ORIGINAL 1984 APPLE MAC SE/30 WITH KEYBOARD NO MOUSE ORIGINAL SUNTAN BEIGE COLOR CASE RUBBER LEGS GONE DUE TO BASEMENT FLOOD FLOPPY DRIVE WON'T EJECT SCREEN HAS HORIZONTAL BARS IT WORKED LAST TIME I USED IT MAKES A BUZZING NOISE THESE THINGS ARE REAL RARE THESE DAYS I KNOW WHAT I GOT WHEN I SEE IT HAD THIS SINCE I BOUGHT IT FOR MACWORKS BACK IN THE DAY - $750 with $59.62 shipping buyer is away for another eight days
Little bit of trivia: When Apple first started releasing computers with the 68030 CPU, they would denote those upgraded models by adding an "x" to their name, i.e. the IIx, IIcx, etc. For obvious reasons, they had to abandon this naming scheme when it came time to release an upgraded SE. That's why it's called the SE/30, because otherwise it would have been called the SEx.
I sold my SE30 to buy a 040-based Quadra. Shortly after that I installed the PPC 601 card. It just wasn't the same. That SE30 was the best computer experience I ever had.
Nice you got coverage of the upgrades - rom replacements, accelerators, scsi replacements. I did not know about the 68040 upgrades. I can definitely see the parallels to the Amiga people. No one has a stock Amiga, they're all hot-rodded out with an FPGA based 68080 or whatever.
Such a dream pick up. This is why I always bore all my friends with old computer chat, in case one of them says “hey I have this old computer in the basement”.
Mine still works perfectly. It was my first computer and really great for a 3rd grader. It was the first time I ever used a mouse and it had an adorable tutorial on how to use it.
In the early 90s, I had a SE/30 with an internal PDS color video card and a external 13" RGB display -- killer setup! -- which I regretfully sold years ago. :( I still have a Mac Plus, SE, Centris, IIci, early iMac, and a Power Computing Mac clone which has been in storage for many years. Now I'm afraid to look inside them, much less power them on after viewing this!
The good news is things may not be as bad as you expect! 1. The Plus' battery is in an externally accessible holder. You can easily pop it out. You're more likely to have issues with bad solder joints on the analog board, which can be easily fixed with fresh solder. 2. The SE doesn't have the problematic surface mount caps, but it may have a battery soldered on the logic board. It's still easy to remove-just snip it out. 3. IIci has the problematic surface mount caps, and a lot of them. If you're uncomfortable recapping the board, there are people out there who can do it for you. 4. Same with whatever centris you have. 5. Power Computing machines are more likely to have tantalums, but you should pull out the battery. It'll be in a holder on the logic board. Of all of thee the IIci is the most at risk of cap damage. Battery bombs are much worse, though. If you can't recap them immediately, at least remove the batteries.
By sheer luck I had an SE/30 almost all to myself in my high school's computer lab. A model with a whopping 8MB of RAM, 80MB hard drive, attached to a LaserWriter II NTX. This was far and away the most powerful machine in the lab (one of the best in the whole school), and cost more than a car... and yet nobody wanted to use it! I never understood why. I'm guessing either they didn't know what it actually was or they had their existing machines dialed in just right and didn't want to go through the hassle all over again. Whatever the reason, it was their loss and my gain. Armed with the great graphics apps that defined the Mac platform of that era, I created every possible kind of document, flyer, menu, banner, poster, etc. It even made me some decent money: got a 10-page paper due by the end of the day but you're stuck on page 8? Bring it (and $20) over to me and I'll manipulate the fonts and margins, add a graphic or two, print it on the best printer in the school, and provide you with a mind-blowing creation in time for lunch.
ultimately it was the tiny screen size that (was what became) the design issue that frustrated compact Mac users. Hence when it became possible to add an external large screen monitor via an exoansion slot, that was a very popular upgrade. An SE 30 is a very attractive looking computer but using a grapgical UI on such a dimunitive screen in a productive manner could elicit tears. That wasn't as signifcant a factor in the first few years of compact Mac, but then those other issues predominated. By the time SE 30 appeared, users of GUIs were definitely aching for more screen space (and ideally with color)
I have been enjoying your podcast and stumbled upon your video. Instantly subscribed. The SE/30 is my favorite classic Mac, and it was cool to see you found one in the box for free! Nice score!!
