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Koralatov · Jan 21, 2009, 04:14 PM

The pundits have spoken, and decided that the Best Mac Ever™ is the SE/30. I can kind of understand their rationale, and I have hankered after one for some time; indeed, it’s the only Classic Mac I’d actually like to have (if my girlfriend would let me).

Personally, though, I’d have chosen either the G4 Cube or the 20″ iMac G4. The Cube because it’s beautiful, but readily (and relatively easily) upgradeable, and the iMac because it is a complete work of art.

Anyone have any other nominations?

Laminar · Jan 21, 2009, 04:15 PM

The newest one.

sek929 · Jan 21, 2009, 04:17 PM

I say the original iMac, for selling like hotcakes and saving Apple. Also, for laying the groundwork of pretty computers for years to come.

Dakar V · Jan 21, 2009, 04:19 PM

At least they didn't go the creative route and say "The iPhone".

Maflynn · Jan 21, 2009, 04:23 PM

I have a hard time deciding between the SE/30, bondi blue iMac and the G4 Cube. I've had all three of them and all were awesome in their own right. Push comes to shove, I'd say the bondi blue iMac.

Spheric Harlot · Jan 21, 2009, 04:24 PM

It's a tie, actually, between the SE/30 and the IIci w/ Portrait monitor and running 6.0.7.

That was and still is a ****ing AWESOME machine.

Laminar · Jan 21, 2009, 04:28 PM

Woah...that's nuts.

starman · Jan 21, 2009, 04:37 PM

A lot of Macs can be "best" for a variety of reasons.

The Powerbook 100
The Cube
The SE/30
The bondi blue iMac
The latest Power Macs
The original G4s
The iBook

Shaddim · Jan 21, 2009, 04:53 PM

The best Mac is the G3 Pismo, I loved that machine.

osiris · Jan 21, 2009, 05:12 PM

My favorite has to be the G4 Sawtooth. Great design - easy access, lots of ports..
It was a speed demon back in the day, and upgrades kept it alive until last year.

In fact, I upgraded this machine so many times - the only original internal part left was the mobo.

goMac · Jan 21, 2009, 05:18 PM

I had an SE FDHD, and it wasn't bad, but my vote goes to the Power Mac 7300.

That machine was built during Apple's dark days but the thing was a solid workhorse.

QuadG5Man · Jan 21, 2009, 05:19 PM

Power Macintosh 7100/80AV

seanc · 07:09 PM

My favourite is the Performa 475 I grew up with. It's still around somewhere. Chucked the monitor in favour of a converter to a PC monitor (less things to store) - still got an ADB Extended II keyboard around somewhere, probably a mouse too.

We got one of those PowerPC thingys in the late '90s... it was BIG but sloooow

Laminar · Jan 21, 2009, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by QuadG5Man

Power Macintosh 7100/80AV

That was the first Mac I bought, it cost me $300 back in 1999.

effgee · Jan 21, 2009, 05:39 PM

Originally Posted by osiris

My favorite has to be the G4 Sawtooth. ...

In terms of longevity, no contest. Mine's very similar to yours, it's traveled through three households, been upgraded so many times only the mobo/power supply are original, and runs faithfully to this very day.

Looks-wise, it'd be a toss-up between the beautiful (albeit crappy) Color Classic and the stunning (albeit semi-crappy) G4 Cube.

olePigeon · Jan 21, 2009, 05:50 PM

My all-time favorite:

Dual 533 G4 Digital Audio

Runners up:

Macintosh IIfx
Color Classic II
LC III
G4 Cube

goMac · 07:08 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

My favourite is the Performa 475 I grew up with. It's still around somewhere. Chucked the monitor in favour of a converter to a PC monitor (less things to store) - still got an ADB Extended II keyboard around somewhere, probably a mouse too.

