Upgrading the "Jurassic Mac" Quadra 700 to Unspeakable Levels!

Thanks PCBWay.com - Today we're going to take a look at a Quadra 700, Apple's first Mac minitower and an absolutely iconic machine which, for some reason, makes me think of dinosaurs...
We're also going to max out this machine with a really incredible purple upgrade with an interesting story, and talk about some big plans I have for this machine.
Thanks @Mac84 for the cameo!
I hope you're planning on going to the VCF's Vintage Computer Festival East this October - because I'll be there!
🍎 VCF East: vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintag...
🍎 My Quadra 700 vertical snap-on foot: www.thingiverse.com/thing:486...
🍎 Check out Silicon Insider! / siliconinsid and / siliconinsider
Proudly sponsored by www.PCBWay.com - easy PCB prototyping with turnaround as fast as 24 hours.
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💾 For more vintage Apple stuff, please subscribe: kzbin.info?s...
💾 Support these retro computing shenanigans on Patreon! / actionretro
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Check out my Amazon page with links to my tools, adapters, soldering equipment, camera gear and more: www.amazon.com/shop/actionretro
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💬 Come talk about old computers on the Action Retro Discord! / discord
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#Quadra #Apple #Macintosh

[@Decipher13]

"Not a single screw.. could you imagine that on an Apple today?" Yeah, they just use glue a lot instead now lol 😅😓

[@mariolover2222]

Silicone insider sounds like a genius... Dude just reverse engineers computer parts and makes amazing art as hobbies on top of being a paleontologist? Crazy.

[@andycraig7734]

Silicone Insider is in The Biz... North Hollywood biz.

[@bobfromsoireegames4309]

People often forget the fact the Apple did indeed make some good products during the Non-Jobs era as well

[@geofftottenperthcoys9944]

Job was just a marketing man though, did he every actually create anything himself?

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

'Soldered to the motherboard' The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[@alexthemorgan]

-Louis Rossman

[@FoxMccloud42]

There were also other computer , sorry workstations, in Jurassic Park: The SGI Crimson and the SGI Indigo. The Crimson was even a 64 bit system. The Indigo was also available as an 64 bit system, if it has an R4000 and not the R3000. And I love these maschines. And Maschines from Sun and DEC. Currently I'm looking in to getting a SGI Indy.

[@DarthVader1977]

computers*

[@Kyle-xv5kv]

Those SGI machines were the bomb, I didn't even notice the mac until now, I was too distracted by the other machines.

[@PlayStefan_misc]

@@Kyle-xv5kv I am not sure if I saw it in the past but as we watched the film a while ago I directly realized the colorful old Apple logo in the first place. Good old movie, good old machines and so cool to see them still alive after such a long time.

[@michaelheinrich44]

there were 'thinking machines cm-5's in the background. i fell in love with those large lightfields where every lamp stands for one of their 32.000 processores(!)

[@FoxMccloud42]

@@michaelheinrich44 Oh yes, the cm-5. It was just very likely only one. All the cabinets are normaley connected together to be one. And the cm-5 used Sparc CPUs (the ones you can find in old Sun-workstations)

[@0neo]

"I'm not gonna even bother searching for a PowerPC upgrade LIKE THIS ONE" I fucking love this man.

[@ChartreuseKitsune]

6:15 - There should actually be a single screw there holding the floppy/disk mount in. It's a single screw at the bottom of that rounded section on the left that holds it in place to the motherboard. It's the only screw holding the motherboard and such in.

[@joelavcoco]

There was also originally a screw in the rear fastening the lid to the back of the power supply.

[@aa-au]

2:04 They also had some Radius SuperMac 20" monitors as well, which would weigh a TON to lift from one place into another. I'm glad I was young and fit when I used to move these around and sell them. I would certainly struggle these days. Also, I wouldn't have thought old RAM and VRAM was possible to produce, but siliconinsider has proved me wrong! I'm impressed!

