more along the lines of a color classic. And I want to use apple software

[Funkatation]

I believe it would have to be at least a PowerPC like a 6100 or so. but all they use is SCSI. i had run iTunes 2 on a 6500 before and it didnt seem to stutter... but anything less I don't think will work very well.

[alex_ant]

I would look for a Mac with a 120MHz+ processor (603 and up). All the old Power Macs have SCSI ports which support modern drives either internally or externally - the problem is that 20GB SCSI drives are expensive. You could get a SCSI-IDE converter, though. There also might be NuBus or PCI IDE cards, although I would be surprised if the drivers for them ran on anything other than OS <=9.

[macfreek57]

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[macfreek57]

i KNOW that you could use a performa 5200cd to play mp3's (in fact that's about all it's good for). i don't know about using apple software.
i know you could install a fairly recent version of QuickTime to play mp3's but there's no playlist in that (a lot of games made in the mid to late 90's have a QT 4 installer on them if you have access to one of those. I don't know if apple still offers it).

as for the color classic (awesome computer by the way) -- i don't think you'll get much mp3 play out of it. you'll be skipping and going insane w/out a PPC at least.
i have heard of people replacing the color classic mobo with a g3 (from what, i don't know). try here AppleFritter.com (http://www.applefritter.com) for upgrade exelence.

good luck though

[macfreek57]

oh here it is (QT 4)

artnum120067 (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120067)

[gerror]

I think you need at least an PPC. My good old performa 630 could do it and then I had a 80 mhz 7600 and that baby could do it.

my flatpanel is capable of playing mp3's as well ;)

[Nipsy]

Why reinvent the wheel?
Get one of these (they rock):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3012941144&category=1499