Apple Macintosh IIci

In September 2009 I started to downsize this collection to a few items and then archived this section to its own subdomain at the start of October 2011.

Building upon the Macintosh IIcx the IIci was more powerful and most signifigantly was the first Macintosh, excluding the compacts, that included onboard video, precluding the need for users to spend an additional $400 on a video card. Expandability was still a high priority with the IIci containing three NuBus slots as well as a PDS slot that was initally used for Level 2 Cache, then a 40MHz 68040 processor and eventually a PowerPC 601 processor. Another first for the IIci is that it was the first 32-bit clean Macintosh as opposed to the earlier 'dirty' systems.

The offical lifespan of the IIci was from September 1989 to February 1993, not quite four years, but due to the large number of upgrade and expansion options many systems remained in worthwhile use for quite some time.

This system

I have actually aquired four complete IIci systems which have had the best parts combined into this one and a second that is mostly a storage location for spare parts.

First I spent $AU28 through eBay to obtain a IIci with a cache card, 20mb RAM, 160MB Hard Drive and an ethernet card, 14" monitor, keyboard, mouse, and associated cables. Unfortunatly the swivel base on the monitor (M1212) has a curved front that doesn't fit very well with the straight front of the IIci. However it fits fine with my IIsi or only of my LC's.

The second system, again through eBay (same seller in fact), cost me $AU44 and consisted of a basic IIci system with 12mb of RAM, 80mb hard drive, keyboard, mouse, and a portrait monitor. The portrait monitor is what I was really after with this system.

I got my third IIci system from a friend's work (as well as a 6100 with AV monitor, and a whole lot of manuals and software) that was discarding them. The actual system is missing the drive cage and has an unknown third party hard drive. But to make up for this it has a second video card, ethernet card and a Daystar Universal Powercache. It also came with a High Resolution RGB monitor with swivel base, mouse and keyboard.

The fourth system I obtained was from Uni with 20mb RAM, ethernet, and an additional video card. I also got a dead IIx (that contained video and ethernet nubus cards), a high resolution RGB monitor, keyboard and mouse, and various appletalk connectors at the same time.

Combining all these systems we end up with a IIci with Daystar accellerator, 20mb of RAM, XXXmb Hard Drive, second and third video card, and an ethernet card. The two monitors are the Portrait display and a high resolution RGB monitor.

Images

A complete IIci system. - iici-01.jpg iici-01.jpg, 900x674, 62KB
A complete IIci system.
View of the system unit from front. - iici-02.jpg iici-02.jpg, 900x723, 70KB
View of the system unit from front.
Rear view of the system unit showing the ports and bays for the expansion slots. - iici-03.jpg iici-03.jpg, 900x653, 76KB
Rear view of the system unit showing the ports and bays for the expansion slots.
Top cover removed. - iici-04.jpg iici-04.jpg, 900x707, 141KB
Top cover removed.
Drive cage with floppy drive (bottom) and hard drive (top). - iici-05.jpg iici-05.jpg, 900x782, 82KB
Drive cage with floppy drive (bottom) and hard drive (top).
Inside the case with power supply, drive cage and expansion cards removed to show the logic board that takes up the whole case. - iici-06.jpg iici-06.jpg, 900x812, 159KB
Inside the case with power supply, drive cage and expansion cards removed to show the logic board that takes up the whole case.
Close up of the bottom of the case showing the signatures of the designers included in the mould. - iici-07.jpg iici-07.jpg, 704x900, 100KB
Close up of the bottom of the case showing the signatures of the designers included in the mould.
NuBus ethernet card and Cache card. - iici-08.jpg iici-08.jpg, 900x676, 107KB
NuBus ethernet card and Cache card.

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