Nekochan Net

I love old and unique computer hardware. I've collected computers over the years, mostly Apple, and came across this site after purchasing my newest addition, an SGI Iris Indigo. Well, since this site covers other hardware I have, I figured Id make a post with my Apple hardware, my largest collection. I am looking to slim down my Apple collection a little, so comments on what I should hold on to, or what I might want to part with, are appreciated; actually, any comments at all are appreciated!

LCII: this was the first computer I have personally owned. So, Ill probably hold onto this one for sentimental value alone. I believe I still possess a //e compatibility card that fits in the LC PDS slot.

Quadra 950: This is what I used to replace the LCII. Given that this is arguably the most beastly computer Apple has ever made, I think it is safe to say I will be holding onto this one. I received it quite loaded, it came with a PPC card which I will discuss next...

DayStar PowerPro w/ RAM expansion: I consider this to be the pride and joy of my Mac collection. It is an 80MHz PPC 601 upgrade for most Mac Quadras, the kicker is that it has 4 x 72 pin RAM expansion slots on board! In the random searches I have done on eBay, I dont think Ive ever seen one for sale. For a machine like the Quadra 950, which had 30 pin SIMM slots on board, this is arguably the best PPC upgrade available. If anyone has the elusive 1MB FastCache PowerPro cache module for this, I am very interested!

Well, sorry to cut this post very short, but I need to go to bed soon. I will post the rest when I get out of work tomorrow.

Only two machines? Why get rid of either of them?

As for the machines themselves... I used to deal with a lot of LC IIs. Mediocre performance due to some severe design flaws, but they got by in a pinch. The form factor is brilliant, though.

The Quadra 950 is definitely a good one. The later 68Ks aren't that useful for what they were designed for anymore, but I have an 840AV that I use for writing and odd desktop jobs because there are some classic Mac applications that I've never found a good equivalent for in OS X or other "modern" platforms. It's really fast unless you try to browse the web on it. Do you have the DayStar PPC upgrade in your 950 now?

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Sorry I got tired and went to bed. Ill try and finish now...



Yes its in there. With the added RAM expansion, you could fit up to 384MB RAM in the system (20 RAM slots!), accessible even in 68k mode. Potentially more if you wanted to experiment with 64MB and 128MB 72 pin SIMMs.

Ok heres the collection continued...

Mac IIfx. 40MHz 68030. Very cool machine. Didnt really use this one much. I think it has 32MB RAM. I always kind of wanted to liquid cool it and see if I could hit 60MHz.

Mac II. I picked this one up with 2 Mac IIxs, which have since been given away. Kind of dont think I need to hold onto this one given that I have the IIfx.

Mac Classic. This is cool as it is the computer that is displayed as you boot up Mac OS. This is actually probably the only Mac I have that is in very good condition with very little yellowing of the case. Perhaps my most collectible Mac due to the condition.

Apple //e. Well, its always good to have one of these around. This was my first experience with gaming, as a very young child. If I remember correctly, I actually did some (super simple) BASIC programming before I was even 10 years old. Very fond memories here, I think I have 2 or 3 of these now.

Well, thats all I have for actual computers I guess. Though I have a fun collection of NuBus cards as well, as well as a bunch of obscure external removable drives. At one point my collection was perhaps twice the size it is now, but now I am trying to slim the Mac collection slightly more, as I am gaining interest in Sun systems, and of course SGI systems. Actually any non x86 machines are very interesting to me.

-Chris P

My guess is that the bootup Mac is a beige model - 128 or 512K most likely, but the case was shared up to Plus.

The FX is the other "pull out all the stops" Mac, the bad thing is that Apple couldn't be bothered to write proper support for everything.

II is interesting historically, as it is the first color Mac and first expandable Mac. If you like numbers it was also about 3 times as fast as its predecessor, the formerly-fastest Plus. It also introduces the Apple Sound Chip and (if you have a PMMU) UNIX support on Mac hardware. It's also one of only two machines to use the 68020, which was very popular in other 68K machines (the other makers generally spun their own MMUs, so there was little incentive to move to 030, and RISC caught on very quickly when they saw how little of an improvement the 030 was over the 020. Apple didn't do external cache and standard-equipment MMUs, so the 030 was a cheap step up for them).

If you get an LCIII logic board you can slide that into your LCII case and have a sleeper that has very nice performance.

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Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

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