Power Macintosh 6xxx Tower - Like the way the case looks.

< Blech! Those things just reek of cheap, nasty consumer bait. PTUI!!!!! >

< decides to be more . . . less . . . whatever . . . but . . . YUCK!!!!!! >

Sorry, I'd have to say it's not one of my favorite examples of Apple's Performa Era industrial design.

< GAAAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! washes mout . . . fingers out with soap . . . >

< . . . mutters that they make great parts donors and that the sides rip nicely into plastic welding rod if you can find one that's not the color of bad mustard. >

They always remind me of an old refrigerator.

Also, they have one of those designs that makes your mind want to see a face, but too many horizontal elements to clearly focus on a mouth. (Probably better without the Zip bezel.)

That's it! :lol: The PerformaFrigidaire™ just needs a . . .

< . . . scurries off to GooglePics to find a Cylindrically Correct Condensor piccie for a vHackHat! >

< ROTFL!!!!!!!!!!! . . . Danger! Danger, Will Robi . . . ) >

< . . . wonders if he should be just a tad more respectf . . . doubles over in another laughing fit! ) >

I actually don't mind them, but my favourite Beige Mac case is still the 72/73/75/7600 Outrigger (with the 9600 case being a close second).

You're all wrong:

Evil man.

They always remind me of an old refrigerator.

Click to expand...

Well, it does now. THANKS

Better with. Out the zip. .

. . . better than: totally, slap its momma, BUTT friggin' Ugleeee . . .

. . . is still not a whole heck of a lot of improvement there, uni.

I've got eac . . . erm . . . the remains of each . . . and they're just flat-out nasty!

Buy one already . . . we'll see just how long it takes you stick its giblets into a case that doesn't make you wanna put it out of your misery. }

Better yet, buy my empty case and then decide if you really wanna populate it or just recycle it!

In the right light, the CC looks like a real computer and even attractive to some . . . the 5XX series . . .

. . . fuggedaboudit!

Brooklyn: I've got a pair of those blood sucking vermin as well . . .

They shoot horses, don't they?

That boy sho' 'nuff knows how to push the buttons around here, do he not?

lol who?

IDK, I kind of like it. XD

I have one of those types (6400) and I hate the case. Its mostly empty for a huge tower (except for a crapload of cables all over). My plastics are so yellowed I would call them orange.

So paint it orange! And stuff in more goodies... Never a bad day when you've got a full fridge!

Forgot to mention I also got those Apple remotes to turn the thing on/off.

You know, it would be kind of cool to mod one where the front of it actually flips open... And maybe install a cooling system? Install a smaller mainboard, seperate the top from the bottom where you can store drinks and sandwiches in it and call it the PowerFridge.

Um heck yeah!



* hack time *

We also need to work on attribution for images.




Dana usually licenses her stuff creative commons with derivativs allowed, but with attribution -- which means she wants you to include a link to the image you found, or indicate who originally created.

Have the 6500/250 with maxed out 128Mb RAM and 7.6.1 and it's f a s t , but it's UGLY. It looks like an mobile fridgerator or huge piece of soap!

I'm putting it for sale/trade soon (not here).

:lol: Good one! Just think of it as a jaundiced IvoryTowerTAM.

I still like to get one.

I happen to like the way it looks.

the icon of main.system7today.com

it looks modern

it looks powerful

it looks timeless

its simple

reminds me of this:

http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/world/2012/10/11/bronze_age_axe_heads_reveal_secrets_behind_stonehenge/marcus_abbott_atstonehenge.jpeg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpeg



http://www.occultopedia.com/images_/stonehenge-at-night.jpg

OK, you've finally got me to halfway likin' this thing now! :approve:

If you promise to source a USB Card, Blueberry Peripherals and paint it like the bottom picture to match the peripherals, I've got one to revive our languishing swap deal! [}] ]'>

If any Mac ever deserved to be saddled with a RoundRodent, it's the MichelinMac.

That 1950s refrigerator design? I like the 50s industrial look myself, and as the machine looks like something from that era, I like the look of the machine.

What it really does need, though, is a handle on the front that makes it possible to open up. The trouble with the 64/6500 is that it encases so much underneath the fluid 50s exterior in that infernally rigid interior metal box, a box with no obvious means of access (!), so that more or less complete disassembly is needed to get at something as simple as the fan. They are worse to work on than some PowerBooks, and even worse in some ways than the 8xx machines, which is saying something. Yes, you can get at drives from the front, and the logic board from the rear, but try getting at the ps, or even installing an option like a TV card in one of the things, and running the cables to and fro: after an hour of bloodied knuckles you'll know what I mean.

I think it likely that someone then saw the light at design HQ, because my all-time favourites are the outrigger beige desktops and especially the pre-G3 outrigger towers, the 8600 and 9600, that followed right after. With the G3s, the outriggers started to get a trifle too pokey again.

I've got a couple of them, a 275 & 300. The appearance doesn't matter but they're pretty limited in the upgrade department. A G3 card, video card and usb card and that's it.

