One of the secretaries at work told me she had a powerbook she was getting rid of because it was "old". With her old usually means a couple years, so I was naturally more than willing to take it off her hands. When she gave it to me I had to laugh. She MEANT it this time - it was a Powerbook 170.
It came home anyway. Over the years I've collected a number of old Macs - back when I was in high school my old man and I had a bit of a discussion about the "junk" accumulating in my room and the garage - resulting in a Mac IIfx and 2 IIsi boxes being "accidentally" thrown out.
Well, the 170 adds to my collection of old Mac portables:
![3PB.jpg]()
From Left: the 170, a 180c and a 160.
Unfortunately, I left the battery in the 160 and it got corroded, , but it still works.
The thing that impressed me most about the 170 is how FAST it is compared to any computer (in its day) I've played with. Good old OS 7.0.1.... It must have been sitting in the office since 1992; all the software is original to that year. It boots up MS Word faster than my Dual 533 G4, and has the original After Dark module with the toasters and all. It is easily faster than the 33Mhz 180c running 7.5.3, and the 160 with no FPU.
This helps reinforce my opinion that OS 7.0/7.1 was the best Apple pre-X OS, fast and stable. My PB 180c runs OS 7.5.3, which is buggy and slow; 7.6 on my Powermac 6100 was little better. 8 and 9, meh.
Just thought I'd share. For some reason I can't throw old macs away, and I know I ain't alone there.
It came home anyway. Over the years I've collected a number of old Macs - back when I was in high school my old man and I had a bit of a discussion about the "junk" accumulating in my room and the garage - resulting in a Mac IIfx and 2 IIsi boxes being "accidentally" thrown out.
Well, the 170 adds to my collection of old Mac portables:
From Left: the 170, a 180c and a 160.
Unfortunately, I left the battery in the 160 and it got corroded,
, but it still works. The thing that impressed me most about the 170 is how FAST it is compared to any computer (in its day) I've played with. Good old OS 7.0.1.... It must have been sitting in the office since 1992; all the software is original to that year. It boots up MS Word faster than my Dual 533 G4, and has the original After Dark module with the toasters and all.
It is easily faster than the 33Mhz 180c running 7.5.3, and the 160 with no FPU.This helps reinforce my opinion that OS 7.0/7.1 was the best Apple pre-X OS, fast and stable. My PB 180c runs OS 7.5.3, which is buggy and slow; 7.6 on my Powermac 6100 was little better. 8 and 9, meh.
Just thought I'd share. For some reason I can't throw old macs away, and I know I ain't alone there.
