What do I do with all these clones?

Hi, it would probably help to identify the particular machines as there were several clones out there.

I'm guessing that you have changed the processors with G4 Sonnet cards? Were these Power Computing clones? Or one of the others such as Umax or Motorola?

You can run OS X on them using Xpostfacto although I would look here first, http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=Compatibility. html .

and my gut feeling is that I would not install OS X only because I suspect you will run into some problems in the video department I did and that's why I am not keen on X on these guys. I own samples of the three clones mentioned above but find that OS 9 ran best.

As for parts, well if you had 128mb 5v ram in them yes these memroy strips would be worth something. Otherwise they only came originally with small hard drives and CD drives so don't think there is much of a market for this stuff.....

I did a small page on the clones in my collection a long time ago here, http://www.kevinomura.com/macclones/index.html

Kevin

Hi you have the top of the line Starmax then. They have the cache card accelerators. For hard drives you can run ATA drives and I think up to 120 GB as there may be a limit (not 100% as I have not used that particular Starmax) but I would guess so. Good news is those HD's are cheap, er well at least over here.....

This site has some handy info on the Tanzani II MB in your Starmaxi, albeit in German

http://www.macinfo.de/hardware/boards.html

and specific information for the 5000/5500

http://lowendmac.com/moto/5000.shtml

The Supermac S900 is the same as the Umax, it came in a lot of different versions. This has some good information here,

http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/s900.shtml

You might want to repaint the case instead, I would the wife painted a few compact Mac cases a few years ago for a newpaper story and they look pretty good. If your S900 has the twin turbo video card in it do not upgrade the CPU to the Sonnet 1ghz G3 as that video card will not work! I know because I have this card in a PowerTower Pro and the accelerator back in it's box because the video goes mad. OWC support tells me that I need a new video card, grrr but that is another story......

As for IBM drive support, you can always add a PCI ATA card. Was your card made for a Mac? If PC it may or may not work depending on the chipset on the card or just pick up a proper card off eBay granted I guess give the age of these clones I wouldn't go too wild upgrading....

Kevin

Well..... if you like tinkering.....

http://www.jump-ing.de/index.php?Lang=en&Menu=3&SubMenu=2

Kevin

Take a look at this chart before you give up. It is using Apple model numbers, not clone numbers, but it gives a broader, more realistic idea of what is attainable. Tons of Beige G3 users have moved beyond Apple-supported 10.2 by using XPostFacto.

http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=Compatibility. html

In my opinion, the feature that determines whether you have a useful computer or a boat anchor is Accelerated Video. Even not-for-profits want to run a regular browser in addition to a word processor.

Selling on eBay?

I can only speak for myself but I don't think you will get much if anything by the time you are done paying their fees etc......big headache would be shipping because they are HEAVY and if you don't have a lot of feedbacks most regulars will avoid you.
Kevin