Hey, you make good art! And yeah, the podcast is more of a legacy feature now. The reality is that the audience for the stuff I write about is on RUclips. I'll still be posting written stuff on the blog and the podcast won't go away, but if you want the full experience, subscribing here is a good idea.
should've mentioned the 50 MHz DayStar SE/30 PowerCache, upgrade that plugged into the SE/30's CPU socket, upgrading the 16 MHz 68030 to a 50 MHz 68030 with optional 68882, _plus_ 32KiB of L2 cache, all while leaving the PDS free and unoccupied
Great vid, and the SE30 is a great machine! Personally, I like my Mac Classic. Yes, I know it was slow for when it was released, but I consider it the first really affordable Mac. And honestly, all my Mac nostalgia is for the 7Mhz 68k machines. My roommate had a fat Mac and we used Classics in class. So that's the Mac for me... But I agree that the SE30 is the ultimate compact Mac. While I appreciate the color efforts, I just think compact Macs are monochrome... :-)
launching a 1987 cpu in a 1989 model was not exactly a cutting edge powerhouse, but if you wanted a Mac and you needed to do some significant maths, it was an affordable option, relatively. In our house, I learned pascal on one, and another family member did their statistics programming dissertation for their phd. Both those would have been a bit painful on a plus or se.
Yeah, the very best vintage Macs I got were for free - I got a mint Macintosh SE this way, and a Color Classic also with the printer and modem. The Color Classic wouldn't start at first, not for a while, but eventually it worked perfectly. It's one of the first videos I uploaded to this account.
Jerry Seinfeld's Mac was an original SE, not an SE/30. Snow White (IYKYK) shows us how to tell: the floppy drive slot was incorporated into the front panel as a design element, complementary to the ventilation slots above it. On the original SE the slot aligned with the ventilation slots (leaving open space near the edges) but the SE/30's slot spanned edge to edge. Maybe it was the timing of the show that decided this, seeing how Jerry's wallet was more than emulating the infamous "George Costanza wallet" by that point.
You are correct, it's something I realized after I posted it because I wasn't looking at the video clip too closely. When writing the script I made the classic blunder of going off something I thought I remembered instead of examining the video clip with my own lyin' eyes. Now my shame is forever frozen in video form. Now the real question: is it an SE or SE FDHD? Even in highly compressed form it feels like I can make out a second line. Unfortunately the netflix version (with the best image quality) is cropped to 16:9 so I can't see it there to confirm it!
@@userlandia That's a great question! I'd guess it's an original, based solely on the fact that the FDHD model was released about a month after the first episode was released. But Apple's marketing folks realized the power of product placement before most computer companies, so it's possible they supplied a prototype.
Because I need to know, I went back and found the first on-screen appearance of Jerry's Mac (it's in Episode 2 of season 1). There was no Mac on his desk in the pilot episode when it first aired in July 1989. The next batch of four episodes wasn't even ordered until some time after that pilot air date, and Episode 2 of the four episode mini (that makes up season 1) aired on May 31, 1990. They were likely filmed in the Fall/Winter of 1989 into 1990. The SE FDHD was announced on August 1st, 1989. So it's entirely possible that it could be.an FDHD based on the timing. I'm not about to go on a Seinfeld binge to see if I can freeze-frame, but it does remain an interesting question.
The perfect mac, just in case apple is actually listening. First, remember the IIci. Now, start with a case about the size of the current mini, except give it an easy open square lid, like the IIci. Then take a basic mini motherboard, except use an M.2 slot for storage, and then use the new LPCAMM2 memory connector standard, then put the cpu on some sort of daughter card/cpu slot. Get rid of all the different skus for the computer, now you have just one, and you can put whatever storage, ram, and cpu in it you want, and even upgrade later. Soldered on ram and storage really make it hard for me to buy a mac. Especially after watching them release their VR setup. Who thought those were going to succeed?
I loved my Mac SE/30. Somehow I convinced my boss that I should have one and he agreed to the tune of over $4,000. Now I'm retired and have long ago switched to the dark side. I just built my latest AMD based PC and like it but, I'm thinking of switching to a M3 Mac Mini when it arrives.
cpu bitness is native register size, or arguably virtual address space. no one and I mean no one in cpu design would argue it's the bus width. the 68k is unarguably a 32 but cpu. Now, the 32 but clean roms are just tagged pointers. they're a common practice axis the decades. Chrome does this today for example. It was a bad call to ship them in rooms though.
