The 520c: Opinions please!

[Macflyer]

Okay,

I have the opportunity to snag a working 520C for a "donation" to the college. Any opinions of what I should give? Having seen them on Ebay between 45 to 100 $ with Buyitnow. If one is lucky one can get one for less with a bet. Since ebay prices are most likely always inflated, I would like to hear the gentlemens´opinions on that matter.

Thanks!

 

[JRL]

I'd say $20-$30, depending on the relative condition/if there are any installed upgrades.

 

[tyrannis]

The 520c regularly sells on eBay for around $20-25, depending upon the amount of memory installed. Very well-kept examples presented along with pictures of a working desktop sell for slightly more.

 

[Bunsen]

As it's a donation to an educational institution, I would suggest offering them a fair ebay-equivalent price, taking the offered memory and hard drive into consideration. You can upgrade it to a 33MHz '040 processor module for $1+post from ebay seller macmetex

 

[Macflyer]

@all: Thanks for the opinions. @Bunsen: yes, you´re right. If it weren´t for the schools and colleges who have been buying Apple for more than two decades.... Thanks for the tipp with the accelerator. If I could find some more RAM, it looks like this can be a 68k power workstation for future projects.

Another question: on the popularity scale, how much does the 520c score? I have hard times to find original reviews and collectors/68k users nowadays seem to prefer later Powerbooks. Was there anything wrong with the series? Too expensive? Any bugs?

 

[coius]

Hinges and brittle plastics seems to be the majority of issues. Right now, mine has been put to work as a webserver

They are quite capable machines for being 68k machines. However, the keyboard leaves much to be desired.

 

[Charlieman]

The 500 series are nice 68K PowerBooks, so if the model is in good shape and you are happy with relatively limited software/OS choices, go for it.

coius: Nice site. It is always a pleasure to surf somewhere with personality rather than Web 2.0 frippery.

 

[Macflyer]

Just wanted to let you know that this 520c works like a champ. As cheesy as LCD and keyboard are, there is something about this model that makes me using it now almost daily.

As I just mentioned in another post it works great via ethernet on my home network (with a copy of EZ-IP running in the background to provide an AppleTalk printer queue) and is used for mainly word processing (on the go and in when I don't want to sit in front of my Windows machine at home).

Would like to replace the battery but prices are a bit high.

 

[agg23]

I loved mine but I went to switch the floppy drive and I ripped my ribbon cable. I can't find replacements anywhere.

 

[nanoseq]

The 500 series is fantastic. I have a 540C that I purchased from eBay for about $25 with a massive 36MB of RAM. It runs CodeWarrior, RealBASIC, Photoshop, Netscape... It's fantastic. And it runs OS 8.1 just fine. In my opinion, this is the 68k PowerBook to have!

 

[tyrannis]

Was there anything wrong with the series? Too expensive? Any bugs?

The main issue is the aforementioned hinge. The mount is far too weak for the stresses it receives, and the torsion put on it during routine opening and closing will eventually rip it apart. A wise man once told the story of a permanent solution to this issue - but it's a major undertaking.

You can prolong the life of the hinge by opening it gently, lifting from the center and closing with your palm on the surface applying pressure evenly. Once you see the hinge plate starting to bulge on one side, or even pop off entirely, it's all over.

In spite of this major flaw, I think the inclusion of the first trackpad made it extremely popular and highly significant.

 

[Macflyer]

I'm lucky so far with the hinges but can see that they are problematic.

Pitty!

 

[nanoseq]

My hinge was fairly strong until my cats knocked it over while playing, and now it's a bit loose and part of the side chipped off. I plan to superglue it, but it still sucks! Try closing it with care as someone else said above, that will keep it from recieving too much stress.

 

[Bunsen]

I ended up supergluing mine. If I ever need to open it again, I'll have to go at it with some acetone (nail polish remover). Course, I'll test it on a hidden piece of plastic first to see what the effects are.

 

[nanoseq]

How well does the glue hold up? Is it noticeable from the outside?

 

[Temetka]

I once owned a 540c for a few months. It was a very cool little laptop. Mine had (I think) 24MB of RAM and a 40MB? HD. It ran 8.1 just fine. I really liked that machine.

