The Power Macintosh 4400

By 1996, the Mac Clones were not expanding the MacOS markeshare, but forcing Apple to compete for their own user base. Apple's reaction was to release the 4400, made from the same industry standard parts. Twenty years later, I uncover one of these forgotten relics from the dark recesses of a dilapidated shed and play Marathon 2 on it!

[@ferrreira]

The 19 dislikes on this video are 19 fake profiles run by Michael Spindler

[@65scribe]

Now it all makes sense! Hahaha, that’s great.

[@ferrreira]

@@65scribe keep up with the great videos! You inspired me to start my own collection and KZbin channel (premiere will be soon), I really like your sense of humor.

[@65scribe]

That’s great to hear. I hope you are having fun with it and I look forward to seeing your Mac videos. You have a good sense of humour, too.

[@65scribe]

Too bad for Spindler!

[@NeverMindMan]

Not to defend him as a business man, but Michael Spindler died in like 2017. Still a funny joke though!

[@dj68k]

I was the service manager/technician at an Apple Specialist in the northern Chicago area for a long time. We sold exactly two of these computers. One of them came in for service every couple of months because of "sound distortion." The speaker was garbage and would distort at loud volumes. Apple didn't have a separate part for the speaker; to replace the speaker, I had to order an entire lower housing assembly/metal chassis and transplant every part into that chassis. Ridiculous. After several case replacements, I used a couple of the adhesive "shims" Apple gave us to stop PowerBook 5300 RAM from popping out of the socket (install it on the back of the keyboard above the RAM connector) and "buffered" the speaker assembly from the metal case. I tested the unit "OK" and the customer never came back for another speaker repair.

[@65scribe]

That's fascinating stuff! Great that you remember it so clearly. It was hard to dig up information on this one, and, until now, not much more info offered up from the viewers. Thanks for sharing the 'Apple Service' experience on the machine.

[@AnthonyGuidetti]

I recognize these videos take a long time to create, but I just wanted to tell you I love these series of videos, and hope you continue to make more in the future!

[@65scribe]

Thank you! That’s encouraging to hear. And I appreciate your patience. I do have another video about 80% done, so I can confirm there is more content on the way.

[@cunt4003]

Hearing that Marathon theme really brought back some nice childhood memories.

[@iiiiiifggffggffgfgfg]

Its freeware now.

[@ericwood3709]

I like how he manages to work Marathon into every video. I love and respect the first game in particular for its dark atmosphere and the genius writing with that mad A.I. using the player against the invading aliens and turning the aliens against each other. It's such an engaging setting and story line with such a memorable villain, if Durandal could even be so described. He's your all-powerful frienemy and puppet master, and the whole thing is cerebral while also making you gun down hordes of baddies. It's a game that honestly deserves a faithful remake in a modern 3D engine with corresponding enhancements across the board.

[@65scribe]

@ericwood3709 Thank you! And I don’t think I’ve read a better summary of Marathon. Well done!

[@senyaiv]

im so proud of being one of your community, 65scribe. your videos are just unique

[@65scribe]

Thanks very much! It’s great to have you watching.

[@danieldougan269]

Ha! They criticized a 1024 x 768 monitor for having too much resolution on a 15" screen. Tell that to my 1920 x 1080 5.5" phone!

[@jannevaatainen]

There was no scaling back then, so icons and the UI in general looked tiny on that kind of an ultra high ppi monitor. ;)

[@McOuroborosBurger]

Scaling was not what it is now.

[@richardsequeirateixeira]

@@McOuroborosBurger We still have scaling issues

[@McOuroborosBurger]

Richard Sequeira we do definitely, but theyre usually on older apps, or shitty newer apps.

[@richardsequeirateixeira]

@@McOuroborosBurger no, even some parts of the operating system.

[@jorisw_]

Love the jokes. And the thing about the 'mystery' major stockholder was new to me!

[@65scribe]

Thanks Joris! Apple's reality was stranger than fiction for awhile there.