You know this, and I know this, but tell that to all the Genesises with 16-bit stickers on them. ;) At least the Atari ST is derived from "Sixteen/Thirty Two."
I picked up an SE/30 earlier this year for $100. The store thought it was dead - just a black screen. I asked if I could switch it on, and then turned up the brightness knob! If they had known it was that simple they would have sold it for $500 or more. Good deal for me, though! Still not nearly as useful as an Amiga 500, but a nice computer.
I saw that when you posted the video a while back, Doug. You definitely got a good score with that machine. Have you recapped it yet? That said, there's one thing this can do that an a500 can't, and that's run Quark XPress. I'd say it depends on one's definition of useful, doesn't it? ;) I kid, I'm also a Commodore fan. I'm sure you'd like my C64 video.
@@userlandia I won't mention that I just installed MacOS 7.6 on my Amiga 4000 with Shapeshifter... It runs fine on my A500 too, with my accelerator installed... ;)
Amazing score, especially with one of the best keyboards ever made, and a great video! I know I'm in the minority here in the retro community but I love the yellowing plastic and prefer it. These computers and components began yellowing so rapidly when they were still modern that it's all part of the nostalgia for me. I may take one of my more yellowed AEKs and see if I can achieve a true brown by leaving it next to a window :D
TBH I prefer the AEK 2, but I can see why someone who prefers a clickier switch would gravitate towards the 1. As far as yellowing goes, I'm OK with it as long as it's even. This SE/30 is a little yellower on one side than the other, but it's not too terribly bad. I don't have a setup for retrobrighting so none of my gear has been "restored."
You didn't really show the recapping process for this SE/30 but I'm curious: just last month I took my own SE/30 off the shelf for a recap (finally) and it had the same kind of unlabeled electrolytics on it as your motherboard. Rather different from all the other Macs I have in my collection. Anyway, they looked fine at first glance, just a bit of crud around them, but when I removed them they had all left a very nasty sticky brown gunk underneath them. All of the plastic bottom pieces were stuck tightly to the board, and I had to use a screwdriver to pop them off. I guess it's better than the caps spreading their load all over the board, but the gunk was very difficult to clean off and it did leave some trace damage on the board. I got it all cleaned and repaired and the SE/30 is working perfectly again, but that was one of the nastiest recaps I've experienced so far. I wonder what your board looked like when you removed the original capacitors.
Yes, I don't film myself doing recap projects because such a thing would be most unpleasant for the both of us. ;) That said, what you saw is very common for this era of machines (and their caps). The cap juice mixes with the plastic and corrodes it, and then it seeps through on to the board. A screwdriver shouldn't be necessary, though-what's likely happened is that the bottoms are still clinging to the cap legs, and a little bit of heat on the legs with an iron is enough to dislodge them. I use the push-n-twist (NOT pull-n-twist) method to fatigue the legs to remove the caps. Usually tweezers are good enough to get the plastic bits off. For cleaning the gunk I use a little bit of vinegar scrub with a toothbrush to neutralize them and then wipe down with 99% alcohol on cotton swaps or electronics swabs. This will get the stuff off the board and stops the damage. The cap juice does love to wander on these, so you can't assume that it'll stay underneath. If you have an ultrasonic cleaner it really does the job under the chips, though I don't have one and I just give the boards a bath. I also had another problem with this machine (not in this video) where one of the 5V clock signals had a broken iron ferrule on the bottom of the board. These boards tend to bend a bit over the years and I guess it cracked from stress.