[@frodrickfronkensteen9241]

I remember the Radius monitors... and the NEC 21" boat anchors. They were.... .... boat anchors. Like you, I would now have trouble messing with those digital cinder blocks.

[@JessicaFEREM]

Action Retro is the Mad Scientist of old computers, and I love it, I love seeing old machines eek out as much performance as they possibly can

[@gumbi79]

my fave techtuber so glad i found this channel

[@JessicaFEREM]

It's almost silly, seeing beat up and neglected computers come out on top and even beat the museum quality computers. It's almost poetic in a way

[@dungeonseeker3087]

That application shown in the Movie existed, it was called FSN (Fusion) and apparently it was used at ILM where the CGI work for the movie was done, they included it in the movie because they already had it on hand. There's an open source version of it for Linux called FSV.

[@yagikaroo4432]

I have this computer, and had A/UX on it at one point in time. It is my all time favorite computer of all time.

[@LucaBlightOfHighland]

Damn. That custom upgrade guy is a monster... He deserves to get grossly rich in his business! Genius.

[@clrlmiller]

I remember upgrading my employer’s (at the time) Quadra 700 to a PowerPC 601-100Mhz. Damn, instant Plotter Server that rendered in 3 minutes what took over 30 mins on the 68040 chip!

[@frodrickfronkensteen9241]

I remember those 601 cards. Eyed them for years, always intending to upgrade my 700. Alas, I still have a bone stock classic 700 in my closet.

[@mario.2560]

Get this man to 1 mil, he deserves it

[@gabormetzker5270]

Remember when a system used 4 MB RAM like this one? And you could do serious work on these machines. I have a constant nostalgy to the classic MacOS that I learned graphic design on from 1995-1997.

[@frodrickfronkensteen9241]

I was but a few years ahead of you. Got a Quadra 700 as a grad present from art school (late 92'). Still have it tucked away... a time capsule that will likely still boot up. Started my first Graphic Design employment/job in May of 93'. Worked on 700's and 950's at that location. And other than my personal, never saw another tower quadra in use (in other offices since that date). And yes, I remember... I did have mine upgraded to 20mb and some VRAM (millions colors)... and you COULD actually use Photoshop and Illustrator and Quark. Those were the good old days... all things Adobe, Hellcats, Hornet, Spectre... good times. Simpler times.

[@Spacelux007]

Yes, with their one millions of color it was an marketing argument to sell an computer with an little pitch monitor.

[@MattExzy]

What an epic episode. As a cash-challenged teenager in the late 90s/early 2000s, a 25MHz '040 in a Quadra 660AV had me surfin' the net. But definitely not on any Flash-based websites... but I guess the web has come full circle on Flash after all.

[@thedopplereffect00]

On the cover of that box "100 million zip disks sold" would be 10 PB. The contents of every zip disk manufactured up to that point could fit in a single server rack today. That's crazy.

[@destroyer6470]

Can please you do a video on Basilisk II for people who cant shell out new computer money but want some nostalgia or to live out childhood fantasies?

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Macintosh Garden.

[@elyzsabethahne2116]

Action Retro ROCKS--'nuff said!

[@cjtechstuff4595]

The ad agency I worked at in the 90s had a nice collection of Quadra 700s, 650s, and a couple of Centris 650s. I wish I could've gotten my hands on them when they swapped them out for the newer PPC machines in the late 90s.

[@appleontheapex]

My favorite chassis style of Macintosh - love it!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

It would be cool if Apple made some modern Macs with a retro limited edition Snow White design language case.

[@mrKozmoz]

Seeing your classic Mac videos reminds me of a PowerMac 7600 I got from a school that was getting rid of computers, it as in pretty pristine condition. I had it upgraded with a, if I recall, a Radius or the like QT/Photoshop accelerator card, with 256MB of ram, a pretty sizeable full height Seagate scsi HDD, a standard network card, a USB card, and an upgraded G4 processor card. That thing taught me about digital art and what not, what a fun time.

