possible conquest: Performa 6400 and Lacie CD burner

#1 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 - 23:59

I was walking around my home town and was looking for an exercise bicycle in a Salvation Army, Value Village or Goodwill and came across a lacie 50 pin scsi CD burner and a Macintosh Performa 6400/200. The colouring was still good but it looks like the front face/bezel was pulled loose. It had a modem in one of the expansion slots. Also it had badging on the back saying it was property of Apple Computer - Demo Group - Not for sale. No clue if it was working and $15 CAD.

I thought I was done with collecting macs and would only allow myself to splurge on a G4 cube or G4 lampshade iMac but the sight of that Mac tickled the 68kmla instincts. I let it go but it looked neat. I messaged a friend about it but he said it was a terrible machine back in the day. Sure the 5200 and other Performas were road apples but I hadn't heard anything really bad about these. Just that they had really good sound.

Well that's my partial paid/conquest story.

#2 Wed, 22 Dec 2010 - 01:02

Also it had badging on the back saying it was property of Apple Computer - Demo Group - Not for sale. No clue if it was working and $15 CAD.

I'd probably go and get that one, chances are it could be a prototype. 6400 towers are good machines and perform well, but hobbled in some ways (low RAM ceiling, difficult case to pull apart, limited expansion, big). Worth another look

#3 Sun, 26 Dec 2010 - 02:58

Calling the 6400 "terrible" is exaggeration in the extreme. They were decent enough workhorses back in the day. I would definitely have nabbed it for $15 myself.