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Topic |
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Gothikon
Full Member
Australia
537 Posts |
 Posted - 14 Jun 2002 : 03:59:48
Okies I have decided I could do with a powerbook in the next couple of months. I stupidly turned down the option of a 190 for next to nothing about a few months ago.  I'd like a duo for the cool factor but don't know that its going to do what I need. Its main use will be storing and viewing images from my digi cam which uses USB and CF cards, the powebook doesn't have to have USB though as I have a CF to PC card adaptor. This also means 16 bit video and a reasonable amount of ram. I'd probably say 24 mb minimum. Speed isn't a major issue. A modem or ethernet would be nice too. Am I right in thinking duo's do not have PC cards slots? what about the docks? (I dont mind carrying a small dock around) Finally it has to be cheap 150 USD is probably my absolute max, 60 or 70 would be much nicer. Any help recomendations or experiences would be great! Edited by - gothikon on 14 Jun 2002 04:02:19 |
jruschme
Junior Member
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2002 : 07:25:04
quote:
Okies I have decided I could do with a powerbook in the next couple of months. I stupidly turned down the option of a 190 for next to nothing about a few months ago. I'd like a duo for the cool factor but don't know that its going to do what I need.
Not from the sound of it. More below...
quote:
Its main use will be storing and viewing images from my digi cam which uses USB and CF cards, the powebook doesn't have to have USB though as I have a CF to PC card adaptor. This also means 16 bit video and a reasonable amount of ram. I'd probably say 24 mb minimum. Speed isn't a major issue. A modem or ethernet would be nice too.
USB is out given your budget as that would push you to a *minimum* of a 3400 with a USB card.So, that leaves CF. On the 68K side, you would have two options: a 5x0c PowerBook (do they do 24-bit color?) with a PCMCIA bay (pricy/rare) or a 190cs (passive matrix screen). A better approach might be a cheap 5300cs (passive matrix), 5300c (active matrix), or 5300ce (higher resolution active matrix, but hard to find). The downside of these models is that they drop the screen resolution to 640x400 at 24-bit, unless you can find one with a ful 1mb of VRAM (look for one with 16mb of RAM *on the motherboard*).
quote:
Am I right in thinking duo's do not have PC cards slots? what about the docks? (I dont mind carrying a small dock around)
The docks don't. I did see an interesting Japanese hack, though, where someone put a small SCSI-based PCMCIA reader into the base of a Newer UltraDock.Which does bring to mind an alternative... a non-pcmcia color PowerBook and an external SCSI PCMCIA adapter.
quote:
Finally it has to be cheap 150 USD is probably my absolute max, 60 or 70 would be much nicer.
Time to get smart on the 180c, 5x0c, 5300c and do some price comparisons/availability evaluation on eBay. 
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Captain Z
Mobile Ops Commander
USA
637 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2002 : 08:19:17
quote:
USB is out given your budget as that would push you to a *minimum* of a 3400 with a USB card.So, that leaves CF. On the 68K side, you would have two options: a 5x0c PowerBook (do they do 24-bit color?) with a PCMCIA bay (pricy/rare) or a 190cs (passive matrix screen). A better approach might be a cheap 5300cs (passive matrix), 5300c (active matrix), or 5300ce (higher resolution active matrix, but hard to find). The downside of these models is that they drop the screen resolution to 640x400 at 24-bit, unless you can find one with a ful 1mb of VRAM (look for one with 16mb of RAM *on the motherboard*).
One other option is the Powerbook 1400c/133 or 166 (the 117 model had passive matrix). Both of these models have slightly more power than the Powerbook 5300, and has thousands of colors (16-bit color) available. quote:
Am I right in thinking duo's do not have PC cards slots? what about the docks? (I dont mind carrying a small dock around)
No Duo, from the 210 to the 2300c, had PCMCIA. No docks had PCMCIA either. Sorry. quote:
Finally it has to be cheap 150 USD is probably my absolute max, 60 or 70 would be much nicer.
