Macintosh SE/30 Dual Floppies?

[Sexytaco]

Hi all, 

After buying a beautiful Macintosh Plus with accessories the other day, I soon learned there was another compact Mac I should lust after: The Macintosh SE/30. After days of sleepless nights scouring eBay, I finally found one that wasn't going to cost me my left kidney. It's in pretty rough shape, but I don't really care. I'll give it some love. I paid 80 bucks US for her. Comes with a RasterOps Colorboard 264 video card too.

But what I do wonder about is the dual drives on the front? I read on the SE/30 Wikipedia page that Apple sold an upgrade kit for the SE (non /30 model) that included a new bezel along with the new internals. My first thought was that this was such a model, but then I noticed that the top slot is a fair bit bigger than the bottom one. Any ideas as to what's going on with this? 

Thanks

 

[Johnnya101]

Cd drive replacing the hard drive?

 

[Sexytaco]

Cd drive replacing the hard drive?

Yeah I considered that, but when I Googled it, only a custom mod for that came up. Was there a factory option for an optical drive?

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Nope. Definitely a mod.

 

[360alaska]

Just looks like a damaged case to me.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Really beat up case with what looks like a laptop trayloader mod. An ATAPI to SCSI hack would be pretty awesome and a slotloader through the "Snow White" indent line would be GROOVY! :approve:

 

[EvilCapitalist]

I saw that and my first thought was some type of kludged-in optical drive as well, since the damaged part looks a little too clean to just be a missing piece.  Do take pictures and let us know what's under the hood when it arrives!

Edit: Stupid auto-correct

 

[Juror22]

I would be very surprised if there is any second (floppy or optical) drive, be sure to report back and let us know when it arrives.

If you look closely at the left (as you are looking at the picture) of the upper 'slot' the metal piece that is visible curves down.  This indicates it is the top piece of the floppy cover and not the lower lip of an upper drive, so I'm voting for case damage.  Either way, congrats on your new purchase.

 

[Gorgonops]

I completely concur on the case damage theory. Something just smacked it square in the gob and knocked that bit of plastic out.

 

[Sexytaco]

I saw that and my first thought was some type of kludged-in optical drive as well, since the damaged part looks a little too clean to just be a missing piece.  Do take pictures and let us know what's under the hood when it arrives!

Edit: Stupid auto-correct

Yeah haha that's what I was thinking too.

 

[Sexytaco]

Thanks for the replies guys. Good to know there's knowledgable people out there. While I did order and pay for this machine, it hasn't shipped yet and there's the possibility of me getting a deal on a different SE/30, probably for around the same price. Comes with keyboard, mouse, startup disks, and modem, and worked last time it was used... Looks to be in a lot better shape too. Is it worth not having the color graphics card and just getting the new one if I can manage?

 

[Gorgonops]

The SE/30 collector market is sort of crazy when it comes to upgrades, it's *possible* the color graphics card is worth $80 by itself. I say *possible* because I have no idea if that particular card is anywhere near as desirable as the Micron boards. It doesn't look like it supports doing grayscale on the internal monitor, which is the big attraction of the Micron.

 

[Juror22]

If you go with the one that has a video card, you will also need a monitor that displays at 66.7Hz, 640x480 to fully utilize it.

I like the option two a little bit better - IMO.

 

[just.in.time]

If you already committed to this unit then you should stick with it. Nothing wrong with having two if you also want to get the other system.

Edit: by committed, I mean put down a bid/buy it now on eBay.

 

[Sexytaco]

Well folks, unfortunately it was just broken plastic. I kinda regret buying this one. The case is absolute trash. Multiple cracks, deep scratches, and marker and scuffs galore. Somehow the inside of it is like a temple. No battery leakage and no bulging capacitors. Everything works as it should, except the floppy drive which just needs some lube. Anyways I have it listed on the trading post for all of it or parts of it. Like I said, the guts are amazing, the case is the only bad thing. 

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/29801-fs-working-macintosh-se30-8mb-ram-80mb-hd-color-card/