# NeXT Cube on Craigslist



## broken_g3 (Jun 27, 2008)

I was browsing Craigslist today, to see if I could find any coold stuff. And indeed I did:

Vintage NeXT Cube for sale

This guy is selling a NeXT cube, with a fresh install of OpenStep. It includes everything- monitor, keyboard and mouse.

As any hardcore Macintosh fan should know, NeXT was the company that Jobs started after being booted out of Apple. The company produced Motorola 68xxx-derived computers for a while, the Cube being one of them. Though this particular system appears to be a bit beat up, if you have $350 to spend and you live in or around Toronto, it would make a very interesting thing to put on your desk.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

"Note that I've not tested the optical drive."

I'm pretty sure that means the optical drive doesn't work.

Otherwise, cool find.


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## greensuperman32 (Mar 28, 2005)

Nice find, If I had $350 to burn I'd definitely go for it.


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## satchmo (May 26, 2005)

I realize it's almost 20 years old...but that Cube looks like it's been through war.
Look at all those chips! A piece of work like that deserves better.


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## broken_g3 (Jun 27, 2008)

"Have not tested optical drive" does indeed sound sorta bogus. It's not like a Bernouille disk... with so many CDs, how can you not test it? Anyways, Prior to this posting, I did not actually realize these computers had an optical drive. Must be cleverly hidden...

Despite the flaws (beat-up case, possibly faulty optical drive) this thing is so lucrative and so rare, it will be gone in a matter of days. Get it while you can, I suppose.


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## Amiga2000HD (Jan 23, 2007)

I'd jump on it if I had the $350 and the space to spare, but unfortunately no on both parts.

The optical drive part made me scratch my head too though. If it's untested/broken, I wonder how he freshly installed (unless it was installed years ago and sat) the OpenStep system. I guess an external SCSI CD-ROM could have been used.

But thanks for posting that!


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## eggman (Jun 24, 2006)

IIRC the NeXT cube used a magneto-optical drive. (WORM? - write once read many? - I don't remember)

It is possible that the seller has no media to test the write with, but that it reads CD's well enough to get through an install.

I took a quick look at BlackHole Inc. (who still appears to be selling NeXT parts) and they didn't seem to have any optical drives or media available (only the later, "pizza-box" / slab style NeXT workstations and parts.)

I had a couple of those for a while - before I got into OS X... I still remember my sense of deja-vu when I booted and noticed that a few (ok - more than a few) of the finder's aspects were taken from NeXTStep/OpenStep.) I had a turbo colour slab running right next to my main OS X machine for a year or so, the inheritance was obvious (and excellent! ).

The cubes were unique and fascinating bits of computing history - if you thrash the web you can still turn up the video clip of one of them burning. (They were made of a magnesium alloy).

One of the reasons I dove into purchasing an intel mac was because I had seen an article on the web where someone had installed OpenStep on one.


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

Well.... I was keeping my mouth shut until I picked it up tonight....

It's heavy, a lot heavier than I expected but that is because it is all metal, oddly the monitor is heavier than the cpu. 

You need to buy the unit as a whole, eg the monitor takes it's power from the cpu via a single cable. Then the mouse plugs into the kb which then plugs into the monitor so you have a minimal tangle of cables. Kind of a clever design for back then. 

Taking her apart I see some design ideas in the Cube that carried over to Apple or vice versa....

The internal drive is a 5 1/4" magnetic optical 256 mb drive. It wasn't tested because disks are well kind of hard to come by. I have some MO disks but none that are compatible with this fellow yet. If you got some I'm listening.....

Because the case is magnesium it means paint doesn't stick to it very well. I had the exact same problem on my 1972 Honda XL250 which also had painted magnesium cases so I suspect this is a pretty common problem with these computers. Same as the paint on the first generation TiBooks. But it sure would have been nice to find a real pristine condition one not sure what it might have cost though.....

So here it is, haven't done much yet other than turning it on.


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## broken_g3 (Jun 27, 2008)

Congrads, Niteshooter. What an extraordinary find. 

Just out of curiosity, did it come with any software?


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

Thanks! 

Yes it came loaded with OpenStep 4.2 on a working internal hard drive which is a big plus. Has a fair bit of other software some names I recognize and others I don't. I've been looking through the archives on nextcomputer.org to see what else is available but it looks like there is a lot of different stuff on it to start with.

Basically was configured as described so it has the 68040 25mhz cpu. Since it's socketed I wonder if it can be upgraded to a 33 or 40mhz chip. I don't think I'll be doing too much tinkering though. It would be a real mistake to blow something up that is working just fine right now.

I learned it was purchased out of the U of Waterloo as surplus so it may be why there is some development software loaded on her as well.

Finding blank MO disks is going to be the biggest challenge it seems. I have some 1 GB HP disks that are the right size but wrong capacity and my 640 mb disks are too small. I can't say I've ever seen this size before so it will be fun to get that part working.

My top priorities are to get the original hard drive backed up just in case and to figure out if my old Mac 30 pin 4mb simms will work so I can bump it up to a whopping 64mb of internal memory. The 16mb simms I have appear to be too tall to allow the card to fit back into it's slot, pity....

Kevin


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## satchmo (May 26, 2005)

Congrats. Perhaps there's a way for you to refinish it to it's former glory.

For those too young to know what this thing looked like brand new, check out these pics. And you wonder why Apple is so design centric and particular about details. I love how the drive is hidden in that grill section.


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## morespace54 (Mar 4, 2005)

If you have any chance, try posting a picture of the desktop!


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

Thanks Satchmo! They do look pretty when new, a fellow in the states was able to purchase a can of the original paint a couple of years ago. Not sure how that turned out as the thread mentioned parting it out.

But I've also read they could be polished as well which might be very interesting a sort of 'chrome' metal unit.

Like this.

This one is way over the top for me but shows the potential if you got the time and equipment....



















Although a part of me would like to keep her just as she is.

Re desktop pix, I'll work on that on the weekend.

Kevin


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