[@WildkatPhoto]

those were both dark and wonderful times. I am the proud owner of a 7600 with a G3 upgrade.

[@askhowiknow5527]

Your cinematography is great. You know you’re watching a 65scribe video. Don’t change it.

[@MemeFactoryFaculty]

EVERYTHING LED it’s not that bad. It feels like I’m watching a home movie, with that nice comfy feeling

[@65scribe]

Thanks for the comments Lewis! I'm glad you like how it is shot. I always expect flak from working in upscaled 720p and part of me agrees with Mr. LED. But jumping between 4K and the VHS quality video of the 90's ... and bouncing between aspect ratios would be way too jarring. Plus I can't even afford a cheap $400 4K camera. :(

[@65scribe]

Appreciate your point and agree it could look better, it just hasn't been a priority. One of the reasons I started these videos was that most everything out there was either- a) a guy poking around the mac with his iphone with no edits or b) a highly polished ultra hi-def video which tells you nothing beyond what you could read on wikipedia. So, I've been fairly focused on making something entertaining, informative and visually well produced, and, just the way things go, getting newer equipment is something I'll do 'tomorrow'. I'm glad to hear that a classic Mac expert likes the videos, and thanks for the feedback! I'm sure you'll see an uptick in the video quality soon enough.

[@JelloPotate]

Really hoping to see something more from you. Your videos are the some most interesting on youtube about old macs and you seem to really care about machines that literally no one has ever cared for. These machines are treasures and it's great that you've done such a good job showing them off to people.

[@65scribe]

Thanks very much for leaving your thoughts! I'm happy that people are enjoying the videos. I will have a new one very shortly.

[@DOSBrony]

HYPE

[@askhowiknow5527]

Sure, I’ll die alone, but at least 65scribe released another video

[@pwnt39]

did you die alone yet?

[@runforit420]

It's nice to see someone else also praising Gil Amelio for the work that he did.

[@65scribe]

I agree. When you go back and read actual accounts about that time, he did pretty good under the circumstances.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

runforit420 CHRP was a disaster and almost killed Apple.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

You should read his book, it's very good. Long out of print but readily available used. "On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple"

[@jellepetje]

vintageapple.org/apple_jobs/pdf/On_the_Firing_Line_My_500_Days_at_Apple_1998.pdf

[@dj-jazzy-jimbob]

Buying NeXT saved apple.

[@newbreednet]

Thanks so much for these videos, man. They bring me that warm fuzzy 90's Mac feeling I love!

[@hypertalking68k]

Glad to see Marathon sneaking into so many of your videos!

[@65scribe]

I’m glad to hear someone enjoyed the Marathon references, and not just me. Thanks!

[@arbayer2]

The moment I heard it I got goosebumps. I wonder when a high prod-value Pathways - Marathon - Microsoft acquisition - Halo docu will come out on YT

[@AndyGarcia-bu7le]

I love your humor, and your dedication to your craft. I could watch your videos for hours, and I may or may not have. lol. I always look forward to hearing “Does this do anything” it cracks me up! You’re a genius dude! Keep it up!!!

[@65scribe]

Thank you, Andy! Appreciate you taking the time to let me know that you’re enjoying the videos. Orson Welles always has something to question in the videos. lol.

[@photolabguy]

What a nice way to top off a Sunday evening!

[@RyanMartinez]

Marathon was a great game and does not get the recognition it deserves in the mainstream.

[@paulmuaddib451]

Too true.

[@65scribe]

Agreed!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Ryan Martinez There’s a modern remake that runs native on macOS. Not a Steam clone.

[@antibodiesagainstkookery3871]

@@tenminutetokyo2643 Aleph One? That's not even a remake, it's the original engine but open-sourced and ported to OS X.

[@messing-with-computers]

Just found your channel and binge watched the whole set. Great blend of humor and teaching, make more!!

[@65scribe]

Thanks for watching all the videos, Curtis! I appreciate that. Thanks for the feedback, too. Definitely intend to make more.

