Apple

Hi,

Some Guy offered me an Apple Workgroup Server for 20 bucks but he has no original Software for it. I have a few MacOS Classic (8.5, 9.1) Cd's but i dont think they have Server Stuff included. He mentioned that there is a "CAD" Graphics Card built in *gg*, so a server with a CAD Card? Years back i owned an 9600 which looked very similar to this.

Should i take it, i'm not sure. Any thoughts in this?

Some Pics he sent me ->

Looks like a rebadged Power Mac 9600 to me.

That's exactly what it is; only the WGS 9150 was any different, and all the other PowerPC WGSes are just rebadges. The 9600 is a great beige Mac, and the last six slot one (I have one from johnklos). That said, being a beige Mac, it has a limited bus, and you really need a G3 or G4 card to make it practical. Those aren't hard to find, but add that to the cost. It can run OS X through XPostFacto, though I would not exceed 10.3 or 10.4 on this machine.

The server software that came with it was, at best, perfunctory. Even regular 9600s can do basic file server duty over AFP. It will run regular Mac OS 9.1 with no problems.

pentium wrote: Looks like a rebadged Power Mac 9600 to me.

Pretty much, though the AWS 9650s shipped with dual hard drives strapped to an Ultra SCSI-3 JackHammer SE RAID card. They also shipped with one of three software bundles: an "Application Server Solution," an "AppleShare Server Solution," and an "Apple Internet Server Solution."

IIRC, the AppleShare Server Solution basically was AppleShare IP v5 (including Windows client software) and some additional admin tools, The Internet Server Solution bundled the WebStar http server, Tango, BBEdit, etc., and the Application Server included Now Contact & UpToDate Servers for shared contacts and calendars, a Fax server, and some database tools. Depending on exactly when the system shipped, it may have had other tools, too, like Retrospect Remote for backup management, Adobe PageMill, and so on. At the time, the software bundles actually were quite cost effective.

Aside from the software bundles and the RAID card, it's a Mac that can run any MacOS from 7.6.1 to 9.1. You might need to hunt around for the FWB drivers if you want to use the RAID functions on different versions of MacOS. Of course, you could just hang drives off the motherboard SCSI bus, just like any other Mac.

It can run OS X through XPostFacto, though I would not exceed 10.3 or 10.4 on this machine.

I found that my 9600 with a G4 upgrade at least was terribly unreliable over 9.1. OS X would never even boot.