Restoring and Upgrading a Mac from 1993!

Apple's Macintosh Quadra 605 was the runt of the litter when it was released in late 1993, a simple machine for basic productivity. But that doesn't mean it isn't capable of much more -- it just needs some help by way of a few modern upgrades.
Mac LC top cover reinforcing brackets: www.printables.com/model/2877...
Mac LC PDS SD card bracket: www.printables.com/model/2877...
Sources:
LC 475 photo: / 1485426033897590786
FirstTech storefront photo: www.theitsage.com/firsttech-m...
Performa 475 photo: www.digibarn.com/collections/...
Mac LC III motherboard photo: recapamac.com.au/macintosh-lciii
Garrett's Workshop (replacement VRAM): www.tindie.com/stores/garrett...
Joe's Computer Museum (external BlueSCSI): jcm-1.com/shop
"Macintosh Quadra 605," Macworld, March 1994.
BlueSCSI project page, links to sellers, and resources: scsi.blue
Disk Jockey app for modern Macs: tinkerdifferent.com/threads/d...
Quadra 605 resource page: quadra605.mcdonnelltech.com
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - A productivity workhorse
02:29 - An easy repair?
04:29 - Short on memory, big on storage
05:35 - An indispensable retro Mac tool
07:05 - Brittle plastics
09:15 - Two for the price of one
10:54 - A convenient hard drive solution
12:39 - Killer features
14:52 - Gotta have more cowbell
16:10 - Brittle plastics, part 2
16:48 - One for you, one for me
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Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: / thisdoesnotcompute
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Music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (freemusicarchive.org/music/Bo....

[@kjamison5951]

Some years ago, I worked in education and I upgraded the LC475 as much as I could to fulfil my duties as an IT technician. Sadly, I fell ill and was off work for almost a year. During that time, the small horde of classic Macs I had accumulated were dispatched to the recyclers, at the instruction of a disgruntled head of faculty with an axe to grind. A few years ago, I picked up another LC475 and I have also tried to upgrade it to enjoy many of the programs I used back in the 90’s. When they were clearing out all of the old Mac hardware and software that remained, I got first dibs on many original installation disks. There are hundreds of them, still boxed. I hope to return to the LC475 and do a proper job to retrobrite it. I’ve already replaced the logic board caps and the PSU caps and added a SCSI2SD unit to it. I’m thinking I could make a bracket for a full SD card like yours. I managed to source filament that closely matches the platinum Mac colour, from Germany.

[@JoesComputerMuseum]

I won the "which BlueSCSI vendor do I choose" roulette. HA! Glad our little project was able to help you out!

[@mukhtar__]

thanks for making it!!

[@TrippyMane405]

How do I get one of these

[@JonRowlison]

We love 'ya Joe!

[@trulyirrelevant17]

God that crt power on noise, I love it

[@disklamer]

The flashbacks are real

[@robsquared2]

The only thing left is to take this to a coffee shop and write a novel. But to be serious I love these kinds of videos.

[@TimurTripp2]

For real someone should try this with an original iBook G3, sure to turn some heads

[@singletona082]

BlueSCSI just straight up makes ye olden macs downright attractive as a retro machine. Turns one of the hardest parts of retro into something that's downright Simple to pull. Bravo.

[@Mr.Fahrenheit_451]

I love the Quadra 605. I purchased one back in fall of 1994 to be my new main machine. The brittle plastics are really a problem these days, especially if you try and source one through the mail. I have yet to purchase one that didn't arrive completely destroyed, even when well packaged. Your upgrades are great, and that new BlueSCSI tool is really useful. Overclocking to 33Mhz adds some real speed improvement, and also is easily reversible, so you should consider doing that. Just add a CPU heat sink with some thermal tape and thermal compound, as that CPU you're using, from 1992, might run a bit hot at 33Mhz. Good to see this great machine reviewed. Thanks for the great content!

