Powerbook 5300cs!

[System6+Vista]

I just got my first PowerPC ever, a cute little PB53000cs. All my life I've been a Windows user, and the past few months I've been collecting 68k compacts so I'm pretty excited to see what 100mhz RISC can do. I'm thinking of trying to get a wireless card! Perhaps I could upgrade OS from 7.6 to 8.x, but I like to stick with faster OSes instead of extra features. Any ideas about what I can do with it?

 

[joshc]

A PCMCIA Farallon Skyline wireless card will work fine with it, that's what I had in mine. The 5300 always felt sluggish to me, and the passive matrix display is simply awful. I would recommend sticking with 7.6.1.

 

[Temetka]

I too have a PB5300cs and I find it to be a wonderful computer. Mine is also passive matrix and while it certainly isn't the best display in the world, it isn't too bad either.

I use mine as a portable distraction free writing computer. Although the iBook and OS 9 might take over that role once I source the proper CD's for it.

One thing I really love about the 5300 is it's modular bay which allows the use of ZIP, Floppies and whatnot. I do wonder if there is a modular bay for it that will accept a 2nd battery or hard drive. The HD I could care less about because mine is 20GB and that is more than enough for OS 8.1 and my 24MB of RAM. However a 2nd battery would be very useful.

 

[System6+Vista]

Yeah, the screen is usable but really not so good. My question: why does this thing take so long to boot and do things? My 16mhz SE/30 that doesn't use the complicated RISC architecture can boot 7.5 in a third of the time (with extensions) that this can do with 100mhz for OS 7.6 I don't know - I started getting into these Macs because my System 6 Classic can boot faster than I can tie a shoe, and I can get typing in nanoseconds, it seems. For what I'm trying to do, the PB seems like a step backwards. but I do love the form factor, and the keyboard isn't so bad so it may become my portable writing machine.

 

[beachycove]

1. A 5300 is going to be slow for many reasons, one of which is the hardware: the machine is essentially a PPC603e bolted onto an archaic logic board design. There is also no L2 cache. I have a couple of them, and know the story.

2. A 5300 running MacOS7.6 will be slow partly because because the MacOS was not then (nor ever was, truth be told) successfully updated from top to tail to RISC code. As late as 7.6, MacOS ran largely in emulation. The company's travails over the MacOS through the mid-90s are well documented, the problem being the move to RISC on the one side and the inability to ship a genuinely new OS for it on the other. The utility Speed Doubler can help here.

3. System 6 on almost anything that can run it is very fast. On an SE/30 is is a fast system. System 6 on a IIci is like greased lightning. I haven't had the pleasure on a IIfx, but that must be rather amazing.

4. A fast 68k machine running the right software is as fast or faster than a PPC for many purposes, with the possible exception of things such as floating point performance in Photoshop etc.

5. Something like BeOS, had it been adopted by Apple, would have allowed the PPC to shine in its true light. The MacOS did not.

6. Welcome to the 68k and early MacOS fanclub. This is partly why we are here, isn't it?

 

[MrMacPlus]

but I like to stick with faster OSes instead of extra features.

Yet you use Windows Vista.

Any ideas about what I can do with it?

Web, word processing, Photoshop, music? Nice score, I have a 3400c myself.

 

[System6+Vista]

This $8 free shipping card is on eBay - PROXIM SKYLINE 4030 802.11A WIRELESS WIFI PCMCIA CARD think it'll worK?

 

[System6+Vista]

MrMacPlus, you are totally right about Vista - but don't forget that I'm here for the same reason as everyone else. I actually did a lot of my work this semester on my Mac Classic, as much as I could do because its eminently better for essay writing and note taking. When I got my new thinkpad, it would have cost $50 extra to get XP Pro, and since I have many XP discs (I have been doing PC repair for quite some time) I figured I'd get it with Vista and downgrade later. Anyways, I have Vista basic with almost everything turned off and my machine works very, very fast and does everything I want it to, so I've never been compelled to get all the XP drivers, etc. and do it all over. I do a lot of multi-channel sound recording, and Vista on a Core 2 Duo works much faster than my P4 3ghzHT did with XP, so I really have zero qualms other than startup time, etc. However, I'm getting bored with Vista basic so I may try Windows 7 until college starts again, and then move back to XP for the start of the semester just to be safe.

So I do like the PB5300cs, most because of how it looks and its size, but i'm forced to conclude that it doesn't have the simplicity of my System6 Classic or my System 7 Color Classic or the power and ability of my Core2 Duo Vista machine. It kind of lingers in the middle, so I don't know how much I'll use it. I'll probably use it as a backup laptop and get that Wifi A card.

 

[LCGuy]

This $8 free shipping card is on eBay - PROXIM SKYLINE 4030 802.11A WIRELESS WIFI PCMCIA CARD think it'll worK?

No, it won't - thats an 802.11a card, the classic Mac OS has never had any support for 802.11a cards or networks. You want an 802.11b card, based on the Lucent WaveLAN/ORiNOCO chipset. I suggest you do some Googling to find out which cards are compatible. I have an Avaya World Card Gold that is based on this very chipset that I use with my PowerBook 1400, and find to work very well. One card you might want to look for is the Dell TrueMobile 1150 (not the 1100), and there's plenty of other names that the Lucent WaveLAN/ORiNOCO chipset was sold under.

 

[System7]

Very nice find. I have 5 5300s I still have to test, I lack a AC adapter.