Introduced in March 1994, the PowerMac 6100 was considered to be the entry level machine into the Macintosh range. Reusing the case design from the Quadra 610, the 6100 shared the same quirks and limitations that the earlier machine had suffered from (single PDS slot, manual disk eject on the front etc.) but its slimline look did have admirers.

Initially clocked at 60MHz, the 6100 was no slow coach but, by the same yardstick, was not destined to set the world on fire when it came to speed. A new version clocked at 66MHz was released 10 months later but, CPU speed and hard drive side increases aside, brought nothing else to the machine.

From the very start, the 6100 was available in two versions and, just as with the Quadra version, an 'AV' flavour was available. While this initially appeared to offer nothing more than video input/output, the AV models did come with dedicated VRAM (2Mb of it) which was a big improvement over the 'standard' models that used the nasty approach of stealing memory from the main RAM.

Having proved successful in the Quadra 610 DOS, a third variation, the 6100 DOS, was introduced in early 1995 and this sported a dedicated DOS card. Incorporating an Intel 486DX2 processor running at 66MHz, the card allowed users to run MS-DOS and even Microsoft Windows alongside Mac OS, but also sported a dedicated SIMM slot allowing up to 32Mb of RAM to be installed specifically for the DOS card (if no RAM was fitted, the card shared the main system memory, slowing the system down).

Despite its initial five 'flavours', the 6100 became available in a range of variations (Performas 6110CD, 6112CD, 6115CD, 6116CD, 6117CD, and 6118CD) which sported varying monitors, hard drives etc.

A solid machine, the 6100 sold reasonably well but was not destined to be considered one of the 'great' Macs. While in no way a lame duck, the 6100 was average rather than brilliant and cost cutting measures (such as sharing main memory with video) only served to slow the machine down.

The museum was already home to a Quadra 610 and a Centris 660AV so the PowerMac 6100 shouldn't really have sparked any real interest (as all three share the same case) but the fact that this 6100 was the DOS version certainly caught my attention (and at £5 it certainly wasn't something that could be ignored). This was the first time that I'd come across a Mac with a DOS card fitted and it was this that earned it its place - it turned up and promptly failed to do anything.

A flat PRAM battery meant that the machine had to be double-booted (power up, power down, and then back up in quick succession) and it binged into life and went straight to the Mac desktop. OK, so where's that lovely command prompt? My machine had come with a wealth of cables and disks but the version of Apple's DOS software was hopelessly out dated and probably explained why the seller had wished me luck and explicitly noted that the display (in DOS) was terrible. The new version of the software solved all of this and landed me with a brand new Control Panel to play with. Supporting floppy disks, hard drives and the CD ROM drive, the DOS card was all ready to go but to use a hard disk it required space to be set aside (either as a dedicated file behaving as a drive or as an actual DOS drive partition). I opted for a 40Mb 'file' drive and through a series of random button clicks, was presented with a black screen proudly displaying the text 'Non-system disk. Please insert a valid disk and press any key to continue' - success.

I won't go into any great detail but the eternally vile MS-DOS was installed and everything was then a breeze. At 40Mb though space was somewhat tight and the 6100's 250Mb hard drive really wasn't up to the job. Sadly all I had to hand was a 435Mb disk - it's better but not exactly ideal. So the machine was re-installed from scratch, a decent sized DOS 'drive' created (200Mb) and the various drivers and other DOS horrendousnesses installed. Running a 486DX2 at 66MHz is hardly blisteringly fast by modern standards but it's enough to run Windows 3.1 or even Windows 95 (at a push). I opted for the former even though by having 16Mb of dedicated RAM onboard, the card is far faster than memory free cards that have to share memory with the Mac side of things.

So what's it actually like to use? My answer would have to be 'frustrating' but this might be down to missing some vital nugget of info. While the card is quick to start and switch to and from (just hit command-Enter), ejecting floppy disks is a nightmare - PCs have eject buttons but Macs don't so to eject a floppy disk I have to switch out of DOS, eject the drive in Mac OS, and then switch back to DOS. There's probably a keystroke to do the job but I haven't found it yet. MS-DOS itself is just as charm free as it was when I was a using it in the early 1990's and there are things like drivers and config files to worry about - things that Mac users are blissfully unaware of (in general).

Away from the DOS card the 6100 is a decent little machine but it does have a rather annoying bespoke monitor connection (if you buy one, make sure that you have a monitor that will work with it or get a monitor adaptor). Performance is decent and, if you can swap the hard drive for something more 'roomy', it's a solid little workhorse of a machine. Yes it'll never win any races (either as a Mac or a PC) but, in the case of the DOS version, Apple did a great job of tying the two 'machines' together (they share hard disk, memory, CD drive, floppy drive, audio, screen (via a tangle of monitor cables), keyboard, mouse and probably loads of other things). If you can find one at a decent price, buy it...you won't be disappointed.

Update: 25/02/2006 Ben Boldt emailed me to say that ejecting a floppy disk under DOS can be done by hitting Apple+Shift+1...and it works! Still doesn't make DOS any better but saves having to switch back to Mac OS just to eject a disk.