[@brenthendricks8182]

GIMO, Graphics Internal Monitor Out, was used with the PC Card.

[@diegoknyte]

Oh man these vids are awesome! Love the dry humor. 👍🏻

[@65scribe]

Thanks Diego! Good to hear you like them.

[@JanghanHong]

Wow, you're back. I watched some of your videos about three times already.

[@65scribe]

That's great. Glad you keep coming back!

[@maltoNitho]

Man I love your videos!! It’s a happy day when I see something new from you.

[@jorisw_]

Yeah Marathon 2 opening theme! Thanks for that.

[@65scribe]

At last, a comment appreciating the great Marathon 2 theme!

[@drgti16v]

The 4400 was my greatest home backup server ever home built. Full size LTO drive on the right, Retrospect Backup Server, SCSI card. Now I couldn't close the case, but all it had to do was run backup scripts from the storage closet it was housed in

[@BlueMSX.]

when the preforma 6200 went ding, I felt that

[@mihela8167]

I own one. He's not wrong.

[@MichaelJ023]

Thanks for the great videos! Now it is quite popular for people to collect these old Macs. It brings back fond memories of when I collected obsolete Macs in 98, that were only 3 to 9 years old at the time. I had probably 26 different models of SE’s, Classics, Performas, etc. Now I don’t have any of them. It was quite fun at the time because parts were very cheap and readily available. Fun times.

[@65scribe]

Wow, you were a pioneer! Glad the videos bring back the good times. I’ll have a new one tomorrow as part of vintage Macintosh month... Now it has its own month! Collecting old macs is ‘quite popular’ indeed!!

[@MichaelJ023]

Yes, I saw the video, excellent! Oh, it’s Macintosh month? That is very fitting, I just bought this month a Powermac G4 dual 533, and a G4 iMac. I go for G4’s that boot into os9.

[@AssTelescope]

These videos are very informative. I love watching them and learning about the macs I grew up with.

[@65scribe]

That’s great to hear! Thanks for watching.

[@TheTriskitty]

The Power Mac 4400 or 7220 was build by Acer for Apple. Acer used a case design that they also used for their Aspire PCs as the foundation. It explains why the floppy is on the wrong side when compared to other Apple models.

[@65scribe]

Tristan Peemoeller Interesting info! Hard to find anything on this machine, it was so universally ignored at the time.

[@Evgeny1]

Very pleasant and satisfying. I've definitely learned a lot. Thanks to you, and your assistant from bottom left.

[@65scribe]

:)

[@shazmosushi]

This channel is laugh out loud funny. Great deadpan!

[@65scribe]

Good to hear that you like videos, but they're not supposed to be funny. ;)

[@ziky7k]

I love your videos. Very very simple but a lot of funny! :) Please don't stop! As a kid, I've grove up with a Performa. You gave me a good reminder and refreshed my past history. Very good work !

[@65scribe]

Thanks very much for your positive comments! Glad you are enjoying them!

[@TortillaYT]

I have one of these! I remember watching your video on it over and over again while waiting for it to arrive in the mail

[@65scribe]

Very cool! Hope you’ve had some retro fun with it.

[@BollingHolt]

LOL I love the way you pepper in humor into these videos. I'm still grateful that I learned how to power up my Macintosh IIfx with the "jump start" method in one of your videos. I actually have a second IIfx arriving today. Now I need to get me a proper display or two.

[@65scribe]

Great to know you’re making use of that information. Good luck with your IIfx’s.

[@BollingHolt]

@@65scribe Indeed! Thanks!

[@rickkephartactual7706]

I remember drooling when the Macintosh IIfx came out. What a machine. And special memory. And a price I could never afford back then

[@cjhawk67]

It's actually indirect UV light heat and humidity that yellows plastic. If you leave yellowed plastic out to sit in direct sunlight without any chemicals on bright sunny days even plastics yellowed to the point of being almost orange will bleach white naturally. It's slower then retrobrite but doesnt require disassembly. Retro recipes did a video on this using this method to "light bright" his yellowed Macintosh. I've managed to test this with orange yellowed keyboards bringing them back to pure white again aswell as with some early 90s VGA monitors although some stuff took as long as a week to brighten up and i accidentally left a monitor out once during a rain storm (although it works fine after drying out for a few days) 3 days in so you have to remember to watch the weather and bring them in at night just to be safe.