@@userlandia What you describe is very similar to what I've experienced with other Macintosh recaps. I do use the twist method as well and it's been a very safe and reliable way to remove old caps. There'll be some amount of electrolytic gunk around the caps, in some cases it's worse than others. On my Mac Classic the corrosion had eaten away a via and I had to do a trace repair there. Most of the time though some vinegar and a bit of elbow grease will be enough to clear the board of corrosion and clean it all up. But the SE/30 was different. The electrolytic leakage had turned into a hard resin-like substance and it kept the plastic bottoms quite literally glued to the board. It's unlike anything I've ever seen on any other board. Getting it off was very tough as well; just vinegar, IPA and a toothbrush barely made a dent in the gunk. I had to resort to a plastic spudger tool to slowly hack away at it, being careful not to cause any damage to the PCB. I was relieved to get it all off with only a few traces needing some TLC afterward, but it was a very unpleasant recapping job I have to say. I wish I could post pictures here of what the SE/30 looked like after removing the caps, because it was quite something 😅
Interesting... in that scenario I think I would have tried some heat. But that sounds particularly nasty. I've found these boards are less fragile than we think they are from a mechanical standpoint.
8 месяцев назад+5
Insufficient memory, storage and lack of upgradability. They keep these "cultural" traits up and running with the current base models.
Serious question: I have an SE/30 with all manuals and discs, mouse, cables, packaging/box, HyperCard, and Apple extended keyboard II (also with packaging/box). It’s single owner and in pristine condition. There’s a bunch of applications in the app folder and on 3.5 floppies. I’m looking to sell but have no idea where to begin with price (no exact comps on eBay). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Has the logic board been recapped? If not, that work needs to be done and will probably reduce your asking price. You should also remove (or replace) the PRAM battery ASAP if you haven't already. I would expect a working CIB example to fetch several hundred dollars to the right buyer, though.
I had this computer--long since dead--BUT I just realized I still have the cardboard box it was shipped to stores (and eventually take home to customers--like me). I've been using it for misc. household item storage all these years BUT does the carton have any memorabilia value?
You could definitely sell it to someone with an SE/30 who wants to complete the set. I can't tell you how much you'd get for it, though. Offering it up on something like 68KMLA/Tinker Different/Vintage Apple reddit might be the way to go.
That happens to be the exact computer package I got in 1989 my freshman year in college. What's even better, I still have the thing along with the Imagewriter 2 and keyboard, all in the original boxes like shown here in the back of a closet. Only upgrade done to it was install some 4MB SIMMS that were salvaged from a later 486DX2-66 and running Mode-32. Of course I also have the 2400 modem and ScanMan hand scanner from the era.
Once again, FANTASTIC video! For MARCHintosh I did a video highlighting several of the Macs in my collection, and I was sad to see that my SE/30, recapped an working the last time I used it, still booted but had rotten & wiggly video. :( Something I'll definitely correct one of these days. It's one of my favorite in my collection, but then again I say that about all of them. They're like my kids: I love all my computers equally... even the problem children LOL.
Such a great vid!! It captures the vintage computing core of what makes the compact Mac so great. During '89 I was in college and there was no way I could afford the new SE/30. So I was able the purchase a bare bones SE. It was still awesome. I was able upgrade it with more RAM and a series of accelerators during the early 90s while in grad school, paying for them while moonlighting in construction. Finally, fast forward to Covid 2020 , I was blessed to purchase an SE/30 maxxed out. What an awesome machine, but the old SE is still awesome too, and they are *both* so much fun, and are digital havens for writing and light gaming even in our postmodern Blade Runner existence.
ORIGINAL 1984 APPLE MAC SE/30 WITH KEYBOARD NO MOUSE ORIGINAL SUNTAN BEIGE COLOR CASE RUBBER LEGS GONE DUE TO BASEMENT FLOOD FLOPPY DRIVE WON'T EJECT SCREEN HAS HORIZONTAL BARS IT WORKED LAST TIME I USED IT MAKES A BUZZING NOISE THESE THINGS ARE REAL RARE THESE DAYS I KNOW WHAT I GOT WHEN I SEE IT HAD THIS SINCE I BOUGHT IT FOR MACWORKS BACK IN THE DAY - $750 with $59.62 shipping buyer is away for another eight days
This is the hardest I've laughed all week. You win the comment of the day prize.
Little bit of trivia: When Apple first started releasing computers with the 68030 CPU, they would denote those upgraded models by adding an "x" to their name, i.e. the IIx, IIcx, etc. For obvious reasons, they had to abandon this naming scheme when it came time to release an upgraded SE. That's why it's called the SE/30, because otherwise it would have been called the SEx.
I purposefully left this bit of trivia out to see who could post the most tasteful comment about said trivia, and you win.
I see what you did here 😳
After the C64, the SE/30 was my computer for years! i to this day regret getting rid of it. Thank you for this video.
