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Post your oldest "living" PowerPC Mac!
- Thread starter Corbin052198
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Mac mini
The oldest that I still have in regular service is my G4 mini, currently being used as my home media/file/print/web/torrent server, a role that it fills quite well! It's tiny, quiet, and looks adorable sitting on a corner of my desk out of the way, quietly grinding away at its tasks 24/7. It's a wonderful little computer!
The oldest that I still have in regular service is my G4 mini, currently being used as my home media/file/print/web/torrent server, a role that it fills quite well! It's tiny, quiet, and looks adorable sitting on a corner of my desk out of the way, quietly grinding away at its tasks 24/7. It's a wonderful little computer!
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For me it's my 1996 Power Macintosh 7600/132 I got from my uncle who used it in audio recording and production till he got his PowerBook G4 in 2004.
It actually has a 200 MHz PPC 604e in it, dual HDDs, maxed video RAM, and 384MB system RAM. It boots System 7, OS 9, and a hacked on version of 10.2.8. It only officially supported up to 9.1.
It still works 100%, but isn't exactly useful in todays terms. It'll still connect to the internet however, and my local network, run productivity apps and such, but it's just a relic at this point. I do intend to hold on to her though, it's got some good old recordings on it still, nostalgic to me.
It actually has a 200 MHz PPC 604e in it, dual HDDs, maxed video RAM, and 384MB system RAM. It boots System 7, OS 9, and a hacked on version of 10.2.8. It only officially supported up to 9.1.
It still works 100%, but isn't exactly useful in todays terms. It'll still connect to the internet however, and my local network, run productivity apps and such, but it's just a relic at this point. I do intend to hold on to her though, it's got some good old recordings on it still, nostalgic to me.
My oldest living Mac is the 'Yosemite' Power Mac G3 (B&W), though I have not booted it up in years. 450 MHz G3, 320 MB RAM and a 20 GB HD. Runs Tiger. The enclosure is really nice so I wish I had some use for it, but I've got newer Power Macs that do what this used to.
I have a few definitions for "oldest"...
Power Macintosh 7100/66 - the very first PowerPC Mac (released at the same time as the 6100/60 and 8100/80.) Released March 1994, this model can boot System 7.1. The line was speed bumped (6100/66, 7100/80, 8100/100) in January 1995, and those models require System 7.5. My 7100 is the "base" model, without even a CD-ROM drive. I have it paired with the 'matching' Apple AudioVision 14 Display - the only display to use the HDI-45 connector that was only present on the x100-series Power Macs. I also have an Apple Adjustable Keyboard for it.
Power Macintosh 6100/60AV - released the same day as the 7100 above, this is the "pizzabox" form factor, and this one has the full AV in/out ports plus CD-ROM drive.
Those two, simply, are the first PowerPC Macintoshes Apple introduced. But I have a few more 'interesting' ones:
PowerBook 5300: The first PowerPC portable - I have a few of these. One grayscale 5300 at minimum specs, a few 5300c with color display, and one top-of-the-line 5300ce (which had a higher-resolution color display and a faster CPU,) but all of them are broken in some way. They all boot to an OS, but something is wrong with each of them. (the 5300ce has a completely broken display, sadly.)
PowerBook 540c with PowerPC Upgrade - the PowerBook 500-series was introduced a month and a half after the desktop x100-series Power Macintoshes, with the promise that Apple would release a PowerPC upgrade. I have one with the PPC upgrade. I also have a 520c with the stock '040 chip.
Quadra 700 with Apple PowerPC Upgrade Card - released in 1991, well before the PowerPC line, with no promise of upgrade (Apple and IBM didn't even sign the deal that would create the PowerPC processor until the week the Quadra 700 was released!)
Apple later released a PowerPC Upgrade card that plugs in to the PDS. Sadly, my PPC card for this is dead. (I also have a Daystar PPC upgrade that works, which is essentially the same card, since Daystar made the cards for Apple.)