However once I got my hands on my 5300, the love affair with the 540c was over and it was sent back to e-bay where a very nice old school apple guy in Georgia bought it from me. He e-mailed me a few times to let me know how the machine was doing, what upgrades he had put into it and he even sent me a few pictures of it in it's new, loving home. It was weird but very cool to sell the machine to him.

Right now I am on the lookout for a 2300c, look being the main word as I have very limited funds but someday, someday I will own one.

May your 520c serve you well. You can also upgrade it to PPC if you feel the 68040 CPU is too slow for your needs.

 

[Bunsen]

How well does the glue hold up? Is it noticeable from the outside?

Very well, and no. Cyanoacrylate (Super/krazy glue) is one of the recommended adhesives for that type of plastic, iirc.

 

[trag]

Another question: on the popularity scale, how much does the 520c score? I have hard times to find original reviews and collectors/68k users nowadays seem to prefer later Powerbooks. Was there anything wrong with the series? Too expensive? Any bugs?

In their day and for a long time afterward the PowerBook 520 and 540 were wildly popular. They were very innovative. The swoopy case styling was a first. The trackpad was a first. The keyboard pushed up toward the screen to provide a wrist rest was a first. Built-in ethernet was a first for Apple. Two battery compartments with an expansion slot built into one compartment was a nice feature.

All of these things made them exceptional notebooks in their day. It's hard to see now, but the 5x0 PowerBooks were one of the most elegant and thoughtful PowerBook designs to come out of Apple. Either someone put a lot of thought into what portable users really needed and wanted, or they got very lucky.

The lack of built-in ethernet in the 5300 was a huge step backwards. This was back in the day when an ethernet card could set you back $100 or more. Not to mention the 5300 battery problems and other issues. It was a couple of PowerBook generations before there was anything as nice as the 5x0 series available from Apple again.

Way back when, I had an Apple affinity credit card from Citi, I think. I earned Apple points on my purchases, which were only redeemable for Apple products. This was before there was an affinity card for everything.

In late 1996 or early 1997 Monkey Wards discounted the 520C to either $400 or $500. I can't remember which. I found three of them in stores here and bought all of them. Almost all of the purchase price was reimbursed by my Apple dollars. Then I turned around and sold them for $1000 each. I was tempted to keep one, but I really didn't have a need for a laptop that wasn't already served by my Outbound Model 125.

 

[Blessed Cheesemaker]

I see this thread is a little old, but what the heck?

I just came into possession of a PB 520 (no "c"), and I love it. My first Powerbook was a 5300 (no "c"), and in many ways, I could see where the 520 was nicer than the 5300. It has built-in ethernet, as trag mentioned, and even had a built-in modem! Let me tell you in 1994-5, that was a big deal! As trag mentioned, an ethernet card would set you back $100+, and a modem card would be 100-. Also, having it built-in was nice, as then you could then use the printer/modem port for something else (like hooking your Newton up?). The only knock was that it didn't have the pc-card slot, but that was a wildly new innovation at the time, and you could always upgrade.

The B&W screen is a turn off to some, but it has 8-bit video out...I'm awaiting my video cable to arrive via eBay (drat, I knew I should have hung onto it when I sold my 5300...).

I remember seeing a blow-out sale of a 520c at Office Depot, I thing, in 1996 or so...for the mid-300's. I remember being really tempted, even though I didn't "need" one (I probably needed one back then *more* than I need one now!).

Anyway...I wiped the hard drive clean (wow, 320 MB!), and installed both MS Office 4 and WordPerfect 3.1 (thankfully, it has an 8MB RAM card in it, for a total of 12 MB!). Wow...I remember buying an 8MB RAM card for my 5300 for $200, and being happy I got such a good deal (do you know, those b@st@rds at Apple, sold the 5300 with 8MB of RAM, and then turned the virtual memory on to 12MB? When I went to turn the VM off, I literally could not open *any* applications...talk about underpowered!).

Anyway, I'm looking at using this as just a wordprocessing machine. When I can dig up my AAUI-adaptor, I'll hook it up to my network, and to an external display (I like the B&W for text, but the video is wavy...I'm guessing the video cable is feeling it's age. At least the hinges look strong, although there is more play in them than I would want).

If anybody reads this, please let me know what options there are for replacing the ancient hard drive...