Do you still use your old mac?

[slooksterPSV]

For anyone who has an older mac (considering they have a newer one), do you still use the older mac, or is it collecting dust? One person who I saw in this forum has like 6 macs all together, s/he has 3 mac laptops and 3 mac desktops. Just curious on what you do with them (xgrid would be nice for them).

[mad jew]

I tried to set up some old Macs as servers for my music but it was too slow and pointless because their hard drives are so eincy weincy (small). :p

[RacerX]

In my case:

My 8100 (with a G3/500 upgrade) is my main classic applications Mac. It is Running Mac OS 8.6 and has a ton of my pre-Mac OS X apps on it.

My 7500 (with a PowerPC 604e/225) is my desktop Rhapsody system. Also, because some Rhapsody apps only ran on PowerPC systems, it gives me access to apps I can't run on my Rhapsody ThinkPad.

My PowerBook Duo 2300c is my school system. I have early versions of Mathematica and Theorist on it along with apps like Photoshop 4.0, Illustrator 6.0, Acrobat 4.0, PageMaker 5.0a, ImageReady 1.0, PageMill 3.0, BBEdit 6.1 and AppleWorks 6.2.8 all running in Mac OS 8.6 (I used some of the oldest versions of apps so that they wouldn't tax the system's PowerPC 603e/100 to much). It just makes a handy little system and at least than 5 lb it doesn't add a lot of weight to my backpack.

My Quadra 950 (with a PowerPC 601/66) is just one of my favorite systems. I have three 21" monitors connected to it which are great for displaying up to 6 pages at full size. I mainly use it for CD burning though.

[slooksterPSV]

... I mainly use it for CD burning though.
A 66MHz machine burning CD's!!! WHOA

[joecool85]

The only old mac that I have anymore is my Quadra 650. I got it for free, put it up to 104mb ram (started at 12mb), but in a 4x CD drive (because the 2x drive broke), swapped in a 2.1 gb hd spinning at 7200rpm (started with a 250mb 4200rpm drive), and also over clocked the 64040 to 42 mhz (started at 33mhz)...then I proceded to update the OS from 7.6.1 to 8.1 After that it ran as a webserver for about 6 months hosting my website and serving as a FTP server for me and a couple others. Then I switched high speed connections and I can't get it to work on what I have now :-( Fun while it lasted though, illegal as it was.

[uaaerospace]

I have my G5 at college, and I have my G3 at home. I use the G3 whenever I need a computer at home. I hardly ever use the old Performa, but I do from time to time boot it up and tinker around with it. Play some old 2D games, and such. It's only 66MHz (8MB RAM), but it runs the programs that are on it just fine. Me going from my G5 to the Performa does not make me impatient. BTW, my parents have an older dell (2001) at home that they still use. I try to stay away from it unless they need me to fix it (how often would you guess? hehe). ~Josh

[SpaceMagic]

My oldest mac is the 233mhz iMac Bondi. It's ok, it's running Mac OS 9.2.2... it bugs me a bit because it's quite loud. It's not a bad machine though, I still use it for iTunes in my room.

The iBook 366 my mum uses and describes as "a snobby old lady who does things in her own time." The iBook is running OS X.3 and is quite painful.. it's just been used everyday constantly for 5 years now and it really is sloow, especially after being on my G5.

We still use these old macs but I've come to a point where im no longer looking for old machines on ebay. Its time to replace all the old and bring in some new.

[biohazard6969]

One person who I saw in this forum has like 6 macs all together, s/he has 3 mac laptops and 3 mac desktops.
yea, i have so many older macs, i use some of them like i have my main comp, my powerbook, but in my room, i also have an old imac G3 which i use when i have other people over, or when my PB is out of battery :p i use the imac G4 for VPC, powerbook G3 is collecting dust, so is the other 600 mhz G3

Just curious on what you do with them (xgrid would be nice for them).
what is an xgrid? i've always been interested in what i could do with some of these older macs to make them a wee bit more usefull....i don't really want to sell them, i don't rele need the money right now.

[maya]

Yes, I use my old Mac(s) as internet terminals or to stream or host music, etc... :)

[Plymouthbreezer]

After just upgrading my G3 iMac to Panther, I've been using it much more. Mainly though, my dad uses that one for games and his e-mail. Also, because it's downstairs, if I have people over, I use it to get to my G4's iTunes upstairs on my network.

[slooksterPSV]

what is an xgrid? i've always been interested in what i could do with some of these older macs to make them a wee bit more usefull....i don't really want to sell them, i don't rele need the money right now.

Xgrid allows you to connect all of your computers - here's apple's descript of it:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/xgrid/[/url]"]
...
Mac Synergy


Xgrid turns a group of Macs into a supercomputer, so they can work on problems greater than each individually could solve. You can let Xgrid operate in screensaver mode, so whenever you aren’t working, your Mac can crunch away at some data set. Or if you have a group of Macs dedicated to the task, Xgrid makes it easy to set up a cluster that works around the clock, every day of the year.


Power to the People


Without any extra effort, you can increase the power of special Xgrid-enabled applications simply by adding more Macs to the cluster. You can also easily assist with community cycle-sharing projects like Charles Parnot’s Xgrid@Stanford research into heart health. Developers can tap into the new Xgrid Foundation APIs and Xgrid on Mac OS X Server to quickly add Xgrid functionality to their own programs. Many scientists who already use command-line tools in their work can immediately take advantage of Xgrid and have the power of a cluster without any extra effort at all.


