[beetleboy]

My first, lasting computing experience occured when I was a freshman at college about 11 years ago. I really got to know the Mac SE/30 at this time. I always said that I would get one some day. I've saved all the programs and stuff that I've aquired over the years for the day that I would finally get one. Well, I finally came across someone selling them relatively cheap. Not only that, but I'm discovering there are a lot of sites with a lot of old programs and games for the SE/30. I can't wait until it arrives.

Anyone else have a SE/30 or similar? From what I can remember these were excellent computers during their time.

Beetleboy



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Martell Jackson
Lime iMac DV 400/192/10/9.04

[ddiokno]

Hi Martell,
Good for you! Have you checked out http://www.ebay.com ? You can find almost anything there....
best of luck,
dave

[Tristrami]

I've got one in the basement. And a plus, a classic, 4 LC IIs, a IIfx, a 636CD, a Quadra 610 and 2 Performa 6116CDs.....

[beetleboy]

Tristrami, you lucky dog you!!! Wow, I'm impressed at the number of classic units you have. My goal is to get about 4-5 SE/30's and have them all networked in my classroom for my students to use. Where did you find all the machines?

ddiokno, I thought about e-bay but I'd already settled with a private Mac collector in NJ. In fact, I just mailed the check to him today.

Beetleboy

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Martell Jackson
Lime iMac DV 400/192/10/9.04

[This message has been edited by beetleboy (edited 03-11-2001).]

[Tristrami]

It's sad, but I've rescued all of them from the curbside. There are many more old Macs that I was unable to pick up/stop for.

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PM 5400/G3 400
Performa 6116CD

[ddiokno]

Originally posted by Tristrami:
It's sad, but I've rescued all of them from the curbside. There are many more old Macs that I was unable to pick up/stop for.

You should also consider contacting schools about this... there are schools that try to excess themselves of older hardware (not because it isn't useful, but because of space concerns... if they get new equipment and don't have room for older equipment) and there isn't physically anywhere else for it to go...
dave

Just think, around 2020 we'll be collecting iMac's and iBooks and saying how boss 8.6 was "LOL"
at least i will

[TheJoshu]

I've had my SE/30 for years and years... I used to have it all decked out, with peripherals that were many times its size.

It's served me quite well... it had a bit of a problem with the display a few years back, but with the Dead Mac Scrolls helping me out, I managed to solder it back togther.

Those things were built to last, and over a decade later they are still useful. Can you say that about 12-year-old PCs?

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A monk asked Joshu: "Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?"
Joshu answered: "Mu."

Mumon's comments: "Has a dog Buddha-nature? This is the most serious question of all. If you say yes or no, you lose your own Buddha-nature."

[Tristrami]

I liked this thread so much, I worte a column about it. You can see it here: http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/8220.html

I just wanted to mention that my SE/30 freatures a "superdrive" on it. A little teensy warning for anyone who's chomping at the bit to own the top-of-the-line G4 733mhz....(Apple) history repeats itself!

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PM 5400/G3 400
Performa 6116CD

[ddiokno]

Tristram,
That is a great article! Thanks for sharing it... i thought I would respond so it would put this at the top of the list...
dave

[Daishi]

I've got two Classic II's and a 128k.

Head to head Spectre action... it's fun.

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not strong - only aggressive
not free - we only licensed
not compassionate - only polite
not good - but well behaved

[beetleboy]

I now have two 68k classics in my possession. I have an SE and SE/30. Plus, I have two ethernet ready SE/30's on the way to my house. One of the SE/30's has 32 MB and a 250 MB HD. I plan using them in the classroom with my 5th graders. My kids have seen how they look, but they are very interested to see how they work and stuff. There is sitll a lot of free, useful software out there for these machines.

Beelteboy

Mac SE/30 6.0.3/8/80

[Feathers]

I recently archived a heap of old various Mac magazine cover disks (Floppies) as disk images onto CD. If there was some where to "Put them up" anybodies welcome to them. It's all the usual old fun games and 68k utils etc.

Anybody else got a collection? Archive them NOW 'cos I found some of my old floppies were going off. (Quark 3.0 system disks for example!)

[suprz]

i currently own a imac slot loading 350mhz. but i am always interested when i see ads in the back of mac addict and mac world about the great deals on older macs. i just dont know what model to choose. i want something that has a 56k modem and that can be upgradeable as far as HD and graphics cards and such. i like the looks of the 5500's but i guess i would need a "tower" model with external monitor to be able to easily upgrade....anyone have any suggestions?

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" I think,
therefore....IMAC

[Tristrami]

Great Question! Perhaps this might warrant a new thread. A few questions about your use before giving you an answer. What are you going to do with this machine? How mauch of a "power user" are you (photoshop, g3-d rendering, gaming, etc.) and what types of devices do you want to run on it?

[suprz]

i was thinking of using it mainly for a gaming machine, internet surfing, and storage, etc...the real draw is being able to upgrade the machine myself, you know, firewire, bigger hd, more memory, better graphics and gaming cards. with the imac, i dont even want to think about cracking open the case to upgrade it, and do not relish the idea of having a huge $$$bill from the repair shop to upgrade my hd, etc..i wont be running any real intensive programs on it. i dont know the first thing about photoshop, (and i have photshop 5.5, go figure...) but i want it to hopefully be as fast as my imac. (but not mandatory, i'm not a speed addict) i'm looking for a good all around stable machine and as bulletproof as they come.

