Well, better than the 2010, now I have a Mac Pro 2012 (genuine) to be excited about!
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The Coveted Macs Thread
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Well, better than the 2010, now I have a Mac Pro 2012 (genuine) to be excited about!
12" 1.5 PowerBook G4. Wanted one for ever and finally got one this year already maxed out. This Mac and the 1Ghz G4 iMac are my all time favorites. They will be the last to go.
I got outbid on one of those recently. Went for just under £60 with a pair of Pro speakers thrown in. Sort of regretting not going a little higher considering how infrequently they come up and rarely for less than 3 figures.
I grabbed a pair of the Poulton LaCie FW speakers but they really are no substitute and are surpringly underpowered considering they get more than twice the juice of USB speakers.
I do not have anything super rare but have complete boxed versions of the following:
PDQ 266
Pismo 500
TiBook 1GHz
which are pretty hard to come by and almost complete boxed versions of the Cube (missing speakers) and a Clamshell 466 (missing styrofoam insert).
Among uncommon items I have 2x PB1400 upgraded with G3 processors. Both are Nubus so no OSX possible, however. Would sort of like a 2400 but not at the crazy money demanded.
Hard to say which one of the Macs I've owned was most special to me. The 20" iMac G4 was certainly an amazing machine, used it to watch TV all summer. The Cube, of which I've owned four, was the most cute and I think the best looking. The 20th Anniversary Macintosh is so rare that having one in my bedroom really felt special, although I didn't use it. My Apple ][ which I still have is the oldest (almost 40 years), that has also something special to it, though it doesn't work (need to repair it some day).
Maybe I'll go with the eMac G4; it isn't that special, but also not very common and it was the first Mac (or even computer) I've ever owned. Huge and slow, but I just liked it very much and was proud of being able to afford one.
In the end they're just machines and most are not hard to find, so I don't regret selling most of them. The best way to enjoy the design is to either take them apart and repair them or to actually use them. Most Macs are special to own
Maybe I'll go with the eMac G4; it isn't that special, but also not very common and it was the first Mac (or even computer) I've ever owned. Huge and slow, but I just liked it very much and was proud of being able to afford one.
In the end they're just machines and most are not hard to find, so I don't regret selling most of them. The best way to enjoy the design is to either take them apart and repair them or to actually use them. Most Macs are special to own
Ever since I bought & internally cleaned/repasted my 12" 1.5GHz PB G4, I've been trying to get really excited about it, but so far I'm still left wondering. Not only was it a cramped little sod to work on, but also the fan comes on after 10mins or so, even when not 'overloaded' - and the bottom certainly gets hot on these.
The G4 iMacs still have to be in my top 3 favourites, and I also adore the iBook G3 Clamshells, one of which is being used to compose and send this. Having said that they can't be rushed, and a heavy dose of patience is always required when puting them to any serious task (even this 466MHz model).
The G4 iMacs still have to be in my top 3 favourites, and I also adore the iBook G3 Clamshells, one of which is being used to compose and send this. Having said that they can't be rushed, and a heavy dose of patience is always required when puting them to any serious task (even this 466MHz model).
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That's a very astute comment. Nothing excites me now in the Apple Stores. Not only have I passed a pleasurable weekend with my G4 Pismo - which never disappoints, but over the last month I've picked up a superb condition 17" MBP2.1 (in a thrift store), and a long sought-after, immaculate 17" MBPro8.3, both of which will last me many years, and (icing on the cake) be gradually upgraded.
Imho there has been nothing really exciting in the Apple stores these last few years, and frankly even if I was given a latest MBProTb or iPad Pro I wouldn't appreciate them due to the known built-in hardware obsolescence. BIG thumbs down Apple!
Nothing from Apple excites me much anymore. I love a few PPC Macs but the new stuff is just bleh. I love the iPad Pro 12.9 but it's just a tool in the arsenal. Day to day life is covered by home and work Win 10 boxes and my Thinkpad T410s with Linux Mint. I get more excited over finding a nice used Thinkpad than any newer Macs.
I have to applaud that last comment!
Not really wanting to go off-topic, but in keeping with this post, I too have a recent very close attachment to a ThinkPad. I bought it after seeing that a very prolific collector here (can't recall who) also had an IBM Thinkpad in his arsenal. I'd not used anything but a Mac for many years, and felt rather foolish when a colleague aked me for some help to trouble-shoot his Win 7 at the begnning of the year. I really didn't have a clue, and after a week of in-depth research on which robust, quality (& especially cheap) laptop to buy, found a superbly clean 2.1GHz ThinkPad T61 with MS Windows 7 (rinses mouth out with soap & water
) for just $80. Long story short, I learnt a great deal within days, slimming down the OS, installing FFox with all necessary tweeks etc - learnt from this forum I hasten to add. And like the Pismos/TiBooks, it sports a really excellent keyboard. Although it didn't really need it, being of a curious temperament, I decided to pull it apart for a re-condition/clean & repaste. Quite a pleasant experience, and a welcome addition to any collection.
