PowerComputing PowerCenter Pro 180

so surprise surprise surprise! i ended up getting a classic mac, but not just any classic mac..a mac clone! i'll be using this for classic mac software and nostalgic purposes.

Specs:
CPU: PowerPC 604e 180MHz
RAM: 81MB of 70ns RAM
Graphics: ATI 3D Rage II
Hard Drive: 2GB IBM Fast SCSI Drive

[jacobrodricson]

HAHA I use to work for power computing at the westinghouse facility in Round Rock, they originally had compuadd, building the units in Austin, till the I.R.S seized compuadd's assets, and they where forced into their own space, word was they had never planned on too much success as a company they wanted to get up and running and sell it off. I heard they where wanting to get motorola interested in buying them. had a lot of fun helping build that place Bill Paxton if you're still living thanks for the opportunity working there been a good conversation piece over the years.

[TheFlyingScotsman]

YAY PowerComputing! Another amazing video!

[tookitogo]

The Mac display connector is more or less VGA, but in a DB-15 connector and with different sense pins. The second Ethernet port is an AAUI port, which accepts a transceiver to connect to coaxial Ethernet, or oddball third party 10baseT with two ports that allowed daisy chaining.

[vwestlife]

It's strange that this one does not have PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, while my PowerBase 240 (603e) did. However, this one has onboard Ethernet while the PowerBase did not. Also it looks like the IDE connector is not installed on this one, while my PowerBase came with an IDE hard drive (but a SCSI CD-ROM drive).

[Geforce]

This looks better built than the actual 7200 I had

[tookitogo]

I have the tower version of the PowerCenter Pro 180. :) Still works! Compared to the low-profile version you have, it adds an UltraSCSI card with a faster IBM UltraStar hard disk instead of the Fast SCSI UltraStar in yours.

[Honthetube]

My father used to have a UMAX Apus with a PPC 603 at 180Mhz...  damn... that thing felt 'fast' back in the day. it could to run Quake in software render with a smooth constant frame rate... and run Total Annihilation with four AIs on the go within a pretty sizable map with only a little slowdown. While all my poor old tired performer could manage... was games like Duke Nukem 3D and Doom in postage stamp size resolutions.

It served him pretty well, for quite some time. until he upgraded to a G3 powerbook. 

Oh and If your planing to run any old games on this that have 3D acceleration options, most Mac OS  games that support ATI's RAVE render will run on it's built in RAGE 2. there's only a few games out there, that will not play nicely... or work at all on a RAGE 2. (unreal being one of them)

 

[ericcindycrowder]

I have a Power Computing Power Tower Pro 180 and a PTP 250. They are the larger tower versions of this computer, both with PPC 604e

[NelsonBigGunPFan]

just picked up a Powercenter 132D on ebay that was bought from a estate sale. Has SCSI CD and HDD i think. PPC 640 CPU. i used to have a tower back in the day i got at a yard sale. Now i need to find a ADB keyboard and mouse set.

[HikikomoriDev]

...I guess this doesn't come with soft power so whenever the power button is pressed it would just shut off as opposed the MacOS telling you to confirm via dialog.

[VSigma]

I just got a PowerCenter 150 in the mail today. Needs a hard drive...

[XodiumLabs]

There's a complete list of clone OEMs for 'ya. 

The "It looks like an ethernet" port is also AAUI, to which you *could* attach an ethernet dongle, or something else if you so pleased.

[capndavey]

with those old mac OS versions you can format a new drive and just copy that one to it and it will work

[SansuiA]

I have a PowerComputing rat around here somewheres....

[NelsonBigGunPFan]

i was reading about power computing and how apple licensed them to make the clones, and they made a good product with a ton of sales until Steve jobs got back with apple and acquired the company, but before they did he took their license and they had to stop making the clones.

[rmx]

umax also made clones at the time but umax made more towers then anything else i think but i could be wrong lol i do happen to have a sonnet g3 300 1m so if u wanted it u could get it so yea
 

[RigsOfRods]

lol i have a quantuim ic fireball 40gb hard drive its pretty good

[capndavey]

not only can you upgrade it to a G3 or G4 you can put a pci radeon 7000 or 9200 in it for much better video