You forgot the unobtanium Tempo-Trio! I'm going to try the one I have alongside the ATI Rage128/Hardware DVD Decoder Daughtercard in my recased, Sonnetized 6500.

LOVE that blue fridge model, that's a perfect vintage WGS starting point! }

I tried the Rage 128 with DVD decoder on a couple of Macs but never had any luck except on the B&W.

I forgot about it but I know I have a Sonnet Tempo Trio around somewhere. It's likely in the box of FW cards. I've got a few SATA cards now so I tend to think more in that direction. Also I've been upgrading drives in my Lacie cases so I have some good sized SATA drives that I can utilize.

I have a lot of external drives so upgrading a drive is a pain. Buy a 4tb to replace a 3tb, the the 3tb replaces a 2tb then the 2tb replaces a 1.5tb, then the 1.5tb replaces the 1tb, then the 1tb replaces the 500gb and that's a day

I hear you, but mostly I don't do hand-me-downs. When I get a new to me computer, I buy it a good sized, brand new HDD and chuck the old one into a box if it has anything on it I might want to move somewhere. When I upgrade a machine I already have, I still chuck the old HDD in the box as a backup of the files I transfer to the new machine.

Some of the drives went bye-bye with the storage room, but I still have a few that are like finding time capsules from one of my previous lives.

Heck, I've got computers that ARE time capsules from previous lives, like PowerDuo, it still has all the bookkeeping records from the business I closed up almost nine years ago on its HDD.

< back on topic >

The Tempo Trio was MADE for these machines . . . and that funny lookin' TAM thing. )

Recently I've found the need for a lot of storage. Money isn't unlimited. Recycling hard drives lets me to do things like putting a 1tb hd in my digital audio where it might normally not get the upgrade. Old hard drives usually get recycled unless there's a good reason not to. I tossed my larger 5400 rpm drives. I kept a few small ata drives in case I have some need for a small drive. So far nothing.

If I want to go back to 1995 to about 2005, that's the era I can do easily. About 1995 is when I bought a CD burner and used it to backup my computers. In 2002 I got a DVD burner. Back then a CD or DVD would usually copy my entire hard drive. Most of the disks are still viable.

I discovered I have another time machine. A number of years ago our user groups BBS SYSOP passed away. Shortly after I got a call that the BBS was down. I said I knew absolutely nothing about First Class BBS software but Fred said that that's ok, come fix it, then we can go for breakfast. I managed to get it going and then took the manuals home. Shortly after I realized I needed something to experiment on without risking the BBS so I made a copy. I'd make a copy of the copy and play around with that. I still have that original copy. Fortunately about a year later someone with a lot of FC experience retired and had time to take over the job. That gives me an idea. Our user group, ApplesBC is going to die in about 3 months. Maybe for the last meeting I'll resurrect the old BBS for one night. BBS has been gone a few years, would any of the older members recall their passwords?

Visually, I love the 9500 case because it has the "fast machine" look of the quadra 8xx while being a bit higher.

However, this case is the worst thing ever to work with! Everytime I open it, I break some plastic inside. Adding some RAM is a real nightmare!

I love the quadra 700 tower as well. I think it's quite original. I would love a version with a vertical CD rom drive instead of the flopy drive. This computer made me dream when it was released so I cannot be objective though.

Other than the fact that all those Towers are Platinum, I LOVE that graphic!

Luckily, the 6400/6500 Performas don't make the cut for that selection. Stick one in there and it would be totally out of place.

Always one of my favorite pre-blue designs. Classy looking.

But now I want one just to put it next to a Q800 box with a 6100 across the top. Machenge.

OMG!!!! 8-o

. . . suddenly, I feel apologetic about some of the more extreme comments I've made about the appearance of the 6xxx case design.

I like my 6400. I guess the design doesn't work for everyone, but I like the smooth edges and built in subwoofer. Naturally it isn't the most expandable tower, but I LOVE the fact it has IDE hard drive instead of SCSI.

I like my 6400 and 6500. The smooth curves looked much more inviting to me.

OMG!!!! 8-o

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Heh. I pulled one of those out of the trash recently. As soon as I've finished stripping it, it's going straight back

For someone who is supposedly married, you're rather intent on imagining Macs as romantic partners, aren't you?

Seriously dude, cut it out. It's freaking disturbing.

Still, it looks like a :-* mouth and the designers must have seen that too. What did they think?

I believe the Q700 shouldn't be in that picture. It's an entirely different design, am i the only one seeing it that way?

IIRC, the original "pout" lipped FDD openings were all off-center, so the question probably never came up . . .

. . . until the Vhack sillinessstarted in MinerAl's I want to do this thread.

The curvilinear entry for the new manual inject FDDs is pure Espresso, as opposed to the boxy Snow White injection/removal cavity for 5.25" Twiggy and A// FDDs . . .

. . . the Mac's :-* "pout" is much more elegant and efficient than the similar, but blocky and more shallow, centered of the PC's 3.5" manual inject/eject FDDs.