I sold my SE30 to buy a 040-based Quadra. Shortly after that I installed the PPC 601 card. It just wasn't the same. That SE30 was the best computer experience I ever had.
Nice you got coverage of the upgrades - rom replacements, accelerators, scsi replacements. I did not know about the 68040 upgrades.
I can definitely see the parallels to the Amiga people. No one has a stock Amiga, they're all hot-rodded out with an FPGA based 68080 or whatever.
I know someone who's family had an SE/30 back in the day, and yes, they upgraded to one of the Mac clones!
I remember buying a Mac Plus brand new in 1989 with an ImageWriter.
I still have the one I bought back in the 80s. 80MB HDD. 8MB Ram. Still works!
Such a dream pick up. This is why I always bore all my friends with old computer chat, in case one of them says “hey I have this old computer in the basement”.
Mine still works perfectly. It was my first computer and really great for a 3rd grader. It was the first time I ever used a mouse and it had an adorable tutorial on how to use it.
Oh man, $4,369 in the 1980's was a lot of money. reminded why I was on PCs most of those days.
Nice presentation!
Excellent deep-dive into this wonderful machine, just excellent! Thank you and SUBSCRIBED! 👊👍❤️
Thanks!
In the early 90s, I had a SE/30 with an internal PDS color video card and a external 13" RGB display -- killer setup! -- which I regretfully sold years ago. :(
I still have a Mac Plus, SE, Centris, IIci, early iMac, and a Power Computing Mac clone which has been in storage for many years. Now I'm afraid to look inside them, much less power them on after viewing this!
The good news is things may not be as bad as you expect!
1. The Plus' battery is in an externally accessible holder. You can easily pop it out. You're more likely to have issues with bad solder joints on the analog board, which can be easily fixed with fresh solder.
2. The SE doesn't have the problematic surface mount caps, but it may have a battery soldered on the logic board. It's still easy to remove-just snip it out.
3. IIci has the problematic surface mount caps, and a lot of them. If you're uncomfortable recapping the board, there are people out there who can do it for you.
4. Same with whatever centris you have.
5. Power Computing machines are more likely to have tantalums, but you should pull out the battery. It'll be in a holder on the logic board.
Of all of thee the IIci is the most at risk of cap damage. Battery bombs are much worse, though. If you can't recap them immediately, at least remove the batteries.
AmigaOS Was from beginning on a 32bit Preemptive Multitasking Opterating OS, and as start thetre was this 16/32 Bit CPU.
By sheer luck I had an SE/30 almost all to myself in my high school's computer lab. A model with a whopping 8MB of RAM, 80MB hard drive, attached to a LaserWriter II NTX. This was far and away the most powerful machine in the lab (one of the best in the whole school), and cost more than a car... and yet nobody wanted to use it! I never understood why. I'm guessing either they didn't know what it actually was or they had their existing machines dialed in just right and didn't want to go through the hassle all over again. Whatever the reason, it was their loss and my gain. Armed with the great graphics apps that defined the Mac platform of that era, I created every possible kind of document, flyer, menu, banner, poster, etc. It even made me some decent money: got a 10-page paper due by the end of the day but you're stuck on page 8? Bring it (and $20) over to me and I'll manipulate the fonts and margins, add a graphic or two, print it on the best printer in the school, and provide you with a mind-blowing creation in time for lunch.
ultimately it was the tiny screen size that (was what became) the design issue that frustrated compact Mac users. Hence when it became possible to add an external large screen monitor via an exoansion slot, that was a very popular upgrade.
An SE 30 is a very attractive looking computer but using a grapgical UI on such a dimunitive screen in a productive manner could elicit tears.
That wasn't as signifcant a factor in the first few years of compact Mac, but then those other issues predominated. By the time SE 30 appeared, users of GUIs were definitely aching for more screen space (and ideally with color)
I didn't go into it in the video, but I've always thought of the PowerBook as the logical successor to the compact Mac.
I have been enjoying your podcast and stumbled upon your video. Instantly subscribed. The SE/30 is my favorite classic Mac, and it was cool to see you found one in the box for free! Nice score!!