I have to applaud that last comment!
Not really wanting to go off-topic, but in keeping with this post, I too have a recent very close attachment to a ThinkPad. I bought it after seeing that a very prolific collector here (can't recall who) also had an IBM Thinkpad in his arsenal. I'd not used anything but a Mac for many years, and felt rather foolish when a colleague aked me for some help to trouble-shoot his Win 7 at the begnning of the year. I really didn't have a clue, and after a week of in-depth research on which robust, quality (& especially cheap) laptop to buy, found a superbly clean 2.1GHz ThinkPad T61 with MS Windows 7 (rinses mouth out with soap & water
I hagve a nice T61 myself. I hotrodded mine. It came with a 1.8Ghz C2D and I upgraded it to a 2.4Ghz T7700. 8GB RAM, 250GB HD and have linux mint on it. It's a great machine. I love my pre-2012 Thinkpad's. That's when the keyboards were great and the trackpads were awesome. I use a 7 year old T410s for my daily EDC laptop. It has no slow down and runs really fast with Mint and an SSD. It's Gamer9430 that has a T61.
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@CooperBox: It certainly wasn't me you were inspired by, but from 2010 to 2013 I was using a 2001 IBM Thinkpad running Ubuntu 10.04 with Opera as my "portable" device. The battery wouldn't last more than 5 minutes, but it worked really well for what I needed it for! I agree with @macgeek18, the keyboard was really nice on mine as well. (If you want to see a silly video I made with a friend of mine a few weeks ago featuring it, check this out.) Every so often I pull it out and play around with it. It's amazing I was using such an old computer for day to day stuff back then, more than 10 years after its debut, running a modern operating system on such little RAM and specs!
I have 3 T61s, 2 of which I'm trying to sell. They're all great machines, but I'm only keeping the best one.
I have a bit of a Thinkpad problem. I currently only have 1 more PPC than Thinkpad's.( Right bottom to top. A31;T43;E550, ;left bottom to top. R61;T61;T410s) Recently sold or given to people who need a computer, W530,W520,X220,X201,T410,T420,2x R61's.
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Anonymous Freak does. Also the PPC desktop, the lucky sod. I nearly got one from a local seller but he pulled the sale with a day to go. Don't expect to see a working example come up now as these are super rare not to mention expensive.
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Rarity of rarities, not one but two PowerPC Thinkpads have popped up on the bay. The TP850 and the less seen TP820. Bids for either start at $1k. Don't all rush..
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253074397542
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253074400317
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253074397542
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253074400317
Got one recently and this one has come up in the States. Price is decent given what these fetch otherwise.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/122624244057
This week I acquired my second "Kanga" for my Apple collection
My first Kanga booting up...
has MacOS 9.0 running on it.
My new Kanga has MacOS 9.04 on it
It's nice to have a pair in my collection
I also have the 20x CDROM module, the floppy disk module and ZIP100 module to use.
My first Kanga booting up...
has MacOS 9.0 running on it.
My new Kanga has MacOS 9.04 on it
It's nice to have a pair in my collection
I also have the 20x CDROM module, the floppy disk module and ZIP100 module to use.
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So the first mac that caught my eye was the first white intel imac 17". We used one in the music studio the band I was playing with had. Up to that point I was using 2K/XP and OSX completely annihilated windows for me to the point where I was using all sorts of software to emulate GUI OSX functionality on my windows boxes - everything from the dock and dashboard to finder functionality and icons etc. The apple bug bit and bit hard. I didnt have alot of $$$ at the time and certainly couldn't swing a new mac so instead tortured myself with trips to various computer stores around town that had sales-floor models to play around with. roughly 8-12 months later, I spotted a 24" white intel imac for $5 large so I picked it up. Even at $5 bills I was eating ALOT of ramen that month but it was worth it. What a fun box. I still have the imac in its original packaging. I did replace the GPU at the beginning of the year 11 Years later.
Anyhow, I've been a fan ever since.
Anyhow, I've been a fan ever since.
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Seeing pictures of these fabulous machines brings back memories of 'I WANT..i WANT' . I remember seeing them in sales brochures and drooling at how sexy and futuristic they looked compared to the bland cases of intel/amd machines. I could never afford apple computers but always wanted one because they looked so cool.
Now all that design has gone and apple has lost it's design edge. macbooks and desktops are very bland in design when you compare them with the varied colorful designs of windows based pc's.
. I remember seeing them in sales brochures and drooling at how sexy and futuristic they looked compared to the bland cases of intel/amd machines. I could never afford apple computers but always wanted one because they looked so cool. Now all that design has gone and apple has lost it's design edge. macbooks and desktops are very bland in design when you compare them with the varied colorful designs of windows based pc's.
I've owned almost every PPC model since the iMac G3 and the only one I really want is a DLHR 15" or 17" and a Xserve G4 or G5. The only post-iMac G3 era Macs I haven't owned at least one of is a PBG3, TiBook and an Xserve. I've had my dose with everything else!