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Best 68k box to look for ...

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entwerfen

Member
Hi everyone,
First-time poster here. I've been an Apple computer user since I bought an Apple II+ in 1982. As an Art Director for 30+ years, I've owned or used every generation of Mac. Currently, I have a Mac Plus, G3 Pismo Powerbook, G4 Cube, 5,1 MacPro, and an iMacPro. Recently I dug out my vast floppy disk collection and would like to set up a 68k Mac to run Quark XPress 3.1, Aldus PageMaker, and Freehand 7 with ATM, Adobe Type Reunion, and some old games.

The question is which 68k Mac will provide the most power, but have the best parts availability when things inevitably die. Thinking of a IIci, but would like to get the hivemind's opinion. I have a real soft spot for Quadra 950s, but the prices are eye-opening ...

And does anyone know of a recommended recapping resource in Minneapolis/St. Paul?

Thanks!
 
J

joshc

Well-known member
Quadra 650
LC 475

Both provide better value than the 950, and less bulky. Easier to find too.
475 can be overclocked to 33mhz and 650 to 40-50mhz.
650 logic boards don’t need recapping.
 
C

cheesestraws

Well-known member
Agree with both of the above; pragmatically the 475 and the 650 are probably the best options at the moment if you want the best performance-per-unit-money.
 
Unknown_K

Unknown_K

Well-known member
650/800/950 because they don't have leaky capacitors. The 800 has a brittle case. The 950 is built like a tank and the 650 has a metal and thick plastic case.

It depends on if you ever expect to need add-on cards for things like faster SCSI or dual monitor support etc.

Personally I like the 950 the most which is why I have so many.
 
Byrd

Byrd

Well-known member
There would have been many a Quadra 700 used in DTP studios when new; now expensive but also very reliable with all tantalum caps on the motherboard
 
volvo242gt

volvo242gt

Well-known member
There's also the Centris 650, which is basically a Quadra 900 with three less slots. Kinda like an '040 IIci with all tantalum caps on the board. Three Nubus slots, just like the Q650. As with the Q650, make sure you get one that has the ethernet port. Also has 8MB on the board, instead of 4MB on the board, as well as a full 68040 processor chip. Maximum RAM for a Centris/Quadra 650 without the ethernet port is 132MB. With, 136MB.

The C/Q650, and the Q800 can interleave memory, which makes them faster than the Quadra 900/950 machines. All three use the same "Wombat" board. Centris 650 has the 25MHz 68040 and a resistor at R151. The Quadra 650/800 have a 33MHz 68040 and a resistor at R152 instead. The Q800 board doesn't have a power LED on the board. Adding one will convert it into a 650 board.
 
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Member
Did the Quadra/Centris 650 with Ethernet have an RJ45 port, or just the AAUI port? The 650s I'm seeing are model M1205. A note on everymac.com shows the 68LC040 version was listed as M1207LL/A.

Thanks for the responses. This site is a great resource.
 
mattsoft

mattsoft

Well-known member
This is quite the subjective question! Probably depends on what you want to do. Some of the stuff described in the OP is pretty light weight.

Lots of good ideas above. Personally, I like the Quadra 630 line for the following reasons:
  • 33MHz 040 (no FPU) that can easily be overclocked to 40MHz - can put in a full 040 if you really need an FPU
  • floppy drive
  • built-in CD drive
  • IDE HDD can be easily replaced with cheap-o flash DOM
  • external SCSI for rascsi/bluescsi
  • comm slot for ethernet card
  • spare PDS slot for video accelerator
You can't put gobs of RAM in them, but you can put in like 48MB which is enough for most light weight things.

These were sort of dogs back in the day in that when they were released, they did not offer much more than previous offerings. But in retrospect, 25+ years later, they make nice all-around 68k Macs for retro computing. And they are cheap. I've been able to find these locally for under $50 working (w/o ethernet card).
 
Powerbase

Powerbase

Well-known member
mattsoft said:
This is quite the subjective question! Probably depends on what you want to do. Some of the stuff described in the OP is pretty light weight.

Lots of good ideas above. Personally, I like the Quadra 630 line for the following reasons:
  • 33MHz 040 (no FPU) that can easily be overclocked to 40MHz - can put in a full 040 if you really need an FPU
  • floppy drive
  • built-in CD drive
  • IDE HDD can be easily replaced with cheap-o flash DOM
  • external SCSI for rascsi/bluescsi
  • comm slot for ethernet card
  • spare PDS slot for video accelerator
You can't put gobs of RAM in them, but you can put in like 48MB which is enough for most light weight things.

These were sort of dogs back in the day in that when they were released, they did not offer much more than previous offerings. But in retrospect, 25+ years later, they make nice all-around 68k Macs for retro computing. And they are cheap. I've been able to find these locally for under $50 working (w/o ethernet card).
Click to expand...
Dont forget they had the Valkyrie video chip which could throw some mean Marathon frames.
 
volvo242gt

volvo242gt

Well-known member
entwerfen said:
Did the Quadra/Centris 650 with Ethernet have an RJ45 port, or just the AAUI port? The 650s I'm seeing are model M1205. A note on everymac.com shows the 68LC040 version was listed as M1207LL/A.

Thanks for the responses. This site is a great resource.
Click to expand...
AAUI port. M1207LL/A is the order number.

-J
 
C

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
Welcome in!

XPress 3 appears to be from 1994 and Freehand 7 appears to be from 1996. These may both be PowerPC-native and there's a chance Freehand 7 requires a PPC and won't run on any 68k. (For PageMaker, it will depend on the version.)

It's possible that both of those are PowerPC native, so for the best performance, I would get a PowerPC Mac. Those apps will run great booted form 8 or 9 on your Pismo or G4 Cube.

That said, my general advice (which you can ignore if appropriate because it appears you do have prior expertise) is that you get the first beige Mac that you can put your hands on. Literally anything, they're all fine for most things people want to do these days. Many of the models that are widely panned as outright bad really aren't bad machines, but "it depends on the context, the machine, and the task" because while a performa from 1992 and a quadra from 1992 are radically different -- a performa from 1994 and a quadra from 1994 are literally the same machine.
 
mattsoft

mattsoft

Well-known member
Powerbase said:
Oh yeah, the preferences have an option just for it. I think it basically did hardware pixel doubling or something.
Click to expand...

that's cool. I wish more 68k games had that option. even wolf 3d runs pokey on a 40MHz LC040. but if it could be run at 320x240 pixel doubled or something...
 
E

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Member
I have OS9 on my Cube with later versions of XPress and Freehand. Freehand's quality declined, in my opinion, by version 10 or 11 (MX), so I'm looking for a box to run the sweet spot. I've used Illustrator from 88 through today, and I still prefer FH 5.5 through 7. I run FH MX in a Parallels VM on my iMac Pro. The Mac I'm thinking about would fill in the gap between my Mac Plus and the G3 Pismo, and G4 Cube.

A few years ago, I brought my MacPlus into the corporate design team I managed to show the younger folks how we designed full-page newspaper ads on a 512x342 screen. It sucked, but it seemed more fun back then.

Marathon was a blast! That's another thing on the list to get running.
 
Byrd

Byrd

Well-known member
Powerbase said:
Oh yeah, the preferences have an option just for it. I think it basically did hardware pixel doubling or something.
Click to expand...

The LC630 has a peculiar pixel doubling mode for 8-bit colour depth in Marathon, it provides a reasonable (if ugly) boost to FPS performance. Marathon II and beyond on it aren't much and I don't think support the mode.
 
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