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Quadra 660AV

30pin

Well-known member
Just picked up a Quadra 660AV. I was going to pop the CPU out of it to drop into a Quadra 605 I have. I thought I would play with it for a few minutes. It looked very dusty and dirty inside and out. But it was complete. It booted right up! Showing 16mb of ram, 250mb hardrive and running System 7.1 . Not sure what I should do with it ? Recycle it and use the 25mhz 040 as planned or do something with Quadra 660AV. Not sure how to make use of its features? Anyone with some ideas?

 

Anonymous Freak

Well-known member
GAH! Don't discard an AV. There are plenty of people who would take that off your hands, even sans CPU!

It can always be used to capture 320x240 video from a VCR. Whenever I dig mine out of storage, I'm going to use it to digitize the VHS movies my daughter still watches for viewing through our HTPC. Then I'll be able to ditch the last non-computer component connected to our TV.

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
There is enough interest in the 660/840av models to not recycle a working one. Somebody will gladly trade you a CPU for one.

You would be surprised how ugly dirty cases with some cleaning/washing turn out to be good looking. There are a few machines here I was going to gut and toss but after cleaning they looked very good so I kept them.

 

Temetka

Well-known member
Don't hurt the 660AV!

I've been wanting one of those for years, it seems to me to be the perfect Mac.

Congrats on the conquest. :)

 

ken27238

Well-known member
i agree with Temetka.....don't do it!!!!

I have one of these and i love it, this was my first pizza-box mac :D

 

johnklos

Well-known member
Many years ago - I think it was about ten years ago - I found a Quadra 660av in the trash. It was rusted inside with dirt everywhere. After washing it and getting some of the dust off, adding a little memory and a decent hard drive, and installing an OS and some software, it became the main machine of a friend who used it for ages. For all I know, he still has it and is using it, but it at minimum was an excellent machine for a good five years.

Do recycle and get some use out of it. It's a good low power compact system.

 

Bunsen

Admin-Witchfinder-General
On the other hand, so is a 605...

There's a program called MpegDEC which, IIRC, should play MP3s nicely on the 660AV, using the onboard DSP.

 

beachycove

Well-known member
No mention of any DSP-specific programming in mpegdec's readme. It would be fabulous if it did do that....

 

Dennis Nedry

Well-known member
For MP3 files, you are going to want at least CD quality, which is 16-bit 44.1kHz. Well, the 605 maxes out at 8-bit 22.050kHz which is a great deal lesser than CD-quality, VERY noticeable. The 660AV's DSP handles up to 16-bit 48kHz audio which is actually better than CD quality, and better than the MDD G4 I'm using right now.

It may be that no special programming was needed other than simply being programmed to work on newer Macs that support CD-quality audio.

I've noticed that when Macs come extremely dirty, they actually have a likelihood of cleaning up better than ones that come clean. The residue tends to protect from yellowing and scuffs.

 

30pin

Well-known member
Looks like I will keep the Quadra 660AV ( The Quadra 605 can wait for a different donor.) I have maxed out the ram(68mb), I found a couple of scsi drives that should work(2gb(Apple) or a 18gb(Non-Apple)) I will install a fresh O.S. I have 7.1 and 8.1 , not sure which would be the best for this unit? The case is cleaning up nicely, a small crack on one corner showed itself.(Hard landing?) I found a set of Apple Design speakers that should work with it. The original hardrive is protected by At Ease 4.01. I will have to get around that to get to the programs on the original hardrive. The Quadra 660AV has some interesting qualities and it is easy to work on!! I want to get an early Apple LCD to go with it. But for now I have an Apple CRT monitor for it.

 

Bunsen

Admin-Witchfinder-General
No mention of any DSP-specific programming in mpegdec's readme. It would be fabulous if it did do that....
Ah. My bad. I recall a looooong time ago he cropped up (here or Applefritter) and mentioned he was working on porting it to run on Audiomedia cards and the AV DSP. I think the deal-breaker he ran into was that both of them had insufficient directly-addressable RAM.

 

blehlwalsh

New member
I have a quadra 660Av but the monitor tells me "check signal." I am sure it is not the right one. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a monitor for it, and if so, where would I find one? Thanks, Mary

 

Dennis Nedry

Well-known member
I have a quadra 660Av but the monitor tells me "check signal." I am sure it is not the right one. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a monitor for it, and if so, where would I find one? Thanks, Mary
Most monitors should work if you get the right adapter. Some really old Macs have weird/missing sync signals but it seems the 660AV should be newer than all of that. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

 
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