Hey, you make good art! And yeah, the podcast is more of a legacy feature now. The reality is that the audience for the stuff I write about is on RUclips. I'll still be posting written stuff on the blog and the podcast won't go away, but if you want the full experience, subscribing here is a good idea.
should've mentioned the 50 MHz DayStar SE/30 PowerCache, upgrade that plugged into the SE/30's CPU socket, upgrading the 16 MHz 68030 to a 50 MHz 68030 with optional 68882, _plus_ 32KiB of L2 cache, all while leaving the PDS free and unoccupied
I really wish Apple would recreate the iMac G3 “Get connected” commercial with the M Series iMacs
Great vid, and the SE30 is a great machine!
Personally, I like my Mac Classic.
Yes, I know it was slow for when it was released, but I consider it the first really affordable Mac.
And honestly, all my Mac nostalgia is for the 7Mhz 68k machines. My roommate had a fat Mac and we used Classics in class. So that's the Mac for me...
But I agree that the SE30 is the ultimate compact Mac.
While I appreciate the color efforts, I just think compact Macs are monochrome... :-)
まだ暑い日が続いてますので 無理だけはせずにがんばってほしいです。
launching a 1987 cpu in a 1989 model was not exactly a cutting edge powerhouse, but if you wanted a Mac and you needed to do some significant maths, it was an affordable option, relatively.
In our house, I learned pascal on one, and another family member did their statistics programming dissertation for their phd. Both those would have been a bit painful on a plus or se.
Yeah, the very best vintage Macs I got were for free - I got a mint Macintosh SE this way, and a Color Classic also with the printer and modem. The Color Classic wouldn't start at first, not for a while, but eventually it worked perfectly. It's one of the first videos I uploaded to this account.
I enjoyed this video.
I remember using a web browser on one of these back in the day.
Well researched! Even though I knew all this I found it a really enjoyable watch (I’d prefer less stock footage though). Nice!
Jerry Seinfeld's Mac was an original SE, not an SE/30. Snow White (IYKYK) shows us how to tell: the floppy drive slot was incorporated into the front panel as a design element, complementary to the ventilation slots above it. On the original SE the slot aligned with the ventilation slots (leaving open space near the edges) but the SE/30's slot spanned edge to edge. Maybe it was the timing of the show that decided this, seeing how Jerry's wallet was more than emulating the infamous "George Costanza wallet" by that point.
You are correct, it's something I realized after I posted it because I wasn't looking at the video clip too closely. When writing the script I made the classic blunder of going off something I thought I remembered instead of examining the video clip with my own lyin' eyes. Now my shame is forever frozen in video form.
Now the real question: is it an SE or SE FDHD? Even in highly compressed form it feels like I can make out a second line. Unfortunately the netflix version (with the best image quality) is cropped to 16:9 so I can't see it there to confirm it!
@@userlandia That's a great question! I'd guess it's an original, based solely on the fact that the FDHD model was released about a month after the first episode was released. But Apple's marketing folks realized the power of product placement before most computer companies, so it's possible they supplied a prototype.
Because I need to know, I went back and found the first on-screen appearance of Jerry's Mac (it's in Episode 2 of season 1). There was no Mac on his desk in the pilot episode when it first aired in July 1989. The next batch of four episodes wasn't even ordered until some time after that pilot air date, and Episode 2 of the four episode mini (that makes up season 1) aired on May 31, 1990. They were likely filmed in the Fall/Winter of 1989 into 1990. The SE FDHD was announced on August 1st, 1989. So it's entirely possible that it could be.an FDHD based on the timing. I'm not about to go on a Seinfeld binge to see if I can freeze-frame, but it does remain an interesting question.
The perfect mac, just in case apple is actually listening. First, remember the IIci. Now, start with a case about the size of the current mini, except give it an easy open square lid, like the IIci. Then take a basic mini motherboard, except use an M.2 slot for storage, and then use the new LPCAMM2 memory connector standard, then put the cpu on some sort of daughter card/cpu slot. Get rid of all the different skus for the computer, now you have just one, and you can put whatever storage, ram, and cpu in it you want, and even upgrade later. Soldered on ram and storage really make it hard for me to buy a mac. Especially after watching them release their VR setup. Who thought those were going to succeed?
Acorn Archimedes. Extremely low power. First ever machine with an ARM chip. Now that's a philosophy.