[@frodrickfronkensteen9241]

I worked on a few 7600's in my day. That's cool that you grabbed their garbage, upgraded and used it. And it WAS a fun time back then. Everything was new... none of it taken for granted back then.

[@kittopersonal744]

Silicone Insider must be paid well, he's got the most interesting job set I've seen before.

[@LAWLESSKING]

Wow dude! I've been watching your show for years and I didn't know you're from Philly. I'm from SJ used to live in Philly for years tho and I became obsessed with ancient Mac's back in the day.

[@squirlmy]

"Can you imagine that on an Apple machine today" 5:41 I also couldn't imagine a computer nerd with tattooed arms demonstrating this, back then. My life is divided between "before tattoos were generally popular" and "after". I suppose that makes me a dinosaur too!

[@nicholasbrown519]

I love that the ZIP drive box has an old 80's to early 90's (and maybe even older) BMW key on it with the logo blanked out... really dates how old those things are now! I've had lots of those keys over the years and it jumped out immediately.

[@videokilledaradiosta]

Am I the only one who thinks this man needs a puppet on that hand? I just bet he would get way more views.

[@kasimirdenhertog3516]

I’ve made a sleeper out of one of these, with an i7 and a watercooled 2080ti. The cool thing was you could peek through the floppy drive to see this sacrilege 👹

[@oldworldmac]

😍 Of all my Macs, this is the one I love the most.

[@gcflowers86]

Great videos you have. I admire the dedication and compromise you guys have with it history.

[@RacerX-]

That is so awesome. loved the video and look forward to more installments of this awesome Mac.

[@alerey4363]

Those proportions made that Quadra700 a really desktop/tower convertible

[@ByronAgain]

ah, memories. I had a loaded Q700 back in the day that I used as workstation. Now I wish I hadn't sold it back when.

[@alextirrellRI]

STILL kicking myself for letting one of these go in the mid 2000's.

[@ceebee23]

aren't we all!

[@Dolinmyster]

My first computer, which was a Mac, had that exact same Kensington mouse. I actually use a modern version of that mouse today on my work computer.

[@CRYPTiCEXiLE]

very cool video and nice story about ur friend and the memory stick.

[@karmaduq]

6:18 There's a single phillips screw which you're apparently missing at this point. Can see the hole for it for a couple split seconds as you're holding the assembly, and what it lines up with on the board. II series (cx, etc.) is the same way.

[@edwardedwards6785]

I bought a Quadra at a garage sale for a song. Wasn’t as nice as this one but similar to OP I always wanted a high end Mac as a kid. The classic macs have their downsides but they’re still great for vector graphics and there’s no more pleasant system for typing or writing. They are also built like old trucks and have stayed operational forever without much maintenance. I wish I’d gotten a PC instead of a Mac as a child just for the software catalog and command line/coding education or that I’d been an amiga nerd like my friends for the hipster cred. you can’t deny the strengths of the classic macs though. They are elegant machines with beauty and style as opposed to the merely functional Best Buy laptops and tacky light up gaming towers we have today.

[@frodrickfronkensteen9241]

Amen. And I had (and still have it) a Quadra 700 from late 92' (a grad present from art school). It amazes me how resilient these classic Macs were/are.

[@bamdadkhan]

6:47 - hi there : )

[@ashbowers8028]

I actually was about to throw out a zip drive and 4 disks. If you'd like it as a spare send me a message and I'll mail it to you.

[@ActionRetro]

Thanks Ash! Mind sending me an email? [e-mail]

[@ashbowers8028]

@@ActionRetro Email sent!

[@paulmuaddib451]

This one is most excellent. The Quadra 700/Macintosh IIcx/IIci is my favorite Mac design.

[@ceebee23]

I had a IIci for work ..wonderful machine!

[@joeconti2396]

Those 90s Quadras are so difficult to find nowadays. Glad I'm not the only one who takes in machines that aren't "museum" quality. After all, chicks dig scars.

