9600s - or how I conquered the wrong country

[Powertrip]

Some of you may have seen my WTB inquiries for a top end 9600 and Daystar Genesis this last week or so...

Well, as I began reading and searching for a machine, including several feelers on here... I got it into my head that maybe I would scratch build from components a 9600/350. What made this train of thought leave the station was a browse through Otherworld Computing's section for upgrades, because... Hey? What's the point in having a top specced machine if you don't upgrade it further!?!???

Well, when I clicked on the processor upgrades section, I got taken to a page that said something along the lines of "sorry, there are no items available in this category. Click this link to change your machine. Click this link to see miscellaneous items". When I clicked see misc, one of the available choices was 'refurbished 9600 chassis - no motherboard, no processor'. Their inventory said they had four left. I hemmed and hawed for all of about thirty seconds and then ordered. All of them, lol.

Now... I didn't really know what I was going to end up with. I figured I would end up with (most likely) a yellowed beat to stuffing cast off from an old machine or (least likely) new old stock replacement chassis to be used as service replacements. What I got was not quite either.

My fiancé messaged me last night while I was working how much computer crap I had bought as there were now four heavy boxes in our front hallway (UPS sadly foiled my plans of intercepting him and stashing them in the garage before the Moon of my Life had seen them, LoL

<story with pictures will be continued in next post>

 

[MJ313]

You got all FOUR of them!!!  Sweet bejesuz man, that's epic awesomeness. Let us see the pics!

 

[Powertrip]

<Continuing...>

These four boxes were in my front hall when I got home, along with a scowl from my Everything.

I had a four hour turnaround before I had to work another shift, but when I got home I moved everything into the garage and began opening the boxes, one at a time in order to see what my money had bought me ($59/ea).

Opening the first one, my heart sank a little.  I knew that delivery services are rough on these brittle old plastics, but the first sight of box number 1 showed me a cracked side door, missing floppy drive panel and the metal bracket behind where the panel should've been was slightly mangled

Slightly bummed and expecting the rest of this process to yield consistently depressing results, things started looking up as I dug deeper into this first box.

Alright, so this case/chassis was once a PowerMac 9600/300MHz.  Very cool.  I got a Mach V Chassis! I know the box is no different than the lowest model in the non enhanced line, but it's cool that it was a Kansas, system.  Even if I am going to have to source a few plastic bits if I want to do something with this case (if it ended up being one of the better of the four).

but as I dig deeper, it STILL GETS BETTER!

Because of how I pulled it out of the box, I didn't get a look at the rear panel before deciding to open it, so I was ridiculously excited to see that I had a motherboard, 300MHz 604ev processor card, and a harddrive!  So much for empty chassis!  My disappointment that this was a used carcass did a 180* turn as I realized that all FOUR might end up being at least partial machines!!!

 

[Powertrip]

Next one up is the best of the bunch.  The pic that I snagged and uploaded doesn't show the model plate so here it is: 9600 350MHz!!!!!!!

Hoping that my luck will continue I popped the side cover off.  Sadly, the plastic around the bondi blue latch button is cracked.  But as I opened this beast up, I really did not care!

Motherboard... Processor card... SCSI card... graphics card... POWER SUPPLY!!! (for those not keeping track, between the first two, I now have almost enough parts to piece together a complete system, plus spare case, motherboard, and processor card).

What do we have here?

I Nearly a full boards worth of RAM modules!!!

Ok, after machine number 2, I'm excited about what's behind door (box) number 3...

Ok... Not nearly as awesome... but this box makes up for it by having one of the better sets of plastic.  I have a feeling that this is going to be relegated to donorbox, LoL.

Ok, optimistic but also not giving my hopes up of anything spectacular for the last box, I pull her out for inspection...

Not bad shape overall. Another 9600/300 (again, for those not keeping track, we are up to THREE Mach Vs!!!)

Missing the processor card on this one, but overall I'm pleased.  Another drive and another Kansas motherboard

Group photo

So that's what I have now.  What I NEED, are mouse/keyboard/adapter/monitor to start. 

Here are what my plans were when I was thinking I was just getting four empty cases.  First was to build up a top of the line 9600.  Maxed out RAM and as fast a G3 or G4 CPU as I can get I think.  Second, I found a blog where I guy took a MDD G4 motherboard and with minor alterations stuffed it into a 9600 case.  I'm still looking at this.  This gives me two cases with two motherboards unused.  Not sure what to do with them at this point.  I may end up posting up here for sale or trade, trying to get a CPU upgrade. 

So that's how Powertrip conquered a new land, completely different than what he thought he was getting.  Compared to some of the conquests on here, this one may not be in the top ten or anything, but I'd say I was overall blessed with good fortune on this endeavor!

 

[Powertrip]

You got all FOUR of them!!!  Sweet bejesuz man, that's epic awesomeness. Let us see the pics!

In the past, I have bought something and then returned to find out that it was out of stock when I wanted more.  Considering the scarcity of these and the chance that they were NOS parts, I wasn't willing to risk it.  I figured at the very least, someone on these forums with either a PEx or 9600 they wanted to make pristine would be interested in one.

 

[switch998]

Nice score, looks like OWC has a few other chassis for sale as well. The photos OWC posted make it look like the motherboard is included but anything else is a crapshoot.

