So I was shopping at a thrift store today and found a perfectly good Macintosh Performa 6400/200 and bought it for $12 and 35 cents. I brought it back, and now I dont know what to do! I've been a PC user all my life so all I have are PC based keyboard, mice, and monitors. What do I need to get to get this mac going? Can I buy converter plugs for my current PC equipment so I can plug it into the MAC? The connections in the back are awkward, and as you can see I'm a newbie! Thanks for the help!

You need an old style (ADB Mac) keyboard and mouse and an APPLE Monitor or an 8-15 pin adpator, if your in or around SD email me back and I willl give you the parts you need.

Well, as far as antique Macintosh computers go, you managed to pick yourself up a fairly decent one. The 6400/200 actually has enough computing power to be quite useful. Just give me a second to refresh my memory on the specifications for this particular machine... [Queue Jeopardy theme song] ... Hmmm, memory expands to 136MB using two dimms, two available PCI slots for stuff like ethernet or video, built-in subwoofer, and 256KB secondary cache. Not a bad find for $12.35! I would have easily spent double that for a 6400 in decent condition. I recall reading that the 6400 can be a bugger to open without breaking little plastic pieces, but there's tonnes of info in the internet about these boxes. The 6400, for some reason, is a fairly popular model among collectors. The 6400 will run Mac OS 8 and 9 just fine, but I would suggest you start with System 7.5.3 if you don't already have a Mac Operating System for this machine. You can download System 7.5.3 from Apple's website for free. While you're there, download the System 7.5.5 update -- it's also free. You might be able to find a cheap USB card to shove in one of the PCI slots, so you can use a USB keyboard and mouse. You might want to investigate that possibility further. Ask around on the various Macintosh forums, or do a Google search on the Performa 6400. If you want to go with glorious Apple brand product, ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) keyboards and mice are fairly common and can be had for nxt to nothing. Often times you can get them for exactly nothing, or, at the very least, for the cost of shipping. This is assuming that you cannot find anything locally. For video, you're either going to want an Apple branded monitor, a monitor made for use with Macintosh computers, or an adapter that will let you use just about any VGA/SVGA class monitor currently on the market. All of these items are relatively easy to find and can be had rather cheaply. I will warn you about the VGA adapters though. Some vendors try to sell these adapters for ridiculously inflated prices. When I was calling around locally for an adapter, the cheapest I could find was $25!!! I thought that price was insane considering that I had seen these adapters in mail-order catalogs for as little as $2! Good luck. Gay men don't jump.

http://www.zone6400.com All the info you could ever imagine wanting, and then some... Gay men don't jump.