[olePigeon]

What were your favorite Macs of all time?

I'll start with my top 5 (in no particular order):

Color Classic
PowerMac 8600 / 300
PowerMac G4 Dual 533
Powerbook 540c
Motorola Starmax 5500 / 200

Edit: Opps, that's a G4 Dual, not G5.

[ManOfSteal]

and of course...

[capuchin]

Color Classic
Quadra 840av
Powerbook 1400
PowerComputing PowerCenter

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

before 100 other people say it.... THE CUBE!

Except the new Mini makes the cube look like a tower.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
before 100 other people say it.... THE CUBE!

Except the new Mini makes the cube look like a tower.

Awe shucks, I forgot about the Cube. I'm so ashamed.

OK, I have 6 favorite Macs.

I think the TiBook would've made it on my list if the paint didn't peal off on the edge. That keeps it off my list.

[MacNStein]

PM G4 Dual 1.42, the perfect case and a great workhorse.

[nredman]

1) Powerbook G3 (i had a wallstreet but the pismo was better) still my fav though
2) Graphite iMac
3) iMac G4
4) Powerbook G4 15"
5) Snow iMac

those are my favorites because i have owned all but the G4 Powerbook.

[paul w]

Originally posted by olePigeon:


I think the TiBook would've made it on my list if the paint didn't peal off on the edge. That keeps it off my list.

My paint is perfect after 2+ years. Oh, and how's that corrosion or whatever on the albooks' palmrests?

I had a wallstreet, that I loved to death but the Titanium was awesome.

I kept looking at mine thinking : wow! Wow! wow! I still think it's the best looking portable Mac.


Plus it came out around the same time as OS X, so it was a double whammy.

[ManOfSteal]

Originally posted by paul w:
My paint is perfect after 2+ years.

Ditto!

[Lateralus]

The Power Mac 9500: Not too easy on the eyes, and one hell of a bitch to take apart for something as simple as a RAM upgrade, but 10 years on the things are still venerable because of their upgrade potential.

The PowerComputing PowerTower Pro: IMO, the best clone hands down. Technical specs aside, the PowerTower Pro really illustrated how fruitful cloning could become. You had hardware that was on par with Apple's own, and in some cases ahead, and quality that was also on par. But all at a much lower price.

More than that, PowerComputing really was a great company, and got closer to creating a following of dedicated users around itself (as Apple had) than any other cloner. They had spunk.

The Power Mac 9600: Essentially, the Power Mac 9600 was rehashed technology, as it was basically a 9500 motherboard in a new case. But the case is what made the 9600 such a great machine. It broke what had become an Apple tradition of designing klutzy cases for their pro-level machines and set Apple on the track to things like the El Capitan design, which we enjoyed from the G3 B&W through the MDD.

The B&W Power Mac G3: What else can be said about this machine other than it was astonishing for it's time. While some have questioned Apple's choice of color, it is really all anybody can knock about the machine. The B&W was the best machine in the industry in a time when Apple was putting all they had into showcasing their ability to design fantastic pro-level machines, in an effort to win back and keep aboard pro customers who had left or were starting to leave after Apple's dark days of the mid 90s.

Additionally, the B&W will end up having one of the longest Apple-Supported records in Macintosh history. The B&W rolled out in early 1999, and with full support in Tiger/10.4, which is rumored to be Apple's OS through 2007, the B&W could enjoy an 8-year run.

The PowerBook G3 Pismo: You can take everything I said about the B&W and apply it to the Pismo. The Pismo was a no holds barred notebook that had everybody in the industry lusting. Thin, durable, refined and flexible, I still think to this day that the Pismo is the best notebook Apple has ever produced.

That's it for now, I love some of the G4 machines to death, especially my Digital Audio, but none of them stand apart for me. Nor does the G5.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Lateralus:
The B&W Power Mac G3

That was the most unpro-like computer Apple has ever shipped. It was that ugly assed colour and came with the same baby mouse and keyboard as the iMacs.

[Psychonaut]

The Beige Power Macintosh G3.
My second Mac, after my Performa 6220CD. I still have it, but unfortunately the sound output doesn't work anymore. If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd appreciate any info.

