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Did I buy a fake 512k?

Sas91

Sas91

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2018
3
0
Hi guys!

Yesterday I bought a Macintosh 512k in horrible condition at a street market.

My idea was to turn it into a hackintosh or put a Mac Mini inside it.

I looked at photos online and noticed something different with my computer. The Apple logo in the front does not have the square around it. Could this mean it’s a fake? If not, as the condition is poor, I was planning to repair the cracks and scratches and spray paint it in an authentic shade. Are these computers valuable and I should keep it as is?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Below is a photo of the computer I bought.
A1250E2D-34DA-4409-A883-E9696101C6CF.jpeg
 
Papanate said:
That's real. It came out of a School Program.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the quick response and your help. That’s true, I found some university stickers on it. Any other differences between the two?
 
Sas91 said:
Thanks so much for the quick response and your help. That’s true, I found some university stickers on it. Any other differences between the two?
Click to expand...


It has been a long long time since I've even seen those models. AFAIK they were very nice machines for
the era - I don't think there was much different beyond some different software being loaded.
 
MikeatOSX said:
Barbarous in the eyes of a collector!
Click to expand...

I understand your point of view, but if you look at the condition of this machine it’s very scratched up and even has some cracks. I guess I have to fill in the cracks and respray the machine in a color as close to the original as possible. After doing so the machine would not be original anyways and I feel I might as well put it to good use and make it a machine I can actually use on a day to day basis. Please let me know if you have any advice on restoring it.
 
Congratulations on getting a 512k.
PLEASE DONT Hackintosh it, or do anything else to detract from it's originality.
Don't be too concerned at the state of the casing at this stage.
I suggest you have a go at refurbishing it. If that sounds crazy, believe me I didn't have a clue on restoration when I attempted mine. Link HERE.
I received much valuable advise from this forum, and you will too if you decide to make the correct decision to "have a go" yourself.
Having said that, mine is a project - the completion of which has been put onto the backburner, as other projects have taken greater priority. It will be restarted in due course. We could even compare notes.
If you've had no internal battery leakage, it could be significantly easier than mine to restore.
 
Last edited:
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Even in less than stellar condition, its value is still decent. That's especially true if it's a 512K and not a 512Ke(enhanced). Make that doubly true if it's a 512K with a working 400K floppy drive.

The keyboard would not be original to it-that's a Mac Plus keyboard. It should still work, though. If you don't have the keyboard cable it came with, don't be tempted to "make do" with a telephone handset cord.
 
That's almost certainly a 512Ke. Later revisions of it had the Apple logo without a square border (like the Plus, but without a name on the front). To my knowledge, the plain 512K only ever shipped with the same case front as the 128K Mac, which does have the border. The other clue is that the position of the Apple logo on the Plus and (later) 512Ke is much higher than on the 128K and 512K. On the Plus/512Ke, the logo is at about the same height as the floppy drive like in your photo.
 
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