There is a BIG difference between growing up with the PowerPC versus being a collector - we mostly in this forum grew up with PowerPC Macs. In 1999-2000 when I worked as a PC tech at CompUSA, this is where I fell in love with the Apple PowerPC and the G4 Machine which I bought was a sawtooth, or AGP 350mhz model. I was tired of the Apple persecution by the sales reps there who tried to get customers to go away from Apple's section in the store for a stupid compUSA built PC. That day, I spend 1700.00 on a PM G4 350 Sawtooth, VPC3.0, and MAC OS 9.
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Embracing Early Intel
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There is a BIG difference between growing up with the PowerPC versus being a collector - we mostly in this forum grew up with PowerPC Macs. In 1999-2000 when I worked as a PC tech at CompUSA, this is where I fell in love with the Apple PowerPC and the G4 Machine which I bought was a sawtooth, or AGP 350mhz model. I was tired of the Apple persecution by the sales reps there who tried to get customers to go away from Apple's section in the store for a stupid compUSA built PC. That day, I spend 1700.00 on a PM G4 350 Sawtooth, VPC3.0, and MAC OS 9.
Depends on usage. Only because memory is cheap now.. I got my G5 Quad up to 16GB which is the Max.. but I don't use that much, I guess if I was using Linux I could find a use for most of that memory ceiling. But, for most MacBook Pros 8-16GB is good for most things.. 16GB if you do virtualization of OS's - these require a lot of memory to virtualize within one machine. 32GB which is on the later Macbook Pros that maybe overkill.
@retta283 - The Late 2005 G5s can actually hold 16 GB RAM.
I one time heard of the possibility of 32GB
I am a T100 from Cyberdine Systems - my model is 101 with 4GB L3 CACHE and 16GB DDR3 memory
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Limit of the hardware.
Speaking of early intel, I just got a ipad1 as a birthday gift. Very cool Always wanted one. Love the Classic ios theme.
Also the absence of a camera just cracks me up considering the selfie obsessed culture we have cultivated.
Always wanted one. Love the Classic ios theme.Also the absence of a camera just cracks me up considering the selfie obsessed culture we have cultivated.
Congrats! But there's no Intel CPU in any iPad. It has an Cortex A8 ARM chip.Speaking of early intel, I just got a ipad1 for my birthday. Very cool
lol! Now THAT is a fantastic way to end another cycle around the sun
. Looks like I need to spend more time in the iPad forum.
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Speaking of early intel, I just got a ipad1 as a birthday gift. Very cool
I have one, that my dad bought from new in 2010. Not very useful for Internet stuff due to Safari etc being outdated and stuck on IOS 5, but I've downloaded and Handbreaked a few videos for the kids to watch on it and does that very well! Amazingly, battery still holds a really really good charge.
Yeah I think I’m going to see what sort of cool music apps I can find for this dinosaur. Some neat FX app Running & inserted into my Pedal board signal chain could be very cool.
I never picked up a taste for tablets although my wife & son use them. This thing as a Tactile addition to an electric instrument could change that though.
Are all iPads ARM based?
Speaking of early intel, I just got a ipad1 as a birthday gift. Very cool
Also the absence of a camera just cracks me up considering the selfie obsessed culture we have cultivated.
I have an iPad2 that's loaded with soft synths and music apps - it does an incredible job!
Speaking of early Intel, I have a huge affection for the A1181 MacBooks. People love to dump on them, sure, and for good reason, but I've been able to accomplish a surprising amount (especially with gaming) for such old hardware, even on the lowly 32-bit Core Duo models. I know the 2006-2008 MacBook Pros have their defenders, but I've seemed to have a lot of bad luck with them, between the GPU failures and overheating issues.
I've heard other complaints about these MacBooks requiring so much unscrewing to remove the topcase and access the motherboard. But after working with some Gateway, HP, Toshiba and Lenovo laptops from the same period, I've found the A1181 to be refreshingly easy and straight-forward.
My major problem (AFAIK) with Office 2011 is that it was the first version of MS Office on the Mac to require online activation. And apparently the activation servers have been taken offline, necessitating navigating MS's complicated phone support system.
I've heard other complaints about these MacBooks requiring so much unscrewing to remove the topcase and access the motherboard. But after working with some Gateway, HP, Toshiba and Lenovo laptops from the same period, I've found the A1181 to be refreshingly easy and straight-forward.
My major problem (AFAIK) with Office 2011 is that it was the first version of MS Office on the Mac to require online activation. And apparently the activation servers have been taken offline, necessitating navigating MS's complicated phone support system.
When it's working, it's fine. But with Outlook I ran into a series of communication failures between the program and the email server. Without the email servers changing anything, I'd come in on a Monday morning to work only to find out that I had to futz with settings in Outlook before my email started working again. Outlook would drop connections for no reason and sometimes I had to resort to wiping out the account and then setting it back up again - with none of the settings changing at all.
Word would also start developing a delay before displaying typed text, or before cutting copy or pasteing, or anything else that you use Word for.
Overall it was just irritating.