[@65scribe]

That's really interesting! I did not know that. Thanks for sharing that. I may have to do some more experiments...

[@cjhawk67]

@@65scribe Awesome id love to see the results you get from your tests in a video in the future. :

[@cjhawk67]

@@65scribe These where keyboards i tested this with at first. I tried 1 for 3 days and the other 2 i forgot about and left out for around 8 days. The order is the same in the 2nd and 3rd picture for reference. cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/614268221981196337/704010599562084392/20180418_145611.jpg cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/614268221981196337/704012394220879942/JPEG_20190806_095043.jpg cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/614268221981196337/704012581450285096/JPEG_20190820_101006.jpg

[@jimseibyl5140]

I’m a little late to the party but I love these vids…..thank you!

[@65scribe]

Glad you showed up, Jim. Thanks for the feedback!

[@CassandraCarter]

As soon as I saw the Rayovac block battery, I knew it needed replacing. Wasn't disappointed. Glad to see you take on this wacky model of Mac. Jason's Macintosh Museum (channel sadly no longer updated) has a vid on it, too. I think he goes into some of the quirkiness of this model, but it's been a while since I watched it.

[@65scribe]

Yes, I recall Jason's Macintosh Museum had a 4400 video, but I haven't watched it because I wanted to make my own video without being influenced by his good work. I'll probably go back and watch it now.

[@halvardlund4782]

Hehe. A great lookback to the Mac I never had or needed. I had a performa 450 and it got me through to 2000.

[@65scribe]

You did well with the Performa then! When I got a G4 tower in 2000, the store was shocked that I was upgrading from such a long obsolete 6100.

[@vikramjain79]

Love your sense of humor man!

[@65scribe]

Thanks so much!

[@redmanjones362]

Love the Angry Videogame Nerd on the yellowing of the SNES

[@georgesenda1952]

I am binge watching these videos & thank you for doing them.

[@65scribe]

You're welcome, George. Thanks for commenting back!

[@tulippasta]

I’m bingeing these vids. My school had these computers! I played my first mp3 file on one of these, and built my first (mock) website on this model too. This was in 2000-2001. Later, at uni, they were scrapping a lot of old macs and I took a 7220. I used it a little until it stopped booting. When I saw you explaining it won’t boot with a dead clock battery I kicked myself! Because I took it apart and threw most of it in the trash 😣

[@65scribe]

Sorry to hear you received the clock battery information too late. Thanks for sharing your memories of this model. Glad you’re watching this video series!

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Very entertaining and informative. I really enjoy your videos. Thanks. Watched this on my iPad Pro 12.9 model A1584.

[@koolioperson5534]

Didn’t notice till now that you included the AVGN clip, hahaha

[@fsfs555]

The 4400s are funny little things. The floppy is on the left because that's where it was when the basic LPX-standard case was designed; the 4400 team just stuck a custom bezel on it and dropped in their LPX-40 logic board and shipped it. I haven't figured out who designed the case but it was used by a few low-end PCs during the short-lived LPX standard. The boot chime was probably truncated a bit to fit within the ROMs. Cost savings, you know. Like a few other Macs (especially later PowerBooks such as the G3s and TiBooks), these would boot without a clock battery, but not with a dead one installed; they work fine without one except for not keeping time when unplugged. If you have one of these in storage it's best to take the battery out now because eventually it will leak and ruin the logic board. The G3 processor itself didn't need OS 8 (lots of people upgraded their Sys 7.5-running Macs with G3 cards without issue) and it's not impossible to run 7.6.1 on a beige G3 desktop if you shoehorn in a few extensions to get a couple things working. Steve just called System 7.7 "Mac OS 8" to force the cloners to renegotiate their contracts; it wasn't really a major version jump, which is why the only real differences between 7.6.1 and OS 8 are the modified Copland GUI (which you can get on Sys 7 with the Aaron shareware extension) and HFS+ support (which can also be backported to 7.6 to a degree), and why it still runs on 68k whereas the very different OS 8.5 doesn't. Other than that, it was just a bunch of bundled software and window dressing (such as the Appearance control panels) rolled in to make it look like OS 8 was really something new when it really wasn't.