Supercomputers Made Easy


Xgrid takes care of the hard work of configuring a cluster. It uses zero configuration Bonjour to connect available resources on a local network, DNS service lookup if your organization supports directory services, or even a hard-wired hostname if you are running Xgrid over the Internet. An easy-to-use System Preference panel lets you control how your machine gets used by the network and also tells the cluster which computer can send problems to the group for number crunching. Xgrid takes the grunt work out of splitting jobs and collecting results. You can even submit your job from a laptop, fly off to a vacation or conference, then reconnect and retrieve the results when you return.

[wordmunger]

Powermac cube: music server (with HD upgrade)
original iBook: music remote
original iMac: Thinking of turning this into a linux box.

[840quadra]

I still use mine

SE, and 512k
Turn on from time to time to play old games, and use system 6 and older Macintosh systems.

Quadra 840av
Used mostly for Audio capture. It has a separate Digital Signal Processor on the motherboard, and is able to record high quality audio with less "noise" then any of my other Mac computers (haven't tested the G5 yet).

I also use this box for my 68k applications the most, including browsing older websites with iCab.

6500/275
This will soon have a G3 upgrade, but it currently is used to capture Video. It has a built in TV tuner, AV card. This computer is actually fast at running OS 8.5, and will record decent video (TV or VCR video) for editing on my G4 or G5 comptuers.

6220cd
Used as a TV tuner with Flat Pannel moniter in my Kitchen. This box has a 180gb hard disk, and I also use it as a poor man's Tivo. Since I have an Apple infrared remote for this box, it acts just like a normal TV.

LC
Use this for Quicken (old version) and back the data up onto my B&W and Digital Audio.

B&W
Upgraded to a G4, and use this to test website browsers on websites I work on, also has large disks and stores data. I run Folding@home on this box 24/7

Digital Audio Dual 533
Used to run Folding@home. This was a project box, I built this G4 from parts off the internet, ant it is housed in a Never used, brand new looking Quicksilver case!. I am thinking about selling this, but am totally on the fence.

G5
Brand new as of 2 weeks ago. Just figureing out what to do with this box. Currently watch DVD's on it, and run Folding@home 24/7. Once Tiger comes out, I am going to Format and reload this box (I know only a month old by then) and migrate all of my applications to make this my primary box.

[joecool85]

I feel really dumb asking this...but whats a B&W? Its not black and white right?

[CanadaRAM]

B&W = Blue and White, the G3 tower that came after the G3 beige machines. Cheery blue front and translucent plastic handles. The first desktop with USB and FireWire, and without SCSI and Serial ports. It still had a ADB port, which was phased out in the next rev.

The G4 "Yikes" (PCI graphics) machine was the same motherboard with a G4 chip on it, with graphite rather than blue plastics. The G4 "Sawtooth" (AGP graphics) was the first full G4 motherboard design.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

[matthewr]

Most of my old Macs have gone the way of the dodo (128K, SE, SE20, one of the first colour PB (don't remember what number it was). But I still have a iMac DV that I do a bunch of scanning on (the film scanner doesn't have OSX drivers) and use ocassionally when I want to run OS9. And my old Pismo is still chugging along (with a new 20 GB HD, running 10.2), which my wife uses for bill paying, iTunes, sync-ing her iPod shuffle, etc.

[mcadam]

I had a period when I used my SE30 as a typewriter... it was nice. Somehow it was good for concentration to write on that instead of my laptop. Maybe because it doesn't contain anything but text, no distracting internet or anything. But right now it's just gathering dust, perhaps I should bring it down from the attic again.

My iBook with it's broken screen I would like to turn into a server, but still haven't gotten around toit. Need someone to tell me how...

A

[Leareth]

I use all of my babies,
though the New G5 imac and ibook are getting the most use
the old G3 imac is great backup storage and music machine, hooked up to stereo speakers, the two B&W's are used as servers and download machines for really large files or files that take long time to download : )
the other ibook is used everyday by the other person. All this in a studio apt.

[Mechcozmo]

PowerTower Pro 225 is a guest computer, as well as a general net surfing machine. Runs 8.6 nicely.

iMac G4 800 MHz-- burning DVDs, converting VHS to DVD
PowerBook 12" Rev. C-- main computer

I have a 512K and a Plus 1MB but don't know what to do with them. The Plus has a 100 MB SCSI external drive. Original keyboard and mouse... it runs great, but I don't know what to do with it. The 512K doesn't have a suitable bootdisk.

[840quadra]

I feel really dumb asking this...but whats a B&W? Its not black and white right?

CanadaRAM gave a good list of features on the Blue and White (B&W)

They are a good computer to buy if you want to have an inexpensive comptuer that is highly upgradeablle, for running OSX, and Classic Applications.

The B&W I own was the first OSX Capable computer I owned. I have only had it since Febuary, and since then I was hooked!! After I got hooked on OSX I stopped using my Primary box (don't laugh) a Pentium 450 White box I built back in 99. The G3 350 was a screamer compared to the 450 running XP Pro.

I had been running Mac and PC hardware at home since 98, Since March of this year i was hooked on my B&W, and caused me to buy a G4 and a G5 since. I am now running a fully Macintosh OS house, with the exception of my work laptop. :mad:

[cb911]

LOL - what old Mac? :D

that's why upgrading a Mac is so easy - you just trash the old one and buy a whole new one. :P

but seriously - i always sell my old model PowerBook to fund the purchase of a new model.

[joecool85]

I had a period when I used my SE30 as a typewriter... it was nice. Somehow it was good for concentration to write on that instead of my laptop. Maybe because it doesn't contain anything but text, no distracting internet or anything. But right now it's just gathering dust, perhaps I should bring it down from the attic again.

My iBook with it's broken screen I would like to turn into a server, but still haven't gotten around toit. Need someone to tell me how...

A

Step 1: Sell said computer to me

Step 2: Forget you wanted it as a server and be happy :-)

lol/jk But if you do want to know how to set it up as a server, send me an email or PM and i'll help you out.