[OT] Re: clones and PowerPC computes
rant OK, It's not often that I get into these sorts of me too's, or platform put-downs, but as the proud owner of a Power Computing PowerBase Minitower, and 4 7200's (and many other machines), and having provided support for many Power Computing computers over the years, I've got to say something here. The PowerBase, while based on the 7200 motherboard, made many significant improvements on the original design, including the ability to upgrade the machine easily with the addition of a daughter card processor, not to mention initial processor speeds of up to a 240Mhz 603. PowerBases are easily and cheaply upgraded to G4's, and run rock solid--try that with a 7200 (without an expensive mother board swap). The PowerBase also came with on board IDE, in addition scsi, making the addition of large/cheap IDE drives easy. Not to mention having an extra full size bay for, say, a CD-R; try that with a 7200--no can do. Pop in a good fast scsi drive for the system/apps, and then pop in a cheap IDE for storage, and you've one heck of a fine computer. Yes, the fans were noisy, but a pair of Silencers at $12/each easily took care of that, and you also could easily add a processor fan for $10 to cool that 240Mhz 603 or G3 or G4 upgrade. The Mac 8500 is just as noisy, but thrice as hard to get into and work on. Oh, and lets not forget the built-in vga monitor port to hook up other than Apple monitors without an adaptor. All-in-all one heck of a fine machine for those who like to tinker! I'll be using mine in my home office for years to teach my kids about computers--using and repairing/upgrading them. Ever see an 8 year-old girl put a CD-Rom drive in a computer by herself? Not in a 7200 you won't, but in a PowerBase MiniTower she can. And for the 7200's, I currently run three of them for servers--email, listserve, and web. Yes, they're getting old, and yes I'm getting ready to swap them out, but they've been faultless workhorses--running for 4-5 year's straight without a squeak. I'd rather invest my $$ in bandwidth first, then upgrade the machines. There's many good reasons Apple bought Power Computing. They had great engineers, who were beating Apple to the market with products that had more punch and value than their Apple counterparts, and eating up market share. They had a team of marketing individuals who put together one of the first kick-$^% online stores and excellent marketing campaigns. The $100+ million Apple spent to buy them out was, in addition to eliminating competition that was threatening their success, to bring that expertise in house to Apple--those engineers and marketeers that wanted to work with Apple, that is. Having said all that, I wouldn't hesitate to bring my upgraded PowerBase into my hosting LAN and use it for a backup server, a web server, or use it for any purpose whatsoever. In fact there are hundreds, if not thousands of them out there being used for just those purposes. One only has to go to http://www.powerwatch.com and login to their PowerPC users forum to see the vibrancy and life that still exists in the PowerPC platform. /rant Jim Coefield [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: clones From: "Nicholas Froome" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 12:12:54 +0100 I'm running it on a beige G3 300MHz desktop. I wouldn't trust a Power Computing system as a backup server...those are the Packard-Bell of the Mac clone world. Actually, most of the motherboards are the same as the Apple equivalents. They changed other things like floppy drives and CD-ROM drives to a cheaper 3rd party though. I had a customer that had a Power Computing PPC. Equivalent to the 8500. I opened it up and the motherboard had an Apple part number on it. The processor board was made by someone else. The floppy drive had died within months of getting the system. The CD-ROM drive makes an awful noise, but it still works. The power supply is basically an ATX power supply that was modified a little. I think that is exactly what the first contributor meant when he said he wouldn't trust one! -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
[OT] Re: clones and PowerPC computes
I should mention that the 7200 is upgradable as well thanks to Sonnet and Newer. The PowerBase, while based on the 7200 motherboard, made many significant improvements on the original design, including the ability to upgrade the machine easily with the addition of a daughter card processor, not to mention initial processor speeds of up to a 240Mhz 603. PowerBases are easily and cheaply upgraded to G4's, and run rock solid--try that with a 7200 (without an expensive mother board swap). -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
clones
I'm running it on a beige G3 300MHz desktop. I wouldn't trust a Power Computing system as a backup server...those are the Packard-Bell of the Mac clone world. Actually, most of the motherboards are the same as the Apple equivalents. They changed other things like floppy drives and CD-ROM drives to a cheaper 3rd party though. I had a customer that had a Power Computing PPC. Equivalent to the 8500. I opened it up and the motherboard had an Apple part number on it. The processor board was made by someone else. The floppy drive had died within months of getting the system. The CD-ROM drive makes an awful noise, but it still works. The power supply is basically an ATX power supply that was modified a little. I think that is exactly what the first contributor meant when he said he wouldn't trust one! -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
Re: clones
I'm running it on a beige G3 300MHz desktop. I wouldn't trust a Power Computing system as a backup server...those are the Packard-Bell of the Mac clone world. Actually, most of the motherboards are the same as the Apple equivalents. They changed other things like floppy drives and CD-ROM drives to a cheaper 3rd party though. I had a customer that had a Power Computing PPC. Equivalent to the 8500. I opened it up and the motherboard had an Apple part number on it. The processor board was made by someone else. The floppy drive had died within months of getting the system. The CD-ROM drive makes an awful noise, but it still works. The power supply is basically an ATX power supply that was modified a little. I think that is exactly what the first contributor meant when he said he wouldn't trust one! Hmph. I've been running a PowerComputing 100 (their first clone) continuously for since 1995. I never turn it off. I have the original everything--including the Apple keyboard and mouse. Not as upgradeable, not as nice looking, but it has been a workhorse for me all this time. Got an excellent price, and PowerComputing was a great company to work with back then (haven't called them in years). The tech support they offered was outstanding. I guess YMMV. Now, having said that, I wouldn't use it as a backup server, but I don't think I'd trust any 5-year-old-plus machine as a backup server. Scott Ponzani (Working with a G3 now, but that PC-100 is still switched on as I type this!) -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
Re: clones
on 9/28/00 8:00 PM, retro-talk at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Actually, most of the motherboards are the same as the Apple equivalents. They changed other things like floppy drives and CD-ROM drives to a cheaper 3rd party though. I had a customer that had a Power Computing PPC. Equivalent to the 8500. I opened it up and the motherboard had an Apple part number on it. The processor board was made by someone else. The floppy drive had died within months of getting the system. The CD-ROM drive makes an awful noise, but it still works. The power supply is basically an ATX power supply that was modified a little. I think that is exactly what the first contributor meant when he said he wouldn't trust one! Hmph. I've been running a PowerComputing 100 (their first clone) continuously for since 1995. I never turn it off. I have the original everything--including the Apple keyboard and mouse. Not as upgradeable, not as nice looking, but it has been a workhorse for me all this time. Got an excellent price, and PowerComputing was a great company to work with back then (haven't called them in years). The tech support they offered was outstanding. I guess YMMV. Now, having said that, I wouldn't use it as a backup server, but I don't think I'd trust any 5-year-old-plus machine as a backup server. But I, on the other hand, have two PowerCenter (not Pro) models as primary servers, one Linux and one MacOS, plus my daily use desktop workstation. The MacOS one is a router and Retrospect server. Rock solid, never had a problem; they only die when I press the power button. The PowerCenter/PowerTower series were the last ones produced before they closed down, I believe, so they were probably the most mature in design. The only OEM thing in them though is the motherboard and power supplies, but both PS fans did die and were replaced. Seems they used cheap fans. Actually, I lied about problems... the CD-ROM in my PowerCenter Pro reverses channels on digital audio extraction. =) -- Seth D. Mattinen [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://roller.reno.nv.us/ PGP Key: http://seth.mattinen.org/pgp.php ...And the truth shall set me free. -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
