The venerable 680X0 processor had been at the heart of the Macintosh ever since the original Macintosh 128 in 1984. Time, as with technology, had marched on and Apple had made the decision to go with the new PowerPC processor after joining forces with Motorola and arch-rivals IBM. With the first wave of new 'PowerMacs' released in 1994, the stage was set for a new generation of Macs that would give users some real power.

Launched in March 1994, the new PowerMac 8100 re-used the mini-tower case from the older Quadra 800/840av and this was in stark contrast to the desktop case used by the PowerMac 6100 which was launched at the same time. This vertical case gave users more scope for future expansion but Apple opted to ditch the more common 15 pin monitor socket in favour of the HDI-45 socket - a move that either required a dedicated A/V monitor or a dedicated graphics/A/V card to be fitted to the machine's new Processor Direct Slot (PDS). This, theoretically, gave users the option of running two monitors at once but the onboard graphics came with no dedicated video memory so, in a throwback to the 'bad old days', it ended up 'leeching' from the main memory. Anyone looking for maximum video performance was advised to stick solely with the PDS option.

Originally shipping with an 80MHz Motorola 601 CPU, the 8100 later appeared in 100MHz and 110MHz versions. Both the 80MHz and 100MHz versions were also available in 'A/V' flavours which added video input and output as well as the dedicated PDS card fitted as standard.

Far better received than the 6100 series machines, the 8100 was a solid performer that, coupled with it's excellent expansion options (in terms of slots and drive bays), gave it a far longer lifespan than its desktop cousins.

The 8100 is not really a machine that's ever really gotten me excited, as, truth be told, it's pretty much a Quadra 800/840AV with a suped-up processor. No offence but not exactly something to get excited about...so why have I got one? Well, when it's going to cost £0 you don't really argue too much. Yes, you read that right £0. Thanks to the wonderfulness that is this site, a fellow Mac enthusiast just a few miles away spotted a hole in the museum and offered, very kindly, to fill that hole (oo-er). That's why we have a PowerMac 8100.

Phsyically the 8100 is is Quadra 800/840AV and it would later go on to become the 8200 - another adoptee of one of the most reviled system cases in Mac history. Yes, the big steel box is back and it's just as awkward to work with as ever. That's not to say that my machine didn't come with some goodies (and traumas) as it did. Fitted with twin 2Gb hard drives, the 100MHz machine was setup to dual boot both OS 7.6 and 8.5. This was actually very useful as one of the drives (the 7.6 one) promptly went belly up - not a good sign.

Popping the hood it's obvious that the 8100 is a bit of a strange beast as it has twin internal SCSI connectors and, in the case of my machine, a dongle attached to terminate the chain on one of the cables - very strange. Elsewhere the bizarreness continues as the 8100 uses the dreaded HDI-45 monitor/AV connector but, thankfully, my machine came with the optional AV card fitted which sported a far more useful 'regular' 15 pin connection. Otherwise it was very much business as usual and a complete strip down and clean didn't turn up anything else untoward and even upping the onboard memory (from 40Mb to 88Mb) was a breeze.

Is it a good machine? Well it's not bad. Ok it's a little slow by modern standards and there are certainly far more powerful 'beige' PowerMacs out there but it's solidly built (despite the annoyance factor of the case) and most reports consider it to be a very stable, workhorse of a machine. From what I've seen, I'm not going to argue with that.