Apple unveiled the Quadra 700 on October 21, 1991 and introduced the Mac community to the new high-octane 68040 processor. The Quadra 700 was one of the most powerful computers in Apple's lineup offering nearly double the performance of the "wicked fast" Macintosh IIfx introduced a few years earlier. The original price was about $5700. I purchased my Quadra 700 from a thrift store in May 2006 for $30.
The Quadra 700 has a 25 MHz 68040 processor with an integrated FPU. It originally shipped with either an 80 MB, 160 MB or 400 MB internal hard drive. When I purchased my Quadra 700, it had a 500 MB hard drive, which recently died. Currently, it has an 80 MB internal hard drive. The Quadra 700 has a single built-in 1.4 MB floppy disk drive.
Quadra 700 floppy disk drive
Maximum RAM is officially 68 MB, with 4 MB residing on the motherboard. My Quadra 700 has 68 MB of RAM. The Quadra 700 has 512K built-in Video RAM (VRAM) with a total of 2 MB possible. My Quadra 700 has 512K VRAM. The Quadra 700 supports a variety of resolutions beginning at 512 x 384 and ending at 1152 x 870. 640 x 480 was perhaps the most widely used resolution given the average monitor size back in 1991. The Quadra 700 has three expansion slots: 2 NuBus slots and one PDS. My Quadra 700 does not have any expansion cards installed.
The Quadra 700 case is very easy to access, but changing RAM requires removing the hard drive and floppy disk drive.
The Quadra 700 has the following ports: two ADB ports, one DB-15 video port, one DB-25 SCSI port, one serial printer port, one serial modem port, an AAUI-15 Ethernet port, one speaker jack, and one microphone jack. The Quadra 700 employs "soft power", so it is possible to use the power button on the keyboard to turn it on.
Quadra 700 ports
The Quadra 700 shares the same form factor as the Macintosh IIci that originated with the Macintosh IIcx in 1989. The primary difference in case design is the Quadra 700's vertical orientation. From port labels to the name moniker, the Quadra 700 is basically a IIci turned up on its side to function as sort of a mini tower. The Quadra 700 also has a different grill design on the front replete with inset rounded reset and programmer switches.
The Quadra 700 originally shipped with Mac OS 7.0.1, but supports up to Mac OS 8.1. My Quadra 700 is currently using Mac OS 7.5.5 with Appearance Manager. Appearance Manager gives System 7 the look and feel of Mac OS 8.
The Quadra 700 is a great computer. Its 68040 processor with integrated FPU made it a very powerful back in 1991. It is still very popular today and is becoming a highly prized Mac to have in any serious collection. The Quadra 700 is becoming increasingly hard to find and is always hotly contested in eBay auctions.
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