Be that as it may . . . I think it looks more like a robotic Jordy Laforge :-* . . . )

IMO, the 700 fits very nicely into that "Towers of Power" illustration. it's the only one of the bunch to overtly display Snow White design language influences, while fitting in with the later towers. Representing the IIcx MiniTower series, the very first tower configration Mac, was a necessity. The IIcx or IIci would look totally out of place in that Illustration as I see it.

Me likes industrial design topics. :approve:

Don't forget the transitional "smirk" of the Color Classic and Centrises (Centri?) , which was the Espresso solution for auto-inject FDDs. Maybe it's not a smirk, maybe it's a sort of "stroke droop."

Then there's the half-pout of the Q800-PM8500 case...

ok man, if you type in "Jordy Laforge kiss" all kinds of stuff comes up... Didn't he also do the reading rainbow? lol

dont worry i will not post a pic!

Maybe it's not a smirk, maybe it's a sort of "stroke droop."

Click to expand...

In the case of the IIvx and IIvi, the droop would be due to lobotomization.

I guess it's "Geordi" and, yes, he did do the Reading Rainbow deal, IIRC.

And some obscure thing titled "Roots".

I have many fond memories of 1997 when I got my 6500 / 250Mhz a whopping 32 mb of Ram ...

playing Mech Warrior under 7.5.5 ...

until I upgraded to 7.6 and no longer had enough memory left to run the game xx(

0.o

it was a vast improvement over my Mac IIvx with 5 mb running Ram Doubler ...

I have since maxed out the 6500 with 128 mb the Apple TV Video System .. and an Ethernet Card in the Com II Port

This thread just had me in stitches! :lol:

Personally im more of a fan of the later stepside towers... they just look expensive and businessy and powerful. But by comparison to some of the downright awful PC case designs Ive seen, the 6500 really isnt that bad IMO. If you want a seriously bad looking design, look at some of the PII era Gateway2000 systems... it aint pretty.

look at some of the PII era Gateway2000 systems

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Oh man, Pentium II-IV was when my parents were totally into Gateway. Are you thinking of some of the later G5 or early G6 systems in the box case, or the later G6 systems from when they rounded everything out and had the removable face-plate (1)covering the additional drive bays, or from just after that when they were boxes but with rounded fronts again?

Back when we got our G6-400, the "family computer," it was of this particular style:



Later on, a Select 700 was bought for my room, it was of this style:



There was also the Gateway Destination, which certainly started ahead of its time, and the ProFile series, which never seemed too commercially successful, but intermittently had pretty good designs. There was also the Gateway Astro, which was pretty clearly ganking a specific design, while remaining true to its "I'm from a '90s PC vendor" heritage, which made it interesting, if not exceedingly boring. Although, they do say that every repost is a repost-repost.

(1) I am a reasonably big fan of faceplates that move away to reveal inner workings and/or additional drive bays, especially if they're bays you can't make pretty. Gateway did a lot of this. On the fatter curved minitower, you could also hang the faceplate to the front of the system when you were using something behind it, so as not to misplace it. By the time the Pentium 4 was happening, Gateway had built several of their systems with flippy lids covering all of the drive bays.

Yep... that first one is the style I be referring too. My old man had one for quite a while, Was a II/233 from memory. He thought it was the ducks nuts but I can't say I ever liked it from a styling perspective... the curves and the removable front never really did it for me. KInda reminded me of an obese lady in high heels and a miniskirt. :lol:

I guess styling is something that can't really be quantified tho, whether it be computers, cars or anything else... one man's trash is another man's come up. Hell, some people think the Citroen DS is a nice looking car! lol

I've always been a fan of really tall, flat-faced, minimalistic PC towers, with no less than 4 drive bays. The thing is in the days of old I'd use up 3 drive bays easily... with a DVD-RW, a DVD-ROM, a 5.25 FDD, and at one stage I even had a cartridge drive, so ugly blanks werent even really a concern. Nowadays I dont run the 5.25 or the cartridge drive anymore, however the blanks in my case are moulded to the same form as the front bezel, so it's still a nice neat looking unit. This is it... minus DVD drives cos i robbed it of one when the G3's one died and the DVD-ROM stopped working ages ago... lol



Speaking of neat looking units, I LOVE that all in one Compaq... I actually have one in my collection somewhere. I was always a fan of the earlier 486-era Compaq machines... pain in the ass for parts as they were still running proprietary boards, PSUs and cases long after everybody else (except Packard Bell) had adopted the AT standard, however they were cool, powerful-looking slick machines, and the towers were a sight to behold... they were massive!

Then you have those unfortunate looking... things... of the Pentium era.... yech

I am pretty excited my buddy Zack is going to send me one, * drools * lol

Finally all in the world will finally be well







"The neatest feature: a built-in subwoofer for very rich sound."

http://lowendmac.com/ppc/performa-6400.html

Cool!

Nice! I'm supposed to pick up a 6500 with a zip drive at some point.

great post pics when you do

If I would have known you wanted one you should have asked when you saw mine. Geez. :approve:

you have already hooked me up enough kind man.

I used to have those flame decals on a... something. Seems like you filled out a form on the Epson web site and they'd send you hot rod flame decals for your computer/printer. I can not remember what I did with mine though.