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Emmy's Dream Machine
Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2020-08-17 11:16:59 After selling my 610. I was determined to get a machine to run A/UX 3.1 get up and running. Well, few hours later I found this guy for a real steal and got it yesterday. One install and some ram configuration later, this Quadra is a screamer! Hope to find a good nubus graphics card for it to make it perfect. If anyone has ideas of cards I should look at please let me know.
Posted by: elbaroni on 2020-08-17 11:40:07 Congrats. Always brilliant to get the one you really want. For memory the built in video on these was pretty good - it’s have to be a pretty good NuBus card.
Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2020-08-17 12:17:53 This is what I had my eyes set on. It’s Better than 800*600 https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMac-Spectrum-24-Series-III-Nubus-video-card-for-Macintosh-II-Quadra/184402219381
Posted by: cheesestraws on 2020-08-17 18:23:39 This is what I had my eyes set on. It’s Better than 800*600 Pretty sure the 650's onboard video will go up to 1152x870, but you might need to put some more VRAM in it Very nice, though. I'd love a 650 🙂
Posted by: elbaroni on 2020-08-22 06:30:11 Did you end up winning it? Didn’t go for all that much in the end.
Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2020-08-23 01:23:04 Yep. Dug a little deeper and found out that my wonderfully ancient Acer monitor can’t do 1152*870. Plus the onboard graphics can’t show millions at the resolution. $26 was nice grab and I’ll hopefully have it next week.
Posted by: ArmorAlley on 2020-08-23 16:37:25 Yep. Dug a little deeper and found out that my wonderfully ancient Acer monitor can’t do 1152870. Plus the onboard graphics can’t show millions at the resolution. $26 was nice grab and I’ll hopefully have it next week. Even it does 256 colours at 1024768, you are still doing well.
Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2020-08-24 00:54:08 Hmmm. Didn’t know that. Thanks for letting me know!
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2020-08-24 01:49:24 That's a very nice machine, never had enough interest in A/UX to play with it though. The VidCard/Display side of things is a different matter entirely. That VidCard's a nice conquest in and of itself. You might want to look at getting a 4:3 MultiSync panel to compliment its resolutions for stretch free viewing: 640 x 480 up to 24-bit 832 x 624 up to 24-bit 1024 x 768 (at 75 Hz) up to 24-bit If you're sharing that or any other display with any oddball resolution Compact Mac VidCard, an Extron Scaler might be a more interesting way to go?
Posted by: elbaroni on 2020-08-24 06:15:56 I’m torn between LCD panels that are 1024x768 and CRTs. The latter’s period accurate, but LCD is so much better. Perhaps CRT for games. Perhaps I should just fix my CRTs.... Still, congrats on your dream machine. Enjoy building it.
Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2020-08-24 06:28:47 If you're sharing that or any other display with any oddball resolution Compact Mac VidCard, an Extron Scaler might be a more interesting way to go? This may be a near future purchase for me. A/UX works, but the thrift stores near me have some “nicer” old monitors. I’ll most likely then look at some of them so I can enjoy the experience a little more. If not, I may go with the an Extron Scaler. I’ll tell you though, trying to setup gcc so I can compile other programs like sudo or bash is quite the joyride. The Supermac Card comes in a week so I’ll hopefully have pictures of it running soon. Edit: CRT monitors are great for that “authentic” experience but I’ll take a LCD for terminal viewing! 😉
Posted by: cheesestraws on 2020-08-24 07:09:14 I may go with the an Extron Scaler FWIW, I have mine plugged into the internal video of my Quadra (which also runs A/UX) doing 1152 x 870 (but same as you, only 256 colours) and using it to put it onto one of my work LCD monitors via HDMI. For their second-hand price, they're seriously decent bits of kit. So glad I got mine. Edit: CRT monitors are great for that “authentic” experience but I’ll take a LCD for terminal viewing! 😉 Yup. I'm afraid I do not miss CRTs at all. LCDs are so much nicer for most practical purposes.
Posted by: just.in.time on 2020-08-25 07:59:21 Nice Quadra! I agree, team LCD here as well. As great of a picture as CRTs may have, the space required for them is so high. The weight and depth of the display seem to go up really fast on anything greater than 14 inches or so. Dell had some decent quality 4:3 LCD displays from the 2005 to 2012 era, with many offering both VGA and DVI connections. These can usually be found at Goodwill in the $10 range or on eBay for just under $50 shipped, sometimes even less. Thanks to the engineering bathtub curve of failure rates, any that are still working today should be good for the foreseeable future, unlike many CRTs from the 1990s that are getting to the point of needing new capacitors and flyback transformers with their best days behind them.
Posted by: Juror22 on 2020-08-25 09:03:05 These can usually be found at Goodwill in the $10 range... This is the one thing that seems to be relatively stable, price wise these days. When I moved, I found a couple of Samsung 17" Multisync 4:3 LCD's, one for $10 at Goodwill and the other at an estate sale for $5. Both look great, don't weight 75 pounds and you cannot beat the price. I just wish they came in 90's Mac-tone as a color.
Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2020-08-25 09:39:03 Our thrift stores here in the north Florida are have been pretty decent in mid 2000s parts. Haven’t gone in for a hot minute so hopefully when I do, I can grab an new one.
Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2020-08-28 02:47:49 This fella came in yesterday. Let’s give it a spin
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