[SamuraiDL]

the Performa 6300CD... nuff said

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Psychonaut:
[IMG]http://www.smallmac.com.my/pics/g3bundle.jpg[IMG]
The Beige Power Macintosh G3. I still have mine, unfortunately the sound output doesn't work anymore. If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd appreciate any info.

I was actually going to say the same thing. It was a cool looking tower and the first tower that was easy to open and service.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
I was actually going to say the same thing. It was a cool looking tower and the first tower that was easy to open and service.

Actually, the 8600/9600 line had nearly identical tower with the green button, but taller.

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
That was the most unpro-like computer Apple has ever shipped. It was that ugly assed colour and came with the same baby mouse and keyboard as the iMacs.

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
I was actually going to say the same thing. It was a cool looking tower and the first tower that was easy to open and service.

Might wanna read the rest of my post, on both counts.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
Actually, the 8600/9600 line had nearly identical tower with the green button, but taller.

yes I know that but the 9600 was too damn tall. I only thought it was cool because it was a Mini tower.

[mitchell_pgh]

It's slow out of the box... but it's also ugly.


and

The power of Unix... without the mess of a GUI

[Wiskedjak]

I've always loved my Duo 2300c. Active matrix display, thin profile, 4.8lbs; all very uncommon laptop characteristics 1995. The only thing I didn't like about it was the difficulty of getting data on and off of it.

My three year old daughter is now using it. As an added bonus, it turns out to be quite durable as well.

[Big Mac]

I can't believe no one has voted for the G5 yet.

1. G5 DP 2.0 (own)
2. iBook Graphite 466 (own)
3. 8600/300 (own)
4. iMac 233
5. SE/30

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
PM G4 Dual 1.42, the perfect case and a great workhorse.

seconds this nomination.

I liked the G3 towers in the bright bondi blue shell as well. This tower design in my opinion is so much nicer than the G5's which is so blah.

[malvolio]

Originally posted by SamuraiDL:
the Performa 6300CD... nuff said

Heh. That was my very first Mac.
Not one of my favs, though.

[dlefebvre]

My G4 AGP 400Mhz. The first really upgradable Mac I owned. After 5 years, 1 CPU upgrade, 2 video card upgrades, 3 RAM upgrades, 3 Hard disk upgrades, I still use it every day. It's starting to show it's age but it still has a few years of good services ahead. Even after I get a brand new G5.

I love my PowerBook Alu 15" but I'm sure it won't last as long.

I also got a very good millage out of my Mac Plus.

[andreas_g4]

All the Macs that I owned.

[discotronic]

Here are the Macs that I have the fondest memories of owning:

PowerBook 540c
SE/30
iMac G4 17"
B&W G3
PowerMac 6500
Blueberry iBook

[Albert Pujols]

Mac Classic. Mmm.. compact.

[CD Hanks]

Ti/550
Dual 533 G4

I owned both and they both hauled tons of ass given what they were when they were.

I miss them both dearly too.

[dav]

tam
cube
g5 tower
g3 tower
9600
classic ii

[saddino]

Easy. The Mac IIfx: introduced the 68030 (at 40MHz), 4 MB RAM standard, six (!) NuBus slots, built-in Ethernet (first Mac to have it) and the first SuperDrive™ (MS-DOS, OS/2 and Mac floppies supported). It also was the first Mac to run UNIX with A/UX.



It was my dev machine in 1991 and my boss also let me have a 19 inch color monitor to go with it. Sweetness.

Large C projects compiled in MPW twice as fast as I was used to. Sigh. I suppose you had to be there.

[tooki]

That was the most overpriced Mac ever.

Funny, that. Just today, I was in my school library, reading old Macworlds, and I read the debut article for the IIfx.

tooki

[Lateralus]

I picked up a IIfx for the cost of shipping a few months back. It is running A/UX.

Spiffy little bugger.

[waxcrash]

Blue & White G3

Titanium PowerBook

Any dual processor G4 or G5 Power Mac

Apple Cinema Display

[JustAnOl'Broad]

Originally posted by ManOfSteal:
Ditto!

Less than a year but Ditto; perfect paint.
Trying to justify a new G5; but hubby just brought
a Presario home.

