Considering the sheer frequency of me acquiring retro gear, I may as well document it all in one thread:
The latest - AluBook 12"
This one is a bottom-of-the-range 867MHz with mini-VGA. Despite the photo, it's not in great shape. The exterior of the chassis is particularly beaten up, down to bare metal on parts of the underside. It also bears the usual evidence that it has been opened, i.e. bent bits on the chassis. But crucially the screen is in good nick, the trackpad still works, and the display latch still works (though it sticks upon opening). This one was also rather cheap, and I really like its compact form. Running 9.2.2.
PowerBook 3400c/200
As documented on 68kMLA. An extremely rare find in my country, where usually the cheapest Apple configs can be found. Currently in bits while I replace the electrolytic caps and (try to) fix the backlight, and damage from PRAM battery leakage.
Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8GHz
(no photo as it's rather buried under my desk.....)
This actually runs without issues or me having to fix it!!!
It's a late-2004 with 33MHz PCI slots instead of 100MHz PCI-X slots, so a rather low-end config, but it works!!!! And it's not liquid-cooled either. I think it has Tiger on it at the moment.
eMac 1.25GHz USB 2.0
Cheap, plentiful, downright under-rated machines. I'd recommend them as a great first retro Mac, if it wasn't for the capacitor plague and exposed high-voltage CRT stuff inside them. I just managed to catch the cap leakage in this one before it got to the logic board and PSU. Other than that, it has been a solid performer and my go-to when I need to get some sort of maintenance task done. Currently dual-booting Panther and 9.2.2.
AluBook 15"
For some reason I have a lot of G4 machines. This one is a 1.33GHz early-2004 PowerBook 5,4. It's very worse-for-wear but it does run, AND the battery holds a decent charge for its age. The LCD has big areas of stuck pixels, backlight bleed, very washed-out colour and the well-documented "bright spot". It has the common issue of the lower RAM slot not working. Judging by the bends in the chassis, I'd guess that someone has been into it to lop the trackpad temperature sensor out (I haven't been brave enough to open it yet). The exterior is otherwise in reasonable condition but it does have significant scratches and dents. I have grand plans for it; swap the LCD for [whatever I can find that's in better condition], re-flow the RAM slots, maybe even try to find a chassis that isn't so beat up (hey, I'm optimistic). And yeah, the clips on the "8" key had been broken off at some stage.
The infamous infuriating cursed MDD
Pictured in the midst of having its logic board ripped out. Where on earth do I start with this one. It's significant for being the first retro Mac that I picked up, but it has had a litany of issues. It started out as a 1.25GHz, I'm guessing mid-2003 re-released Power Mac G4, that a previous owner stuck a 1.42GHz CPU board into. The PSU was inevitably well on its way out so I attempted to ATX-swap it. That led to a gigantic saga on trying to make it show video with the new PSU. After that was figured out, it started randomly going into sleep mode. I THINK I've ALMOST sorted it out, but the amount of time I've spent on it is far more than all the other machines put together. It's a labor of love(?)
Something different: Pa1mOne LifeDrive
I think PDAs are super neat, and this one is another rare find in my country. It's in great nick, including the battery which still holds a reasonable charge, and still has its original 4GB MicroDrive. It came with a whole host of accessories; cradle, hard cover (unfortunately covered in that rubberized material that goes sticky), multiple data cables and chargers and, most significantly, a Palm universal wireless keyboard. The latter is a bucket-list item for me to own, so I'm very pleased with this acquisition. Waiting for basic navigation on a Palm device (because of the MicroDrive) is rather unusual, but I think I'll resist the urge to stick flash storage into it. A replacement battery for it is on the way.
The latest - AluBook 12"
This one is a bottom-of-the-range 867MHz with mini-VGA. Despite the photo, it's not in great shape. The exterior of the chassis is particularly beaten up, down to bare metal on parts of the underside. It also bears the usual evidence that it has been opened, i.e. bent bits on the chassis. But crucially the screen is in good nick, the trackpad still works, and the display latch still works (though it sticks upon opening). This one was also rather cheap, and I really like its compact form. Running 9.2.2.
PowerBook 3400c/200
As documented on 68kMLA. An extremely rare find in my country, where usually the cheapest Apple configs can be found. Currently in bits while I replace the electrolytic caps and (try to) fix the backlight, and damage from PRAM battery leakage.
Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8GHz
(no photo as it's rather buried under my desk.....)
This actually runs without issues or me having to fix it!!!
It's a late-2004 with 33MHz PCI slots instead of 100MHz PCI-X slots, so a rather low-end config, but it works!!!! And it's not liquid-cooled either. I think it has Tiger on it at the moment.eMac 1.25GHz USB 2.0
Cheap, plentiful, downright under-rated machines. I'd recommend them as a great first retro Mac, if it wasn't for the capacitor plague and exposed high-voltage CRT stuff inside them. I just managed to catch the cap leakage in this one before it got to the logic board and PSU. Other than that, it has been a solid performer and my go-to when I need to get some sort of maintenance task done. Currently dual-booting Panther and 9.2.2.
AluBook 15"
For some reason I have a lot of G4 machines. This one is a 1.33GHz early-2004 PowerBook 5,4. It's very worse-for-wear but it does run, AND the battery holds a decent charge for its age. The LCD has big areas of stuck pixels, backlight bleed, very washed-out colour and the well-documented "bright spot". It has the common issue of the lower RAM slot not working. Judging by the bends in the chassis, I'd guess that someone has been into it to lop the trackpad temperature sensor out (I haven't been brave enough to open it yet). The exterior is otherwise in reasonable condition but it does have significant scratches and dents. I have grand plans for it; swap the LCD for [whatever I can find that's in better condition], re-flow the RAM slots, maybe even try to find a chassis that isn't so beat up (hey, I'm optimistic). And yeah, the clips on the "8" key had been broken off at some stage.
The infamous infuriating cursed MDD
Pictured in the midst of having its logic board ripped out. Where on earth do I start with this one. It's significant for being the first retro Mac that I picked up, but it has had a litany of issues. It started out as a 1.25GHz, I'm guessing mid-2003 re-released Power Mac G4, that a previous owner stuck a 1.42GHz CPU board into. The PSU was inevitably well on its way out so I attempted to ATX-swap it. That led to a gigantic saga on trying to make it show video with the new PSU. After that was figured out, it started randomly going into sleep mode. I THINK I've ALMOST sorted it out, but the amount of time I've spent on it is far more than all the other machines put together. It's a labor of love(?)
Something different: Pa1mOne LifeDrive
I think PDAs are super neat, and this one is another rare find in my country. It's in great nick, including the battery which still holds a reasonable charge, and still has its original 4GB MicroDrive. It came with a whole host of accessories; cradle, hard cover (unfortunately covered in that rubberized material that goes sticky), multiple data cables and chargers and, most significantly, a Palm universal wireless keyboard. The latter is a bucket-list item for me to own, so I'm very pleased with this acquisition. Waiting for basic navigation on a Palm device (because of the MicroDrive) is rather unusual, but I think I'll resist the urge to stick flash storage into it. A replacement battery for it is on the way.
