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Your dream vintage Apple Mac(intosh) setup

pixelatedscraps

pixelatedscraps

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 11, 2017
288
190
Hong Kong
What would your favourite vintage Mac(intosh) setup be? If we're going by Apple's rather arbitrary (but why not) rules, once your Mac goes past the age of 7, it's technically vintage. Or was it obsolete? ;)

If you've got such a system you're in love with, feel free to post photos of it. If not, post the combination that you'd love to have (and may never have gotten the chance to).

Personally, I'm still very fond of the first ever Mac I spent time on at work: a Powerbook G4 Titanium 667 (DVI) and it is something I'm still keeping an eye out if I can find one in very good condition.

However, the first ever Mac I purchased was a MacBook (black) from 2007, a 2.16Ghz, 1Gb, 120Gb HDD beast that I spent an entire month's pay check on, upgraded it myself after AppleCare had finished and then tinkered and repaired it for the best part of another 5 years.

In between, I switched between and regularly used PCs for gaming, my MacBook connected to a Dell 2407WFP and a whole bunch of other hardware until I bought a 2011 MacBook Pro 17", a 2012 MacBook Air, a Mac Pro 1,1, now to my current hardware of a 2010 cMP 5,1, 2014 and 2017 15" MBPs...

If I had the time and a bit of spare change (and desk space at home), I would probably have as my following vintage home setup:
  • Apple Power Macintosh G4 867 DP
  • Apple Cinema Display HD 23"
  • MacBook (black) mid-2007
If we're really talking so-vintage-I-probably-couldn't-use-it setup, it would be a Macintosh Color Classic II from 1993 - I interned one year at a dive shop in Marsalforn, Malta (Gozo) and the alluring, very beautiful shop assistant was typing away on one all summer. To this day, I can't work out who I fell in love with more...

colorclassic.jpg
 
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The dream? I remember gazing lovingly at the Apple 20” Cinema Display connected to a PowerMac G4 cube with the Harmon Kardon Soundsticks (with subwoofer on desk)in the 90’s and thought it couldn’t get any better. Then I bought a Ruby Red iMac DV.

Update: My memory fails me. it was a Apple 22" Cinema Display. Wow, time flies.
 
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I remember working in HK around the turn of the millennium and gazing through the window of a computer shop at one of the staff passing time playing around on the office Mac equipped with a 22" or 23" acrylic ACD. I was agog. I had never seen such a large LCD and was consumed with envy.

I had just the year before left a crappy job where I struggled with huge spreadsheets on a crappy 486DX2 66MHz with a lowly 800x640 curved CRT running Win 3.11. I almost ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome from all the scrolling around. I would have killed for that screen.
 
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pixelatedscraps said:
That's quite a mancave!

What do you do that makes use of 6 displays?
Click to expand...
My wife would violently protest the man cave bit as that area is one part of HER living room. :D

Unless, we are meaning just that area. Then yeah. :D

Thanks!

I'm a graphic designer. My Mac Pro at work has three displays so there is the "My PowerPC Mac has more displays than my Mac Pro" aspect of this. Originally they were attached to a Quicksilver G4, partly because I wanted to see if I could how many displays I could attach. Technically, I could add two more, but that's overkill even for me.

But my justification is the same as it is at work. It's more productive to have all your folders and work areas for different apps and workflows accessible without being buried behind windows.

For instance, at work my most used folders are on my left, my VNC monitoring of our headless G4 is on my right and my main display holds my work area. It's easy to drag and drop items from the left display into my main work area. The same concept applies at home.
 
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eyoungren said:
My wife would violently protest the man cave bit as that area is one part of HER living room. :D

Unless, we are meaning just that area. Then yeah. :D

Thanks!

I'm a graphic designer. My Mac Pro at work has three displays so there is the "My PowerPC Mac has more displays than my Mac Pro" aspect of this. Originally they were attached to a Quicksilver G4, partly because I wanted to see if I could how many displays I could attach. Technically, I could add two more, but that's overkill even for me.

But my justification is the same as it is at work. It's more productive to have all your folders and work areas for different apps and workflows accessible without being buried behind windows.

For instance, at work my most used folders are on my left, my VNC monitoring of our headless G4 is on my right and my main display holds my work area. It's easy to drag and drop items from the left display into my main work area. The same concept applies at home.
Click to expand...

Personally, I take advantage of Expose often for that same reason, and it's very useful. I've tried dual displays, but it feels more cumbersome than a single setup. I can see why some people would prefer it that way, however. To each his own.

...Well, there is also the issue of desk space of course...
 
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eyoungren said:
My wife would violently protest the man cave bit as that area is one part of HER living room. :D

Unless, we are meaning just that area. Then yeah. :D

But my justification is the same as it is at work. It's more productive to have all your folders and work areas for different apps and workflows accessible without being buried behind windows./QUOTE]

I've never gone beyond 2 screens, even in previous fledgling careers as a music producer, DJ and journalist. Currently, my cMP is connected to single Dell UP2716D and because I handle production as well as editing, a second screen is hugely beneficial. 6..would satisfy at least one of my childhood Star Trek fantasies ;)
Click to expand...
 
