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

[Hauke Fath]

At 12:30 Uhr -0400 7.9.2012, William Maloney wrote:
>Thinking about this one. The computer is about an hour away but its
>$25.
>Not sure what system is running on it. Few questions for the
>Apple elders:
>
>1.) Would I be able to connect it to a Newton and use any software with it?

Yes. It has two serial ports, after all. An internal PDS slot (the same as
the IIsi's) can take an ethernet card.

>2.) Assuming this is a Macintosh SE/30 Plus, would it be able to read
>and write to Windoze Discs off the bat? Might use it for some word
>processing or something.

Yes. You'll want System 7.5.5 which is a free download from Apple.

>3.) What is the retail value of a working Mac SE/30

Whatever the buyer is ready to pay, but generally considerably more than 25
USD on ebay.

>4.) Words of encouragement?

The Macintosh SE/30 is IMO one of the finest, best-balanced machines Apple
ever built. Basically, this was what the Macintosh 128K should have been.

Note that Macintoshes of the 1990 era like to develop the SimasiMac
sickness <http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~shamada/fullmac/repairEng.html>, caused by
leaking capacitors on the logic board. For someone knowledgable,
replacement takes an hour and a few USD for the SMT capacitors.

	hauke

--
"It's never straight up and down"     (DEVO)