[@tarstarkusz]

The problem is people won't package it correctly. If it is properly packaged, it will be fine shipping through the mail. I think the problem is shipping has gone up so much, that people are doing everything they can to keep costs down, including not packaging it correctly. Packing it correctly will add 5-10 pounds to the weight. Plus all the packaging material costs money. It can easily mean twice the price to pack it right.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Peanuts or styrofoam weight next to nothing, don’t they? And they will do a lot to absorb shocks. They just take up space, not weight.

[@Mr.Fahrenheit_451]

@@tarstarkusz The last two I bought, the hard drive and floppy drive broke lose inside the case during shipping, and smashed around in transit to me. The internal plastics are just as fragile as the case plastics in general (look at the fan clip that Colin broke) and no matter of packaging by a seller will protect from all of this kind of damage. I've had Q605 shipped to me in a double-box, wrapped in numerous layers of bubble wrap, and suspended in another box around packing peanuts. The back ports panel broke off, and the whole side cracked. There was a handful of powdery dust in the middle that was some of the brittle plastic that broke off that was pulverized. It's not all down to seller's properly packing them, as I can tell you the sellers I bought from all packaged them well.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@Mr.Fahrenheit_451 Never had that happen. But what you can do is ask the seller to open the computer and pack it full of packing material. I've seen this happen with antique radios with big heavy speakers (usually if the seller and buy know what they are doing, they remove the speaker and ship it in a second box just for this reason). But these have a ton of mass with big old transformer on the back of the speaker (they don't have a permanent magnet). A floppy drive is pretty light and the weight is uniform and not multiple inches from the mounting point (which creates a lot of torque).

[@OldMan_PJ]

I used to do a lot of IT support for schools in Silicon Valley back in the mid-90's and worked on dozens of these, mainly upgrades to add video input cards. They mostly were used in the magnet schools that had large budgets for educational tools, the rest of the schools had whatever was being donated from local companies, hundreds of 8088,s 386s, and Apple IIe's. During lunch breaks we would load Marathon on the Quadra's for some local multiplayer.

[@richardthunderbay8364]

Another very enjoyable episode. I have a lot of nostalgia for 90s era Macs. I started using them in 1991 (specifically an LC) as a postdoctoral fellow. I was happy enough with them at work that I bought one (a Mac IIvi) for home use . That was the first computer that I ever actually owned myself. Seeing System 7.1 again always brings a smile to my face.

[@jasonhoch7105]

This was the first color mac my family got new. It was the first computer I had that I burned a CD on (took 20mins), and also got on the internet (with a 9600 baud modem). I also remember getting a new hard drive, and I thought at the time “I’ll never fill this up” -it was 1GB. Ha. Soon, I discovered Napster, and I quickly realized 1GB isn’t that big. Overall, the 605 was good initially, but it aged quickly with its small RAM upgrade options. I remember it crashed…a TON, and was slow due to virtual memory. Thanks for the nostalgia!

[@CBitsTech]

The 3D printed parts are great. I like it that to colour doesn't match perfectly, it signifies that it's a modern part.

[@keithsweat7513]

That Firstech photo was a throwback for me. I can’t tell you the tens of thousands of dollars I’ve spent at that store for work years ago.

[@datassetteuser356]

Very nice work, thanks for sharing. These Quadra machines always had a certain charm to them, even for me who never really cared too much about their computers in the 90s. Good to see them restored. Cheers!

[@kevinc.9158]

Loved how these decades old machines still up and running with a little bit of touch. I’d love to see a sleeper build someday or a dual os system.

[@foobarmaximus3506]

That's because they're not very old. I have computers that are 15 years older and still work fine. These are no big deal.

[@NathanChisholm041]

Id love to see a modern Laptop last as long!

