A Grad Student Discovered a Forgotten 'Fat Mac' at His Mom's House. He Plugged It in After 30 Years and Got a Big Surprise

The computer was as sturdy as a rock. Apple knew it.

August 23, 2024, 08:01 ET

Alba Mora

One day, Ariel Fink, a grad student at the time, got the idea to turn on an old computer forgotten in a closet, buried among other old boxes. What he found was like a time machine. Although some might argue that the computer is obsolete, it’s a good thing he didn’t throw it away. If the storage conditions are right, a Mac seems to endure time with no fear.

The computer in question is a Macintosh 512k. The Macintosh 512K was a powerful machine, which sold for $2,795, or about $8,500 today. The “512K” in the name means it had twice as much RAM as the original model, earning it the nickname “Fat Mac.” It was powered by a Motorola 68000 processor with a peak clock speed of 7.8338 MHz, operating normally at 6 MHz. The Macintosh 512K was put on sale in 1984 and discontinued less than two years later. In 2014, Fink verified that it still worked.

A Macintosh 512K That Had Been Forgotten for 30 Years

Some users keep valuable items at home, like a $599 iPhone that became a lot more valuable over time and paid for the owner’s house, or an iPod forgotten in a closet that was later sold for the price of a new car. These relics end up being auctioned off and traded for significant amounts of money. Case in point: the gala suit worn by Steve Jobs during the presentation of the Macintosh in 1984, which fetched $39,000.

It's not clear whether Fink has gone the same route with his Macintosh 512K. What we do know is that one day, shortly after graduating, Fink returned to his parents’ house and stumbled upon a computer his mother had kept. As mentioned earlier, the computer in question was a complete Macintosh 512K, along with an Imagewriter printer and an Apple Hard Disk 20. The “20” in the name indicates that it had a 20-megabyte hard disk, which is about the same size as a couple of compressed MP3 songs.

What’s even more surprising is that Fink was able to demonstrate that the computer still worked properly. It booted up on the first try without any glitches. In fact, Fink didn’t even bother to set up a desk or install the monitor on a table. He simply plugged everything in from the floor with the curiosity of a child and checked how he could load the menu, open folders, and navigate with the included mouse.