We got one of those PowerPC thingys in the late '90s... it was BIG but sloooow

I had the Quadra 605 model. Great machine, I even upgraded mine all the way to a 1 gigabyte Quantum Fireball (quite a loud drive). But what really ended that machine for me was the lack of an internal cd. I moved to a Powermac 6100.

tooki · Jan 21, 2009, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

My favourite is the Performa 475 I grew up with. ...

Zomg is that SimCity 2000 on the screen? I dunno how many countless hours I spend on SC2K on my Performa 475!

seanc · Jan 21, 2009, 07:10 PM

Unfortunately, I borrowed someone elses picture

I spent countless hours playing Maniac - created by Alex Metcalf (also created Bubble Trouble) - playing Maniac is actually the only reason I keep it around. I WISH he'd ported that over to OS X.

Anand · Jan 21, 2009, 07:21 PM

I would argue the best Mac was not even a Mac at all - The IIGS.

Doofy · Jan 21, 2009, 07:48 PM

I'm pretty sure that the best Mac ever is the Mac Pro I'm typing this on. Not any old Mac Pro, mind - this specific one. Largely because it's got me sitting next to it.

Laminar · Jan 21, 2009, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

Zomg is that SimCity 2000 on the screen? I dunno how many countless hours I spend on SC2K on my Performa 475!

One of my friends in middle school went so far as to print out his city onto a 16 sheets of paper to hang on his wall.

sek929 · Jan 21, 2009, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by Laminar

One of my friends in middle school went so far as to print out his city onto a 16 sheets of paper to hang on his wall.

I bet he got all the bitches.

Laminar · Jan 21, 2009, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by sek929

I bet he got all the bitches.

That, combined with his disdain for personal grooming assured him more women than he could handle. Surprisingly enough, he went into engineering.

goMac · Jan 21, 2009, 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by Doofy

I'm pretty sure that the best Mac ever is the Mac Pro I'm typing this on. Not any old Mac Pro, mind - this specific one. Largely because it's got me sitting next to it.

The Mac Pro is the most solid Mac I've owned in a while... but I dunno... there just isn't that seat of your pants, operating system is barely holding together, takes an hour to install feel that the older machines had.

besson3c · Jan 21, 2009, 11:37 PM

Is machine reliability a factor here? If so, I guess that rules out the G3 iBooks...

Andrew Stephens · Jan 22, 2009, 07:37 AM

Pismo.

philm · Jan 22, 2009, 08:41 AM

My personal favourite: the gorgeous Powerbook 2400. I remember the day when the box arrived at my office. I got it as a slightly dodgey 'grey import' into the UK.

Cipher13 · Jan 22, 2009, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Is machine reliability a factor here? If so, I guess that rules out the G3 iBooks...

Such as my iBook 900 which has been running flawlessly since 2003?

Gotta say, I've worked with a *lot* of G3 iBooks, and they were about as tough as any laptop I've ever seen... apart from a few dud 700s. Even they worked perfectly well if you didn't mind the shoddy build quality.

Best Mac? I'm torn, but will go with (in no particular order):

Sawtooth
Classic II
PowerBook 100
Pismo
5500/250 DE (I just have a soft spot for that machine)
9600 (350 Mach5)

starman · Jan 22, 2009, 09:07 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Is machine reliability a factor here? If so, I guess that rules out the G3 iBooks...

You mean the two that I have that still run? The ones I had that never broke?

Dork. · Jan 22, 2009, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by Shaddim

The best Mac is the G3 Pismo, I loved that machine.

Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens

Pismo.

Another vote for the Pismo! I've bought only laptops for the last 10 years, and the Pismo is the coolest-looking laptop of the bunch.

starman · Jan 22, 2009, 09:22 AM

I never owned a Pismo. What made it so cool that people loved it so much?

Eug · Jan 22, 2009, 09:44 AM

Originally Posted by Anand

I would argue the best Mac was not even a Mac at all - The IIGS.

If you're going to go that route, then I'd say it would be the Apple ][, Apple ][+, Apple //e, or even Apple //c.