I also have an IBM PC Power Edition 440 - IBM's attempt at a low-end PowerPC desktop, released about the same time as Apple's x100-series, designed to run Windows NT, Solaris, and OS/2; later they allowed AIX to run on it, and neither Solaris nor OS/2 were ever released for PowerPC in a truly usable form. The line died quickly, but the similarly-architectured AIX-only RS/6000 line continued just fine.
Finally, I have an IBM ThinkPad 820 - a PowerPC ThinkPad roughly feature-equivalent to the PowerBook 5300c, and released at near the same time. Much like the "PC Power Edition" line, IBM's PowerPC ThinkPads didn't last very long. (The last one was rebranded as an RS/6000 laptop and sold for a few more years.)
Power Macintosh 7100/66 - the very first PowerPC Mac (released at the same time as the 6100/60 and 8100/80.) Released March 1994, this model can boot System 7.1. The line was speed bumped (6100/66, 7100/80, 8100/100) in January 1995, and those models require System 7.5. My 7100 is the "base" model, without even a CD-ROM drive. I have it paired with the 'matching' Apple AudioVision 14 Display - the only display to use the HDI-45 connector that was only present on the x100-series Power Macs. I also have an Apple Adjustable Keyboard for it.
Power Macintosh 6100/60AV - released the same day as the 7100 above, this is the "pizzabox" form factor, and this one has the full AV in/out ports plus CD-ROM drive.
Those two, simply, are the first PowerPC Macintoshes Apple introduced. But I have a few more 'interesting' ones:
PowerBook 5300: The first PowerPC portable - I have a few of these. One grayscale 5300 at minimum specs, a few 5300c with color display, and one top-of-the-line 5300ce (which had a higher-resolution color display and a faster CPU,) but all of them are broken in some way. They all boot to an OS, but something is wrong with each of them. (the 5300ce has a completely broken display, sadly.)
PowerBook 540c with PowerPC Upgrade - the PowerBook 500-series was introduced a month and a half after the desktop x100-series Power Macintoshes, with the promise that Apple would release a PowerPC upgrade. I have one with the PPC upgrade. I also have a 520c with the stock '040 chip.
Quadra 700 with Apple PowerPC Upgrade Card - released in 1991, well before the PowerPC line, with no promise of upgrade (Apple and IBM didn't even sign the deal that would create the PowerPC processor until the week the Quadra 700 was released!)
Apple later released a PowerPC Upgrade card that plugs in to the PDS. Sadly, my PPC card for this is dead. (I also have a Daystar PPC upgrade that works, which is essentially the same card, since Daystar made the cards for Apple.)
I also have an IBM PC Power Edition 440 - IBM's attempt at a low-end PowerPC desktop, released about the same time as Apple's x100-series, designed to run Windows NT, Solaris, and OS/2; later they allowed AIX to run on it, and neither Solaris nor OS/2 were ever released for PowerPC in a truly usable form. The line died quickly, but the similarly-architectured AIX-only RS/6000 line continued just fine.
Finally, I have an IBM ThinkPad 820 - a PowerPC ThinkPad roughly feature-equivalent to the PowerBook 5300c, and released at near the same time. Much like the "PC Power Edition" line, IBM's PowerPC ThinkPads didn't last very long. (The last one was rebranded as an RS/6000 laptop and sold for a few more years.)
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Oldest living Mac ... My oldest Mac is down! But this is it's other half. It was bundled with a 800ghz DP Quicksilver, July 2001.
However, currently my MDD 1.25ghz, breathes it's life through this 17' studio display. Still looks cool and is still the best looking among all my monitors.
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My oldest would be the two Quicksilvers I have. I was narrowly outbid on a Pismo yesterday, which was just as well, although I still harbour some fondness for a Wallstreet with weak hinges that I lost in a burglary, which was my very first Mac.
I also quite like the acrylic ACDs. Amazing what £10 gets you on eBay these days.
