Got a free Power Macintosh 6500

[agent_js03]

This is a pretty good find.



An elderly woman had a couple old computers that she wanted to get rid of, and that included this Power Macintosh 6500 that she apparently had for a really long time but never used. Her friend had given it to her about ten years ago and it has been sitting in her office all that time. She simply wanted me to back up the personal data and wipe the hard drives (which I did from Linux, I zeroed them out completely).

It is hard to tell from this picture but there is remarkably little yellowing on the case or monitor. It has been quite a while since I have possessed an apple CRT monitor from this time period; I have always used PC CRTs with an adapter. It seems to be working but I have noticed the occasional dreaded "zap of death" that I used to get on one of my old CRTs before it died. I have moved my A/V video system to this machine. It has 32mb of RAM which apparently is not enough to play starcraft on top of mac os 7.6. There is also no ethernet card and this is not a nubus mac so I can't move the old card from my 6300 to this one.

I am not sure what I want to do with this machine. I feel like I am running out of space and I don't have a whole lot of time to devote to my old computer hobby anymore, so I am considering selling it on eBay. I figure eBay is best since a lot of people there will pay pretty decent money for things like this. Unless there is someone here (hopefully someone from the Austin area) who would be interested in it.

 

[EvilCapitalist]

You certainly can't beat free for a complete system!  If you max the RAM out to 128MB things will be much more comfortable.

Unfortunately, there isn't much of a market for the 64/65xx models because of their expensive CPU upgrades (you're in a bidding war with the TAM folks), low RAM ceiling (128MB), and wonky PCI implementation.  A cursory glance at the recent ones sold on eBay shows most went for around $50.  All that being said, they're not bad machines, it's just that the 85/86/95/9600s are better enough that these tend to get skipped over for those.

 

[agent_js03]

I guess 50 bucks would be good enough for me. That is a 50 dollar profit, after all.

 

[Retro Rider]

Damn, you found that in Austin? I wish I found that. I got one that looks like that that doesn't work. I live near Austin and might be interested.

 

[ClassicMac]

You certainly can't beat free for a complete system!  If you max the RAM out to 128MB things will be much more comfortable.

Unfortunately, there isn't much of a market for the 64/65xx models because of their expensive CPU upgrades (you're in a bidding war with the TAM folks), low RAM ceiling (128MB), and wonky PCI implementation.  A cursory glance at the recent ones sold on eBay shows most went for around $50.  All that being said, they're not bad machines, it's just that the 85/86/95/9600s are better enough that these tend to get skipped over for those.

That price of $50 dollars on eBay are for machines that are dead or don't display video. All the working ones are getting over $100 on eBay. 

Many people seek the 6500 for its unique refrigerator form factor. It's OS support isn't bad (7.5.5-9.1) I see this machine gaining more value for collectors and nostalgic users as time progresses. 

 

[MacFox]

That price of $50 dollars on eBay are for machines that are dead or don't display video. All the working ones are getting over $100 on eBay. 

So true.  Glad I got my working Macs when I did.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Unfortunately, there isn't much of a market for the 64/65xx models because of their expensive CPU upgrades (you're in a bidding war with the TAM folks), low RAM ceiling (128MB), and wonky PCI implementation.

6360/6400's PCI implementation on Alchemy architecture's 33MHz system bus has been very good in my experience, but my real world experience has been limited to TPD Video. IRL I never used any combinations of the USB/FireWire/ATA cards that are problematic in your TAM. The speed bump "upgrade" to 50MHz system bus appears to have introduced "wonkiness" into the TAM/6500/5500's Gazelle architecture. I'm in the process of setting up a BenchMac chassis for Quadra630/Alchemy/Gazelle drawers to begin comparative testing of my collection of "problematic" TAM cards and expanded riser development.

P6360 is housed in the convenient Quadra 630 form factor and very nice looking for an Espresso Design Language spinoff. The. 6400/6500 "Tower" is something to love or hate with that bulbous forehead, 50's fridge front bezel and funky feets. I'm obviously a hater, but I can see how growing up with the it as a dream machine upgrade from 6xx/62xx Education/Home machines might be a thing.

Gotta love that Sub coupled with your AV monitor's speakers though. Great looking bit of cohesive design kit you have sitting there. I can admire it even if Tower and AV monitor are not things I like myself. Very sweet setup you've assembled. :approve:

 

[agent_js03]

Damn, you found that in Austin? I wish I found that. I got one that looks like that that doesn't work. I live near Austin and might be interested.

It was from a friend of a friend. She was an older lady; her friend had given it to her over ten years ago and she never got around to using it. The only thing she asked of me was to copy off all her friends' personal data from it (and her own personal data from an old windows 98 PC she also had there), and zero out the drives. She wanted to get rid of the machines.

If you are still interested, let me know. If it were a few years ago, I would not be wanting to get rid of this machine. As it is, I have so little free time now, and my collection is gathering dust. My wife has been purging a bunch of stuff she doesn't use anymore, and I need to do my part. I also need the extra space in the garage because I want to turn it into a combined office/man cave.

 

[trag]

If things fall through with Retro Rider and you're happy with $50, let me know.  I am also in Austin.   Not desperate for another 6500, but there's room in my collection for one.

 

[agent_js03]

I just sold it today to a guy in Kyle, he paid me 80 bucks for it. He seemed very excited to pick it up. I am glad that it went to a fellow vintage mac lover.

I had forgotten about this, but I texted him later letting him know that it had an apple video system installed. I hadn't installed the software for it yet. All it needs is Apple Video Player right? Or does it need extensions?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Needs the installer, it's in the garden.

 

[Rick Dangerous]

Nice clean find!  Love it; looks close to it did right out of the box.  I am a big fan of apple monitors and always try to use OEM when possible over old PC monitors, which of course isn't always easy to do.