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gooser

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 4, 2013
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these are the two macs that i've been interested in acquiring in the past few years but have never pulled the trigger on. just don't have a use for them and even less space to put them if i had them. but i've come close. anyone else out there in a similar situation? there are plenty of mac styles i've never owned before but only these two have intrigued me.
 
these are the two macs that i've been interested in acquiring in the past few years but have never pulled the trigger on. just don't have a use for them and even less space to put them if i had them. but i've come close. anyone else out there in a similar situation? there are plenty of mac styles i've never owned before but only these two have intrigued me.
The thing about eMacs is the fact that shipping kills the prices, if you can find a local school you're golden. Pismos crop up on eBay a lot more often the Lombards now, 3 years ago it was the polar opposite. Just look up "PowerBook G3" and look for photos of the Macs that say "PowerBook" on the bezel
 
I have a G5 Quad, a dual 1.42 MDD and another Quicksilver on my list. I'm set on my laptops, I'll just keep replacing my A1013 (17" PowerBook G4 1.0Ghz) as necessary.

I'd like the Quad just for the raw power. The MDD I intend to put one of my two FireXL G3 cards in so I can finally use them. I've bought two and never been able to use them. I also intend to find a Sonnet 1.8Ghz MDX dual processor for that MDD.

The second Quicksilver will have the benefit of my experimentation with my current QS. Pretty much everything I have now, except probably only four displays instead of six. I'd also like to find a Newertech Maxpower 1.8Ghz dual for it - the 7448 model, not 7447a.

And now that I'm speaking of all this, I might add a DA in there as well as a file server somewhere. Probably put in my old Sonnet (1.2Ghz single). 2GB ram, Leopard server. See how that goes.

Other than all this there is nothing else I want and I do not fancy any other models. I'm only even looking at models other than the QS simply because I'd like to test max power setups for those models.
 
Just thought id Point out eyoungren that if your getting an MDD to slap one of those rare sonnet upgrades in any MDD will do it does not have to be a dual 1.42Ghz one and if your getting a dual 1.42Ghz one due to each of those 7455Bs have 2MB of L3 cache they are about the same speed as a 7447A clocked at 1.8Ghz (its a pity no one ever made a dual 2Ghz 7448 CPU upgrade for MDDs that thing would of flown heh) so upgrading from dual the stock dual 1.42s to the sonnet 7447A 1.8s would make little sense (unless you like seeing 1.8Ghz in about this mac :) ) (although does it make sense is not what comes to mind with PPC macs :) ) also if you get another QS and a DA test the fireGL X3s in those and see if they work heh and if they do work in one you can swap its logic board into your main QS and run a FireGL X3 instead of the Radeon 9800 pro heh
 
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regarding the orignal posters post For the eMac id watch out for ones with Bad caps there known for having bad caps although the ones that did have em have probably died by now... another thing is if you can, find a 1.42Ghz one they have the core image supported Radeon 9600 compared to the slower Radeon 9200 of older models (and before that it was the Radeon 7500 and the first eMacs had Geforce 2MXs the very first model eMacs could run OS X Server 1.2V3 heh also some eMacs can run OS9)
 
I've never been a big fan of the eMac primarily because they are big, heavy and bulky. With that said, the late model 1.42ghz/r9600 ones kick the pants off the best iMac G4s in terms of performance. Also, if you like CRTs(I do) the tube in the eMac is very good.

I keep meaning to haul out my 700mhz one and install Server 1.2v3 on it.

As far as the Pismo-I'd suggest holding out for a 500mhz model-from what I've seen they're about as easy to find as the 400s, and the speed does make a difference. I've not had a 400mhz Pismo, but am basing that on comparing a 400mhz iMac to 500mhz iMac.

Fortunately, you don't need to go to extraordinary trouble to find RAM upgrades for the Pismo. Any 512mb low density PC-100 SO-DIMM will work. You need to pull the processor card to install one of the memory sticks, a process that sounds a lot scarier than it actually is. With 1gb of RAM, though, these are quite formidable machines. I do suggest swapping out the hard drive for something newer, as you will likely find the original slow and noisy.
 
