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MicroMac Power WorkStation - Did anyone ever buy one?

olePigeon

Well-known member
So MicroMac is sort of weird. I'm certain the company went out of business 15 years ago, but their website is still up and running. One of the products they apparently sold was the MicroMac Power WorkStation. This has to be one of the coolest LC upgrades to have ever existed.

Anyone here actually own one? I don't think I've ever seen one in the wild, much less even read about someone actually owning one. Sure would love to get my hands on one.

Makes you wonder if MicroMac has an old storage shed somewhere with all these unsold vintage upgrades. That would be a heck of a find.

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
I have never seen one nor parts of one anywhere, must be pretty rare or vaporware. A bit expensive for somebody who cheaped out and purchased an LC to begin with, must have been offered to schools as an upgrade to machines they already owned.

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
I remember seeing ads for it in MacAddict back in the day, so I'm guessing that they actually did sell it...but I also remember it being very expensive.

 

LC_575

Well-known member
Expensive? If I paid $1200 for my LC II, and a year or two later wanted to upgrade it to match, say, a Q700, I'd certainly pay $199!!!

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
I'll have to dig out my old mags when I get home (currently in Brisbane at the moment), but I'm pretty sure I remember it being much more than $199 back in the day....

 

Anonymous Freak

Well-known member
Yeah, the prices on that (amazingly still around) web page were the prices 8 years later, when the product was long-since-amortized out.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
DGR MAX = LC w/3 PDS slots & 68040

dgrmax03.jpg.c147a5efef1b9557910152a41d91fda0.jpg


$349 bought the sheet metal, the 40 watt aux. PSU and the three slot adapter card, NOT the '040 Accelerator!

Not bad at all as expansion options went for a LowEndMac! ;)

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
A Q700 would have nubus slots, all that thing gives you is one more HD bay, a couple more LC PDS slots (what exactly would you use them for other then ethernet?) and a small power supply to power up the expansions.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
The LowEndQuadra 700 had 2 NuBus 90 Slots, three if you didn't use the PDS and had just terrible Video, even with 512k VRAM, so there went one NuBus Slot and another huge wad of $. AAUI Ethernet on the Mobo saved one slot if you could do without a 10/100bT card.

Better to upgrade your LC and wait it out for the Quadra 630 in hindsight. That puppy was the Gem of the Quadra Line, IMHO. It was a real workhorse for me and a great Entertainment Center for the Rug Rat! Gigantic IDE drives were available, just as fast as Apple's anemic SCSI performance and a purist (uninformed SCSI snob) could hook an external SCSI Drive up with the Scanners and CR-RW Drives that were finally coming down from their stratospheric pricing levels.

All the other Quadras cost at least an arm and a leg, especially the much vaunted 840av, which left you officially a paraplegic after buying it and tricking it out to do any of the things for which it was designed.

An LC Sandwich Hack? Delightfully over the top and it hit the right spot money wise, but most folks went for a shiny new Mac every time! :-/

If you didn't have the money for a good VidCard and a CRT larger than the one made for your LC . . . what the hell? :eek:)

 

olePigeon

Well-known member
Yeah, but right now it's unbelievably awesome. This like a hotrod. You take a stock LC and you upgrade the sh*t out of it. :lol: I'd love to get one of these. I think I'm going to do some snooping and see if I can't track down the former owners. Maybe they still have some old stock sitting around.

Thanks for the picture. That's gorgeous. :D

Oh, and what would I do with the 3 LC NuBus slots? 040 upgrade, ethernet, and NuBus Radius baby. :cool: Maybe I'll add a carburetor and air intake. :eek:)

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
In regards to MicroMac, given that they've been gone for 10+ years now, I would love to know just who is paying for their hosting, and why.

 

olePigeon

Well-known member
I did a WHOIS on the domain and found someone. I think it's the owner. Looked up in the white pages and he's listed, so I'll give him a call tomorrow evening. Maybe interview him if he's willing, get the scoop on MicroMac. :)

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
Good luck, tell us how it goes - I'm keen to know what happened to them, and moreso, why the website still exists.

 

joshc

Well-known member
@KennyPowers Thanks for posting those photos, I've never seen it properly before just the odd photo online. Could you take a few more photos of it, from the side, back and inside?
 
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