Thread
What is your Favorite 68k Laptop?
Hey guys there is only 10 options.
I am just curious what powerbook you guys like the most.
Right now I know of 2 members that Favor the Powerbook 100.
Pretty sure my top 3 would be:
Portable 5120 - 16mhz Active MATRIX 1bit, More robust then the 5126 boards, and faster/more energy efficient ram.
Powerbook 170 - 25mhzFPU / Love the screen 1bit
Powerbook 180 - 33mhzFPU / Crisp Active Matrix Screen 4bit
I would have chosen the 180c, but they are troublesome.
I would have also chosen the 540c, but it has no Math co, and i do not favor the design/look.
I am just curious what powerbook you guys like the most.
Right now I know of 2 members that Favor the Powerbook 100.
Pretty sure my top 3 would be:
Portable 5120 - 16mhz Active MATRIX 1bit, More robust then the 5126 boards, and faster/more energy efficient ram.
Powerbook 170 - 25mhzFPU / Love the screen 1bit
Powerbook 180 - 33mhzFPU / Crisp Active Matrix Screen 4bit
I would have chosen the 180c, but they are troublesome.
I would have also chosen the 540c, but it has no Math co, and i do not favor the design/look.
Hands down . . . kinda.
PB100 and Duo 250 :
PB100 and Duo 250 :
I chose the 140, because I have one , the 165c because it hopefully has a salvageable SCSI hard drive (and it is basically the 140 with a color screen), and the 540c* because it has a 68040 CPU (but no FPU; that's fine, though).
c
*Note that I don't yet have one of these, and the only time I've seen one in person was at a museum.
, the 165c because it hopefully has a salvageable SCSI hard drive (and it is basically the 140 with a color screen), and the 540c* because it has a 68040 CPU (but no FPU; that's fine, though).c
*Note that I don't yet have one of these, and the only time I've seen one in person was at a museum.
What is wrong with the 180c? That screen is great. The specs are about the same as a LCIII, but portable. Less RAM expansion, but with System 7.1 installed, it isn't a big issue.
I picked 540c only because the portable is not a laptop but a portable Macintosh }
I guess the 180c's, die. At-least that is the Rumor I have been hearing.
Maceffects has a stack of them all dead.
Forget the name of the one of our members from B.C. Canada had also mentioned that when they die, they are dead.
They are all tantalum caps, I guess, So i'm sure one day soon, I'll be trying to monkey with one to figure out what the big deal is.
The 540c - yeah i guess, who needs a FPU anyways
Maceffects has a stack of them all dead.
Forget the name of the one of our members from B.C. Canada had also mentioned that when they die, they are dead.
They are all tantalum caps, I guess, So i'm sure one day soon, I'll be trying to monkey with one to figure out what the big deal is.
The 540c - yeah i guess, who needs a FPU anyways
I vote for 540, no C, because in my heart, 68k Macs will always be in monochome/grayscale.
I don't own one, sure would like to..
PowerBook 550c:
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP164
Does it do FPU?
PowerBook 550c:
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP164
Does it do FPU?
A while back, some of the gang bought a batch of full '040s to transplant into their Blackbirds, etc. How did that work out, comrades? :?:
I only have a 170 which I love, a color active matrix 040 model would be nice to have.
I know the machines like the 540c have a cpu card in them... so as to how someone would get ahold of some full 040 cpu cards i have no idea.
maybe still laying around from messed up 550c's? Maybe apple sold a upgrade card for the 540c? and they were selling off new old stock?
in that case i would like to get ahold of the PCMCIA kit for it as well and why not shoot the moon, a new or rebuilt battery pack for it.
and heck blow the moon up... oc that sucker to 40 mhz too.
I would be more then happy to install a full 040 into my 540c... and send the plastics off to get them plasti chromed, then it wouldn't be so ass ugly
maybe still laying around from messed up 550c's? Maybe apple sold a upgrade card for the 540c? and they were selling off new old stock?
in that case i would like to get ahold of the PCMCIA kit for it as well
and why not shoot the moon, a new or rebuilt battery pack for it.and heck blow the moon up... oc that sucker to 40 mhz too.
I would be more then happy to install a full 040 into my 540c... and send the plastics off to get them plasti chromed, then it wouldn't be so ass ugly
Nope, not cards, they got the CPUs to refit existing processor cards as I recall.
That's why I want one so bad. 64 shades of grey, and active matrix! It's the best non-color Mac with an integrated screen/monitor ever made.
They did - a PPC 603 or 603e.
I have the PPC chip in mine, but the mobo is unstable with the PPC chip installed until it warms up (capacitors).
Same 6bit active matrix specs as the Duo 280 there. The additional 640x80 strip of pixels might almost make it worth carrying the additional size, weight and taking the 4MB max RAM hit, but that awful trackpad is a deal breaker for sure in my book. There's also the appearance challenged aspect of the 540 to consider. Luckily, that offshoot of PowerBook design died aborning. The Blackbird was in a class of its own in terms of industrial design, but that's a matter of taste. In terms of a PPC upgrade path however, the 2300c MoBo swap for the Duo 280 is superior in every way to the 540's PPC processor card swap.
Duo's rule! ;D
Favorite in what sense?
You can probably gather more about the people answering this poll than about the various machines.