[@davidAll5]

very nice memory i remember seeing "the new MacIntosh beast: the 4400" on a magazine then around 1999, i was training on multimedia - cd-rom & internet- i was eager to play with the beast but my fellow students said "what an old machine !" - duh !!

[@bchoward0000]

Love your sense of humor.

[@Mojames1984]

I love that at the time you said “cheap and underpowered Macs” you zoomed in on the Performa 6200cd. What a piece of junk that was

[@ben1777]

Thank you for your videos. We love them!

[@65scribe]

Appreciate that, Ben! Thanks for watching.

[@alarak2159]

I only just managed to find a Power Macintosh 4400/200 this past week - along with the 14" Macintosh Color Monitor. Over the moon - cracking machine.

[@65scribe]

That’s excellent! Have fun with that.

[@aytviewer2421]

I thought I knew virtually every mac model ever produced --but was unaware of the 4400. Cool.

[@65scribe]

Actually, I didn’t know about it either until 10 years after it was discontinued.

[@Leofwine]

I rescued one of these from certain death 11 years ago - coincidentally, the first Mac I ever saw. Mine has been upgraded with a G3 processor card, a USB 1.1 card and some sort of network card by the original owner, and I could theoretically browse the net with Netscape. It ran once for a scanning job and crapped out just before the document was through. My Amiga is of more use to me, and it's six years the Power Mac's senior.

[@kaoshonen]

I always enjoy your videos!

[@TheCj71984]

Please put out more of this great content

[@bramvandenbroeck5060]

When you make a battery case out of alkaline batteries, its beneficial if you can found a way to mount the batteries on the outside of the case, somewhere in the rear, if you forget to take em out, and they start to leak, they will leak or explode on the outside of the case. Jason from macintosh museum also had a powermac where a clock battery prevented the machine from booting, he also made a alkaline solution for his mac, he stuck the batterie holder on top of the graphics adapter, forgot to take out the batteries and a couple of months later, he opened up his mac, and found a disaster inside his mac . . .

[@65scribe]

Great point, Bram! Thinking beyond just trying to get the computer to boot is a good idea. I did remember to unplug the battery contraption after the video was done. Thanks for the heads-up, though. You have a good idea, wiring it out the back. I did something similar for the Macintosh II in my 'Jump Start' video, but it didn't occur to me to do the same here until you mentioned it.

[@seshpenguin]

I am excited for this one!

[@sbrazenor2]

At the time these were out, I was an Apple technician for an authorized service provider. I don't recall ever seeing a 4400 come in. I'd seen just about everything else, just not those. Either it means nobody bought them, or they just didn't break. 🤔

[@65scribe]

Interesting info, Sean. Thanks! Possibly both could be true!

[@dcvk6250]

*Sees notification for new 65scribe video* Time to drop everything I’m doing

[@TheDarkFire]

DCVK honestly same.

[@iamzeiss9244]

Exactly

[@seshpenguin]

Yep!

[@paulmuaddib451]

EXACTLY. Was totally preparing for Fallout 76 when I got this notification and it was FULL STOP.

[@andycraig7734]

DCVK Yes. Everything but your pants, please. ;-)

[@axnyslie]

DAMN!

[@65scribe]

Where did you learn such language?

[@axnyslie]

Pole Position.

[@65scribe]

LOL ;)

[@nickwallette6201]

@@65scribe YOU, ALRIGHT? I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU!

