The Perfect Mac?

[RogerWilco6502]

Desktop: Any Power Mac G4 capable of running OS 9. Why? Because they are a dream to work on, compatibility with OS 9 and OS X gives you a very large base to work with when it comes to compatibility, and they are (at least from what I've seen) very solid and reliable workhorse machines.

Laptop: PowerBook G3 Pismo. I don't have one, but to me it represents the golden age of Apple laptop design. It gives you the expandability and easy access to its internals like the older PowerBooks did but also gives you the power of the G3.

(My choice of Intel machine would have to be the 2009 Mac Pro because it has the amazing Mac Pro case and is compatible with everything from the later releases of Leopard up until El Capitan.)

 

[repairedCheese]

Back on topic - if we're allowed to pick Intel machines I would pick the last Aluminium Unibody 17" MacBook Pro if only because it's big.

Of course it's welcome. I didn't ask about your perfect PowerPC Mac. I might not find their Intel hardware very interesting, but I've always been a Windows person first which says more about me than anything, and they've spent about 15 years on Intel, so of course people are going to have fallen in love with their Intel offerings.

 

[2984839]

Of course it's welcome. I didn't ask about your perfect PowerPC Mac. I might not find their Intel hardware very interesting, but I've always been a Windows person first which says more about me than anything, and they've spent about 15 years on Intel, so of course people are going to have fallen in love with their Intel offerings.

In that case, I'd say the 2014 15" rMBP variants are the perfect Macs. Intel Iris graphics, good quad core CPU choices, real ports for normal people, traditional keyboard, Retina display, no real widespread hardware problems.

 

[reukiodo]

For Intel, I feel like Apple was hitting on all cylinders in 2010, like the 2010 27" iMac because of the ability to DisplayPort in, the 2010 Mac Mini with unibody aluminium and optical drive (best media center PC, IMO), 2010 MacBook Pro 13 with nVidia graphics, and of course the Mac Pro 5,1, all really great systems!

2011 saw some better systems, like the last and best 17" MacBook Pro, but most seemed like a downward slide from their 2010 counterparts to me.

 

[AphoticD]

If I had an idea of which was the perfect Mac, I wouldn’t have acquired so many of them!

My favourite PowerPC desktop is the Air-cooled Late 2005 PowerMac G5 DC 2.3Ghz - it’s hassle free and performs brilliantly. I have mine setup as a DAW for when I feel inspired to record something, but it also handles Adobe CS and Final Cut Studio 2 just fine.

Sheer Performance would be my Quad G5, but I don’t run it very often due to the fans being loud - I like my Macs to be quiet.

Beauty: PowerBook G4 17”
Convenience: PowerBook G4 12”

For nostalgic reasons I love the Snow iBook G3 (even if they were a bit smelly) but all of mine have failed the test of time 🙁

I love my Pismo and PDQs, but don’t really care for the Lombard or original Wallstreet - I don’t know why.

I never thought I would like the iBook G4 very much, but after working on so many of them I really admire the design. Especially the 12 inch. I never really liked the 14 inch model until owning them, but they are actually really nice to use as the screen is bright and easy on my eyes.

I have a soft spot for the clamshell iBooks but don’t really have a use for them...

I have a few Sawtooth G4’s now which I love to tinker with. They fly on OS9 and can run Rhapsody perfectly.

I have owned dozens of 15 inch PBG4s, but I’ve never really loved the model. They were the workhorse of their day.

My favorite Intel Mac is my Octo Core Mac Pro 2008. Although it is old it still packs a punch and is a pleasure to use. I run all my TBs of storage off this tower along with dozens of Linux, Windows and OSX VMs.

My daily go-to portable is my 2008 MacBook unibody. I have put thousands of hours of use into this old ‘book since new and it still looks and feels like a new Mac (to me). It runs El Cap, but all the production software I use is up to date (enough) to make it feel modern most of the time. The LED display is bright and looks good as new.

Mac mini’s were great. I loved the older form factor. The G4 mini feels underpowered in Leopard but rock OS9 and MorphOS.

I have a couple of the 2009 C2D minis which are put to good use. I have one of them setup on the TV for the kids to play Minecraft, Halo, Tony Hawk 4 and a many other PowerPC games which perform great under Rosetta.

