Apple Powerbook G3 (Wallstreet - PDQ) for sale


dopefish

Still Fresh
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
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Hello guys!

Up for sale is an Apple Powerbook G3 Wallstreet PDQ in very good condition that I have had for the past year now in my personal collection. I have made several upgrades to the unit and replaced the LCD panel with one procured from iFixit, since the original LCD went bad on the laptop a little while ago. Here are the system specifications listed for your edification...

  • CPU: 400 MHz G3 processor (an aftermarket upgrade from the stock 266 MHz model)
  • RAM: 512 MB (maxed out and up from the original 64 MB)
  • HDD: 20 GB
  • LCD: 1024x768 XGA resolution active matrix TFT display
  • ODD: 20x speed CD-ROM drive
  • OSS: Mac OS X Server 1.2 (with Blue Box running Mac OS 8.6)
Extras that will come with the unit are the power brick, a carry case and the install disc for Mac OS 9 and a (burned) copy of OS X Server 1.2. I also happen to have an extra DVD-ROM drive for it which, with the appropriate MPEG-2 decoder PCMCIA card, can play DVD movies. The drive is in unknown working condition, so use at your own risk. The battery is also pretty shot, only capable of 10 minutes worth of charge, so this laptop is likely to be wall plug bound unless you invest in an after-market battery. Blue Box is also nice to use if you want to run some older Mac OS (classic) style apps.

<<IMPORTANT INFORMATION>>

For those who are unaware, Mac OS X Server 1.2 is largely considered the immediate predecessor to the more modern "Aqua" GUI based versions of Mac OS X. Truth be told, this particular version of OS X Server has more in common with NeXTSTEP at the core than newer versions had. In fact, I would almost say that this OS is NeXTSTEP with a platinum GUI bolted on top to help it masquerade as Classic Mac OS. Beta builds of the very first OS X Server were called "Rhapsody", which was initially built for both PowerPC and i386 architectures at the time. Incidentally, if this server OS doesn't float your boat, this laptop is able to support Mac OS 9 as well as regular Mac OS X up to version 10.3 officially, with 10.4 only supported using XPostFacto. Honestly, in my experience, I wouldn't run anything higher than 10.2 Jaguar on this thing for performance reasons.

This laptop is probably in as good of a shape as you would ever see one, considering its vintage. Not to mention, a Wallstreet PDQ with the aforementioned specs is likely unheard of, since the RAM and CPU make use of after-market components. Keep note that, while the processor is indeed clocked at a rather impressive 400 MHz, the system profiler will still report back 266 MHz, since that's the highest value it will recognize. However, I can assure you the system performance has increased since the upgrade and those extra megahertz do get put to use.

The PCMCIA card slots work like a charm in OS 9 and regular OS X, but are unsupported in OS X Server 1.2. This also applies to the volume and contrast soft keys, but thankfully, both volume and screen settings are perfectly tweakable within the software control panel in OS X Server. There is no USB interface, and will require an addon CardBus card for that if you need them. HDI-30 SCSI is provided if you have any external TWAIN devices or disk drives you want to attach.

Finally, as a note of caution: Since this laptop is an Old World ROM based Mac, the system drive "Macintosh HD" can not be larger than 8 GB in size. Any larger than that, and the system will either refuse to boot altogether or System folder corruption will ensue. New World ROM based Powerbooks, such as the Lombard and the Pismo, are unaffected by this issue. For the drive I have in it now, I have it partitioned into two sections, making the first an 8 GB "Macintosh HD" partition and the second one a basic HFS+ partition labelled "Data".

<< PRICE INFORMATION >>

I am asking for $150 $125 + S&H or best offer. Considering the quality of this piece, I think it's a fair price for a savvy Apple collector. I accept PayPal only. Please let me know if you guys have any questions about the system.

<< IMAGE ALBUM >>

http://imgur.com/a/4fxLI
 
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