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| Brittle Internal Plastics: 7x00 vs G3 Desktop | |
| Posted by: mcintosh on 2022-11-22 12:30:43 I have a 7x00. The internal plastics are a nightmare. The smallest amount of pressure/deflection causes things to break. I bought a G3 Desktop (same form factor as 7600) on Ebay. It was destroyed during shipping. Nevertheless, I got a sense that the plastics were more durable. I looked at mold marks and country of manufacture was different. I don't recall which was made where. Mold dates were within a couple months of each other. So I think cases/case parts were being manufactured simultaneously in at least two locations. I'm just curious if anyone has any experience with G3 Desktop plastics. If they're superior, I may buy another G3 Desktop (and pick it up in person this time!) and move plastics. Thanks in advance for any information. | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2022-11-22 12:50:28 I think it depends on how the machine has been stored how brittle they get. I have some brittle G3s and some better ones. The towers seem a little better, although mine looks like it was dropped from a height. | |
| Posted by: joshc on 2022-11-22 12:54:45 They really vary. The only G3 desktop I had was not in great shape, the top case would not go back on properly anymore. All the beige plastics despite age/model suffer. The beige internal plastic on the iMac G3 is a prime example. | |
| Posted by: Juror22 on 2022-11-22 13:24:34 I have a G3 desktop that I got from another 68kmla'er nearby, and the thing is a tank, compared to the 7x00 plastics (inside and out). It did appear to be well taken care of by its former owner. I have a G3 Tower that is also a tank, but my 8600 basically broke apart everytime I looked at it, so I eventually broke it down for parts. I also have a spare G3 board, which came from a tower that also disintegrated, so it can happen to any of them given the right (or wrong?) conditions. | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2022-11-22 13:42:17I have a G3 desktop that I got from another 68kmla'er nearby, and the thing is a tank, compared to the 7x00 plastics (inside and out). It did appear to be well taken care of by its former owner. I have a G3 Tower that is also a tank, but my 8600 basically broke apart everytime I looked at it, so I eventually broke it down for parts. I also have a spare G3 board, which came from a tower that also disintegrated, so it can happen to any of them given the right (or wrong?) conditions.Weird, my 8600 is a tank, but it has been in the family since ~2000.  | |
| Posted by: AwkwardPotato on 2022-11-22 15:45:11 I think Phipli is right in that a lot of the brittleness has to do with environmental conditions. My G3 desktop happened to be the most brittle Mac I've ever come across; between the latches that held the top case on, the flip-out foot, PCI slot baffle, drive carriers, all of it pretty much disintegrated. Ended up trashing the case and only keeping the motherboard... | |
| Posted by: LaPorta on 2022-11-22 15:59:13 A lot is storage conditions. I have no doubt that in a good 50+ years, anything that is of the brittle sort will be brittle by then, no matter what... | |
| Posted by: joshc on 2022-11-23 12:01:52 Here’s a cursed thought. In 50 years time, all vintage Macs will live inside metal ATX cases. 😈 | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2022-11-23 12:06:35Here’s a cursed thought. In 50 years time, all vintage Macs will live inside metal ATX cases. 😈I've been considering it. I would like to make a rugged retro mac that I could throw in the boot knowing it will likely do more damage to the car than the computer. 8600 or a G3 board, ATX psu... @Bolle - have you ever reverse engineered how the the PS2 ports work on clones that have them? Can I add them to a a non-clone to get cheap keyboards and mice? | |
| Posted by: LaPorta on 2022-11-23 13:00:57 The clear plexiglass Quadra 630 I built for my kids will likely be around. | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2022-11-23 13:01:59The clear plexiglass Quadra 630 I built for my kids will likely be around.Awesome, do you have a photo? | |
Posted by: Unknown_K on 2022-11-23 13:11:35Here’s a cursed thought. In 50 years time, all vintage Macs will live inside metal ATX cases. 😈I assume somebody will be producing printed cases as needed in 50 years. | |
Posted by: joshc on 2022-11-23 13:16:138600 or a G3 board, ATX psu...It’s been done many times, but I like @demik’s G3 ATX build the best. | |
| Posted by: Unknown_K on 2022-11-23 13:16:18 The parts that generally break are the ones that have physical stress when used and are small. Power buttons for example, the plastic pins that hold the faceplates in place, the plastic tabs that hold PCI cards in place. I have never seen a Q840 plastic internal cage snap for example. It's been a decade since I opened up my 9500 tower or moved it from the shelf because I expect it to break more. 8600, 9600 Beige G3 MT no issues so far. Personally, if my 9500's guts would fit into an ATX case perfectly I would probably move it to one. | |
Posted by: Juror22 on 2022-11-23 14:00:40I assume somebody will be producing printed cases as needed in 50 years.Yep, by then we will be better at 3d scanning/printing/manufacturing, so we should be able to recreate them. Of course they fooled me with that whole flying cars thing.. so maybe not. ...or... the armageddon in some form happens and then maybe we don't care so much that the only surviving Macs will be clear case SE's. | |
Posted by: LaPorta on 2022-11-23 14:15:15Awesome, do you have a photo? Building a ClearMac from Quadra/Performa 630Hi everyone, I had posted in another thread regarding the technical aspects of this conversion; here I will document my progress as to the real thing.. My goal was to give my girls (age 5 and 3) a small enough machine running System 7 to allow them to play some games and learn computing on...
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Posted by: Phipli on 2022-11-23 14:39:02Thankyou 🙂 Great to see so much work put into creating something unique. | |
| Posted by: mcintosh on 2022-11-26 11:04:05 Thanks for the replies. | |
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