Vintage Mac Gets Modern Makeover: The Rackintosh Plus Nobody Asked For (But We Love)
Classic Macintosh Plus Logic Board Finds New Life in 1U Rack Mount
Sometimes the best hardware projects solve problems you didn't know existed. Enter the Rackintosh Plus—a gloriously unnecessary but absolutely brilliant project that crams a genuine 1986 Macintosh Plus logic board into a sleek 1U rack mount.
Created by identity4, this isn't your typical vintage computer destruction story. The project uses a spare logic board the creator already owned, addressing a surprisingly practical need: fitting classic Mac hardware into a modern studio rack setup alongside other equipment.
The custom rack houses more than just the original Apple logic board. It includes a BlueSCSI hard drive emulator, Floppy Emu for SD card-based floppy emulation, and an RGB-to-HDMI converter that lets System 7 shine on modern monitors. A Mean Well power supply keeps everything running, while keyboard and mouse connectors are cleverly relocated to the front panel.
The single 8-ohm speaker maintains that authentic Mac Plus audio experience—which is to say, no stereo sound, just like the original. Despite its modern housing, this Rackintosh delivers exactly what a 4MB RAM Macintosh Plus from 1986 could do, just in a form factor that would make any server room jealous.