[@motomike71]

I remember the 4400/200 the Mac I wished I had waited to get after getting an anemic 7200/90 the year before. It was aggressively priced and engineered. Though the ATA drives were slower than the SCSI Macs had been using for years, IDE drives were much cheaper so upgrades were more affordable. Especially important as Apple, then as now, tended to go low end on storage and memory. Switching to PC compatible memory also saved on that upgrade as well. If you still needed SCSI speed the port was there for an outboard hard drive. I remember forgoing a grip to Florida and Disney World with my friends over spring break so I could spend the money on a 2GB SCSI hard drive. Man, that seemed like a lot of space at the time. The 4400 was the Mac that was supposed to "save the company." It may have held off the wolves for a bit, but it could not save Gil Amelio from Steve Jobs's ambition to take his company back and give us the Mac that would actually save the company.

[@65scribe]

Great personal reflection on the 4400. Thanks for sharing that! While I hesitate to give Steve Jobs as much credit as he took for saving the company, I can appreciate that if things didn’t happen exactly the way they did, there would not have been an Apple after Spindler’s destructive reign.

[@ku-1500]

Really excited to see you uploading new video since the last one😆

[@65scribe]

Thanks for coming back to watch :)

[@oskich]

My first Mac bought with hard earned cash from picking potatoes the whole summer. Upgraded with a Rage 128 graphics card and a 300Mhz G3 processor it ran Unreal Tournament decently :)

[@65scribe]

Thanks Oskar! I like hearing those 4400 stories, and interesting to hear the battery removal worked for you too.

[@onigvd77]

very good video, quiet in-depth overview. I do remember the machine mostly for the fact when released in m area it had to be the 7220. I think I would buy one to muck around with just because they are so different to other machines apple released.

[@65scribe]

Thanks for watching, Grant! You’re right. The differences make this an interesting machine.

[@dokethebroke7679]

Great to se your back love your videos keep it up

[@mariusberger3297]

3:22 dude😅

[@RacerX-]

First time viewer and that was a great video. I remember the 4400 at the time and always thought it was a bit of an oddball. Your explanations and research were helpful, keep up the good work.

[@65scribe]

I'm glad you liked the video. To be honest, I was completely oblivious to the 4400's existence until I read about it several years later. That yellow Apple mailer I show in the video... the envelope wasn't even opened until I was researching this video. I had just thrown it in my Apple file folder back in 1996. The eternal motivation of a pack-rat that "it will be useful one day" actually paid off!

[@RacerX-]

@@65scribe LOL! That sounds familiar and hey, you did use it one day. 👍

[@alerey4363]

5:37 here in South America we knew that new manual voltage selection would cause a lot of exploded PSUs, as many resellers sold the USA 110V-pre selected 4400s to customers in 220V countries; and indeed we repaired literally dozens of exploded 4400 PSUs connected to 220V factory switched to 110V; I know Apple put that yellow warning sticker but Apple customers are...well...never mind

[@65scribe]

Great information, Juan. Thanks for posting that!

[@HR-wd6cw]

To be technicall correct, the drives shown here are parallel ATA but even new SSDs and current hard drives are technically ATA drives as well (As ATA was just an acronym for Advanced TEchnology Attachment). Obviously we have moved away from ATA technology now with PCI-Exress and NVMe stoarge. The one thing I Do not miss of the old Parallel ATA days was the stupid jumpers.

[@65scribe]

All very true! Thanks for commenting!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Another note is that since the 4400 used a standard PC ATAPI CD drive, you can easily replace it with a new stock one, if you can find a vendor who still makes them, which I believe Lite-On does.

[@linoxyard]

Another great one! Keep up the good work

[@pinomarino8917]

In the eyes of a collector, I'd rather have the IDE interface when it comes to hard drives as Compact Flash/SD Adapters are very affordable whereas SCSI devices still start around $200.

[@65scribe]

An excellent point!

[@abdelbassatkhadraoui2616]

my first mac😍 4400/160 🥺 i Miss it

[@65scribe]

ABDELBASSAT KHADRAOUI Cool!

