What is your all time favourite Mac model?

[siurpeeman]

I think you're thinking of the 7100, not the 7500. The 7100 shared the case design with the 650. The 7500 is similar, but more rounded, and much easier to open up.

i definitely know which you're talking about. similar design, and it definitely didn't agree with me.

 

[RacerX]

Well, as far as my main dream machine of all time, I'd have to say the Quadra 900/950 because they were far and away the best desktop systems of their era. Speed wise they were only matched by the low end workstation market (systems like the NeXTstation, IRIS Indigo and SPARCstation LX). At a time when PCs where maxing out at 16 MB of memory, these Quadras could hold 256 MB (both the IRIS Indigo and SPARCstation LX topped out at 96 MB). Where PCs were limited to between 500 MB to 2 GB drives, there was room for three internal SCSI drives with almost no limit on size (other than what you could find at the time). There potential was just staggering back then.

Coming in a close second would be the PowerBook Duo series. The idea of having one system without compromises, that could serve as both a desktop and a subnotebook was incredible. People are thrilled with the MacBook Air's 3 pound weight today, but the Duos were already around 4 pounds back in the early 1990s.

And they were quite fast for the period too... The 210, 230, 250 and 270c were all around the speed of the Macintosh IIci, the 280 and 280c were about the same speed as the Quadra 900/950 series, and the 2300c was about the same speed as the Power Macintosh 8100/80. When paired up with the Duo Dock, you had a lot of expansion options too. Two Nubus slots, built-in video and room for an internal hard drive made for some great desktop configurations.

 

[Iscariot]

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, my favourite Mac model is the current 20" iMac.

 

[Cromulent]

Well, as far as my main dream machine of all time, I'd have to say the Quadra 900/950 because they were far and away the best desktop systems of their era. Speed wise they were only matched by the low end workstation market (systems like the NeXTstation, IRIS Indigo and SPARCstation LX). At a time when PCs where maxing out at 16 MB of memory, these Quadras could hold 256 MB (both the IRIS Indigo and SPARCstation LX topped out at 96 MB). Where PCs were limited to between 500 MB to 2 GB drives, there was room for three internal SCSI drives with almost no limit on size (other than what you could find at the time). There potential was just staggering back then.

Great post. I've always wanted to get my hands on an old SGI machine, oh and an old Sun as well. Preferably running their original OS. Unfortunately most people seem to be obsessed with putting Linux on everything which is a real let down for a computer collector .

 

[3nm]

when i'm bored i go on ebay to find SGI machines...

i'm such a nerd... haha.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

• iMac G4 - Design Classic; will be remembered for ages to come. People never believe me when I tell them mine is coming up on 4 years old...
• PowerBook G4 Titanimum - Set the standard for sleek, modern notebooks.
• G4 Cube - Despite its shortcomings, it was stunning packaging.
• PowerBook G3 - Hell, these are bullet proof and remarkably useful, even to this day.

 

[Shotglass]

They're all so awesome, I can't decide.

 

[0098386]

12" PowerBook. Thing is beautiful and even the new MBA hasn't wowed me enough into trading it in.

I don't like the design of the 15"+ models. Something is just right with the 12" model. Oh so right.

 

[RacerX]

Great post. I've always wanted to get my hands on an old SGI machine, oh and an old Sun as well. Preferably running their original OS. Unfortunately most people seem to be obsessed with putting Linux on everything which is a real let down for a computer collector .

I love all of my SGIs (two IRIS Indigos, an Indy and an Indigo 2 IMPACT), they really are great systems. I can't imagine running anything other than IRIX on them, specially as much of what makes them special isn't even supported by either Linux or BSD ports. For example, my Indy includes two additional cards (which were sold for around $13,000 back in 1994, above the Indy's original $8,000 price tag) in mine design for capturing video at full frame size at full frame rate that would be worthless if the system was running anything other than IRIX.

I'm not as good about my Suns though... of my three Suns (two SPARCclassics and a SPARCstation 10), only one is running Solaris (one of the SPARCclassics, the other isn't running currently). I got the SPARCstation 10 specifically for running OPENSTEP 4.2 so I wouldn't have to run it on my ThinkPad any more (which is now a Rhapsody only system). I don't run Solaris all that much either, mainly because the version I have (Solaris 7) is a little taxing on the SPARCclassic's hardware. Eventually I hope to get a copy of Solaris 2.4 or 2.5 for that system.

But yeah, these are all great systems... and seeing them run the way they did back when people were willing to drop thousands of dollars on getting them explains why they were held in such high regard.

I was lucky enough to have gotten to spend a lot of time on these types of systems back then, but I guess for people who didn't know what these systems could do they wouldn't know what they are missing out on by running Linux or BSD on them. They must think that this stuff is just generic old hardware with unique cases and brand names.

when i'm bored i go on ebay to find SGI machines...

i'm such a nerd... haha.

Same here.

Of course the last SGI purchase I made on ebay wasn't software or hardware... I bought an SGI Lettermen's Jacket (with the original SGI logo on it).

Yeah, I'm that nerdy.