Looking to buy a Power PC , need some advice

[twolazy]

Just got home from the Salvation Army. They did have a few apple machines...

The mirror tower didnt even try to boot
the g3 towers turned on but no sound, nothing, didnt even hear hdd's, guessing they were robbed for parts as one I didnt even think had a video card in it

Only one that seemed to boot was the bondi blue, but at 80 dollars + tax, no deal!

So back to finding a mac... I'll pm ya Chrome =)

On the upside, I got my 2 LC/PDS Macally network cards today! Just popped one into my LC I. Woot! Brand new in the package too ^_^ Now only If I can get the network drivers extracted I'll be golden and may not even need localtalk ports! If this works the way I plan, I can use the LC as the bridge instead for classic macs. Still want a gaming machine though. :D

Edit : Just extracted the network drivers , and its a .imag file. :S Trying to use stuffit atm to compress it to fit on a floppy. Taking forever and ever though... Hopefully after I use pc exchange, I can burn the .imag with winimage. At least thats my plan... I tried diskcopy but it didnt open the file. Maybe i need 4.2.2?

Driver - ZM-NSI_1.5.1.sea.bin

Edit 2 : Just nabbed diskcopy 4.2.2 and imaged the diskette from the .imag file. Yeay! Installing now...

 

[olePigeon]

Don't forget to check Craigslist. My local Craigslist has dual CPU G4s for $50 or less.

 

[Al Kossow]

managed to maybe find a mirror tower and a few g3

Stick with the Beige G3's if you need legacy I/O.
Mirror door G4's are notorious for power supply failures and system overheating problems.

 

[LPeck]

Power PC for you

Power PC for you

If you want a Power PC, check out the system I am about ready to take to the recycling. The computer works perfectly and is packed in the original box.

Macintosh Computer System

Power Macintosh 7300/180
144 MB Memory
CD Drive & Floppy Drive
2 Internal Hard Drives: 2 GB and 8.5 GB
Adapter to drive LCD monitor (e.g. 17 inch LCD at 1024 X 768)
2 ADB Keyboards and 2 ADB mice
Mac OS 8.6

Extra Hardware

2 External SCSI Hard Drives: 1.1 GB and 325 MB
SCSI Extension Cable
External Zip Drive Plus (can also be used on a PC parallel port)
14 Zip Disks (100 MB each)
2 AppleTalk Transceivers
Global Village TelePort 33.6 Modem
Gravis Mac MouseStick II
Epson Stylus Color 800 Ink-Jet Printer

Installed Software:

Adobe Acrobat 3.0, Adobe Acrobat 4.0, Adobe Illustrator 5.5, Adobe PageMaker 5.0, Adobe Photoshop 4.0, Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Aldus SuperPaint 5.5, Claris Home Page 2.0, ClarisDraw 1.0, ClarisImpact 1.0, ClarisWorks 3.0, Filemaker Pro 3.0.4, Filemaker Pro 4.0.2, DNA Strider 1.2, MacPlasmap 1.8.2, MacVector 3.5, RasMol 2.6, Canvas 5.0.3, Canvas 7, CS ChemDraw 4.5, CA Cricket Graph III, JPEGView 3.3.1, KaleidaGraph 3.0.8, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, Microsoft Excel 8, Microsoft PowerPoint 8, Microsoft Word 5, Microsoft Word 8, Microsoft Project 4.0, Classila 9.2.3, Eudora 4.3.2, Fetch 3.0.3, iCab 3.0.5, Netscape 4.7.7, Telnet 2.7b4, Iomega Zip Drive Tools, Memory Mapper 1.3.2, Norton Antivirus 6.0.2, Norton Utilities 4.0, Stuffit Expander 6.0.1, SunClock 1.0, TechTool Pro 3, American Heritage Dictionary, BBEdit Lite 4.6, EndNote 3.0

Games on CD (with printed manuals)

Wing Commander IV, StarWars Rebel Assault, A-10 Attack, F/A-18 Hornet 2.0, Dark Forces, Master of Orion II, Chessmaster 4000, Settlers II, Iron Helix, The Time Warp of Dr. Brain, Descent II, Civilization II, Comand & Conquer, Marathon Infinity

Games on Disk (with printed manuals)

Sim City 2000, Sim City, Tetris

If you are interested you can email me at LPeck (at) astound (dot) net

 

[Chuck(G)]

AFAIK the Power Macs will act dead if the PRAM battery is flat. They do exactly nothing--not like a PC with a dead CMOS battery, which will usually power up and tell you that it's dead. So those G3s that you see may well only need a $2 battery to be good again. And they're about the right age for the battery to be dead.

Oh yeah--generally, the battery is easy to replace--it's a 2/3 AA-size 3.6V TL2150 lithium cell in a holder. So leave that soldering iron unplugged.

I wonder how many G3s have been junked because of a dead battery. Probably corresponds to the same number of 386/486/P1 PCs that have been taken to the landfill for the same reason.

 

[animekenji]

I own a few apple machines, but no power pc's. Problem is I don't know enough about the models to make an educated guess on which one I would want.

I want to run Marathon 1-3 as well as a few other later games. Needs to have a 486 dos card, or be able to use one. Also needs to be able to be networked to my vintage macs though apple-talk, so needs an apple-talk port. Tower or desktop doesn't matter much to me. Something easy to find parts for be a huge bonus.

Anyone have any advice here on what systems would be best for gaming and would network easily to my classic macs?

Anything beige with PCI slots (not Nubus) from the 7x00,8x00, or 9x00 families EXCEPT for the 7200. There was also an 8200 model released in Europe and Asia that is also to be avoided. The 7200 and 8200 had a soldered CPU and can't be upgraded to run OS X. There were PCI slot G3 upgrades for those machines, but they only work with pre-OS X operating systems. Anything from the 5x00 or 6x00 families are also out and especially avoid the 4400.