[@Toby_Q]

Found this one that you bought in the eBay auctions (the chip in the corner helps identify it). Ouch. Paying that much deserves at least a like on this video!

[@a4e69636b]

Thank you very much for this video. I so wish I had one of these when I was in high school in the 90's. I had to use a 16 Mhz 68030 IICX to learn C and C++ on. Apple's MPW compilers were very slow on it.

[@squirlmy]

The MPW was also $450+ if I remember. Did you get a student discount? I might be a programmer now if they were free, like most development environment seem to be today.

[@zenmaster24]

beautiful workstation - the snow white design language is an awesome retrofuture look wish there was a modern model that took m|i-atx mobos natively

[@seanwieland9763]

This is a really cool story. Good to know you’re also from the Philadelphia area!

[@idahofur]

I got one of those scsi zip a while back at a thrift store. I think it was new. I used it on my Quadra 650. Works great. I really want to try it on my apple ii plus. But I don't have a scsi card though.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Actually the IIcx and ci had removable rubber feet and you stand them on end by putting the feet on the sides, but of course the printing was still horizontal on front.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

We used to throw those off the roof of our office bldg. at work. You can get loads of old Mac software at Macintosh Garden online.

[@marksterling8286]

Would be interesting to try use the Processor Direct Slot with a raspberry pi emulating a faster chip and ram. I have been watching a number of Amigas been upgraded this way, it’s likely going to need a few tweaks but the are all from the Motorola 68000 family

[@alexthemorgan]

Have you ever engineered something like that?

[@flekkzo]

@@alexthemorgan search for pistorm

[@alexthemorgan]

@@flekkzo I know what it is. I'm asking mark if he's ever done something like that. Thanks for playing.

[@Bighappykitty]

MUD, there's a term I haven't heard in probably 15 years. Right up there with a MUSH...

[@frizfryy]

loving the vram, cool!!

[@StevenJPiper]

Those ram modules look really cool, I need some for my LC475, those ram sims you sometimes find on eBay are pretty expensive!

[@maighstir3003]

Yeah, I was hoping there'd be a link to a place to order the modules from. My Performa 475 is already maxed out at 36 MB RAM, but it could stand a VRAM upgrade. The Performa 6200 could do with a RAM upgrade, too. Then again, that one needs its PSU fixed first.

[@XodiumLabs]

I know the screw was pointed out, but another thing: The power supply (by default) has a retaining clip that keeps it from coming straight out, you actually have to pull the clip before lifting the PSU out. On yours, however, it looks like someone (or you!) removed it and just chucked it somewhere, which is what I did with mine, heh. The thing holds in perfectly fine without it, and it prevents from rapping your knuckles on the motherboard trying to get that blasted clip out. I also added a very small amount of lithium grease around the parts where the PSU connects with the case to ease getting it out, as I found it loved to bind up a lot.

[@Fifury161]

I still have my Quadra 700, 950 & the later (!?) 840av, reminds me I need to swap out the batteries!

[@peterw.gstettner7737]

IIcx minitower: as a former owner of a IIcx I can confirm that the feet provided for the IIcx could actually be mounted so that it stands on its side. So not even this idea was new. Actually, they only rotated the branding... Oh, and one more thing: the case top seems to have actually three little notches for nubus-cards to stay fixed. Either someone swapped the case top or they even did not bother to remove the third notch. The IIcx and IIci have three card slots...

[@retropuffer2986]

What a beautiful computer! Wow!

[@rexthewarhorse7110]

I am a bit of a Jurassic park fanboy (understatement) and my name is Rex John Hammond so I have two quadra 700 and a bunch of other stuff from Nedrys desk. Spared no experience 😄 Oh and great channel really enjoy all the crazy builds

[@christopherdecorte1599]

Retro bright episode coming and super glue with baking soda to fill missing plastic.

[@KamiKitsuneVA]

I regret selling my Quadra 700 last year SO DAMN MUCH Also I didn't know you were based out of the Philly/NJ area. I'd love to meet ya some day! Wish I was able to go to VCF East, but I'll be busy this year :(

[@danielrhodes7594]

I loved your video. I like the designer from France! He is awesome!