[@GarthBeagle]

I've restored many of these slab Macs and love the LC475/Q605 ❤ I find them to be the perfect systems for running 7.1 era software, nice small, compact, and quiet. And of course with a BlueSCSI A *really* good fan replacement I will use on these is the Gelid FN-SX06-32 which you can get off Amazon or cheaper off DigiKey

[@ukmk3supra]

I did the 33MHz mod on mine - definitely worth doing for the 10 to 15 minutes it takes. Also - the PPC Upgrade for these is killer - they run at double the bus speed, so if you increase the bus, you increase the PPC card speed as well - all the CPU's i've encountered on those are 75MHz versions, so you could even do a bus mod for 37.5MHz with the spicy o'clock to get it to run at that speed, whilst still keeping the serial ports working properly.

[@foobarmaximus3506]

And then what do you do with it? Yeah. I know.

[@themacintoshnerd]

I mean to be honest how vital are fully working serial ports anyways tbh.

[@e_fission]

Another excellent video, thanks for sharing! I really like that you highlighted the new features of the BlueSCSI - it’s great to see retro Mac computing getting even easier nowadays.

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

I still prefer bridge machines TBH, it gives me a reason to use some of my older machines.

[@Mr.Fahrenheit_451]

I love using a bridge machine with Zip, Jaz, and magneto optical drives, and those same types on my vintage Mac hardware. Really makes you feel like it's 1995 all over again.

[@cl995]

Hey Colin, HUGE fan of your videos! I'm the guy who bought that first Quadra from FreeGeek Twin Cities, awesome addition to my collection. Thank you for all the work you've put into it!

[@atgw2009]

The LC475 was my first computer back in 1994. When the PRAM battery ran out, it was possible to still boot the machine by turning it on-off-on quickly. I recall also struggling with the 4MB ram limit; to be able to launch Prince of Persia 2, I think I resorted to replacing ‘Finder’ in the System folder with a copy of the PoP2 executable, so the machine booted straight into the game.

[@YourIdeologyIsDelusional]

I had no idea that was even a thing you could do. Now I regret never getting a chance to try it.

[@foobarmaximus3506]

Yeah yeah. Those were the days, I know. lol Back in the late 90's. LOLOOLOLOL

[@rodrigo6698]

Restoring and upgrading vintage computers like the Mac from 1993 is a fascinating way to learn about the evolution of technology. It's impressive to see how skilled enthusiasts can breathe new life into old machines and preserve their historical significance. This video is a great example of the passion and expertise that goes into this process.

[@encinobalboa]

Does anyone else think old Mac desktops look better than any recent offering? This slim line model could easily fit the latest chipsets and motherboards with room to spare.

[@markredf150]

This is so cool, brings me back to the days of using those Macs in elementary school for educational use and the occasional Oregon Trail session❤️

[@markhuebbe]

I love seeing all your work at keeping these machines going. 👏👍

[@jeffffff]

wow haha I just got a BlueSCSI from Joe's computer museum for my LC III and IIvx last week.

[@SuperNicktendo]

Everytime you show this stuff I want to run out and get one. But I need to enjoy the stuff I already have. I can always just live vicariously through you

[@RetroPC]

Colin is like a celebrity in this household. There is nothing better than seeing a new TDNC video in my queue when I wake up. Thank you, Colin. All of your hard work on these videos shows and are incredibly entertaining. Maybe one day we'll run into each other at Free Geek. I might ask for your autograph. 😁💾

[@Markimark151]

My middle school had both the Macintosh Quadra and LC models, they even got external CD and Zip drives in the lab. Played lot of games like Dr Quandary, Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon on those Macs!

[@rubberduck4966]

You should stick the molex power adapter for the scsi hdd inside of the case otherwise it will be lost over time. same with the popped out bracket where you installed the SD Card Slot

[@yodaisgod2]

I had the Performa 475 model. I maxed out the RAM and upped the HDD to a Seagate 320MB SCSI. Played a lot of SimCity 2000 on that machine and hours of AOL chat room using my GlobalVillage Teleport Gold modem. Good times.

