jonpurdy
Well-known member
TL;DR : Got "dream machine" PowerTowerPro for $130CAD. Love it, super easy to work on!
I've always dreamed of getting a PowerTower Pro ever since being 12 years old and seeing it hit the September 1996 cover of MacUser magazine. I picked up my dream machine (9500/132, cost $10,000CAD in 1995) in 2012 for $50 and it's been serving me well for my retro hardware needs since then. (I really love these cover model machines.)
A few months ago I brought my 9500 to my condo (rather than pulling it out every year at my parents' to play Yoot Tower), and this got me curious about acquiring a few other dream machines or parts. Between 2012 and 2018 though, it seems that prices have increased significantly! I was about to buy a TAM (since they seem to sell for the same price as two or three working IIfx or Quadra 950s) but realized that I'm more of a high-end tower type of guy (since I can drive my beige LCD at 1280x1024 and install other upgrades). I also don't really care about resale value since anything I buy now will just be kept forever.
While browsing eBay randomly, I noticed that my dream PowerTower was available. It was used in a recording studio in Montreal and then stored until now. I thought it'd be nice to have, but I wasn't going to shell out $150CAD plus $150CAD shipping. After a month of it sitting there, I messaged the seller about an updated shipping price (since I'm in Toronto). Ended up getting it for $130CAD all-in, which I'm pretty happy with. My old poor student self from a decade ago would balk at paying that much for an old machine, but these sorts of purchasing opportunities may not come up again!
It booted up right away and had 8.6 installed on it. It came with 96MB RAM and the original 2GB drive. I wasn't expecting it, but it actually came with two IxMicro Twin Turbo cards! I recall these being a relatively high end option back in the day.
One thing that's odd is that it has the 225 logo on the case, and the sticker on the card says it's a 225MHz part, but System Profiler says it's running at 200MHz. I haven't looked into it yet, but perhaps a jumper was set to downclock the card? Or maybe the bus is running at 40MHz instead of 45MHz, which multiplied would mean the CPU at 200MHz? I will do some research to figure it out.
The most eye-opening (but obvious) thing to me was how easy it was to get this machine apart. It's just a bog-standard PC ATX case that comes off super easily. CPU card, RAM, disks, PCI slots all immediately accessible. This is in contrast to my 9500 which requires almost everything to be taken apart to do a simple RAM upgrade. I love the look of the 9500 but it really is a pain compared to the 9600/beige G3! I'll be using the PowerTower for any peripheral testing/upgrading/disk formatting tasks so I can keep my 9500 sealed to prevent any more plastic tabs breaking off.
I've always dreamed of getting a PowerTower Pro ever since being 12 years old and seeing it hit the September 1996 cover of MacUser magazine. I picked up my dream machine (9500/132, cost $10,000CAD in 1995) in 2012 for $50 and it's been serving me well for my retro hardware needs since then. (I really love these cover model machines.)
A few months ago I brought my 9500 to my condo (rather than pulling it out every year at my parents' to play Yoot Tower), and this got me curious about acquiring a few other dream machines or parts. Between 2012 and 2018 though, it seems that prices have increased significantly! I was about to buy a TAM (since they seem to sell for the same price as two or three working IIfx or Quadra 950s) but realized that I'm more of a high-end tower type of guy (since I can drive my beige LCD at 1280x1024 and install other upgrades). I also don't really care about resale value since anything I buy now will just be kept forever.
While browsing eBay randomly, I noticed that my dream PowerTower was available. It was used in a recording studio in Montreal and then stored until now. I thought it'd be nice to have, but I wasn't going to shell out $150CAD plus $150CAD shipping. After a month of it sitting there, I messaged the seller about an updated shipping price (since I'm in Toronto). Ended up getting it for $130CAD all-in, which I'm pretty happy with. My old poor student self from a decade ago would balk at paying that much for an old machine, but these sorts of purchasing opportunities may not come up again!
It booted up right away and had 8.6 installed on it. It came with 96MB RAM and the original 2GB drive. I wasn't expecting it, but it actually came with two IxMicro Twin Turbo cards! I recall these being a relatively high end option back in the day.
One thing that's odd is that it has the 225 logo on the case, and the sticker on the card says it's a 225MHz part, but System Profiler says it's running at 200MHz. I haven't looked into it yet, but perhaps a jumper was set to downclock the card? Or maybe the bus is running at 40MHz instead of 45MHz, which multiplied would mean the CPU at 200MHz? I will do some research to figure it out.
The most eye-opening (but obvious) thing to me was how easy it was to get this machine apart. It's just a bog-standard PC ATX case that comes off super easily. CPU card, RAM, disks, PCI slots all immediately accessible. This is in contrast to my 9500 which requires almost everything to be taken apart to do a simple RAM upgrade. I love the look of the 9500 but it really is a pain compared to the 9600/beige G3! I'll be using the PowerTower for any peripheral testing/upgrading/disk formatting tasks so I can keep my 9500 sealed to prevent any more plastic tabs breaking off.
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