[@ThePhoenixAscendant]

Silicon Insider sounds like he'd get along famously with the likes of Da Vinci, a real Renaissance Man.

[@feieralarm]

17:10 Iomega doesn't exist for over a decade anymore. Iomega was acquired by EMC, who later became LenovoEMC, which was eventually be sold to Dell and is now operating as Dell EMC - Dells server and enterprise storage solutions.

[@jeremyb66]

Wow!!! Amazing!!!

[@kbhasi]

(3:45) That's reminding me of my ThinkPad 760ED that I hope to, one day, repair the damage caused by battery corrosion and get it back up and running. When I first got it, I noticed a sticker on the lid that I had planned to peel off, before realising it was for when it was originally owned by a company here in Singapore who was an IBM Business Partner at the time and actually sold various ThinkPad models and options to customers, but the one I have would've been one they kept behind for one of their employees to use, so I won't be peeling off that sticker. The ThinkPad 760XD would've been the laptop I would've had in the late 1990s if I was an adult back then with my current mindset and had lots of money to drop on a PC, not only with a dock and desktop setup, but with 2 hard drives so I could have one with Windows NT 4 and Red Hat Linux 5.x or 6.x. I imagine that would've been cool. I have yet to come across a 760XD here, but I feel as though the 760ED is the closest I'll ever get to it for a while.

[@nyccollin]

9:55 Remember everyone, none of what we see here is real. The museums claim that the actual stuff is in the back room. Was definitely a game changer for me when I actually thought about it for the first time.

[@willm5032]

Awesome design that case! Though I can't help feel that plastic would get brittle in time

[@TheMetalMag]

Apple made ingenious things t o change to nightmare ones… Thx for your videos. Great story about that french guy, this is amazing.

[@BigRhys02]

Reminds me of the HP dc7700s and dc7900s, no need for screws when disassembling (granted there’s some for the side panel, tho you could just leave them off)

[@Adam-McG]

I love the @Mac84 cameo!

[@seratatu]

MacOS 7.6 for me where the most stable classic version, no doubt

[@enzito_sdf6978]

very interesting chips in those new vram sticks, apparently it has both an 8 bit multiport ram and a serial access memory, must be expensive as hell lol

[@Gunstarrhero1]

you should try to get an sb16 ported over to this ma and a video card or network card. i say a sb16 because they are still common, and because of the waetable header, would be neat to see something like that ported over to the mac with drivers :)

[@lactobacillusprime]

Absolutely get where you're coming from :)

[@EmberwolfXR]

It will run video in osx mode in avi format, and core player. It also has installed os9.2 and os8.5. I keep those because there heavily modded, vaporwave style interface.

[@paco3447]

The starring computers in Jurassic Park were actually Silicon Graphics, including the monitors and IRIX visible on screen. The Mac ones seems to be unconnected or used to fill space. By the way SGIs were several orders of magnitude more powerful than macs, expensive as hell, but macs too despite its paperweight nature. A 486 dx was faster than a Quadra. Even an Amiga 3000 with an “Emplant” bios/rom card enabler ran macos faster than original ones.

[@owenrichards1418]

This was my desktop in the 90s!!!

[@nickwallette6201]

Not to take anything away from the fantastic design of those custom RAM modules, but... what is it that could not be done in typical CAD software? Most packages will let you import graphics for the silkscreen layer. The translucent effects with detail on the inner layers is possible, too, by drawing polygons. Sounds to me like somebody just knows Illustrator better than CAD. :-) Nothing inherently wrong with that. It certainly works, but I wouldn't recommend it for the average Joe, since that means you need to maintain all the layout constraints manually, and then you need to go through some extra steps to export the result as something a fab house can use.

[@r00tku]

I'd really like to see a video about A/UX on Quadra 700. That OS is so cool

[@John-sb3ix]

10/10 video very wholesome

[@pdaguytom]

Bromance!? Damn! Now I gotta find a Quadra!