[JustAnOl'Broad]

Originally posted by ManOfSteal:
Ditto!

edit:
PB 15 1.5 Snaaaappy

Less than a year but Ditto; perfect paint.
Trying to justify a new G5; but hubby just brought
a Presario home.

[ryaxnb]

Not that I've owned, but that I've heard about, here are the 10 best models ever, starting with the two best systems. Emphasis is placed on very early systems, because there was less choice back then.
1. Mac Plus.
Wow. No PC back then could be easily, seamlessly expanded to more then 640k RAM, but the Plus supported 4096k. Few PCs had a 3.5", 800k disk, either, or a fast, industry-standard SCSI port. And none had the legendary Mac OS 3, or it's companion programs, MacWrite, and MacPaint. Did I mention built-in networking?
2. iMac Rev A.
Hello
(Again)
The rabbit out of the hat was definitely the iMac - just what Apple desperately needed in 1998. Hook onto the Internet bubble, but not burst so big in 2000. Apple's all-in-ones and laptops are some of their best. Maybe I'd put Mini there, but... no. Apple's iMac prevented them from dying a sad death - it was a major part of their sales. Apple's future is in little doubt without the Mini.
Those were the top two, about tied. Now for the following eight, in very rough order:
3. PowerBook 170
The PB 170 defined many features of the laptop -- active-matrix screen, mouse-like thingy built-into the middle of the laptop, below the keyboard, their approximate weight and feel, built-in speaker[s], optional modem, etc -- and was Apple's first true laptop, along with two other models that were good but less stellar. It also was extremely competent as a machine; one of the best PowerBooks ever.
4. Mac Mini
Apple's lowest priced computer ever was also their smallest and lightest ever, not to mention incredibly capable. Runner-up: LC III - first good low-cost Mac, one of the last Macs in pizza box form.
5. PowerBook 540c.
Apple's first PowerBook with SCSI, PowerPC upgrade, stereo speakers, Ethernet, PC Card slot (optional,) and one of their first with NiMH instead of NiCad, and enough memory upgrade potential (36MB) to make it useful for a good long while.
6. Power Mac G5.
Ending the slow train of G4 upgrades, the G5 also added PCI-X, Serial ATA, and many other standards. Most G5s also shipped with Panther, Apple's new OS. Runner-up: Power Mac G3 B&W -- Made the G3 machines completely modern and worked out - they had USB, FireWire, and the first NewWorld code ever in a Power Macintosh.
7. Mac II
The II offered a ton of expansion compared to any other Macs available at the time. NuBus slots and 5.25" slots first made their appearance, as did more 3.5" slots. This is the first Mac that could theoretically be used on the network, connecting up to DSL and browsing with iCab 2.9*.
*True, Mac SE users could used Ethernet, but SE's run System 7.5.5 really poorly, especially while trying to use IE 2 or somesuch on the net.
8. Power Macintosh 8100
The very first in a group of Power Macs, it had the PowerPC processor that powers the Mac and will power it for the foreseeable future. It also was the first Mac that allows you to run all the way up to Mac OS 9.1, along with apps such as IE 5, Word 6, and iCab 2.9, creating a surprisingly modern experience.
9. iBook 500
The iBook 500 was a consumer portable really capable of running just about anything the average consumer wanted back then, and still very capable today. I have the iBook 900, and it runs Mac OS X delightfully. I fully anticipate the iBook 500 doing so also. Runner-up: The original iBook. A great consumer portable, but a bit slow, heavy, and RAM and HD-light. As well, it's screen resolution of 800x600 causes trouble.
10. The PowerBook G3 WallStreet
Earlier PowerBooks had been a little lacking - in features, or reliability, or lightness. But the G3 Wallstreet had all that, plus it has a good screen (except the 13" model) and can run Panther with XPostFacto. It also has a big memory upgrade potential.

[rambo47]

Of all the Macs I've owned, I have a romantic attachment to two. As a desktop, my B&W G3 tower was simply awesome. I was able to expand and upgrade it so it grew right along with me. Eventually the cost of upgrading passed the point where it made sense and I upgraded to a DP G4 model.

