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Macintosh Quadra 950
68K Mac for professionals - this solid Mac construction contains the
best 68040 CPU as for 1990s, possibility to expand RAM to large
quantities and more drive bays. It came with various configurations and
with different upgrades available. It was the offered for the longest
time in Quadra line and it was in fact one of the last 68K Macs offered
in market. Similar units have been sold as Workgroup Server 95. Cheapest
alternatives included Quadra 800 or
700.
It has a fast as for 1992/3, 33MHz CPU with math coprocessor built-in,
and its mainboard can use cache expansion. Although 4MB 30-pin SIMMs
were expensive and are rare now, with 32MB this machine can run even Mac
OS 8 slowly but in usable speed.
A new feature of these Macs was a keylock which could be used to
restrict powering on or only access to floppy drive and keyboard/mouse.
This was essential for server operation as it was not possible to
accidentally do something wrong thinking that one is working on another
computer.
| Model No: | M4300 |
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| Year: | 1992 | |
| Discontinued: | 1995 | |
| CPU: | Motorola 68040 33MHz | |
| RAM: | 36MB (8x4+4x1MB on board) | |
| Max. RAM: | 64MB | |
| RAM Type: | 16x30-pin SIMM | |
| Hard disk: | 400MB SCSI, 3.5" SL Also delivered with 230MB or 1GB. Additional IBM 2GB SCSI drive. |
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| Floppy drives: | 1 1.4M 3.5" | |
| Other drives: | SCSI SyQuest 80MB portable drive | |
| Graphics: | 1MB Expandable with VRAM SIMMs to 2MB | |
| Sound: | 1-channel Special sound line input/output in cinch connectors |
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| Display: | External, 15-pin connector Some options with video board. |
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| Dedicated OS: | Mac System 7.0 | |
| Maximum OS: | Mac System 8.1 | |
| Expansions: |
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ADB. - 16 SIMMs for RAM Expansion - ROM SIMM in some units - VRAM SIMMs - 5 NuBus slots - CPU PDS Slot Currently installed: JackHammer SCSI board, FORMAC ProGraph II.3 board |
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| Connectors: | - 15-pin video
connector - External SCSI port (DB25) - AAUI network card connector - 2 serial ports (RS-422) for modem and printer) - ADB connector for keyboard and mouse - Sound output - Microphone in - Sound line in/out |
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| This model has a RAM maxed to 36MB and a few unusual
expansions. There is a 2GB SCSI hard drive (IBM Model
0664-M1H)
with faster interface board, a proprietary Eizo video board
(pinout of display is unknown, chip is Formac ProGraph II.3, it
works having its own memory and ROM) and
SyQuest magnetic drive for archiving or transfering large files
using 88MB cartridges.
It comes from a graphics studio and its hard disk has been
sanitized. The drive has been offered as adapted to Mac by
PROCOM. IBM's drive is manufactured in 1992, so it's not a later upgrade. Whoever added such big drive and SyQuest drive had a really big needs to process or archive large data. The 1GB version costs about 10K USD, while 400MB was ca. 8800, and IBM high-capacity drives were really advanced technology. Maybe it was used to store scanned or processed bitmaps? Or as a pre-press storage before designs were distributed using SyQuest media? |
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Disassembly
WARNING: When keeping the computer flat on side, use some book to hold it parallel to the floor/table surface! If not, you may break the "legs".
On the rear, there may be a screw to remove. Push two
latches, open the side and slide it off. Now you are inside and it is
possible to remove drive cage.
To remove drive cage, remove all its wires going to mainboard and power
unit first (SCSI, FDD, power cables). Remove two screws keeping the
drive cage in place, slide the cage to the rear and pull it from
computer. If there are more hard disks installed, you may encounter
problem. Watch for SCSI cable on the top of cage and be aware where your
SCSI terminator is not to break it.
There is a way to remove power supply unit when drive cage is removed,
but I haven't tried this:
Remove speaker bezel (4 latches near speaker, remove from front), and
probably speaker too. Disconnect the power unit from the rest of
computer. The power unit is held by 3 screws, then it can be slided
towards front and removed. However, the front bracket may obstruct way,
so it may be needed to remove it.
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Easter egg Power it on and press 4 keys simultaneously: s, e, t, Esc - it should reset and display a picture collage of development team. This should theoretically work in Quadra 700 and 900 too, as the date is "1991", the team described themselves as "Reign of Terror '91" to be exact. Easter egg from this page. |
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https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_quadra/specs/mac_quadra_950.html
- In EveryMac,
https://www.dobreprogramy.pl/macminik/Quadra-900-bestia-zamknieta-na-kluczyk,56538.html
- Polish modern description