I have a 2018 MacBook Pro 13 inch which I use daily in my job. It can really crunch a lot at once, but is only comfortable to use with an external keyboard and mouse. The butterfly key mechanism is the worst.

The short answer is I don’t know which is the perfect Mac. But if I were forced to choose just one to keep, it would be my 8-Core 2008 Mac Pro.

 

[retta283]

My 20" mid 2005 iMac is probably my favorite one that I own right now. I think the iSight revision was even better though. I am a big fan of the aesthetic, biggest AIO screen before late 2006, very high quality panel, decent port selection, and good speed for apps of the era and light browsing.

Speaking of monitors, I'd be curious to know what size monitors PPC users have. I started a more general thread on this about 6 months ago, and I'm always interested in seeing it.

 

[Amethyst1]

In that case, I'd say the 2014 15" rMBP variants are the perfect Macs. Intel Iris graphics, good quad core CPU choices, real ports for normal people, traditional keyboard, Retina display, no real widespread hardware problems.

You can add "superfast PCIe SSDs" to the list. I also love how lightweight the 15" rMBP feels for its size.
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the 2010 Mac Mini with unibody aluminium and optical drive (best media center PC, IMO), 2010 MacBook Pro 13 with nVidia graphics

If only they had been given a CPU upgrade - selling Core 2 Duo machines in 2010 when everyone else had moved on to the i-series was pushing it.
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Mac mini’s were great. I loved the older form factor. The G4 mini feels underpowered in Leopard but rock OS9 and MorphOS.

I'd go as far as to say OS 9 is what the minis were made for. I know, I know, that statement will make some of you cringe. No harm intended. 😉
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I have a 2018 MacBook Pro 13 inch which I use daily in my job. It can really crunch a lot at once, but is only comfortable to use with an external keyboard and mouse.

When this is said about a laptop, something's seriously wrong with it. Fortunately, Apple has finally started to listen.
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Speaking of monitors, I'd be curious to know what size monitors PPC users have. I started a more general thread on this about 6 months ago, and I'm always interested in seeing it.

For my Mac mini (the only PPC desktop I have), I use a 19.6" Eizo L771 4:3 LCD. That was world's first 1600×1200 LCD - a shame it's a TN panel, and since DVI commonly maxed out at 1280×1024@60Hz or 1600×1024@60Hz back in 2000, it's only got VGA inputs. My other LCDs are 16" (not used for anything ATM), 21.5" (main box - secondary screen), 22.2" (IBM Bertha - used with whatever I feel like), 23" (not used for anything ATM) and 23.8" (main box - primary screen). I also used to have a 27" but that was a tad too big for my taste. I find 23 to 24 inches to be perfect to use as my main monitor.

 

[repairedCheese]

Speaking of monitors, I'd be curious to know what size monitors PPC users have. I started a more general thread on this about 6 months ago, and I'm always interested in seeing it.

My eMac solves a lot of that for me. Being an OS 9 capable machine, and one of the much faster ones, considering just how much could actually run OS 9, that it also has a 17" crt, even if it was a lower end model, still makes it the perfect machine to look into the past on.

The G5 came with a 23" Cinema Display, which at the time, I couldn't understand why such a large screen would be so easily parted with, but between the short term image persistence it suffers, and the fact that its whites have basically turned a shade of yellow, I can understand now. Still, the thing has its* charms, like having pixel perfect 960x600 and 800x600 display half scale full screen modes, something that makes me sad the thing doesn't fit in the spot I'd intended for it, despite everything wrong with it.

My eldest, the Performa 6205cd has a rather uninspired Apple Performa Display a 14" fuzzy 640x480 display that frankly hurts to look at. The computer isn't very good, and neither is the display, but I'm really keeping it around for the ports and the floppy drive, should I need to talk to any older Mac.

*Now technically, this is something the G5 is doing, but it only does this with 1920x1200 displays, as far as I know, and I don't exactly have a lot of those to test with it.

 

[2984839]

You can add "superfast PCIe SSDs" to the list. I also love how lightweight the 15" rMBP feels for its size.

You're totally right, I forgot about the PCIe SSD. They are great laptops. Sadly the MBP went downhill from there pretty quickly.