I loved my Mac SE/30. Somehow I convinced my boss that I should have one and he agreed to the tune of over $4,000. Now I'm retired and have long ago switched to the dark side. I just built my latest AMD based PC and like it but, I'm thinking of switching to a M3 Mac Mini when it arrives.
PHENOMENAL COMPUTER POWER IN TINY BINY INY CHASSIS SPACE!!! HEHHEHEHEHE
Memory Masters! LOL. I live down the street from them.
I had a Mac SE/30 once... I regret selling it awhile back! Wish I had kept it. Alas.
cpu bitness is native register size, or arguably virtual address space. no one and I mean no one in cpu design would argue it's the bus width. the 68k is unarguably a 32 but cpu.
Now, the 32 but clean roms are just tagged pointers. they're a common practice axis the decades. Chrome does this today for example. It was a bad call to ship them in rooms though.
You know this, and I know this, but tell that to all the Genesises with 16-bit stickers on them. ;) At least the Atari ST is derived from "Sixteen/Thirty Two."
I picked up an SE/30 earlier this year for $100. The store thought it was dead - just a black screen. I asked if I could switch it on, and then turned up the brightness knob! If they had known it was that simple they would have sold it for $500 or more. Good deal for me, though!
Still not nearly as useful as an Amiga 500, but a nice computer.
I saw that when you posted the video a while back, Doug. You definitely got a good score with that machine. Have you recapped it yet? That said, there's one thing this can do that an a500 can't, and that's run Quark XPress. I'd say it depends on one's definition of useful, doesn't it? ;) I kid, I'm also a Commodore fan. I'm sure you'd like my C64 video.
@@userlandia I won't mention that I just installed MacOS 7.6 on my Amiga 4000 with Shapeshifter... It runs fine on my A500 too, with my accelerator installed... ;)
Well now, if accelerators are on the table, all bets are off. ;)
lol "$500 or more"
Amazing score, especially with one of the best keyboards ever made, and a great video! I know I'm in the minority here in the retro community but I love the yellowing plastic and prefer it. These computers and components began yellowing so rapidly when they were still modern that it's all part of the nostalgia for me. I may take one of my more yellowed AEKs and see if I can achieve a true brown by leaving it next to a window :D
TBH I prefer the AEK 2, but I can see why someone who prefers a clickier switch would gravitate towards the 1.
As far as yellowing goes, I'm OK with it as long as it's even. This SE/30 is a little yellower on one side than the other, but it's not too terribly bad. I don't have a setup for retrobrighting so none of my gear has been "restored."
The Mac still has memory and storage limits.
You didn't really show the recapping process for this SE/30 but I'm curious: just last month I took my own SE/30 off the shelf for a recap (finally) and it had the same kind of unlabeled electrolytics on it as your motherboard. Rather different from all the other Macs I have in my collection. Anyway, they looked fine at first glance, just a bit of crud around them, but when I removed them they had all left a very nasty sticky brown gunk underneath them. All of the plastic bottom pieces were stuck tightly to the board, and I had to use a screwdriver to pop them off. I guess it's better than the caps spreading their load all over the board, but the gunk was very difficult to clean off and it did leave some trace damage on the board. I got it all cleaned and repaired and the SE/30 is working perfectly again, but that was one of the nastiest recaps I've experienced so far. I wonder what your board looked like when you removed the original capacitors.
Yes, I don't film myself doing recap projects because such a thing would be most unpleasant for the both of us. ;) That said, what you saw is very common for this era of machines (and their caps). The cap juice mixes with the plastic and corrodes it, and then it seeps through on to the board. A screwdriver shouldn't be necessary, though-what's likely happened is that the bottoms are still clinging to the cap legs, and a little bit of heat on the legs with an iron is enough to dislodge them. I use the push-n-twist (NOT pull-n-twist) method to fatigue the legs to remove the caps. Usually tweezers are good enough to get the plastic bits off.
For cleaning the gunk I use a little bit of vinegar scrub with a toothbrush to neutralize them and then wipe down with 99% alcohol on cotton swaps or electronics swabs. This will get the stuff off the board and stops the damage. The cap juice does love to wander on these, so you can't assume that it'll stay underneath. If you have an ultrasonic cleaner it really does the job under the chips, though I don't have one and I just give the boards a bath.