[@britishredfox]

One of my first Macs was a hand-me-down Performa 475. A lovely little computer.

[@foch3]

That was my first Mac. I had the little plastic clock chip overclocking doohickey. I still think it's a sleek design. And Connectix RAM DOUBLER was crazy.

[@stevenvallarsa1765]

I believe this was one of the machines I was scouting out in 1994. I was about to graduate as a graphic designer and needed a suitable Mac that I could afford. I had settled on a Centris 610 only to have it be discontinued. Moved on to thinking a Quadra 605 would be in my future, but nope: The PowerMacs were being introduced and I got me a bare bone PowerMac 6100 with 8MB of RAM, 160MB HD, no CD-ROM or L2 cache, that 14" Apple monitor shown in this video, as well as an Apple Personal LaserWriter 320.

[@be236]

I have a Mac Quadra 605. Cute little machine I kept for myself.

[@aztimer2]

I am glad a stumbled apon this channel, thank you for letting us know the oldies are goodies.

[@JeskidoYT]

Now blue scuzzy is extremely impressive

[@jrr851]

My Aunt had one of these back in that timeframe. Neat.

[@chadseld]

I love my Performa 475. It was my first computer, and my favorite retro Mac. I see the value in a tool like the BlueSCSI, but I also think the sound and slower speed of a real hard disk are part of the nostalgic appeal of these machines. Don't put off recapping for too long. A leaky capacitor can damage traces just like a leaky battery, they just take longer to do so.

[@mdavid1955]

I worked as a PC tech for the public schools here. Special ED has lots of Macs...Brings back lots of memories.! Those clock speeds and memory sizes are "amazing" now.

[@trinicade7574]

I love the beige, muted, understated aesthetic of PCs from the early 90's. I especially love PCs that sit underneath monitors - space savers.

[@colombianguy8194]

Everytime that I see olds Macs, i remember the Quadra 660AV with the monitor, that I got free from a guy who taught me to repair PC's. That was 20 years ago, and stupidly went to the trash because it was missing the hard drive and i was too young and broke to get a SCSI hard disk. It only survives the processor that I saved for my collection.

[@littlestevie2919]

I always loved the design of this model. Such a cute little thing.

[@johnrickard8512]

It is always a fun time whenever a Mac finds its way into my fleet of computers. Of all the non-windows devices I have encountered, it is by far the most common, the other two being a single Alpha workstation and a wireless router with OpenWRT preinstalled(and yes I do consider OpenWRT to be a "computer", albeit a somewhat limited one, because I have used one to run a web/file server).

[@justthatmichael2176]

This, the Macbook pro from 2014, and iPad Pro from 2016 are probably my favorite, COOLEST, things Apple ever did for my use needs! Expensive, but for these computers and the history of Macintosh OS i'd say it is plenty worth : D

[@phoscafebreakroom]

We had those exact Mac's in my elementary school's computer lab!

[@sevenfortyfour]

Used to have a 605 when I was a kid, which had been bought for very cheap when it had been discontinued and CompUSA was trying to get rid of it. It's my favorite Mac model ever -- it wasn't super slow, nor super fast, and with a SCSI CD-ROM drive I had loaded it up with a ton of shareware games from Metatec's NautilusCD magazine. Unfortunately the power supply fried at some point and it was thrown out sometime in the late 90s.

[@erinwiebe7026]

The plastics on my Q605's case shatter with even the slightest handling, so I've opted to swap my Q605's board into an LC III case. I also prefer the angled stance of the LC III so it's a win-win. The Q605 will also accept a 128MB SIMM too. It's completely unnecessary, but a fun upgrade.

[@tomatedesign1976]

My first Mac was a Quadra, loved that thing so much

[@roberty.9569]

We had LCIIs in my elementary school computer lab. They were pretty neat.

[@andrefelixstudio2833]

I put a 114 page magazine together on the 475, great Mac for the time, nice job on your video!