Depending where the OP is located, i want to Sell my Late model Emac. 1.42GHz, 1GB of Ram 80GB drive and wireless airport (not sure which model but works with the latest AC wifi) Ive also wired up a standard PC CMOS battery to the PRAM battery (Leads not replaced it) so it keeps proper time too and no bad caps yet. If he wants to he can message me.
 
these are the two macs that i've been interested in acquiring in the past few years but have never pulled the trigger on. just don't have a use for them and even less space to put them if i had them. but i've come close. anyone else out there in a similar situation? there are plenty of mac styles i've never owned before but only these two have intrigued me.

I have an eMac with the 700 MHz G4 back at my parents house, plenty of fun memories playing Football Manager (British/European Football that is!) and listening to music with the Harmon Kardon speakers! A gem of a mac.
 
I think the eMac still has FM 2005 and 2006 on it! Haven't played it much recent years but I spent many hours on FM over the years.
For me, the game that I remember the most on the eMac was Marble Blast Gold. Had too much fun with that back in elementary school
 
i'm really not looking right
I have been wanting a 1.42 GHz iBook G4 for the longest time but never bit on getting one...


i bought one of those for my girlfriend a year ago for watching dvd's in bed. it's sinful how cheap they are theses days.
 
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Only thing I remember when we used eMacs was Tux Paint, literally all we did. I remember how annoyed I was when I tried to run exes or play flash games and they wouldn't load:p.

Pretty sure the school still has eMacs/iMacs laying around(even kept the boxes). Not sure how to approach them about it though.
 
Keep in mind a Pismo won't boot with a dead PRAM battery but will boot without one. I bought a "dead" Pismo on eBay around 10 years ago for dirt cheap, I disconnected the battery and it booted right up.
 
Keep in mind a Pismo won't boot with a dead PRAM battery but will boot without one. I bought a "dead" Pismo on eBay around 10 years ago for dirt cheap, I disconnected the battery and it booted right up.

I've bought two "dead" VGA TiBooks that I revived the same way. I don't think this is done as commonly on the TiBooks as the battery is quite a bit more difficult to access than on the PB G3 series(it is under the optical drive).

Interestingly enough, I also just bought a Macintosh II a week or two ago that was DOA. The seller refunded my money, with the agreement that I would repay them if I got it working less the repair costs. This was an early Mac II, and had two 1/2AA batteries soldered to the logic board. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I bought the correct batteries on Ebay (with the wires on them so they could be soldered). Just a few minutes ago, I finished soldering them on, and the computer booted right up! Granted, I'm having video issues now :) , but at least it chimes. Apparently the Mac II requires a working PRAM battery.
 
Yes a good battery and for the video issues the radial capacitors on the video cards are going bad. fixed about 5 so far that way.
 
Interestingly enough, I also just bought a Macintosh II a week or two ago that was DOA. The seller refunded my money, with the agreement that I would repay them if I got it working less the repair costs. This was an early Mac II, and had two 1/2AA batteries soldered to the logic board. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I bought the correct batteries on Ebay (with the wires on them so they could be soldered). Just a few minutes ago, I finished soldering them on, and the computer booted right up! Granted, I'm having video issues now :) , but at least it chimes. Apparently the Mac II requires a working PRAM battery.

Great! Now you owe them the cost minus two AA batteries. :p
 
Keep in mind a Pismo won't boot with a dead PRAM battery but will boot without one. I bought a "dead" Pismo on eBay around 10 years ago for dirt cheap, I disconnected the battery and it booted right up.

The other common problem with Pismos is the DC inboard. All the connections, particularly the power and headphone sockets are secured on solely by the solder that attaches them to the board. The solder connections break eventually, due to the constant cycle of insertion/disconnection of power and headphone cables leading to the loss of sound and/or power. The fix is reasonably straightforward if you are ok with handling a soldering iron but you do have to dismantle the entire Pismo to get to the board. If your Pismo does not power on even after removing the the PRAM, check the power socket for movement. If it wiggles, well...
 
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