By the time the IIGS came out, people were ditching the Apple II line in droves and moving to PCs (and some to Macs).

Originally Posted by starman

I never owned a Pismo. What made it so cool that people loved it so much?

I dunno either. I personally disliked the Pismo.

waxcrash · Jan 22, 2009, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by starman

I never owned a Pismo. What made it so cool that people loved it so much?

It had 2 removable drive bays that you could put any combination optical drive/battery, zip drive/battery, 2 batteries, etc. It also had firewire, which made it perfect for portable video editing.

starman · Jan 22, 2009, 11:03 AM

Oh that's right. I forgot about that.

Andrew Stephens · Jan 22, 2009, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by starman

Oh that's right. I forgot about that.

Also it must be the most hardy machine Apple ever made. They really are little tanks. I've got one in the office at the moment. It's been in continual use and still looks completely mint.

Love Calm Quiet · Jan 22, 2009, 03:55 PM

Pismo: Great! (but I don't know about *best*)

[ wish I could get mine to sustain a charge on any battery ]

But if I had my druthers I'd go for the latest MacBook Air - maybe 1/3 the weight of Pismo? 10x the effective speed?

ctt1wbw · Jan 22, 2009, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by Shaddim

The best Mac is the G3 Pismo, I loved that machine.

I had the Wallstreet, and like a ****ING retard, I sold it a few years ago.

http://www.romanator.com/graphics/RIMG0002_1.JPG

- - e r i k - - · Jan 22, 2009, 10:30 PM

I agree with the SE/30. Ours had an extra video card (I remember the case had a big hole sawed in it for it) that could run a massive 21" CRT in glorious 256 colours, with the built in 9" acting as a second monitor. My friends went nuts over just moving the cursor between the screens (people are still amused by that today!), and even cooler was having the After Dark bouncing ball jump between the screens!

- - e r i k - - · Jan 22, 2009, 10:33 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

Zomg is that SimCity 2000 on the screen? I dunno how many countless hours I spend on SC2K on my Performa 475!

I used to come home from school, with self-bought snacks and coke to sit into the wee hours of the morning playing that game.

Sim Cities after 2K just wasn't the same for some reason

Brien · Jan 23, 2009, 02:00 AM

Another vote for the Sawtooth. Still kickin', too, as the media server.

Paco500 · Jan 23, 2009, 05:07 AM

My favorite Macs have been:

My first- 128k, the original (bought used)
PB 540c
Pismo
2400
And whatever my newest Mac is at the time - MBA for now.

Anand · Jan 23, 2009, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by Eug

If you're going to go that route, then I'd say it would be the Apple ][, Apple ][+, Apple //e, or even Apple //c.

By the time the IIGS came out, people were ditching the Apple II line in droves and moving to PCs (and some to Macs).

I dunno either. I personally disliked the Pismo.

The II,II+,IIe and IIc, were great machines but they were not macs. The IIGS was the ultimate form of the II and very "Mac" like. If Apple had come out with the IIGS instead of the Mac, things would be very, very different right now.

Koralatov · Jan 24, 2009, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

It's a tie, actually, between the SE/30 and the IIci w/ Portrait monitor and running 6.0.7.

That was and still is a ****ing AWESOME machine.

Ever since I saw it, I’ve wanted an SE/30 with a Portrait Monitor hooked up. That said, I’m not even sure if they sold the monitor in the UK, and even if they did, I hate to think how much it would cost due to its apparent scarcity…

As for the Pismo, it’s a nice machine; I have one lying around somewhere (sadly sans-battery and drive). I like the upgradeability of them (up to 450MHz G4, 1GB RAM), and the versatility of the two bays is fantastic, and the PCMCIA slot is handy for retrofitting USB2 to the machine.

If Low End Mac is anything to go by, the Pismo is the de facto Best Mac Ever™; at times, the site feels like one long love-letter to the Pismo.