[@ryanzettel]

It’s always a good day when you upload a video ❤

[@Slevin-Kelevra]

Hi Colin!!! Its going well! Thank you for asking!!

[@Kennephone]

I think it's crazy how just 2 years after this was released, the lowest end mac used a 66mhz power pc chip that's nearly 3x the clock speed, and able to do several times the work per clock. The rate of technological advancement has slown down so much since then, no more do we see 5x improvements in 2 years, which is both a good and bad thing, it means you can keep a pc longer, but it also means power users have to wait longer for faster chips.

[@abdelali9279]

that computer looks really cool

[@calzonemaniacsvideocorner0804]

Love these restorations.

[@Falstaff-mr8fk]

I had one maxed out with 136mb ram and a PPC 601 upgrade card. Loved it and regret selling it. Old Macs are fun to play with but are getting pricey. We used to call these pizza box macs. I recommend LowEndMac as a good resource for older Mac info. Not regularly maintained as it used to be but lots of great info.

[@organiccold]

I have a LCII in my collection, I will get a blue SCSI for it :)

[@murphyseanm]

My first Macintosh was a second hand Performa 460 in 1996 that I was able to get to 20MB of RAM and maxed out VRAM, I think it had the 80MB drive in it. That computer was a workhorse for me until 2000 when I updated it with a beige box G3. Since then I have always had a Mac as an available computer.

[@slothgirl2022]

Good idea for the tab supports. I have a 650 and three PowerMac 6100/66 that all have broken lid tabs.

[@Bubbles612]

still best channel i ever seen.

[@RoderikvanReekum]

Looks great for the early 90's, nice and compact.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Nice to see this! I've always been a PC user at home (since the days of Windows 3.1). But I still used Macs at school, and my mom's-side grandparents were Mac owners from 1990 on. I imagine this isn't a whole lot different from the Mac LCs I used in middle school.

[@drywinddotnet]

Most of us in '93 were making do with SEs or LCs. Quadra. It's easy to forget that these machines were a big jump in performance at at decent price for the Mac user of the day

[@zbigniewkrajewski7536]

Amazing work!

[@a4e69636b]

Excellent video as always.

[@Nickword1]

11:48 Now that's nice!!

[@mbga8mjb]

An LC 475 was my Mac when I was growing up - SimCity 2000 and AOL - happy days. A great little machine and massively faster than my LCII before it.

[@Jager1967]

I remember this bad boy from my elementary school's library in Wisconsin.

[@hzhz3469]

Love your channel! Best of luck!

[@thedungeondelver]

Great video, Colin!

[@monti7771]

Outstanding and amazing brother I really enjoy watching your videos and that Apple 🍎 a real classic keep doing more videos.

[@bdwalton27]

This was my first Macintosh.

[@wizofssp]

Awesome as always !

[@FrankSimon-lp8by]

ohhh, memories come back, the LCIII was the first Macintosh computer in our company. Later Power PCs. My LCIII with 21" monitor was in use from 1994 to the 2000s because we used LabView to control our systems. It was a nice computer for its time and I liked it better than the Intels under Windows.

[@brian_castro]

Damn Colin. You probably dropped an F bomb when that plastic retaining clip broke! Lol

[@GreenAppelPie]

No display with a battery was a majorly stupid design decision. Your micro reader update is really nice.

[@christo930]

It's probably not a deliberate design decision.

[@305SEGA305]

In 1993 i was in 3rd grade and i remember using that computer in class. 😆

[@vadermasktruth]

Awesome video!

[@reverendbarker650]

when I was IT coordinator in a high school back in 1997 we had a whole room of these , they were pretty much useless by that time, but I could have got $350 for each one from an Apple store which sold second hand units, the admin scotched the idea , the bursar said they could be used as typewriters ! Of course they just were abused by the kids. and two years later they ALL went to landfill.

[@Kunigun]

Wow, magic of ancestors..

