G3 AIO / Molar Mac Appreciation Thread

[wthww]

I'm sure everyone here has their favorite old mac -- mine is the G3 AIO or "Molar Mac".

The first time I saw one of these in my school library I was absolutely blown away and I remember vividly thinking, "thats one strange looking computer!" and always tried to snag one before they were swapped for the Dells. Strangely ours never got upgraded to OS X. I love the weird in-between-ness of them. One day I'll have an hexagonal lab table with overhead printer shelf stocked with G3 AIOs and LaserWriters! One day!

Anyone else in the Molar Mac fan club?



@defor poked some fun at my quest to acquire a few of these with an ai meme I thought I'd share:



//wthww

 

[cheesestraws]

I do enjoy how much they look like a fever-dream compact, like if I'd spent all day trying to get an SE to work then eaten too much cheese before bed

 

[obsolete]

Yep, I'm a fan. I was lucky enough to snag one back when they were dirt cheap. Unfortunately I did the internal display mod to use a PCI video card and I really hacked it up in the process, because I was a teenager.

I tore it down a few months ago and found some replacement cables for it, just haven't put it back together to see if it still works yet.

 

[Durosity]

I love my AIO G3. I’m a proud owner of one of the very few that are outside of the USA. I actually have 2, although one has serious problems with it. I’m hoping to get it working one day though.

 

[LaPorta]

I like em! Not as sun tanned, though.

 

[wthww]

I like em! Not as sun tanned, though.

Haha! Tell me about it. I've been eBay window shopping and the clean plastic part on top starts to look like cheese

I am starting to get the urge to max one out and have it be my precious baby 9.2 machine and I'll pivot my C500 disease to being 7.5 or 7.6!

 

[Torbar]

the molar mac is awesome. something I wanted for years and years but could never find locally, ended up finding one a few years ago at a "reasonable" price at a local estate sale(iirc was like $125 or something).

few months later I guess some huge lot of them was found at a school in PA or something and they started popping up at vcf swapmeets for cheap. I think they had like 3 or 4 at the system source swapmeet for like $50 a piece or something


i put a g4 cpu in mine(400mhz i think?) and replaced the flyback since mine was popping

this is the flyback - (was cheaper when I bought it)

HVT / LOPT 6174Z-1009A for Apple Powermac G3 (In Stock)

technotronic-dimensions.3dcartstores.com

also had to re-solder the connector on the power supply board that connects to the logic board, the 24 pin connector or whatever. There were some cracks causing wonky display issues ( https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/g3-all-in-one-wonky-display.41986/ )

 

[Unknown_K]

I took mine apart ages ago and resoldered the joints but have yet to put it back together.

 

[Boctor]

One of these was the second computer I ever saw, and the first Macintosh, so I have above-average nostalgia for them, too. Especially the way the display would dance around from degaussing, when waking one up.

 

[CC_333]

I somehow ended up with two of them.

One works, but the plastics got a bit banged up while in transit. The other doesn't work, but it has better (a relative term with almost 30 year old computer) plastics. I'd been meaning to swap the working innards into the better looking case, but never got to it, so they're currently rotting in my storage unit. Several years ago, I'd earmarked one of the logic board trays for @Trash80toHP_Mini for reasons I've long since forgotten, because I really only want one of these (they're rather large, and I only have room for one at a time!)

I really should get to actually finishing this project eventually.

c

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

LOL! The first thing that came to mind the one and only time I've seen these atrocities IRL was on parent's day at Stuyvesant High School (Hackers) was that the little geniuses there were having a bit of fun sticking Apple Logos on utter crap PC's in the school library.

Be that as it may, I do have a thing for any Mac with a MoBo drawer form factor, even if they look like a horribly decayed tooth pulled from the gingivitis ravaged jaw of some Cretaceous period fossil.

YMMV

 

[Unknown_K]

I don't remember mine being that orange, but the case/monitor is in the garage so who knows what it looks like now. I did hunt down a SCSI zip for it when I do put it together plus a larger IDE drive since the OEM was cooked.

I am sure everybody here has projects they are in no hurry to complete (mostly because of space).