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Putting the “Power” in a PowerBook

Posted by: EmmyOcelot on 2021-08-28 11:55:45 Hi everyone! After having success with nabbing a PowerBook 520c for cheap, I wanted to push its limits and see what I could make it do. Its little 25 MHz 040 wasn’t enough for me and after acquiring a 33 MHz 040, I craved something more of this machine. I had heard that PPC accelerators were made for them but most went for 350-400$ on eBay! However, I was blessed by the retro gods as on my usual Yahoo auctions browse for parts, I came across the official 100 MHz Apple accelerator with the badge! Best part? It was 180$!!! I just got it and have the upgrade cd for it, but I’ll have to wait for the BlueSCSI I ordered to come in as luck would have it, the original drive has kicked the bucket. It is nice however, to hear its new chime! View attachment IMG_2812.MOV I cannot wait the BlueSCSI to come so I can put it head to head against my Quadra 650. That’s all I have for now, if anyone has any tips I should know about the card or what I should do, let me know! I’d really appreciate it!

Posted by: nottomhanks on 2021-09-20 22:43:44 That’s super cool!! If you can find a 32Mb ram card for it, you can hack it to run OS9!!

Posted by: IIfx on 2021-09-26 20:02:37 Honestly, a Powerbook 5xx with the 603e is a better laptop than the 5300 line. Similar system architecture too, but in a not-horrible form factor. My 540c is still one of my favorite laptops - if only I could find new batteries for it.

Posted by: Crutch on 2021-09-27 04:35:09 Nice find! The 500 series laptops are great and the PPC accelerators certainly allow them to run more software. I have one myself and it’s nice to be able to run software from the PPC era, though I will say it doesn’t make the machine “feel” much faster (I run System 7.5.5 mainly, on a 550c). I haven’t run performance tests on it vs. the original 040. Also that hand-labeled CD is great, I love the little Apple drawing. 🙂

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