[@tech34756]

I'm now curious as to the reverse engineering process used and why. I'd have presumed you could just follow the traces/pinout, design/make a pcb and populate it with compatible components.

[@UpLateGeek]

LOL you should totally send in that form for a floppy version of the zip software!

[@therealherbzy]

Great video! Could you link me the SCSI to SD adapter you used?

[@minty_Joe]

I wonder if Silicon Insider has plans for SE/30 RAM in the 16MB range. Those are almost impossible to find anymore.

[@ThePsychoticWombat]

Would it be possible to install irix and fsn, fsv, or the like on this for the total experience?

[@GayManSam]

as i watch this smokin my newport

[@williamorangeofjuice7804]

great vid! my problem with these older macs is the plastic quality. i always feel uneasy when i see a metallic plastic in these macs, iv seen alot the clips and plastic crumble.

[@Koeniwoeni]

The quality of the plastics on the IIcx, IIci and Quadra 700 is very good. It’s the later beige models that break easily.

[@williamorangeofjuice7804]

@@Koeniwoeni is was on the assumption that all plastics degrade, especially those exposed to sun long term. retro bright (harsh peroxide) returns there colors like a bleaching effect but does not increase there integrity, actually id think it would make it worse would it not?

[@andrewenglish3810]

Your missing a screw. The one one that holds the drive bracket to the mainboard. You can see the screw how onboard with the metal screw stand off. Most Mac folks never put the screw back in when the take out. And you have 69,632MB of RAM installed officially (68 x 1024).

[@Berkner80]

I just hooked up my Quatra 800 and it loads my games faster then my LC475. I'm hoping to put an SCSISD card in it. With a dual HD system hope I can transfer my files from HD to SD card in the SCSISD card.

[@R.-.]

Were these 68k Macs officially only to be upgraded via the PDS slot? I once lifted the CPU from one of these that was being scrapped and tried it in an LC475 for a free Math co-processor upgrade - it worked just fine, but needed a small heatsink added.

[@Latelier240]

I want to throw money at Silicon Insider and have these 1MB VRAM sticks (provided they're compatible with my LC475 and my IIvx)!

[@gumbi79]

could the romulator be used or made to work with this mac , that would be kinda cool

[@EmberwolfXR]

speaking of zip drives...yep got that too...i just don't take the time to document it because im to busy overachieving it then modd it so heavily that it crashes and start over again.

[@FudgeYeahLinusLAN]

I got a Quadra 700 fairly cheap recently, in fully working condition. Currently waiting on a BlueSCSI v2 (not so much for the speed but for getting rid of the awful racket that the 500 MB drive makes), 64 MB of 60ns RAM from Ebay, and the 1.5 MB Rainbow VRAM from Silicon Insider. Also got some battery replacement thingy from Silicon Insider, that uses CR2032 batteries instead of the exploding ones. Already got a AAUI Ethernet transceiver which I bought in the late 90s. It'll run 7.6.1 because I was never a fan of 8 or 9. Also planning clocking it to 33 MHz. Will not upgrade to PPC though, this will stay pure 68k.

[@ActionRetro]

Nice! Silicon Insider makes some really awesome stuff.

[@aidan5125]

I have an old power book G3 that looks to resemble a Pismo. In recent years it's been in storage, but I have played solitaire on it and written a couple of text documents within the past 6 years. My OS 9 image seems to have died. Anyone got a link to an operating system?

[@b3ans4eva]

Call it Dodgson. Then you can go “We have Dodgson here!”

[@HalianTheProtogen]

Also, I wish there were a VCF South or VCF Florida so I could make it.

[@EmberwolfXR]

This time im building a motorola computer in software, and running a machine fully created with hardware. Giving the computer specs beyond what can be done on that mother board. Basically recreating it with much higher system specs. Kinda like what happened to the appleII

[@emmabentley7945]

Ellie ! Get the door locks!