[NTLK] Off Topic: Macintosh SE/30 - to buy or not to buy?

[Joost van de Griek]

On 7 Sep 2012, at 19:02 , howhardz at vcn.bc.ca wrote:

> The se/30 as a project has box dimensions that are known to fit
> the slide-in powerpc boards seen in the later performa Macs; it
> is only 2011 that I recycled my ppc-6500 and with it the desired
> slide-in motherboard.

No. You're thinking of the Colour Classic. The SE/30 is a classic compact Mac; it won't fit anything but an SE/30 or an SE board (but the SE board is a significant downgrade).

> Beyond novelty, that "project" machine should
> accomodate os/9 ... go for it.

No. An SE/30 will not run Mac OS beyond 7.5.5 due to its 24-bit ROM's. With lots of trickery, it can run 7.6 or even up to Mac OS 8.1, which is the end of the line for 68K Macs.

SE/30's are popular because they are the most capable and expandable of the classic compact Macs: a 16MHz 68030, up to 128MB RAM and an expansion slot for networking, video and CPU upgrades. They make neat little servers when running an alternative OS like *BSD.

If you like tinkering, $25 is a good price for an SE/30 in good condition. If you just want something workable to connect your Newton to, hold out for something more modern, like a Quadra of some sort.

.tsooJ
-- 
FORTH LOVE IF HONK THEN
-- 
Joost van de Griek
<http://www.jvdg.net/>