What to do with old macs....?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I have a



PowerMac 9600/350

768MB Ram

18GB SCSI 10,000rpm HD

Voodoo5 64MB Graphics Card

2 D-link Ethernet Cards

Iomgea Buzz card and breakout box



PowerMac 9600/200MP

384MB Ram

9GB SCSI Drive

TwinTurbo Graphics Card

D-Link Ethernet card



PowerMac G3

333Mhz G3

256MB SD-RAM

6GB HD

On-board Graphics

SCSI Controller card





What can I do with these besides give them away. Can I set them up for any useful servers?? Proxy or something. What would they be fast enough to do. I have them sitting in my basement right now, I was thinking of selling them to get some extra money, but they are just neat computers and I don't think I could sell them.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    aquamacaquamac Posts: 585member
    If i had these laying around with nothing to do I would down load the Classic SETI@home software and just let them crunch on that all day. [Here] Yeah, not the fastest Macs but they would be doing some thing with little need for supervision. . A q u a M a c .
  • Reply 2 of 20
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Keep the best one as a failsafe, if your HW dies, you could plug it in, boot it, get to the net and check the knoledgebase, or set up an appointment at the APPLE STORE.



    You could toss panther (or at least Jaguar) (or tiger if you can get the CD version) on those, load up Firefox and Thunderbird, and youve got some great web/email boxes that you could use for the kids or spouce/significant other or if you have a lot of guests visit you, you could put one in the guest bedroom, what a great amwnity that would be



    You could install linux and use them as a file server, web server (check your ISP service terms first), or firewalls.



    Forget SETI@home, get folding, do some good, searching for ET is futile, researching genes to cure deseases will do some good.



    if you have no use for them, you could donate to a school or community center and set them up, those units would be far safer, and with OSX tiger, far easier to manage than windows.
  • Reply 3 of 20
    I've tried running Jag on them, but it doesn't work, except for the G3, the others are 604e's...
  • Reply 4 of 20
    I don't think onybody's ever thought o' this idea for auld macs, but what aboot making them intae aquariums?
  • Reply 5 of 20
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Altivec_2.0

    I've tried running Jag on them, but it doesn't work, except for the G3, the others are 604e's...



    but they are 300 MHZ+? theres gotta be a hack to run X on them, and if you cant, just get Linux PPC and you are in business. (you could also run OS9 but it is a POS(as it was on day one of its life) and PPC linux is still kept current)
  • Reply 6 of 20
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    but they are 300 MHZ+? theres gotta be a hack to run X on them, and if you cant, just get Linux PPC and you are in business. (you could also run OS9 but it is a POS(as it was on day one of its life) and PPC linux is still kept current)



    nope ... OSX won't run on 68xxx based cpu's



    gotta have the PPC architecture.
  • Reply 7 of 20
    Kingofsomewhere!



    Far be it frae me tae get technical, but surely the 604 (and the 601 and 603) ARE PPCs? Is the G3 no' an updated 603? Granted the G3 is a generational jump though.
  • Reply 8 of 20
    my bad !



    I'd have to do some research as to what happened to change the 600 series chips to "G3" ... but there's something about them architecturally that OSX doesn't support....



    It wasn't altivec ... that came about with G4 .... hmm... my memory fails me.



    but yes ... the 600 series CPU's are PPC ... I mistook the Mac model numbers for 68xxx machines. That was soooo long ago
  • Reply 9 of 20
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    Pre-G3 Macs aren't officially supported by Apple for OS X, but you can use Xpostfacto to get it running.



    Apple started using the "G3" moniker because Steve thought the processor model numbers were confusing. He was obviously right.

    "G1": PPC 601

    "G2": PPC 603(e), 604(e)

    G3: PPC 750 series

    G4: PPC 7400 series

    G5: PPC 970



    The G3 will run OS X just dandy, especially if you drop a little more RAM into it. You could also put the Voodoo5 in there for games. Actually, speaking of that, if you're into old games, you might just keep OS9 on it (dual-boot, maybe), add some RAM and the Voodoo, and use it to play Quake (or whatever older games float your boat). In any event, I'd definitely keep that around as a second computer. The others, maybe you can use them as dedicated web or print servers. If the former, maybe use them to experiment with Linux. I don't think running SETI on them would be worth the electric bill. They probably can't handle being a DVR, but if you can get OS X running on them, one could be a permanent iTunes jukebox in your living room.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot

    nope ... OSX won't run on 68xxx based cpu's



    gotta have the PPC architecture.