[@kirkfranklinboy1986]

I remember the LC’s in computer lab in elementary school

[@brendanhoffmann8402]

I bought a 7200/90 in the mid 2000s. I wish I'd hung onto it but it only ran for a year and then spewed smoke. It was enough time to pass Pathways into Darkness at least with cheats. I didn't get another mac after that until last year when I bought and refurbished a 2015 MacBook Pro. Also has Pathways into darkness on it! (I actually bought it back in the early 90s to play on my Mac IIsi)

[@nukfauxsho]

great video!

[@Bertie_Ahern]

I remember they had this exact model at the kindergarten I taught at back in the '90s as they were considered a good introduction to computing technology by the local school service

[@Rab1dGAMER]

I never complained about brittle plastic up until this week when I took apart my Xbox 360 to clean it and put on some fresh thermal paste, when clipping back the eject button it snapped when I pressed it once everything has been assembled. I now know your pain and now I don't want to open my NES to clean it.

[@richclips]

Love the video, thanks :) I do a lot of audio repairs, and I'm also finding brittle plastics there too of course, from the 90s 80s and 70s... Very sad as sometimes those injection mouldings are huge and hold lots of parts.

[@BubbaBigDude]

I do miss my Performa 475!!!

[@alextirrellRI]

I have an LC475 sitting across from me. I picked it because I wanted something that could run a good spread of 68k software. Hoping to get a full '040 for it someday, but for now it's got the 'unofficial' 132MB maxxed out RAM (which was quite inexpensive to find at the time) and an Ethernet card, alongside an adapted 9.1GB SCSI-2 drive with 4 partitions and 4 OS options for different eras of software.

[@walmartcartpusher]

You can actually use standard 72-pin PC SIMM RAM modules in this machine. And 32MB RAM module is a major speed boost for it is the ultimate upgrade without a modded hard drive.

[@sterlinsilver]

Awesome! A freinds of mine gave me an apple centrist 660AV which looks about as bland as you can get. Only interesting in that It was only sold for 3 months

[@marklsimonson]

I miss First Tech 😥 17:39

[@RealSB83]

I remembered using it for Claris Work

[@ApfelKlassik]

Nice one, Colin! Especially the repair part of the latches! Would you mind sharing your BlueSCSI Support VHD?

[@anrymarchen]

My first Mac :)

[@dennisud]

I had the LC-II version of this with a 12 Inch Sony Trinitron Monitor when I was teaching in the 90s. I LOVED it and had a great time using it in class and later at home until my school district went all PC And it was auctioned off with the rest of the Macs! 😢 I will be able in 2023 to look for a LC/Quadra as I have a bunch of CD's with many maps for games like Doom, Duke Nukem and a few others which I used on my various Macs at home. Hopefully I will have a small table with a Pizza Mac and a Monitos Keyboard & mouse Playing my hear out. BTW, when a game says "use System 7.5 or above" How far up the Mac systems can it work on.

[@ceebee23]

I looked after a fleet of LCs LCIIs LC30s and Quadra 605s in a govt dept. Lovely simple machines ...so easy to upgrade and all plug and play at time when PCs were not. The LC/LCII was just too slow really... the LC30 and LC475/Quadra605 were a big jump in usability.

[@robertwicksall]

Yay Potsdam State! Just a year after I graduated.

[@hghunter44]

You should do the clock boost to 33 MHz by moving the 2 SMT resistors. It’s not difficult and results in a good performance boost. Mine was very stable.

[@notation254]

Love this!

[@georgelien]

I had this computer !

[@maynardcrow6447]

It's crazy that now we cpu's with more internal cache than these systems had ram and vram combined. Even AMD Epyc 3d cache server chips have more cache than that entire systems storage.

[@MrKillswitch88]

For those that don't know as plastics age they degass becoming brittle and some types of plastic are worse while others hold up longer but eventually they all get to be like this given long enough.