Thread

Quadra 650 running A/UX

68kMLA Hardware 24 posts Feb 11, 2015 to Jun 23, 2015

#1 Wed, 11 Feb 2015 - 18:37 68kMLA

I wanted to mess around with A/UX and the Quadra 650 was the cheapest '040 I could find. Came with a 320mb hard drive and nothing else, so I eventually pieced together:

128mb RAM (+ the 8mb on board)

1mb VRAM

AppleCD 300i Plus (2x tray), rails and bezel

Ethernet transceiver

VGA adapter (don't own a Mac monitor, fortunately this one supports 1152x870)

External 1gb Jaz drive and 3 disks

new PRAM battery

#2 Wed, 11 Feb 2015 - 19:00 68kMLA

Wow, that's cool!

I still have this idea of getting A/UX running somewhere, one day. I've got a IIsi that would be ideal for the purpose, providing that I find some expansion card to support the FPU and I bump the memory to 64MB.

#3 Wed, 11 Feb 2015 - 20:28 68kMLA

It's really cool having a machine that would've cost thousands and thousands of dollars when you were a kid.

It was a lot of fun making it all work, but now that it's done I'm starting to wonder what I'll do with it.

#4 Wed, 11 Feb 2015 - 22:10 68kMLA

That's what I love about vintage computer collecting. Building your ultimate dream machine for pennies on the dollar.

Everything you ever wanted in a computer but couldn't have because it would've cost more than a house!

#5 Wed, 11 Feb 2015 - 22:33 68kMLA

I slapped together a very similar machine back in... gads, 2001, and just for the heck of it ran A/UX on it. (The reason for buying the box was actually just to have a copy of a Quadra ROM that was "mine", for emulation purposes.) Cost me $40 for all the pieces from Weirdstuff and I probably overpaid considering what they were going for at the time. Whee.

Sort of, just a tiny bit, regret getting rid of it. The 650/800 system board is arguably one of the best 68k Macs ever made. Case sucks, though.

#6 Wed, 11 Feb 2015 - 23:03 68kMLA

Yeah, the case is why it gets no love from collectors. I originally wanted an SE/30 or a Quadra 700 but a 33mhz '040 with interleaved memory and all tantalum caps for less than half the price was too good.

#7 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 00:16 68kMLA

The Q650/800 board will fit nicely in the Q700 case....

#8 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 01:30 68kMLA

Good to know, will have to keep an eye out for one. Thanks.

#9 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 01:35 68kMLA

I reckon the 650/7100 case is alright, easily the most solid case Apple made in the day. Getting to RAM is a bit tricky.

#10 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 04:44 68kMLA

What apps are you going to run under A/UX?

I have one A/UX machine a WGS95 that pretty much collects dusts since I have a PC running shares for the old macs currently. A/UX makes for a decent old mac server and built in retrospect makes backing up easy and fast.

#11 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 05:29 68kMLA

dafoomie said:
but now that it's done I'm starting to wonder what I'll do with it.

Yeah, I know that feeling.

#12 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 06:20 68kMLA

Nice Silicon Graphics monitor.

#13 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 20:35 68kMLA

Unknown_K said:
What apps are you going to run under A/UX?

I have one A/UX machine a WGS95 that pretty much collects dusts since I have a PC running shares for the old macs currently. A/UX makes for a decent old mac server and built in retrospect makes backing up easy and fast.

I'm not sure yet. If I upgrade my 512Ke to a Plus I might try to network them but what I would do beyond firing up Net Trek once in a while, I don't know.

Bunsen said:
Nice Silicon Graphics monitor.

Thanks. Almost a waste to be using it on this Mac and a Dreamcast.

#14 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 20:55 68kMLA

Nothing is a waste for a Dreamcast. VGA box? I bought a Naki one for mine to use when Pier Solar comes out.

#15 Thu, 12 Feb 2015 - 21:19 68kMLA

That's true. It's a much more capable monitor than it'll ever be used for again though.

I'm lucky the Mac adapter plays nice with the sync on green 13w3 port.

#16 Sun, 22 Feb 2015 - 09:34 68kMLA

That's very cool! The case looks very clean as well! Well done!

#17 Wed, 25 Feb 2015 - 13:48 68kMLA

Gorgonops said:
The 650/800 system board is arguably one of the best 68k Macs ever made.

I'd say inarguably one of the best.

#18 Mon, 16 Mar 2015 - 05:25 68kMLA

Now that CD-ROMs are kind of worthless, a 650 lobo in a 700 case (or dremeled cc/vi case) would be a very nice toy indeed!

There's a case compatibility chart around here somewhere...

Ah hah. I knew I left it at lowendmac. http://lowendmac.com/myturn/2k1213.html

#19 Sun, 7 Jun 2015 - 05:04 68kMLA

That was a fun read.

#20 Mon, 22 Jun 2015 - 17:21 68kMLA

Now I want to install A/UX on my Quadra 700! I really wish I had kept my 650 from when I was a kid. That thing ran Marathon 2 like a champ.

IIRC, the bad part of the 650 case was the cover. The ability to have a tray CD ROM in the box was nice. If there had been a separate cover and front bezel, it would have been a lot better. The clunky bezels are usually the first thing missing/damaged from any old system I come across.

#21 Mon, 22 Jun 2015 - 18:00 68kMLA

would love to try A/UX. Could it run on a laptop ?

#22 Mon, 22 Jun 2015 - 18:51 68kMLA

galgot said:
Could it run on a laptop ?

Nope.

#23 Tue, 23 Jun 2015 - 00:47 68kMLA

It can, but not on a 68k laptop.

Modern Laptop + Shoebill

#24 Tue, 23 Jun 2015 - 03:28 68kMLA

hellslinger said:
Now I want to install A/UX on my Quadra 700! I really wish I had kept my 650 from when I was a kid. That thing ran Marathon 2 like a champ.

IIRC, the bad part of the 650 case was the cover. The ability to have a tray CD ROM in the box was nice. If there had been a separate cover and front bezel, it would have been a lot better. The clunky bezels are usually the first thing missing/damaged from any old system I come across.

Fortunately my cover is decent looking and I was able to find the correct CD-ROM bezel for it.

It came out right after all those awesome snow white macs but before the Spindler plastic so it's not a bad case, but it looks like every other beige box that was around in the mid 90s. The Quadra 700 was the height of attractiveness for non-compact mac cases.