Early Christmas Present                                        Posted 2024-12-19
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One of my usual op shop haunts has yielded what is perhaps one of my best finds
yet. A Power Macintosh 8100/100 in seemingly working order for $3AUD! The case
has some cosmetic damage: Part of the faceplate covering the CD and floppy drive
is missing, and there is clear water damage and rust. The motherboard however
appeared pristine and when plugged in the onboard speaker makes the signature
guitar harmonics startup sound. Unfortunately, I don't have a monitor or any
peripherals that I can use to test it further. From my brief research, I can
get an ADB to USB converter for the keyboard and mouse, and I can get a DB15 to
VGA converter for the display. This would run me a bit over $100AUD, much
cheaper than buying original hardware, but still more expensive than I can
currently afford on my student budget. If anyone can think of a cheap hack to
get this thing going I'd greatly appreciate your advice. In the meantime I'm
very pleased to own my first PowerPC machine!

EOT

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