Just Added Some RAM to My 8600/300

[jwse30]

While we were all home during Covid, I picked up an 8600/300 from a gal via Facebook Marketplace for $50(!). I messed with it a bit, and I moved onto a different computer to tinker with (in this case a TRS-80 model 100 laptop). A few months ago I saw someone selling 32 Meg sticks of RAM for the 7300-9600 series Macs, so I threw an offer for 4 sticks and they accepted. They arrived and I tossed the package on top of the cart that the monitor for said 8600 is on and forgot about it.

This morning I had to unclog the kitchen sink, which has a cleanout almost directly above the tower. So I moved a bunch of stuff out of the way to prevent getting clogged pipe "water" on it, including the 8600. After I finished and ceaned up the area, I figured I'd pop that extra RAM in while I had the machine out of its nook. This case has got to be my favorite computer to work on. Everything is so accessible, and even has plenty of room to get in there. But I don't think I will getting back into it again, as it is now full! I mean there's always upgrades though...

All the drive bays are full, with a Zip, a floppy, and 2-4.2 Gig hard drives. I've got 288Meg of RAM using all 8 slots, and the VRAM is maxed out too. Its also got a 100baseT and a USB PCI card in it.

The specs are way greater than what I am using this machine for. I mostly use it to bridge the internet to my TRS-80 computers. I use the USB card to move data back and forth on a micro SD card, and I use a serial port with a null modem adapter to move ASCII files between my Model 100 and it.

It's a great machine that I think I lucked out and got for a great price.

J White

 

[Phipli]

While we were all home during Covid, I picked up an 8600/300 from a gal via Facebook Marketplace for $50(!). I messed with it a bit, and I moved onto a different computer to tinker with (in this case a TRS-80 model 100 laptop). A few months ago I saw someone selling 32 Meg sticks of RAM for the 7300-9600 series Macs, so I threw an offer for 4 sticks and they accepted. They arrived and I tossed the package on top of the cart that the monitor for said 8600 is on and forgot about it.

This morning I had to unclog the kitchen sink, which has a cleanout almost directly above the tower. So I moved a bunch of stuff out of the way to prevent getting clogged pipe "water" on it, including the 8600. After I finished and ceaned up the area, I figured I'd pop that extra RAM in while I had the machine out of its nook. This case has got to be my favorite computer to work on. Everything is so accessible, and even has plenty of room to get in there. But I don't think I will getting back into it again, as it is now full! I mean there's always upgrades though...

All the drive bays are full, with a Zip, a floppy, and 2-4.2 Gig hard drives. I've got 288Meg of RAM using all 8 slots, and the VRAM is maxed out too. Its also got a 100baseT and a USB PCI card in it.

The specs are way greater than what I am using this machine for. I mostly use it to bridge the internet to my TRS-80 computers. I use the USB card to move data back and forth on a micro SD card, and I use a serial port with a null modem adapter to move ASCII files between my Model 100 and it.

It's a great machine that I think I lucked out and got for a great price.

J White

I have a soft spot for the 8600

I have the 8600/250, the 300 seems to be less common.

 

[Quadraman]

It's not too surprising that they accepted your offer. It's a niche market, these days, for RAM sticks that old, and sellers usually just want to move them out of their inventory, or out of their house, so they can put the money towards something they can use. The only people asking big bucks for this stuff, are people who I would never buy from, because it is simply unethical how they price their stuff. There are a few of them on ebay who think this stuff is worth it's weight in gold, and while they do list a rare treasure, once in a while, they are pricing common as dirt parts as if they were the rarest of the rare, so you have to be careful, and know what the correct prices, are before you buy.

 

[pizzigri]

uhh you mean the guy that has purposefully underexposed and off-colored photos and a big colored dotted cloth shower screen as a backdrop I imagine.

 

[macuserman]

Simply unethical how they price their stuff.

Really winds me up when people confuse ethics with this sort of thing, it's not the last loaf of bread and case of water that will keep people alive. This is all completely optional stuff, none of us can get on a high horse and say we "need" any of this, so pricing is whatever it is. People can ask whatever they want if you don't want to pay it don't. But it hardly becomes an issue of ethics/morality.

 

[Quadraman]

Really winds me up when people confuse ethics with this sort of thing, it's not the last loaf of bread and case of water that will keep people alive. This is all completely optional stuff, none of us can get on a high horse and say we "need" any of this, so pricing is whatever it is. People can ask whatever they want if you don't want to pay it don't. But it hardly becomes an issue of ethics/morality.

It is when 99/100 sellers are selling the exact same thing for less than half the price. Where the real problem comes in, though, is when other sellers start raising their own prices, based on the high priced sellers prices. It's like if you had 2 gas stations in your town, and one was normal priced, and the other was high priced. How long do you think it would be before the normal priced gas station raises their prices to match the high priced gas station? You only have two choices, so why shouldn't they both be high priced? Even if the normal priced gas station doesn't raise prices now, and drives the high priced gas station out of business, do you really think they won't raise the prices after that, because they are now the only place to get your gas from? That's why it's unethical, because it encourages price fixing among sellers, and consumers suffer.

 

[Phipli]

how long do you think it would be before the normal priced gas station raises their prices to match the high priced gas station?

Never, because the cheaper station would get 100% of custom?

 

[Phipli]

But also, come on folks, this is a thread about new RAM in an 8600, not about complaining about eBay prices. We've heard it all a thousand times. It's annoying that things cost money, we get it. It's also annoying when it rains, or when the shop doesn't have the crisps you like.

Prices come down if nobody buys. There are some dodgy sellers, but we all know their tablecloth and that they have multiple accounts to normalise weird prices.

Super high prices make it all the more fun when you find something for 20p in a charity shop.

The specs are way greater than what I am using this machine for.

What are your interests? Is there any software I could point you towards for some fun with the 8600? They were excellent workstations in their day for Music, graphics, 3D, etc. There are also so good games that will run on them.

There were also a few emulators of 8bit machines for them, there was a C64 one, IIe, and a BBC Micro emulator... I can't remember if there was a TRS80. They weren't common over here.

 

[macuserman]

It is when 99/100 sellers are selling the exact same thing for less than half the price. Where the real problem comes in, though, is when other sellers start raising their own prices, based on the high priced sellers prices. It's like if you had 2 gas stations in your town, and one was normal priced, and the other was high priced. How long do you think it would be before the normal priced gas station raises their prices to match the high priced gas station? You only have two choices, so why shouldn't they both be high priced? Even if the normal priced gas station doesn't raise prices now, and drives the high priced gas station out of business, do you really think they won't raise the prices after that, because they are now the only place to get your gas from? That's why it's unethical, because it encourages price fixing among sellers, and consumers suffer.

This might be true of things that are necessities (food, gas, water, housing, utlities, etc.) However, this completely breaks down for things that are not necessities, because if the price is to high people simply don’t pay because they don’t “have to have it” because it is not essential to life and if they don’t pay it doesn’t sell so the price comes down or it doesn’t sell. If it does sell that means someone was willing to splurge at that price and of their own free will purchase at that price.

 

[Quadraman]

Never, because the cheaper station would get 100% of custom?

Only until they drive the higher priced station out of business, and then the prices go up, but what actually happens is that there is a lot of collusion that goes on, even though they don't call it that. What they do is, they send someone out to do a survey of what other stations in the area are charging, and then try to stay within that range, so one station might undercut the others by a few pennies, but they aren't going to charge such a low price that they drive all of their competitors out, because that would be considered predatory pricing, which is illegal.