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Macintosh Plus RAM Upgrade. Could you order with Apple 4 MB?

Macflyer

Active member
Just wondering, could one originally order a Plus with already 4 MB shipped from factory?

Or did only dealers upgrade them?

Are there any visible signs if a case was opened?

Thanks

 

Mac128

Well-known member
That's an interesting question. Anybody with a 1986 price list know? The Mac Plus was labeled 1MB on the case back label from 1986 to 1988, when they removed the 1MB. I would certainly expect you could order any configuration up to 4MB from that point on. However, given RAM prices in 1986 and wanting to give dealers the ability to make a profit off the service, they might have shipped only 1MB, requiring a dealer upgrade if a customer wanted more – it certainly would have streamlined manufacture and shipping for Apple. Also, sometime during this period Apple stopped offering mail-orders, everything had to be done through an authorized dealer, so perhaps this figures into it.

In any event, a dealer who opened the case would most likely not show any external signs. A third party might reveal some pry marks on the plastic along the case seams. However, I would be surprised if a Plus was NEVER opened during its entire life. These Macs were highly susceptible to hardware failures of one sort or another. Nevertheless, you can tell from the bottom sides of the inside bucket if a case was repeatedly opened as it tended to make contact with the chassis and rub and scratch the metallic powder coating. If yours is some kind of WunderMac and opened only once to add additional RAM, then there may be no signs at all it was ever opened.

 

Charlieman

Well-known member
No, only dealer upgrade.

You could order an 8MB Mac II and 4MB Mac SE (for a period), but Apple were bitten by RAM prices in the 1980s. At the time, it was difficult to buy 30 pin 1MB SIMMs at a sensible price, but Apple could get them. Apple didn't gouge on RAM prices and their upgrades were often cheaper than third party suppliers. Many people bought a "high end" Mac with lots of RAM. You took half of the RAM from one Mac and put it in the Plus (or 1MB SE). Then you put the 256KB SIMMs into your new Mac.

 

Aoresteen

Well-known member
AFAIR Apple sold a 2 MB upgrade kit through the dealers. For 4 MB you had to by two kits.

I priced the Apple kits in 1987 and orderd 3rd party memory as it was significantly cheaper than Apples. I went from 1 MB to 4 MB and thought I would never need any more memory than that.

At the time I was with Continetal Bank in Chicago and our Burroughs minni computer that had a staff of 5 to run was maxed out at 2 MB RAM!

 

Macflyer

Active member
Thanks for the answers.

Now I'm just wondering if I got Apple RAM or 3rd party.

Which RAM would be the one Apple sold as kits?

Thanks again.

 

gobabushka

Well-known member
when i got my boxed plus, it had never been opened, but alas, it needed a new mobo, and 4mb ram! (the old mobo was giving memory errors, even with different ram, so it needs a good dishwashing, and i just swapped in the mobo from my old plus.)

 

Mac128

Well-known member
Now I'm just wondering if I got Apple RAM or 3rd party.

Which RAM would be the one Apple sold as kits?
No way to tell. Apple got their RAM from a number of sources due to both price and availability ... Third party RAM as today could have come from the same sources. What kind do you have? Perhaps someone will know if there were in fact specific vendors Apple would not have ever used.

 

shred

Well-known member
As others have said - no, at least not here In Australia where the Mac Plus came only as a 1MB machine. It was up to the dealer to increase the memory if the end user wanted more.

Having cracked open a great many Mac Plus' in the day, I can tell you that with practice you can "feel" if they've ever been opened before. If they are 'virgins", it takes distinctly more pressure to split the case open.

 
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