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8600, G3 tower and Applevision 720

I collected these from a friend at the weekend. $20.

The 8600 has a 400MHz G3 card (it was originally an 8600/200) and an ATA-66 controller card; the G3 is a lowly 233MHz tower and came to me more or less stock.

I could keep the g3 for spares, as I also have a 333MHz in active service, but would prefer to get its sibling running well. What's the best place to find a decent zif upgrade?

The Applevision 720 is a nice looking monitor, but was from the cheaper line of monitors c. 1997: .28 dot pitch rather than the .26 used in the high end ColorSyncs. I have found the latter to be unreliable, mind you (I can't maintain the focus in one I am working on at the moment, for example). Are there any views of the Applevision 720 among the faithful?

 
That 8600 sounds awesome. The g3 would be useful too, but the 8600 sounds like it would be great for almost any vintage Mac usage.

Great value for $20, I think.

 
From what I've seen, the AppleVision 720 is a fairly solid display, definitely one of the cheaper ones, but not a bad display by any means, good for general use, or for hooking up to an older 68k Mac that doesn't need to go to resolutions too much higher than 1024x768 (a resolution I'm comfortable with on the ones at school.)

If you've got the room, I'd keep that 720 around, just because it can be used with a variety of Mac hardware, from the newer 68ks that support multiple-scan monitors, to the later PPCs. (and probably PCs and the newest Macs, if you've got an adapter to use it on a VGA port.)

 
Which ColorSync displays are you having trouble with?

Personally, I always wanted a ColorSync 850, but I had to "settle" for a pair of AppleVision 1710s (basically a ColorSync 750). Alas, one of them developed the deflection board problem. The other is having trouble with convergence. But that's okay. My other Trinitron is an Apple Multiple Scan 20 still going strong after all these years. My other other Trinitron is an AudioVision 14 (easily my favorite if only it weren't locked to 640x480).

Peace,

Drew

 
I would love to have a apple screen at the moment because since my 8500 has a dead pram battery it takes a bunch of tries for everything to be found and boot right.

 
I didn't mean that. I meant it as if I used the on board graphics instead of the ATI card I have in it, I might get it to right every time.

 
Which ColorSync displays are you having trouble with?
Personally, I always wanted a ColorSync 850, but I had to "settle" for a pair of AppleVision 1710s (basically a ColorSync 750). Alas, one of them developed the deflection board problem. The other is having trouble with convergence. But that's okay. My other Trinitron is an Apple Multiple Scan 20 still going strong after all these years.
I have a ColorSync 20" which basically works but is dark (I can't adjust the brightness up further than it is), and which has some sort of failed adb-related circuitry (though replacing the adb board in the bottom with a known-good one did not solve the problem, so the problem seems to be higher up in the unit), which means that it isn't recognized as a ColorSync! It does, however, work just fine under OSX, where even the brightness is OK, and where the adb system is entirely by-passed.

I also have a ColorSync 17", and it is the more troubled of the two. The focus/ convergence (not sure which is giving the trouble, but probably focus) can be set right, and then 30 mins later it's off again.

I know where there's a ready local supply for more of these units, so if I were comfortable working in the high voltage areas, I might get some others as replacements and keep these for parts, but it's too dangerous, methinks, to fiddle around in there among those wires and such. So, having been twice smitten and bitten, no more Apple ColorSync monitors for me. They may have been the high end, but they seem to me to be lemons.

 
ZIF upgrades aren't cheap. It would be hard to justify spending the money on it. The 233 most likely has the revision 1 motherboard, anyway. If you have a spare CPU from a faster beige G3 and know how to change the jumpers, I'd just do that and not spend a lot of money on it.

 
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