My Wall Street PowerBook was my all time favorite. I got the G3 292 MHz and it had the hotter 83 MHz system bus making it the fastest laptop in the world at the time. It was a revolution, very heady times to be a Mac user. And the thing was built like a tank. No matter what, it simply worked. The improvements to OS 8 were huge, but the jump to OS 9 blew me away. And when I installed the public beta of OS X, I became a Mac user all over again. I remember my feelings of truimph when I got OS X to work wirelessly with an original Graphite AirPort Base Station and an Orinoco WaveLan card. Eventually I upgraded to a G4 PowerBook and sold the G3 on eBay. I never got over my Wall Street PowerBook, my first laptop. I recently bought a Pismo simply for nostalgic reasons. Yeah, it's not the Wall Street, but its the best of that line and has a similar form factor. The built-in AirPort was a sweet addition to the lineup, as was the 500 MHz processor. Sometimes I boot into OS 9 and let out a little sigh.

[Mafia]

[removed oversize image of PM G5: ALL inline images must be no wider than 480 pixels. --tooki]

gotta represent

[mac-at-kearsarge]

I'm going to have to say the Performa 575....hey, it was the 1st computer I ever owned and it launched me into my current career which I love.

[willed]

Originally posted by Albert Pujols:
Mac Classic. Mmm.. compact.

Seconded



This was the first computer I experienced, back in 1991 when I was about 7. It chugged away through anything, never had a problem, and I was still using it productively at boarding school in 1998-9. I remember everyone in my dorm becoming addicted to Oids and Shufflepuck Café. Who needs graphics cards?!

[angelmb]

Mac Classic
Quadra 840AV
PowerBook 530
PowerMac 9600
PowerMac B&W
PowerBook Pismo
PowerMac CUBE
iMac DV
PowerMac G5
iPod, oh sorry

[storer]

Lamp iMac
Color Classic
Original iMac
Mac Mini
Powermac G3

[Eug Wanker]

1) Macintosh (the original)
2) Power Mac Cube
3) TiBook (the original)
4) iBook G4
5) Power Mac dual 2.0 G5 (the original)
6) iMac G5

Personally, I think any Mac that shipped only with OS 9 is at a SEVERE disadvantage for the list. Nonetheless, both the Cube and the original TiBook make the list because their designs basically blew everything else at the time out of the water.

And I don't like any of the black Mac laptops or any of the beige desktops (excluding the very first Macintoshes).

I also like the iMac G4 design, but by the time it was released it was too underpowered IMO.

[euphras]

I still prefer the looks of the "El Capitan" towers over the new G5 towers....*snif*

Pismos were hell good looking, of course the Tibooks (i still think it´s the climax stadium in case of laptop design), others to mention are the Quadras, the Powermac 6100, 9500/9600 and of course the first iMac line

My actual setup:

[f1000]

The Quadra 950: this beast cost me more than one of those Yugos being sold at the time.

[C.J. Moof]

For pure visual appeal:

Cube
G4 iMac
20th Ann. Mac.

I have a TAM in the living room. Just this week we had a guest over who hadn't been here before. When she saw the TAM, she stopped mid sentence and asked "what is that?"
I can't imagine having any other computer in such a prominent display position of my home.

For functionality, I nominate the 7500. Until my father-in-law bought himself an ibook for Christmas, mine had been in use constantly since it was made in 1994. It's being retired with 320 megs RAM, a G4/800, USB, Firewire and X.2 on it. That's one awesome lifespan.

[Oneota]

Power Mac G3 All-In-One, rev. 2 motherboard. The first Mac I ever bought with my own money, and still a darn-fine machine (and cool-looking to boot!).

After that comes the G5, 'natch

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by Psychonaut:

The Beige Power Macintosh G3.
My second Mac, after my Performa 6220CD. I still have it, but unfortunately the sound output doesn't work anymore. If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd appreciate any info.

No no! I meant the towers. Those under the monitor ones are horrid!

[demograph68]

Macs suck. OS X rules.

[brapper]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
I think the TiBook would've made it on my list if the paint didn't peal off on the edge. That keeps it off my list.

Same. I loved my Tibook, except it's getting embarassing to show people it.
But good news, guess who just got a 17 inch PB?

(hint = me...)

[chris v]

Most Functional: Sawtooth G4.

Most beautiful: Cube.

Most bad-ass: Dual G5.

Best ideas: iMacs-- all three, TiBook and Mini.