I also had another problem with this machine (not in this video) where one of the 5V clock signals had a broken iron ferrule on the bottom of the board. These boards tend to bend a bit over the years and I guess it cracked from stress.
@@userlandia What you describe is very similar to what I've experienced with other Macintosh recaps. I do use the twist method as well and it's been a very safe and reliable way to remove old caps. There'll be some amount of electrolytic gunk around the caps, in some cases it's worse than others. On my Mac Classic the corrosion had eaten away a via and I had to do a trace repair there. Most of the time though some vinegar and a bit of elbow grease will be enough to clear the board of corrosion and clean it all up.
But the SE/30 was different. The electrolytic leakage had turned into a hard resin-like substance and it kept the plastic bottoms quite literally glued to the board. It's unlike anything I've ever seen on any other board. Getting it off was very tough as well; just vinegar, IPA and a toothbrush barely made a dent in the gunk. I had to resort to a plastic spudger tool to slowly hack away at it, being careful not to cause any damage to the PCB. I was relieved to get it all off with only a few traces needing some TLC afterward, but it was a very unpleasant recapping job I have to say.
I wish I could post pictures here of what the SE/30 looked like after removing the caps, because it was quite something 😅
Interesting... in that scenario I think I would have tried some heat. But that sounds particularly nasty. I've found these boards are less fragile than we think they are from a mechanical standpoint.
Insufficient memory, storage and lack of upgradability. They keep these "cultural" traits up and running with the current base models.
Serious question: I have an SE/30 with all manuals and discs, mouse, cables, packaging/box, HyperCard, and Apple extended keyboard II (also with packaging/box). It’s single owner and in pristine condition. There’s a bunch of applications in the app folder and on 3.5 floppies. I’m looking to sell but have no idea where to begin with price (no exact comps on eBay). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Has the logic board been recapped? If not, that work needs to be done and will probably reduce your asking price. You should also remove (or replace) the PRAM battery ASAP if you haven't already. I would expect a working CIB example to fetch several hundred dollars to the right buyer, though.
Interested if still available
I had this computer--long since dead--BUT I just realized I still have the cardboard box it was shipped to stores (and eventually take home to customers--like me). I've been using it for misc. household item storage all these years BUT does the carton have any memorabilia value?
You could definitely sell it to someone with an SE/30 who wants to complete the set. I can't tell you how much you'd get for it, though. Offering it up on something like 68KMLA/Tinker Different/Vintage Apple reddit might be the way to go.
Old enough to have a mid-life crisis. 🤣🤣 I was 3 when that thing was made, so i suppose that includes me as well.
Apple still hasn't learned Jack.
I just wish Apple had at least given the SE/30 a grayscale graphics system. The tube is capable of it. The ROM supports ‘color’ QuickDraw.
That happens to be the exact computer package I got in 1989 my freshman year in college. What's even better, I still have the thing along with the Imagewriter 2 and keyboard, all in the original boxes like shown here in the back of a closet. Only upgrade done to it was install some 4MB SIMMS that were salvaged from a later 486DX2-66 and running Mode-32. Of course I also have the 2400 modem and ScanMan hand scanner from the era.
Highly recommend taking out the PRAM battery and seeing if you can get the board recapped so it doesn't go bad in storage!
Just discovered this channel and I am enthralled. I also think Userlandia is such a good name for a channel!! Cheers
Once again, FANTASTIC video! For MARCHintosh I did a video highlighting several of the Macs in my collection, and I was sad to see that my SE/30, recapped an working the last time I used it, still booted but had rotten & wiggly video. :( Something I'll definitely correct one of these days. It's one of my favorite in my collection, but then again I say that about all of them. They're like my kids: I love all my computers equally... even the problem children LOL.
Such a great vid!! It captures the vintage computing core of what makes the compact Mac so great. During '89 I was in college and there was no way I could afford the new SE/30. So I was able the purchase a bare bones SE. It was still awesome. I was able upgrade it with more RAM and a series of accelerators during the early 90s while in grad school, paying for them while moonlighting in construction. Finally, fast forward to Covid 2020 , I was blessed to purchase an SE/30 maxxed out. What an awesome machine, but the old SE is still awesome too, and they are *both* so much fun, and are digital havens for writing and light gaming even in our postmodern Blade Runner existence.
Really beautifully made video!
Thanks!