    You said 603, that is a PPC - if they were using moddern names back then it would have been the G2
  • Reply 11 of 20
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    You could likely get several hundred for them on eBay. Lots and lots of places (small newspapers, etc) buy old Macs like those for their writers.
  • Reply 12 of 20
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by midwinter

    You could likely get several hundred for them on eBay. Lots and lots of places (small newspapers, etc) buy old Macs like those for their writers.



    Yes, this is a totally concealed market, thoroughly.
  • Reply 13 of 20
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Run Tiger on the G3 if possible, sell the 6800's to a museum or to some enthusiast collector if you can't figure out what do do with it... share the retro love





    <begin ramble, feel free to goto end of line if you like>

    (written on a pentium 2 - 333mhz 196mb ram 20gb hard disk...

    creative AWE 64 circa 1998, just added: PCI d-link 802.11g adaptor (OMFG it works in my new retro-cool baby: probably i'll jump into some AMD dealie-o build-your-own in a few months....)



    me dad's iBook g4 is having it's modem diagnosed. lightning-strike (as evaluated by applecare) not covered.



    funny thing, i didn't notice no lightin' strike. modem just died.
  • Reply 14 of 20
    I hae read o' projects like SETI and others intae gene research, which make use o' personal computers when they are not otherwise being used. Here's an alternative suggestion...



    Why not instead set these computers working on the Finding the Answer Tae Everything project. Once done a' the collated information about everything could be burned intae eproms and included in a' future machines. This immediately obviates the need for future computers tae calculate, compute or otherwise be hindered by the need tae process complicated formulae. Thus cost is reduced; the futile goals o' greater gigahertz abandoned and the pointless pursuit o' parallel processing put aside.



    The Answer Tae Everything eproms would o' course include everything from an infinite number o' graphic designs for designers, tae ultimate Grand Theories of Everything for physicists. If it begins richt now and gets a guid response then we ought tae be all set by Christmas.
  • Reply 15 of 20
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mac o' the Isles

    ...

    Why not instead set these computers working on the Finding the Answer Tae Everything project. Once done a' the collated information about everything could be burned intae eproms and included in a' future machines. This immediately obviates the need for future computers tae calculate, compute or otherwise be hindered by the need tae process complicated formulae. Thus cost is reduced; the futile goals o' greater gigahertz abandoned and the pointless pursuit o' parallel processing put aside.

    ...




    Or build up a miracles cluster, in order to find the

    question to the ominous answer 42.

    What about that one?
  • Reply 16 of 20
    Vox Barbara!



    Douglas Adams? He used those F.A.T.E. eproms tae write his books in the first place. Onyway - unlike my masterplan his work is fictional. Even if he did use Macs.
  • Reply 17 of 20
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    well i'd want our home worldwide - cluster thing to do all the number and code crunching for....



    never mind the answer to everythin,



    i want my new cool, fast, kickass Macintesh computers ASAP (as soon as possible)



    let's cluster our computers to speed this up as far as possible



    steve? you hear us? we place offerings of our CPU cycles and internet bandwidth at your feet
  • Reply 18 of 20
    nuttynutty Posts: 50member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer



    if you have no use for them, you could donate to a school or community center and set them up, those units would be far safer, and with OSX tiger, far easier to manage than windows.




    Mac arcitecture is just as easy to Hack and take information from as a Windows computer. And becase windows has a Semi-opensource arcitecture it is much easyer to find a fix a problem.



    I would go with whoever said load linux and use it as a file or webserver
  • Reply 19 of 20
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mac o' the Isles

    Vox Barbara!



    Douglas Adams? He used those F.A.T.E. eproms tae write his books in the first place. Onyway - unlike my masterplan his work is fictional. Even if he did use Macs.




    Sir, i have to apologize, if you do not mind.
  • Reply 20 of 20
    My dear Vox Barbara!



    It is I who should apologise tae you for lapsing intae my auld bad habits and hijacking people's perfectly guid threads. In token o' my heartfelt contrition I wid like tae invite you ower tae The Isles for tea and scones.



    Your obedient servant



    Sir Mac
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