When I tend to pull one of these machines off the shelf, it's usually to actually use it for a specific purpose. From that perspective, the functionality of the machine becomes the most important aspect. My two go-to systems are the 540c, as a fast-ish 68k machine with onboard ethernet and color active-matrix LCD, and the 170 as the fast System6 powerbook with active matrix screen. Usually I'm using these two machines for programming or testing. The 100 is a #3 due to plain 68000, which can be important in some testing.
I tried to get into the Duos. The size & concept appealed to me. I've got all the tricked out accessories, the whole deal. But the Duo keyboard is just terrible. I just cannot use them for typing, which is the main thing I do on a computer. So they're pretty useless to me, regardless of everything else they have going for them. Which is a shame, but kind of insurmountable.
I can get by with a passive matrix display, but if given the choice between passive and active, there's just no comparison. That's mainly why I use the 170 as the System6 laptop. I would prefer the 100, but the passive matrix is just not that great to stare at.
I've not had much of a need for an FPU in a 68k portable. It's necessary for running something like netbsd, but for regular macos stuff, it is fairly unusual to really need it. For the rare occasions an FPU is needed, there's always the softfpu extension.
The other 68k powerbooks seem like pure (dust?) collector material at this point. They may have sentimental/aesthetic/etc value depending on the individual, but from a functional perspective of someone who has the choice of systems and actually wants to use them, I don't really see it.
I have seen reports that desodering the LC040 on the pb5xx's and replacing them with full 040's works. But last I checked, getting a full 040 in that formfactor is crazy expensive.
You can probably gather more about the people answering this poll than about the various machines.
When I tend to pull one of these machines off the shelf, it's usually to actually use it for a specific purpose. From that perspective, the functionality of the machine becomes the most important aspect. My two go-to systems are the 540c, as a fast-ish 68k machine with onboard ethernet and color active-matrix LCD, and the 170 as the fast System6 powerbook with active matrix screen. Usually I'm using these two machines for programming or testing. The 100 is a #3 due to plain 68000, which can be important in some testing.
I tried to get into the Duos. The size & concept appealed to me. I've got all the tricked out accessories, the whole deal. But the Duo keyboard is just terrible. I just cannot use them for typing, which is the main thing I do on a computer. So they're pretty useless to me, regardless of everything else they have going for them. Which is a shame, but kind of insurmountable.
I can get by with a passive matrix display, but if given the choice between passive and active, there's just no comparison. That's mainly why I use the 170 as the System6 laptop. I would prefer the 100, but the passive matrix is just not that great to stare at.
I've not had much of a need for an FPU in a 68k portable. It's necessary for running something like netbsd, but for regular macos stuff, it is fairly unusual to really need it. For the rare occasions an FPU is needed, there's always the softfpu extension.
The other 68k powerbooks seem like pure (dust?) collector material at this point. They may have sentimental/aesthetic/etc value depending on the individual, but from a functional perspective of someone who has the choice of systems and actually wants to use them, I don't really see it.
I have seen reports that desodering the LC040 on the pb5xx's and replacing them with full 040's works. But last I checked, getting a full 040 in that formfactor is crazy expensive.
I agree about system 6 with the 140/170 powerbook. its very fast!
I'm probably the biggest fan of the 180c. Minus the obvious hinge mount issues (which are moreso a problem of a lot of laptops in general as they age) the screen and specs are great, and I love the trackball which honestly is better than the 5xx series trackpad.
Actually, according to Apple's own spec page, the Duo 280 is only 4-bit active matrix, not 6-bit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/sp158
Thanks for that correction . . . LEM strikes out yet again! :
Duo: the only laptop in the world that can take Nubus cards 
Sadly, that is a fact. I have had vague plans to try and retrofit a later Pbook keyboard into one - IIRC the iceBook is about the right size, and ADB internally. That or ditch the keyboard altogether and tabletize it, with an external IIGS keyboard.
Eh. Each to their own. I kind of prefer the 5x0s over the generic business-laptop look of the 190/5300 myself. And I have a soft spot for the chunky brutilitarian rectangle of the 1x0s.
Jeez, speaking of "each to their own" 9_9
Where's the 190 on the list of options???
I love my 190. It's maxed out with OS 8.1, does just about anything you could want a laptop from 1995 to do, and has the distinction of being the final 68K laptop.
I love my 190. It's maxed out with OS 8.1, does just about anything you could want a laptop from 1995 to do, and has the distinction of being the final 68K laptop.
What does the 190 have going for it over the 5xx series?
Aren't the 5300/190 series considered some of the poorest quality powerbooks ever made due to design deficiencies? (This is just what I read, I have no opinion since I don't have any exposure to the 5300/190 series)
Aren't the 5300/190 series considered some of the poorest quality powerbooks ever made due to design deficiencies? (This is just what I read, I have no opinion since I don't have any exposure to the 5300/190 series)
4MB more RAM stock & Max.
.4lb lighter
IR
IDE (BIG, inexpensive, available HDDs!)
Far superior upgrade path to PPC.
I like the 190 because it can be hacked (upgraded) to house a Duo Trackball. }
And built-in PCMCIA, which is optional and rare on the 5x0.
i voted for Duo 270c
because it's light & slim but still packs a punch, the only drawback is networking. otherwise i'd go for the 520c (don't have my 540c anymore)
because it's light & slim but still packs a punch, the only drawback is networking. otherwise i'd go for the 520c (don't have my 540c anymore)