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z970mp said:
Personally, I take advantage of Expose often for that same reason, and it's very useful. I've tried dual displays, but it feels more cumbersome than a single setup. I can see why some people would prefer it that way, however. To each his own.

...Well, there is also the issue of desk space of course...
Click to expand...
Expose has been a good option, but one that I never could really use given my workflow.

It's easier to simply drag a PDF or other graphic file from a folder on my left and drop it directly into InDesign. Rather than pressing the key for Expose, sorting out which window the file is in, going to that window starting a drag operation, using the key for Expose again and then selecting ID and dropping into ID.

I have multiple windows open at any given time and while Expose lets me see all of them, these are server windows so there's little differentation to them.
 
Quad with a pair of 30" displays. If not a Quad, make it a 12-core mid-2012 Mac Pro with the same displays.

I have the STUFF to do the quad setup, but not the space :)

BTW, I can't imagine having a single display desktop where I wanted to get serious work done. I use dual 23s(aluminum cinema) on my Mac Pro at work, and the productivity boost is amazing. I have dual 23s(acrylic cinema) on my G5 at home, and for the photo work I do I can't imagine NOT having the space to spread out. Given the choice, I will also take two smaller displays over a single large one. The difference for me is largely mental-to me keeping a specific task to a specific display helps me mentally segregate those tasks when they're related but not done simultaneously. I also use virtual desktops(spaces or mission control, depending on the version of OS X) for much the same purpose, although I mostly use that on laptops.
 
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eyoungren said:
Expose has been a good option, but one that I never could really use given my workflow.

It's easier to simply drag a PDF or other graphic file from a folder on my left and drop it directly into InDesign. Rather than pressing the key for Expose, sorting out which window the file is in, going to that window starting a drag operation, using the key for Expose again and then selecting ID and dropping into ID.

I have multiple windows open at any given time and while Expose lets me see all of them, these are server windows so there's little differentation to them.
Click to expand...

...Couldn't you just drag the desktop file to the application's icon in the dock? It doesn't need to be directly on top of the window. And just to improve Expose's convenience, I've got it mapped to the mouse. Desktop show to middle button, all window show to side buttons. Works like a charm.

Meanwhile, I don't even have a 30" or 23" display. And I'm usually running at least 3 windows at a time, too.
 
z970mp said:
...Couldn't you just drag the desktop file to the application's icon in the dock? It doesn't need to be directly on top of the window. And just to improve Expose's convenience, I've got it mapped to the mouse. Desktop show to middle button, all window show to side buttons. Works like a charm.

Meanwhile, I don't even have a 30" or 23" display. And I'm usually running at least 3 windows at a time, too.
Click to expand...

People who actually have real work to get done and have the luxury of having space for more than one monitor typically don't want to far around with things like expose when multiple monitors are a lot more efficient.
 
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I can struggle by on a single high res screen using Expose/Full Screen mode or the Windows equivalents, but typically I'm a heavy user of three screens during the day - two external monitors plus the laptop display. It's much more efficient for me working with a number of remote connections and running applications on the laptop at the same time.
 
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BTW, I'll also add that in my field, multiple monitors have been common since the early 90s. The "cheap" way to do it was to have a Mac SE with a Radius card and an external 19" or so monitor. If you had money, you might have something like a Mac II series computer with a 12" or 14" color display and then a 21" monochrome two page display.
 
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bunnspecial said:
I only have two working 30" displays :)
Click to expand...
OK. Many times over with Macs then. :)
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z970mp said:
...Couldn't you just drag the desktop file to the application's icon in the dock? It doesn't need to be directly on top of the window. And just to improve Expose's convenience, I've got it mapped to the mouse. Desktop show to middle button, all window show to side buttons. Works like a charm.

Meanwhile, I don't even have a 30" or 23" display. And I'm usually running at least 3 windows at a time, too.
Click to expand...
I probably could. But for me, it's just easier this way as it's not just that one thing.

Lets say I have a PDF with lots of fine print that I have to retype in InDesign. It's easier to slide that PDF over to the left monitor and enter it inside the ID document on the main monitor. Just another example. There are many uses I go through each day.
 
bunnspecial said:
People who actually have real work to get done and have the luxury of having space for more than one monitor typically don't want to far around with things like expose when multiple monitors are a lot more efficient.
Click to expand...

That sounded like you don't think I've got equally important work to do as you.

Please. Prove me wrong.
 
Just for good measure I'd like to add that for two years I was the sole design department member of an international importer and manufacturer and saw my role expand to include sales and customer services. I'd have to design and publish two product catalogues each month, design product artwork, photograph products, maintain a website and a stock management system and sundry other tasks too numerous to recall. Photoshop, Indesign, Acrobat, Outlook, Firefox, Explorer, Command Prompt, FTP, Dynamics Nav, Excel, Word were open all day long...all on a 17" monitor at 1280 x 960....point being, very serious work can be done at any screen size - when you don't have any other option ;)

I resigned when it became clear performing minor miracles wasn't appreciated - 3 people were employed to replace me :)
 
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