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Virtually every phone and tablet on earth is powered by some sort of ARM variant.lol! Now THAT is a fantastic way to end another cycle around the sun
I bought a 2007 17" MBP about a month ago. Safe to say I have fully 'embraced' early Intel Macs. I love it. The matte display and PB-era design make the user experience very similar, with all of the performance advantages of Intel Macs in 2020.
Welcome to Club 17 (I see you've joined already) and hope yours has a fixed GPU (or you know how to replace it).
With Windows tablets (apart from the Surface Pro X) being the big exception. But yeh, x86 droids never really caught on.
I have a couple of x86 Android tablets kicking around in my collection; I even have one with one of Intel's later SoFIA chips. Apart from being hamstrung by being paired with weak budget hardware (1 GB RAM, 8 GB/16 GB of storage), they always had a tendency to overheat and run through battery life quickly.
The 2008-2012 Intel Macs hold a special place for me, mostly because I still use so many of them on a daily basis! The computers I use in my classroom are nearly all from this era. I teach middle school Robotics & Coding.
Classroom Machines:
![image0-12-1.jpeg]( "image0-12-1.jpeg")
![IMG_9644.jpeg]( "IMG_9644.jpeg")
![IMG_9480.jpeg]( "IMG_9480.jpeg")
![IMG_9508.jpeg]( "IMG_9508.jpeg")
![IMG_9669.jpeg]( "IMG_9669.jpeg")
Classroom Machines:
- 2010 21" iMac (3.06GHz i3, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, Mojave) - My main desktop in my classroom. Has a 20" ACD off to the side. Works beautifully for everything I throw at it from Office productivity, light 3D modeling, programming. I also use it to remote into the door machine, my projector machine, and the classroom server.
- 2008 20" iMac (2.4GHz C2D, 6GB RAM, 64GB SSD, Mojave) - My secondary desktop in my office enclave in my classroom. Great for productivity.
- 2008 24" iMac (2.8GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD, Mojave) - This iMac sits on a table by the door of my classroom and is used for announcements, seating charts, etc.
- 2009 Mac mini (2.0GHz C2D, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD + 500GB HDD + 1TB HDD, El Cap) - This machine runs headless as my classroom server. I primarily use it for running some legacy software for controlling my computer lab and time machine backups for the other machines. I remote into it from other machines and use it all day.
- 2012 13" MacBook Pro (2.5GHz i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Mojave) - This is my main laptop in my classroom. I needed something that had Metal support in order to run Minecraft: Education Edition, which I use often in my classes. It's a fantastic little machine, but if it weren't for the Metal needs I'd still be using...
- 2008 15" MacBook Pro (2.53GHz C2D, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, High Sierra) - This beast still serves as my secondary laptop for school. I love the larger screen for productivity.
- 2010 13" MacBook (2.4GHz C2D, 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD, Mojave) - This laptop lives on a little laptop cart off to the side of my desk, and is used to remote into the class server and projector machine. This lets me control the zoom calls, freezing the projector, and see what's on the board while I'm not at my desk.
- (The one exception) 2014 Mac mini (2.6GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 160GB SSD, Mojave) - This is my projector slave. It runs my presentations, zooms, etc. I remote into it from other computers to control it, primarily the 2010 iMac and 2010 MacBook.
By "virtually" I mean all but a very small amount. ARM as a whole has around a 96% market share in the phone and tablet market.
Collecting old computers is collecting them for their own sake, processor architecture be darned! Car guys like cool cars whether they be GM, Ford or even Mopar it'll be the same with old computers.
Granted, it's not early Intel, but I adore my MP 5,1 and it's never gonna leave my possession if I can help it! It'll sit alongside my G3 iMac as part of my collection, likely as a media/game server, CD/DVD burner, and web render proxy for the G3.
I just need to upgrade the graphics card to an RX580 and install Mojave then I'll be done upgrading it. I figure I'll "retire" her once I get my hands on an ASi Macbook Pro.
Granted, it's not early Intel, but I adore my MP 5,1 and it's never gonna leave my possession if I can help it! It'll sit alongside my G3 iMac as part of my collection, likely as a media/game server, CD/DVD burner, and web render proxy for the G3.
I just need to upgrade the graphics card to an RX580 and install Mojave then I'll be done upgrading it. I figure I'll "retire" her once I get my hands on an ASi Macbook Pro.
Actually, 2009 is still considered early Intel by many. That's only 3 years after the first Intel Macs. Any C2D or pre i series chip is certainly early Intel.
I treat any Intel Mac hardware prior to “Ivy Bridge” Core i5/i7 2012-era Intel Macs as “early Intel” because they can still run Snow Leopard, can still run PPC code vis-à-vis Rosetta, and they do not require a compulsory umbilical cord to Apple’s App Store or rely on iOS-related interfaces to function just fine, as-is. This means I regard my Sandy Bridge Core i5/i7 Mac from 2011 as “early” alongside a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro.
Granted, this usually means they won’t run Metal in Mojave natively, and that’s OK because I would rather have forward and backward compatibility in my gear at all times.
Yep, fully agree - that's also my reason for Mojave as my currently last macOS version.
(But I'd count all non-retina MBP with replaceable SATA-harddrives/RAM to the early-intels.)
I wish, there was full dark mode for ElCap to HighSierra ...