Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Powerbook 520c worth anything?

T

trainguy77

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 13, 2003
3,567
1
My brother just got a Powerbook 520c from work. He found it (he works demolition) I am wondering if they are worth anything? It has both batteries but no power cable. The only damage to it is the faceplate coving the hinge has broken off so has one hinge nothing super glue won't fix. :p All the parts seem to be there. I don't know if it works without power though. :mad: Anyone know if i could find one somewhere? or how to wire my own. (the voltages i need)
 
It depends what the specs of the 520c are. I have seen machines with fully upgraded ram and PowerPC processors going for over $100. Other machines that were not as well stocked sell for $20 or less. I would not try to make your own power adapter. The PB 520c uses are 4 pin connector which includes more than one voltage. It is cheaper/easier/safer to just buy a used adapter somewhere.
 
trainguy77 said:
My brother just got a Powerbook 520c from work. He found it (he works demolition) I am wondering if they are worth anything? It has both batteries but no power cable. The only damage to it is the faceplate coving the hinge has broken off so has one hinge nothing super glue won't fix. :p All the parts seem to be there. I don't know if it works without power though. :mad: Anyone know if i could find one somewhere? or how to wire my own. (the voltages i need)
Click to expand...

They are more or less worthless in non-pristine non-working condition. Especially as macEfan says, with a proprietary four pin adapter plug. I confess that I still have one (sans adapter) in the bottom of my closet though.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I have a 520c in mint condition with lots of extras, but I did not get any interest last time I offered it around.
Click to expand...

When I moved about eight years ago I had a one month dial-up account before getting set up. The little 520c actually did the job for a while, albeit with lots of browser errors.
 
jodelli said:
When I moved about eight years ago I had a one month dial-up account before getting set up. The little 520c actually did the job for a while, albeit with lots of browser errors.
Click to expand...

I got my 520 online about two years ago just to show it could be done, infact I posted on this site with it. The hardest part was finding an OS 7.6 browser that would happy run and browse using the meager 24mb of RAM I have installed in mine. I seem to remember IE2 did the trick in the end, everything was text only though. Not having an internal modem is also an issue, luckily it does have an Ethernet port (of sorts). I have heard stories of the 520 going wireless, however I've never managed to get it to work, the optional PCMCIA port seems very finicky about the cards it will accept.
 
well... if you have a 520, then you can be in our little "elite" club, if you sell it... then you can't. so what's that worth to you?
 
Haha yeah. I want to track down a power cord before i sell it. Just to see if it works. As it would probably help resale value. :p
 
It would make a dandy .16 cubic foot addition to any landfill.
Seriously, I think someone might want it, and there are free services for parting it out in an eco-friendly way.
 
pb 520c

Good timing on this thread. We had some neighbors move a few weeks ago and the husband was a teacher at the local university and he had a perfect 520c ( albeit the battery only lasts for a few minutes once unplugged ). complete with books, manuals and a little apple printer to go with.

He knew I was "into" computers, so he offered to give it to me. I was hoping to work to get it on the net, but honestly, just not worth my time. My second thought was maybe to set it up as a "photo frame" of sorts my disconnecting the LCD from the base and attaching the screen to a wall or just sitting on the counter.

but, it has only sat in the corner looking neglected :(
 
dwcasey said:
Good timing on this thread. We had some neighbors move a few weeks ago and the husband was a teacher at the local university and he had a perfect 520c ( albeit the battery only lasts for a few minutes once unplugged ). complete with books, manuals and a little apple printer to go with.

He knew I was "into" computers, so he offered to give it to me. I was hoping to work to get it on the net, but honestly, just not worth my time. My second thought was maybe to set it up as a "photo frame" of sorts my disconnecting the LCD from the base and attaching the screen to a wall or just sitting on the counter.

but, it has only sat in the corner looking neglected :(
Click to expand...
If it is in great condition, don't kill it to make a photo frame!!! It is possible to get these online...a friend of mine got a Powerbook 180(even earlier model) to go to the google home page.
 
I guess it might be slightly easier to get the PB180 on line than it is the PB520. The 180 has a faster processor, faster bus and an internal modem. The limitation with the PB180 is probably its low RAM ceiling?

When we say "get on line" with these 68k Macs, it really is only to prove that it is theoretically possible and probably that we're geeks. For you average user it's not really a practical proposition is it? I've said the same for the Newton too in the past, I'm sure some people will strongly disagree (they did previously), but really!
 
Sly said:
I guess it might be slightly easier to get the PB180 on line than it is the PB520. The 180 has a faster processor, faster bus and an internal modem. The limitation with the PB180 is probably its low RAM ceiling?
Click to expand...

Did you mistype? The 520c is definitely the faster computer (a 25MHz '040 is quite a bit faster than a 33MHz '030), although it lacks an FPU, so it might be slower than the 180 for floating point stuff. The other problem with the 180 is a lack of built in ethernet.

None of the 68K machines will be speed demons with web browsing, but they'll happily do any of the other internet tasks (ftp, telnet, etc...) pretty well.
 
dmr727 said:
Did you mistype? The 520c is definitely the faster computer (a 25MHz '040 is quite a bit faster than a 33MHz '030), although it lacks an FPU, so it might be slower than the 180 for floating point stuff. The other problem with the 180 is a lack of built in ethernet.
Click to expand...

Is the 25/25Mhz LC version of the 040 used in the 520 faster than the Full 33/33Mhz 030 with FPU used in the 180? If it is my mistake, sorry.
 
The 68040 processors at 25 MHz (22 MIPS) are more than twice as fast as the 68030 processors at 33 MHz (8 MIPS), so even with the built-in FPU on the '040 turned off, it can emulate an FPU about as fast as the 68882 for the tasks that require it... which is comparably small to all the other tasks that would receive a major boost in speed from the rest of the '040.

I think people have forgotten what an incredible jump forward the 68040 and 68LC040 were over the 68030 processors. There was a reason that the Quadra 900 entered the market at nearly $10,000... it was as fast as the lower end workstations made by Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics at the time. And when these started showing up in PowerBooks (even as the 68LC040), it made for an incredible boost of speed.

Back when the PowerBook 520c was new, if you would have walked up to someone and offered them a new 520c for a their 180c they would have most likely taken it (with the only real issue not being the CPU/FPU, but the active matrix display on the 180c being better than the passive matrix one on the 520c).

I mean that is like thinking that a PowerBook Duo 270c (68030 at 33 MHz with a 68882 on the logic board) can even hold a candle to the PowerBook Duo 280c (68LC040 at 33 MHz) for any thing. Of course the 280c is better than both the 520c and 540c, but that is because it has a wider bus width (32 bits compared to 16 bits) which lets it take better advantage of the 68LC040.

But yeah, back then, you could get a 50 MHz 68030 upgrade card for your Mac IIci that would make it almost as fast as a 25 MHz 68040 based system. :eek:


People seem to think that Mac users got the megahertz myth thing from attempting to compare Macs to PCs... wrong! We learned not to compare megahertz by comparing Macs to Macs! And this is a very good example of why.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back