[@MrSad-sn3qv]

I always enjoy your every video.

[@Fifury161]

It really was a nightmare to work on the internals - those metal parts where razor sharp! I also keep my collection in a shed, which unfortunately suffered from a roof collapse - there are brand new still sealed Archimedes computers in there!

[@65scribe]

That sounds like it has the makings of a great video. I'd watch that.

[@Fifury161]

@@65scribe I have been toying with the idea for years, but never get round to it! I wish I had video'd my cull earlier. I thinned out my PC collection and got rid of everything under 1Ghz. I did take pictures though...

[@craigcooper1967]

My thumbs up took them to 604... quite fitting :-)

[@craigcooper1967]

Writing this on my Mojave i7-8700 Hackintosh, a modern Mackintosh clone, at least since Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.4 came out :-D

[@65scribe]

Yes, that's cool! And thanks!

[@phonghai87]

14:16 I saw another Mac startup sound video and they said this short chime also used in powerbook 2400, 3400 and G3 Kanga

[@65scribe]

Great information! Thanks!

[@tstahlfsu]

LOL. Your videos are amazing and hilarious. Love it

[@65scribe]

That's great to hear. Thank you!

[@jeremytravis360]

I had forgotten that I still have one of these machines lurking in the corner of my computer room.

[@colleton60]

I love your videos. Absolutely savage!

[@65scribe]

Thanks very much, John!

[@runforit420]

That was such a shame to hear about Syd - I'd driven down to Brantford a few times and he was such a great guy.

[@65scribe]

runforit420 That’s true. A tragic loss. I’m planning to reference his contributions in an upcoming video.

[@slightlyevolved]

It's basic, but I actually really liked the design language of the 4400. I think it's a nice looking machine.

[@angryshoebox]

Another cool video, keep up the good work. I had a PowerComputing PowerCenter 150 back in the ‘90s. I remember around 1999 or 2000 Sonnett Technologies made a G3 upgrade card for Power Mac 7200s(which also had soldered CPUs)that plugged into the L2 cache slot. I wonder if they made one of these G3 cards for the 4400 as well. I liked the 15” AV monitor, its speakers sounded pretty good, compared to ones on its little brother, the 14” AV, which sounded terrible to my ears, really tinny.

[@65scribe]

Thank you! I think they made G3 cards that were compatible with the Tanzania board, be it the 4400 or Motorola clones. You know, after all that I never fired up the 15AV monitor's speakers. I'll have to try it. Thanks for sharing your insights!

[@labrador_wow_wow]

@@65scribe I used to work for a CPU upgrade manufacturer back in the day. The Sonnet 7200 card was a PCI card, not an L2 card. I met the Sonnet guys on the Apple Expo Paris when they first presented it and they proudly showed it to me the day before the show opened. I just had a blank look, thinking "nice, but ermm you're two years too late". I don't think they sold that many, the upgrade market was going down the pan by that time (was it in 2000? can't remember) as it was pretty clear the upcoming OS X wouldn't run on upgraded Macs (out of the box at least). As you say, there were lots of G3 cards that plugged into the L2 cache slot for the Tanzania boards.

[@65scribe]

You jogged my memory on that. It seemed like people were talking forever about inventing an upgrade card for the 7200, and, yeah, by the time they came up with something, it hardly mattered. Good info! Thanks!

[@Bleckman666]

Sonnett did indeed make a very good G3 upgrade card (I think it was called the Crescendo?), I bought it, and extended the life of my 4400 until i was able to buy a iMac DV Special Edition, which then introduced me to Mac OS X, but that is another story...

[@turbinegraphics16]

I brought one of these and its a nice machine for old games, the 200 mhz cpu seems a bit better than a p200. Back when this was new the pc was still the better choice because of all the software you could get but the mac had some good exclusives.

[@65scribe]

That's true - like Marathon :) Thanks for sharing your experience with the machine!