Unfortunetly, you will probably have to either:
a) raise your max.
b) lower your standards.
c) look around eBay a whole lot. Good luck ------------------
Captain Z - Mobile Operations Commander
68K Macintosh Liberation Army
18 68K Macs Liberated Visit Captain Z's Starbase of EV Stuff |
Trash80toG-4
NIGHT STALKER
USA
2899 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2002 : 08:19:52
quote:
quote:
Okies I have decided I could do with a powerbook in the next couple of months. I stupidly turned down the option of a 190 for next to nothing about a few months ago. I'd like a duo for the cool factor but don't know that its going to do what I need.
Not from the sound of it. More below...
quote:
Its main use will be storing and viewing images from my digi cam which uses USB and CF cards, the powebook doesn't have to have USB though as I have a CF to PC card adaptor . . . . .Am I right in thinking duo's do not have PC cards slots? what about the docks? (I dont mind carrying a small dock around)
The docks don't. I did see an interesting Japanese hack, though, where someone put a small SCSI-based PCMCIA reader into the base of a Newer UltraDock.Which does bring to mind an alternative... a non-pcmcia color PowerBook and an external SCSI PCMCIA adapter.
you just gave me an interesting thought! back in the day, one of the dock makers announced a PCMCIA mini dock that never shipped.the huge volume of empty space in the ultradock leads me to think it was Newer's project and i'm wondering if it would have supported the 68k Duos and the date of the announcement MIGHT give a hint, but they wer probably privy to the 2300c development project as the OEM for Apples Mini-MicroDocks (IIRC i think it maght actually have been somebody else, but Newer would still have been in the loop as a dock developer) whatever, links to that hack would be appreciated as mine seem to have evaporated. back on topic: if you are going to be doing any kind of imaging on your notebook/laptop, IMHO you shoiuld rule out any SCSI HDD based 'book, the only decent sized SCSI HDD i have seen is actually a low profile IDE HDD/SCSI adapter combo intended for laptop upgrades in the corporate market that i have not as yet seen in the consumer channel. the 2300c might work for you but you are limited to 16bit color at 640x400. i was able to set up a slideshow using GraphicConverter as a sales tool for a friend of a friend with a flower shop, but the performance was somewhat less than impressive, but not terrible. i don't know about video, but i kinda doubt you'd be happy. i've got a couple of 2300c's i could test something on if you'd like an opinion. jt  ™.
Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball
C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF |
Trash80toG-4
NIGHT STALKER
USA
2899 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2002 : 15:03:01
here's a link to a mention of the newer PCMCIA dock. (it's at the very end, btw.)http://www.macworld.com/1995/12/features/1635.html sure woulda' been nice! *sighs* jt ™.
Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball
C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF |
oldmacman
Full Member
USA
713 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2002 : 15:16:02
Don't get a 5300. Its battery only lasts for about an hour, the hard drive is incredibly slow, memory expansion is really expensive, there's no L2 cache, and the screen resolution only goes to 640x480. I think the 5300c will do Thousands of Colors, but it's not worth buying.Presiding Music and NeXT Expert OpenStep Page at http://openstep.topcities.com/ Macs Liberated:
SE (with SuperDrive), IIsi, Quadra 700, 6100, PB 5300, PowerMac 5400 PCs liberated from Windows: 3 |
Gothikon
Full Member
Australia
537 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2002 : 16:15:13
Hmm, I was thinking I might have to go with the 1400, performance isn't a big deal really but they go for simillar prices to the 5300.The SCSI to PCMCIA adaptor sounds interesting though. I'l have to have a look into this. I seem to remember reading there's a DUO PDS to SCSI adaptor? a kind of Micro dock? I think I saw one when I was looking on ebay the other day....
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which powerbook?
68k of the Week: kastegir's PowerBook 180.