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

[Forrest]

I would recommend a Mac 7600. It was my first Mac...I don't have all the specs in front of me, but I (eventually) added a G3 daughtercard, which bumped up the processing quite a bit from the stock 604e chip. Apple said you could only install 512MB RAM, but in reality it would take 1GB. It also had 3 PCI slots and SCSI, which was really cool at the time (1997).

I remember being very frustrated with it initially. I got it from someone whose girlfriend hated using it (because it wasn't a PC). I essentially got it for free because I helped him move in with her. (when I would see him later on he would always ask how I was; then, "How's the 7600?" I don't know what ever happened to him).

I was frustrated because soon after I got it the HDD crashed. I only had PCs at the time, and was bootstrapped with the 7600--I couldn't download OS 7.6 because I had no way to get it on a Mac readable CD or even a Mac-format boot floppy disk.

Many hours were spent at the local
library reading and downloading documentation on it.

I ended up buying a copy of 7.6 from a Mac User Group for $20, which I thought was kind of steep--but it also had some other software on it that they said I could use. 

I still have it. In fact, I connected my first Newton to it the first time, using NCU.

It's a great machine, it still takes floppies, and you can run as high as OS 9.1 on it. 

Thanks,
--Forrest

Sent from my AT&T iPhone 4

On Sep 7, 2012, at 11:56 AM, arceeHS <arceehs at gmail.com> wrote:

> Even so, if you are looking
> primarily for communication for your Newton there are far more capable
> machines (newer, with built-in CD and even Internet capability) for
> probably equal or less $. Think the PCI machines for example.