[@MemeFactoryFaculty]

You’re finally back!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

You can DL the original Marathon and a new version that runs on macOS: www.macintoshrepository.org/5510-marathon trilogyrelease.bungie.org/ github.com/Aleph-One-Marathon

[@abandonedchannel7561]

Watching this on my G3 iBook!

[@steves009]

In New Zealand they sold as the PowerMac 7220

[@paulmuaddib451]

There's leaves in it. There's *leaves* in here!

[@ArmaAutomotive]

The 4400 was a Pretty interesting show actually.

[@65scribe]

I never did watch it, but I hear it got a 2021 reboot, so it must have gained quite a following. As far as I am aware, the reboot will not talk about the Power Mac 4400 either. :(

[@ArmaAutomotive]

@@65scribe thanks for the video,

[@65scribe]

@@ArmaAutomotive I’m glad you liked it, Jon

[@georgesenda1952]

My second Mac was a Performa 550 I got at a garage sale for $50. I loved it but one day the front plate came off & then the cd drive stopped working so I sent it off to be recycled. It also seemed to weigh a ton and killed my back trying to lift it when I had to move it. But I still miss it today.

[@65scribe]

I always liked that design, too. Even though Apple's design group hated it, apparently.

[@georgesenda1952]

The front cover on my Performa 550 came off and I could never get it back on. I thought it was a good computer & it was my first color Mac & I bought it at a yard sale for $50.

[@65scribe]

Yes, those early Performas were good until around the beginning of the Powermac. I like the design of that 500 series better than the 5000 series replacement or the G3 AIO that followed.

[@cgarby]

Kudos for the drunk orson wells drop

[@owenrichards1418]

Jesus, it even looks like a Winbox inside.

[@1x4x9]

The Cyrix 6x86 was great in integer math, and would often outperfom the Pentium clock-for-clock (hence the "PR Rating"), but the FPU was donkey balls which rendered it less than useful for 3D games that utilized it. Quake being a notable example. From what I remember A PR-200 part was at least a third slower than a Pentium 133MHz.

[@65scribe]

That’s interesting information. Thanks for sharing that. Sounds like it really depended on what you wanted to do.

[@RetroReviewYT]

I was close to getting one a few years ago on Craigslist for 30 bucks.

[@BilisNegra]

I equally enjoy a review like this, and once again realize just how good is to live in 2018 for a computer enthusiast. Well you had to throw 1700 bucks for a basic computer model back then, 2700 in today's money! What you can build with that cash today is not exactly basic, right?

[@stephanemignot100]

I have thrown away this same monitor last year, tragic mistake! And a 19'' Liyama...

[@Fifury161]

Ah yes, I still have my 4400 - the first Mac that drew blood from me when I tried to work on it - those metal parts have a lot of sharp edges! I also have the clone version - it had the added advantage of allowing a PS2 keyboard & mouse to be used! I must get around to making my own videos!

[@65scribe]

I’m guessing you have a Power Computing desktop?

[@Fifury161]

@@65scribe I'll need to dig them out - I seem to recall I had a Power Computing version and a StarMax minitower one as well. Those "lesser" machines got relegated to the shed!

[@65scribe]

Probably why they are so hard to find now. People thought only Apple-branded machines had value. Good job keeping them!

[@ferrreira]

I always come back to this video just to hear the Performa 6200 "true" chime hahahaha I have a Performa 6360 in my collection and indeed it's not a speedy Mac by any measure

[@65scribe]

Glad you liked that. And the 6360 was said to be the only good 6200/6300 model.

[@ferrreira]

@@65scribe it's not too bad indeed, I bought it from a guy and it came with System 7.5.5 in Brazilian Portuguese

[@sonicunleashedfan124]

Maybe the chime was shortened because the full chime was copyright of Apple but the shortened chime was public domain for the clones

[@65scribe]

That theory probably makes the most sense. It could be a chime they gave to the clones and the 4400 had a clone board.

[@CODMarioWarfare]

I’ve read that the yellowing of ABS plastic was not from any flame-retardant additive, just a rust-like oxidation breakdown of the plastic.