I also quite like the acrylic ACDs. Amazing what £10 gets you on eBay these days.
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Good for you, you won it. U got it for $10 huh...its worth it. Yours seem like a 20', its very rare at my location, have fun with it !
It's a 23" model so I was shocked to be the only bidder. 20" ones don't go for very much and I got a boxed 17" thrown in with my Quicksilver.
23" ? My goodness... U are damn lucky dude... I'd give up my food for a day to get that...
I do at times look out in eBay... Price would be reasonable, ....it's the postage that would be e killer issue...
My oldest and currently only is a 867 MHZ Quicksilver, as seen in my signature. It still runs beautifully and it has a 17" Cinema Display, original Apple Pro keyboard and mouse, and Apple Speakers to accompany it. Unfortunately it spends a great deal of time in the closet as I have no room for it on my desk at home. That may change soon though!
I would post a picture, but I have no idea how to do so.
I would post a picture, but I have no idea how to do so.
Take your photo however, and get it on your desktop.
From the message posting window click on the little "paper-clip" icon, from here you can select your photo and upload it.
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You are in the UK yeah?
I've got a Lombard missing the Hard drive cable you can have for shipping?
I have a 7100/66 that I "rescued" a few months back. The HDD was on its way out-it would not boot into the installed OS(I think maybe OS 8) and I was never able to complete an install of any other OS. I bought a lot of SCSI HDDs off Ebay, and the first I popped in(a 1.2gb) had a good, working install of OS 8 on it. I've not bothered to mess around with it anymore.
Just the other day, I spotted an HDI-45 to DB-15 adapter cable from the source that yielded the original computer, so needless to say I grabbed that as well. If I can ever get the DB-15 to VGA dongle working correctly, I could even run dual monitors on it.
Although newer than the 7100, I recently snagged an 8500/120 in good working condition. The original 2gb HDD was nearly full, so I added a second 2gb drive to it(that was the first time I'd had to deal with setting jumpers on SCSI drives, so was a fun adventure for me to get everything working correctly). It's still running OS 7.5. The original owner was a physical and computational Chemist, and it has a lot of really good(although dated) software installed including Chemdraw, Spartan(molecular modeling), and Mathematica. I added a PCI video card to this one so that I can use an LCD monitor with it.
Just the other day, I spotted an HDI-45 to DB-15 adapter cable from the source that yielded the original computer, so needless to say I grabbed that as well. If I can ever get the DB-15 to VGA dongle working correctly, I could even run dual monitors on it.
Although newer than the 7100, I recently snagged an 8500/120 in good working condition. The original 2gb HDD was nearly full, so I added a second 2gb drive to it(that was the first time I'd had to deal with setting jumpers on SCSI drives, so was a fun adventure for me to get everything working correctly). It's still running OS 7.5. The original owner was a physical and computational Chemist, and it has a lot of really good(although dated) software installed including Chemdraw, Spartan(molecular modeling), and Mathematica. I added a PCI video card to this one so that I can use an LCD monitor with it.
See post 364 for an update. I have another non-working Pismo on the way to use as spares. If the Lombard has a halfway decent battery in it (not likely, I know) then it would be worth it to me. Pity I dumped all my SCSI stuff when my Wallstreet went walkies as that is the value of the Lombard.
Let me know how much postage is likely to be. I am in a collecting mood at the moment.
Ditto. My oldest is a beige PPC G3 Desktop as well. Also not with me but packed away at my parents' place.
I actually have a Lombard that has the cable, as the HD is currently placed within the machine. However, it's a horribly dead machine with some working parts inside of it. The case is pretty screwed up, there is no power jack in it, no battery, etc. I think I could have a use for this by putting the HD power cable in it from my parts model. However, while it's not a heavy item that could be shipped in a low, flat-rate box, I am in the U.S. I wonder what the shipping would be...
Or you could ship me the HDD cable and i could get my virtually mint Lombard working
