The Absolutely Apple collection

After a year of hard work, some fluke chances and a lot of patience, I finally have a dream Macintosh II system assembled. The reason I call it Absolutely Apple is because, well take a look for yourself.

















-Macintosh IIfx
--Apple CD SC
--Apple HD160 SC
--Apple Tape Backup 40 SC
--Apple One Scanner (Monochrome)
--Apple MIDI Interface
--Apple LocalTalk Interface
--Apple Extended Keyboard
--Apple ADB Mouse
--Apple Data Modem 2400
--Apple High Resolution RGB Display (640x480, 66.7hz)
--Apple 5.25" PC Floppy Drive (with Controller in the IIfx)
--Apple LaserWriter IIg

Behind closed doors, here is where we differ from all the components being completely Apple, mainly because third party parts were better or faster.

Hard Drive: IBM 0663-E12 1043mb SCSI Disk Drive (FWB Toolkit formatted, running System 7.1)
Video: RasterOps 24 XLi
Capture: Supermac VideoSpigot II (I believe that is the name. Still researching this beast)
Floppy: Apple 5.25" PC Floppy Drive Controller
Network: Farallon Nubus Ethernet Adapter (sporting rear connections for thin Net, AUI, and Category 5)
Acceleration: Radius PhotoEngine (DSP acceleration for Adobe Photoshop)

This all leaves one NuBus slot and the PDS slot as the last expansion point besides the addition of a second 1.44mb SuperDrive.



The only big letdown about the system however is the ram. Only 8mb. That's more the fault that IIfx ram is non-standard and expensive. I would love to load the system up with even 4mb SIMMs and run 7.5 but man, those prices even used.....

The Yamaha device hurt my Apple eyes!

THE REST LOOOOOOOOOOKS TOTALLY AWESOME!!

Bah, while not as good, the Apple Display Card 8*24 GC is really the "perfect" video card to pair with the IIfx. Also, an Apple-branded Ethernet card with AAUI port, and Apple-branded AAUI-to-RJ-45 adapter. :-D

And, to *REALLY* go all-out, throw in an Apple Display Card 8*24 slaved to the GC running a second display! (The GC card can accelerate all non-GC 8*24 cards in the system, too!)

Love the use of the IBM floppy in the PC Drive, too!

Nice, complete setup. I hope you got that laserwriter II locally, cause that would've been expensive to ship.

Beautiful looking IIfx setup you've got there. I think most of those early Apple printers were on the heavy side, since lifting my Apple Scribe Printer.

Anonymous Freak said:

Bah, while not as good, the Apple Display Card 8*24 GC is really the "perfect" video card to pair with the IIfx. Also, an Apple-branded Ethernet card with AAUI port, and Apple-branded AAUI-to-RJ-45 adapter. :-D

And, to *REALLY* go all-out, throw in an Apple Display Card 8*24 slaved to the GC running a second display! (The GC card can accelerate all non-GC 8*24 cards in the system, too!)

Click to expand...

Is it faster then my SuperMac Thunder II GX? I think the only thing cool about it is the dual AT&T DSPs that make Photoshop "mad fast", but you have a DSP card for that already. I actually had most of the stuff here back in the day. Just tossed my last LaserWriter IIntx.... Herb at RetroTech got all my 64-pin SIMMs off that board ( I think they were 1MB anyway)... too bad I didn't know you needed any a few months bad.

Here's the cool part.

You see everything pictured?
The grand total it cost me to build the system seen was below $100. A lot of the gear was purchased at scrap value. The IIfx alone cost me $15 and took me half an hour digging through bins to find all the parts as the recycler had already dismantled the system.

Bah, while not as good, the Apple Display Card 8*24 GC is really the "perfect" video card to pair with the IIfx. Also, an Apple-branded Ethernet card with AAUI port, and Apple-branded AAUI-to-RJ-45 adapter.

And, to *REALLY* go all-out, throw in an Apple Display Card 8*24 slaved to the GC running a second display! (The GC card can accelerate all non-GC 8*24 cards in the system, too!)

Love the use of the IBM floppy in the PC Drive, too!

Click to expand...

I tried to get an 8*24 GC in the past but the people kept going silent after the first or second PM. It's a nice card and all too. Before I could consider one though I would need to find the Apple proprietary memory expansion for it. I went with the 24 XLi because of the Gworld ram (which is standard 30 pin stuff) which meant I could have a ram disk and thus a place to put virtual memory. LEM said the card was slower than the 8*24 GC as well but I noticed they tested at different resolutions which WILL affect benchmark results and I consider their results incorrect. In theory it should be on par witht he 8*24 and Snooper video benchmarks agree with this.
I also looked at Apple Network cards too. Someone even offered me one. In sacrifice for first party branding I decided to take a card that could be attached to any network I want. The AUI port also means I can connect my fancy ST fiber transceivers.

I'm letting the innards slide because "that you don't see, you don't need to know about."

Eh, I have a non-Apple ethernet card, but I'm not complaining. What does matter is that its register compatible with Apple's card so requires no 3rd party extensions/drivers and it works with A/UX. (which would scream on this setup)

I see from the sheet in the first photo that there weren't any Apple branded irons. ;-)

But seriously, that is a very sweet IIfx setup. Great system, and in great shape. I'm jealous.

My mind boggles that you were able to cobble that together for a C-note. Someone should put you in charge of implementing a global eBay price cap so the rest of us don't have to eat cat food if we want to stay with the hobby.

Very nice. Love to see a demo of it showing off some of the performance.

That's pretty awesome having (almost) all Apple components. I do have to wonder though, how good is that scanner? I've only seen one other in a school junk pile...wonder if I can get it.

Compgeke said:

That's pretty awesome having (almost) all Apple components. I do have to wonder though, how good is that scanner? I've only seen one other in a school junk pile...wonder if I can get it.

Click to expand...

The original Apple scanners were fairly high quality for their time. Compared to current scanners, probably only middling, though.

I can attempt benchmarking once I get all my hardware fully functioning. I still need to find the extension and software needed to run the scanner, network card, 5.25" controller, and the capture card. I have another thread setup for figuring out the latter two on the 68K+ subforum. I have a lead on the OneScanner software and Ofoto and I think the Farallon software is here.

Apple Tape Backup 40 SC

Working ?

Replaced the pinch roller myself a few years back when I first got it. Unfortunately the Apple branded DC-2000 cartridge didn't age well and when inserted it will immediately mangle itself up inside the cartridge. Something about the belt keeps forcing the tape upwards on the spools. It will however work with a random QIC tape I have laying around from back when I used tapes to back my PC up.