What's the Rarest Early Intel Mac?

[rampancy]

Now, if only PA Semi could have moved forward a bit sooner…

One of my favorite games is playing "If only..." (PPC Edition)

Like, "If only..."

...Exponential Technology's x704 could have delivered on its performance promises?
...the fabled 7457-RM hadn't been supposedly cancelled by Motorola?
...the supposed "Steamroller" and "Eleven" G5 chips hadn't been abandoned by Motorola and Apple?

And it’s just an updated version (faster FSB, SSE3, VT-x) of the 1.5 GHz Pentium M which was released in… 2003.

I don't know if this speaks more to the incredible forward-thinking design of the original Banias/Dothan architecture, or just how much life Apple was trying to squeeze out of the 74xx series.

I remember reading about the Xserve's architecture with its advanced "System Controller" when it first came out, and thinking, "Wow, Apple's really trying to do everything it can to get around the performance lag with the G4..."

 

[Jack Neill]

Nothing with the GMA 950 in it is good.

While thats hard to argue.. I do love my MB 2,1 running Tiger.

 

[Amethyst1]

While thats hard to argue.. I do love my MB 2,1 running Tiger.

And I love my MM1,1 and MBP3,1s running Tiger. This has nothing to do with the GMA 950 being less than impressive.

 

[bobesch]

I personally have a first-generation Apple TV that is (secretly) the slowest early Intel Mac ever made! It has a 1 GHZ Pentium M CPU, 256 MB RAM, and a GeForce 7300 GPU.

But it makes a good stove to keep your cup of coffee hot ...

 

[rampancy]

But it makes a good stove to keep your cup of coffee hot ...

No joke, I actually just used the bottom of my piping hot MacBook Pro 3,1 as a hot massage tool for my partner's aching upper back and shoulders. She really, really enjoyed it.

 

[uller6]

But it makes a good stove to keep your cup of coffee hot ...

It’s not as bad as you think! The machine uses ~15W max from the wall, less than a 2018 Mac mini! I even removed the fan and it doesn’t seem to have made much of a temperature difference. It’s definitely a cat trap, but can run for days without issue.

 

[TehFalcon]

My vote is the edu Core Duo iMac which was available for three months. I’ve yet to see one.

There was just one on shopgoodwill

 

[GMShadow]

I wonder if that's more or less common than the edu-only iMac G5 that's barely documented online.