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" I think,
therefore....IMAC

[Tristrami]

Here's my suggestion: Get a Powermac 7200/75 (or 90 thje higher mhz will cost more, and you're gonna upgrade it anyway.) - cost will be between $50-$80. Okay, next drop a sonnet g3/300mhz card into it (that'll be another $299 or less if you get a used card) and you've got 4 RAM slots, so even if it has no ram to begin with you can easily upgrade to 128mb for about $120 dollars--check out ramseeker.com (at least 2 vendors are under $60 per 64mb DIMM). Next, since the 7200 has a second (empty) drive bay, install a 2nd SCSI HD based on what your needs are (for I picked up a used SCSI 4 GB drive yesterday for $30, but you could get a 10 GB for say, $100). So, to summaraize, for $500-600 you'd end up with a G3/400 mhz with 128mb of RAM, HD space to spare and THREE PCI slots to put whatever kind of expansion cards you want (firewire, usb, scsi, video, sound, or whatevere new technologies they develop....)


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PM 5400/G3 400
Performa 6116CD

[suprz]

thanks for the info.....it sounds like the way to go.....now i'm off to e-bay and all the other old mac sites................to coin another persons phrase, i will create "frankenmac"

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" I think,
therefore....IMAC

[Tristrami]

One quick note: the 7200 is not a tower, but rather a desktop. Also, I made an error...you will end up with 2 PCI slots, not 3...the processor card upgrade uses one. Still, it's a pretty sweet deal. I've been looking around for a comparable newer machine and the best i could find was an old Beige G3/400 for $900 but it only came w/32 megs of ram.

[Walter J. Ferstl]

suprz,

you should also consider the 7500/7600/7300 series starting at 100 MHz (7500) going up to 200 MHz (7300). They are all based on PPC.

They all have desktop style enclosures (very well built, the innards easily accessible), 3 PCI slots, CD-ROM and floppy drive and room for 2 hard drives. The enclosure is very similar to the one with the 7200 series, but the 7500/7600/7300 series can use a very common type of G3/G4 upgrade card.

The 7200 series needs a more special upgrade card to G3 or G4 which is more expensive, new as well as second hand.

Just keep this in mind if you want to have a cheap processor upgrade option later. In most other aspects the 7200 is nearly equal to the others except for the processor and motherboard speed.

Best regards,

Walter.

Keep in mind that all of these machines were the BEES KNEES at the time (or perhaps I date myself).

Having owned a Lisa, a few Pluses, a dozen or so Mac SE and SE 30's, as well as more than a few II, Icx, IIfx and II with Radius Rocket accelerators, I can only marvel at the sturdiness and longevity of some of these machines.

My vote for best all-time mac would be split between:
1) SE30 - the Porsche of all macs without the stigma of high price. Speed, low weight (the first really portable mac, as I discovered when my office was broken into over one weekend) and gigatimes faster than the Wintel 386 boxes running Windows at the time). Configured with an astounding 8 meg of RAM, one operator could keep four or five of these machines chuggin reliably in my service bureau.
2) IIci - the one machine that could swallow any upgrade card you threw at it and still keep running without any babying or supervision. If the SE30 was a Porsche, the IIci was the Audi of its day--- better video and more options. And this was a machine that had LOTS of room to work on -- hard drive, memory or NUBUS upgrades, no problem at all.


That having been said, let's cast our votes for some of the LESS remarkable machines:
1) Lisa, who insisted on having the system software installed from copy-protected and fussy floppies onto the massive 5 meg (meg, not gig) hard drive at least every 6 or 8 working hours. She may have been flaky, but she showed the way.
2) IIfx - the wicked-fast money-pit 040 mac that used special memory chips and couldn't be upgraded with anything because of it's experimental architecture.

These machines were fine in their day. However, I don't know that I would go through the trouble and expense to upgrade them for current requirements unless it would be a niche requirement (the SE 30 makes a very fine and inexpensive router).

[bradoesch]

I've got 2 or 3 SEs or SE30s, I'm getting them mixed up now. And a Classic II that works great (in the kitchen). As well, 2 LCIIs, an LCIII (with that portrait monitor), a Performa 580CD, and well, a silly iMac DV.

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Why 1984, won't be
like "1984"

[BigMark]

Having read through all these loving testimonials, I now feel quite guilty about the Mac Classic I took apart with the express intent of creating a MacAquarium. It had already been gutted of its electrical components when I received it, so all I had was the cage and the monitor tube (careful when you smash these)

Sadly it is still sitting in my study, awaiting my return. It shall arise one day, and I shall post pics of it in all it's glory as a housing either for a MacAquarium or for a 9" screen for my external security cameras.

Our very first Mac was a Classic, way back in Dec 1990, for which we paid an equiv. of US$1,500. I also still have the Dec 1990 edition of MacUser (US) with a trio of new Macs on the front, trumpeting the price of US$999 for a Classic!

[zac4mac]

The best "builder" is a 7500, IMHO.
Cheap
Processor daughter card
3 PCI slots
8 DIMM slots
Audio out, A/V in/ethernet/SCSI I & II
Easy to work on(8500/9500 are better, but more expensive and LOTS harder to get to parts inside)
9500 has 6 PCI slots and 12 DIMM slots

I have an OC'd DP500 at home and a VERY cobbed up 8500 at work.

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