How to unbox a NeXT Cube 25 years later

[CelGen]

Nice. Okay, so you DO have the floppy drive. Hang it out the back and fudge in the back cover and you should be ready to reinstall.

 

[antony701]

Congratulations, and I am jealous.

 

[haplain]

Also, are you trying COMMAND + ~ to get to the PROM?

CalGen, mad thanks for your help. I got it working last night. She wasn't looking to boot from the SCSI Drive or "sd" drive for those familiar with NeXT. It's running NextStep 3.1 I have root access and have another user I created last night.

It even has the working NeXT branded SCSI HD 380MB

 

[uniserver]

I bet you are feeling really good about this.

Heck you've wanted a NeXT Cube for, what like 5 or 6 weeks?

Charles

 

[haplain]

I bet you are feeling really good about this.
Heck you've wanted a NeXT Cube for, what like 5 or 6 weeks?

Charles

I was jumping up and down in my living room freaking out. I knew I'd get it sorted out, thanks again CalGen. Just a another lesson in delayed gratification.

 

[CelGen]

If you're going to do a recap, open the MO drive (a pictorial disassembly guide exists) and replace the small radial caps on all the boards. They're all leaking and we're starting to suspect they are responsible for all the drives being dead.

 

[haplain]

I'll do that once I've got the recapped board back. Got some more work for you Uniserver I want to take my time with this one. I'm not in a rush and have essentially completed my collection so now it's just about polishing.

 

[helf]

Man... I miss my NeXTs so much

 

[ianj]

This is fantastic. I have a NeXTstation with all of these accessories (minus CD-ROM drive), but no Cube.

 

[haplain]

Things just keep getting more interesting and I need some input. Has anyone seen a NeXT Cube board with this kind of chip in it? Mine is NOT soldered into place and says "Sample-A". It also does NOT have any other markings like the other photos I've seen. Can anyone shed some light on this... I have a preproduction board?

 

[CelGen]

NeXT saved money by stuffing engineering samples onto their boards as well. Nothing new there and there's been a few 040 boards with a socketed 040. Nobody really knows why but they don't seem any different.

 

[haplain]

NeXT saved money by stuffing engineering samples onto their boards as well. Nothing new there and there's been a few 040 boards with a socketed 040. Nobody really knows why but they don't seem any different.

So then, in theory couldn't someone such as myself with the socketed chip purchase a 68040 33Mhz or 35Mhz and just stick that bad boy in?

 

[Gorgonops]

Just stuffing in a higher rated CPU won't make it faster. During this era of computers the rating on the CPU was just an indication of what speed the manufacture was guaranteeing it would operate at under "reasonable" conditions. A 33Mhz CPU will run at 25Mhz unless you change the clock speed fed into it, and that may or may not be trivial on a NeXT Cube. (Seriously, no idea, never owned one.)

These days, of course, different speed-grade CPUs usually operate at some common bus speed while a (usually-)fixed multiplier inside the CPU dictates the core speed so your confusion is probably forgivable.

 

[haplain]

Serial number 2049

 

[CelGen]

NeXT's do not handle the 68040 the same as a mac would which also means that all the socket accelerators available for the 68040 (EG: the Sonnet QuadDoubler) will not work. There were two different accelerators designed exclusively for NeXT called the Pyro and Nitro. Both are extremely rare and sell for upwards of $5000 when they go up for sale.

On the other hand, It's possible to use the QuadDoubler's MC 88916DW80, a 40mhz 040 and some serious hacks to speed boost the color turbo's to 50mhz. 8-o

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Very cool. Congrats on getting it up and running, hap. Out of curiosity about what these thing were used to do, what apps are on the HDD?

 

[haplain]

Very cool. Congrats on getting it up and running, hap. Out of curiosity about what these thing were used to do, what apps are on the HDD?

Thanks very much. I'm not exactly sure what they were used for, I'd image whatever a serious computer nerd would have dreamed. It allowed internet access via ethernet and programmers to write code. There isn't much on the large 380MB HD I have in there now but the other HD's I had out on my floor are supposedly loaded with nearly every piece of NeXT software and programs. The guy I picked it up from was super into NeXT OS but just doesn't have the time for it anyone.

Both are extremely rare and sell for upwards of $5000 when they go up for sale. [/url] 8-o

Looks like I have a new project to attempt to find. I would NEVER pay that considering 5k. That would be over 8 times what I paid for the whole thing but if anyone has any leads, let me know

 

[CelGen]

Looks like I have a new project to attempt to find. I would NEVER pay that considering 5k. That would be over 8 times what I paid for the whole thing but if anyone has any leads, let me know

Trust me. You'll never find one in the wild in this day and age and anyone who DOES own one will be more than well aware that they own one. In all honesty there is really no point to upgrade the CPU in a NeXT system anyways considering how well optimized everything is.

 

[uniserver]

considering how well optimized everything is.

heck yeah.

Just like back with the MAC, that is why they got such a long haul out of the 8mhz 680 nothing, the programmers wrote some good code.

If there was not already some great applications readily available.

I bet the Macintosh Classic would have never been manufactured.

Release date October 15, 1990[1]

Introductory price US$999

Discontinued September 14, 1992

Macintosh Classic - 8mhz / 4mb ram --->

I mean heck it ran almost all the way to 1993

Around the release of the Classic, they had already figured out how to put an entire OS into ROM.

"The Mac Classic could be booted into System 6.0.3 by holding down the Command + Option + X + O keys during boot.[17]"

 

[uniserver]

Trust me. You'll never find one in the wild

Your forgetting you are talking about the guy that owns Steve Jobs Apple IIe.

Generally when Hap wants something, he gets it ) that I know so far... lol