Scored a Q950 today!

[Juror22]

I have always wanted a Quadra 950, but they were always out of reach, especially lately, with the elevated prices and potentially disastrous shipping. So today, I drove three hours to Alabama, to avoid the shipping issue, and paid an acceptably low price for one. It has fantastic plastic (it has no feet, yellowing of the front and the access panel, but otherwise everything is intact, relatively scuff-n-scratch-free and works as its supposed to including the latches).
The guy that I bought it from, had it in storage and before that, it was originally his father's from an office. There was no battery installed, so it was removed before it went into storage. The RAM slots are all filled and it was relatively dust free on the inside, but written on the PSU is a notation of "68MRAM", which I'm hoping is the amount of memory...

As soon as I check it out thoroughly (lube the floppy, etc), I will start it up and test it out.

 

[Callan]

Awesome! Congrats on finding a nice one! I've found a couple, but the plastics have been pretty rough (especially the tray that holds the motherboard - lots of broken clips). They're are definitely a beast of a computer! The power supply is huge and like most p/s from that time usually has leaky caps. Fingers crosses on the ram! Have fun!

 

[volvo242gt]

Nice. I've had two. Sold my last one about 14 months ago. Wanted to upgrade my photo gear.

 

[Unknown_K]

I could never sell my 950's too cool and too many useful Nubus slots.

The front panel is the only bare unpainted plastics on the machine so it will yellow sometimes.

Did you get keys with it?

30 pin SIMMs are probably going to be harder to find then the good old days but even with 16 x 1MB SIMMs you should be good to go with anything 68K software related.

The only things getting harder to find are the metal HD trays (hold CDROM or other 5.25" removable drives as well), the elusive CDROM/5.25" cutout bezels, and maybe VRAM upgrades (4 x 256K for 2MB total).

 

[akator70]

Congrats on getting one, especially in decent shape and at a good price. Those are very nice machines.

 

[Juror22]

Did you get keys with it?

Yes, I got only one, but it turns to all the stops, which indicates that it matches the machine's barrel?
I think it is number 064...

I'm going to dig out the top bracket tonight (along with the HD and floppy) and also try to see if there are any VRAM sticks in it.
Thanks all!

 

[Juror22]

I have the floppy drive cleaned/lubed (solid, flexible gear, so I get to keep the original!). There were SO many dust bunnies inside the plastic enclosure it was hard to see the drive in spots.
I also removed and readied the yellowed panels (front pieces and side cover) to be retrobrited.

There are no VRAM sticks and no NuBus cards, but it had a VGA adapter on the monitor-out.
Quick question - would I see better (faster/higher depth) graphics using a video card or the onboard video after maxing out the VRAM?

 

[Unknown_K]

Max is 2MB VRAM, the very high end NUBUS cards were 3-6MB I think.

Built in video on a Quadra is plenty fast but color depth gets limited because of VRAM.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_quadra/specs/mac_quadra_950.html

"The onboard video can support 512x384 at 24-bit and 640x480, 832x624 and 1152x870 at 8-bit. With 2 MB of VRAM installed, it can support up to 832x624 at 24-bit and 1152x870 at 8-bit."

https://lowendmac.com/video/thunder4gx.html

The Radius Thunder IV 1600 (most high end you can get) "supports 1600x1200 in 24-bit color"

 

[volvo242gt]

Which monitor do you plan to use with it? If it's a M1212 or a M0401, you'll be fine with stock onboard VRAM. If it's a M1298, like the one on my IIfx in my avatar, then max out the VRAM. That'll let you get 24-bit color.

I'd post a pic of mine with 128MB RAM, but seems that the forum is inverting the photo whenever I try to add it from my phone... lol

 

[MacUp72]

nice machine..I can remember the RAM was incredibly expensive back then ( compared to today)

 

[Unknown_K]

Which monitor do you plan to use with it? If it's a M1212 or a M0401, you'll be fine with stock onboard VRAM. If it's a M1298, like the one on my IIfx in my avatar, then max out the VRAM. That'll let you get 24-bit color.

I'd post a pic of mine with 128MB RAM, but seems that the forum is inverting the photo whenever I try to add it from my phone... lol

You can go crazy with RAM 16x 16MB SIMMs is 256MB, I even had a max out Daystar PPC card with another 128MB but generally 64MB is more than enough.