I found:

Power Mac 7600 for $9.00 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/CHAPM7600/

Power Mac 8500 for $15.00 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/CHAPM8500/

G4 MDD for $29.00 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/CHAPMG4MD/

G4 Sawtooth (bare) for $19.00 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/CHAPMG4ST/

 

[Powertrip]

Yep. I looked to see if any were listed under 8600 and beige G3 but no luck. Other than a Daystar Genesis, these towers are my favorite.

 

[Powertrip]

So today I started to tear down the first 9600/300, from here on referred to as M17 (for the post-it note on the front with this name, lol).  Intent was to inventory what all it had, and remove the plastics so I can experiment with restoring the yellowed plastics.  While disassembling, I found something I thought you guys might find interesting!

On the chassis, under where the motherboard goes, there's the aluminum screw stand-off for the motherboard.  I've never disassembled one of these before and I have no idea if what I found is common knowledge or not... but there was another hole in the sheet metal just off-set a bit from the standard post labeled PEX! I'm not entirely sure what this means or if it means anything.  Here is the picture as well as the manufacture date.

Hopefully one of the PEx experts can chime in and let me know either way if this is normal or not.

 

[CC_333]

If you decide to get rid of one of those 9600/300's, I'd be interested in it! Are processor cards and PSUs hard to find for these things?

I don't mind if it's not perfect, just as long as it's relatively complete (are the bezels from a beige G3 compatible?)

c

EDIT: A quick search on eBay tells me that neither the processor nor the PSU are impossible to find, but finding the correct Mach V ones might prove somewhat challenging.

 

[Powertrip]

I will keep you in mind, CC.  I haven't looked too much for standard CPUs as I really really want to find a top end G3/G4 card.  But the best I've been able to find so far is 500MHz.  I would kill for a 1GHz card and will settle for one of the 700/800s.  But that's after my adventures in cataloguing and testing everything.

I still can't believe I lucked out with the 350MHz 604ev.  That's the cat's meow for me.  I plan on finding the latest version of Photoshop that will run decently on here.  And tracking down the games of my youth (Diablo 2, Starcraft, Warcraft 2, Duke Nukem 3d, Quake 1, Doom 2, Damage Incorporated, etc).  I also want to start digitizing my fiance's old cam corder videos, but I may keep on the lookout for an 8600 rig for that.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

I would love one as well, mainly because having a processor called the Mach V would be amazing.

It's too bad OWC's remaining systems are rather lacklustre models.

 

[Powertrip]

I agree, Falcon. When I started this adventure, in the back of my head I was envisioning the conversation from Road Warrior

"It's the last of the Mach Vs!"

"Where'd ya get it?!"

"Oh, you know, a piece here, a piece there!"

Granted, that was when I was hoping these were pristine refurb cases, lol

As I delve deeper, the 233MHZ machine has a 4gb SCSI drive and cable plus motherboard. It's the nicest looking of the cases as far as still looking platinum vs yellowed beige.

The 350MHz has 8 ram slots FILLED, mostly 32mb modules. Can't tell yet on many of them. It has an ATTO Express PCI Ultra SCSI card and TwinTurbo 128 graphics card.

Still have to look into the last 300.

 

[Powertrip]

The last 300 is just the case, mobo and processor card.  I'm tempted to move the 350MHz stuff over to this board; my thinking is this: the 300MHz model's board might have been taxed less than the 350s?  Which would mean that one of the 300s might last a little longer than the board the 350 used?  Though I'm guessing I should just get the 350 running first, since it's the most complete.  And there's no point moving a bunch of stuff around to only find out the CPU or board is a non-goer.

What would you guys do if you had these systems?  Since my move from Illinois to Florida, these are my only classic macs now.  I've got some beige G3s, an 8600, and I think a 7300 in a storage shed back in Illinois but getting much of that stuff down here will be difficult because of the shipping costs/logistics.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

I think the 350mhz board is fine, it wouldn't have been overtaxed or anything.

Put together the system you want, then either sell the rest as is, or put together a second machine and keep/sell the rest.

 

[Powertrip]

Thanks.  Now to get a keyboard/mouse (possibly get a friend to ship it from storage back home), vga adapter, and see if there's either an OS on the two 4GB drives or see if I still have any MacOS media.

 

[NJRoadfan]

The missing face plates over the floppy drive is very common with these cases. The latches that hold them on tend to break and they go missing.

 

[Powertrip]

Yeah. And back in the day, the floppies got the most action.

 

[trag]

Warning!  Warning!  Will Robinson.

That last machine in the photo sequence is not a Mach V.    It's probably a 9600 pre-enhanced.   You can tell because the logic board has Cache memory chips installed.    Check the part numbers on the ROMs just below the RAM slots.    I bet they're 341S0280 through 341S0283 instead of 341S0380 through 341S0383.   

It wouldn't be worth a warning, but it sounds like you might be planning to plug the Mach V processor into the non-Kansas logic board.   Probably not a good idea.  

 

[Bunsen]

a MDD G4 motherboard and with minor alterations stuffed it into a 9600 case.

Personally, I'd go the other way round.  Find a couple of early G3/G4 tower and use them as cases for 9x00 logicboards.  They're much nicer cases, and practically free at this point.  Even dead G5 cheesegrater towers are pretty cheap.