old computers
This is probably a stupid place to post this, since no one is really reading this blog yet, but I'll throw it out there anyway. Part of the room-cleaning process mentioned previously will involve getting rid of several old computers. Since my college friends built me an awesome new PC, I now have this slow old PC taking up space. Currently, it struggles even to open web pages, but a good reformatting of the hard drive should make it good enough for surfing and word processing, which is all the county historical society really needs -- and they'll probably be the ones taking it off my hands.
Next comes the PowerMac 8500 that served as my mom's computer until I bought the PowerBook and bequeathed her the iMac. Even at a mere 180 MHz, it works remarkably well for e-mail, web surfing, and word processing (Epson's printer drivers tax it a bit, but that's to be expected from Epson). I even installed a USB 1.1 card in a PCI slot so she could use one of those keychain drives. Right now, the 8500 and its monitor are just taking up space in my room, and I have no use for either of them, so I'd gladly give them away if someone would take them. Otherwise, it'll just be given to the county on the next computer recycling day.
Then there's the Mac Classic II. It really can't serve any useful purpose -- other than to be gutted and turned into a Macquarium. This is one of those projects I started back when I had just graduated and had nothing better to do in-between resume mailings. I don't even really want to have pet fish; I just want to increase my rank in nerddom by turning an old Mac case into an aquarium. Right now I have an empty shell that requires some cutting tools I don't have at my disposal, which is why I never got any further with the project and it currently serves as a plastic bag recepticle. But I also have a fully intact Mac Classic II that still works and runs System 6 in all its black & white glory. This was to be the backup in case I royally screwed up the first one, but it too is taking up space, and doesn't even have the advantage of being able to serve as a plastic bag recepticle.
If any of the two people reading this are interested, send me an e-mail at blog-at-bryanbird.com
2 Comments:
I'd take one of those computers off your hands, if you wouldn't mind shipping it to Florida. :) Does the PowerMac run OS 8?
I wonder if there's an upgrade card for the processor available... maybe eBay?
-Justin
We discussed this on IM, but for others' information:
With a $350 Sonnet upgrade card, you could turn the 8500 into an 800 MHz G4. You can also have up to 1 GB of RAM, replace the hard drive (IDE) and CD drive with something better, even add an internal Zip drive. I already added 2 USB ports via PCI card, but even better would be a USB/FIrewire card.
By the time you do all that, you're approaching $700. And, some bus-powered devices require USB and Firewire ports straight from the motherboard, not a PCI card. Once you hit the $700 mark, you might as well spend $100 more on a new eMac. The only reason to go through all this upgrading would be if you had some important SCSI or serial peripherals. And upgrading this thing isn't exactly a joy either; just installing that USB card was a pain because there's not much user-friendly space inside the 8500 case.
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