[Bubowski]

Mine was a 512e also! I actually upgraded it with a SuperMac card to give it extra memory and dual processor capability. I still have it, and it still boots up! One of the best Macs I ever owned. Used it for years, in fact. Doesn't much hold a candle to my 8-core MacPro, but I still have a place in my heart for it. Reminds me of those early days with Multifinder and Switcher (there was also Andy's shareware precursor to Multifinder, but I can't remember the name (anyone?)), Opcode MIDIMac Sequencer, etc etc.

Crikey...and I owned a PowerTower 180e also. Jeez. I'm living in a parallel universe. It actually makes me kind of ill thinking about how much that puppy set me back (compared to prices these days). It was my fav for a while, but it was also one of the most finicky systems I've owned.

Have to say that so far, the MacPro has been my fav. Insane power, quiet and killer for music.

[unremarkable]

My family bought an Apple IIe when they first came out... but we skipped the early Mac era. For several years, we simply didn't have a computer.
I've more than made up for it, however, having owned the following machines:
- PowerMac 6500/250
- PowerMac G3 400MHz (Blue and White)
- PowerBook G3 500MHz (Pismo)
- PowerMac G4 450MHz Sawtooth, later 1.2GHz upgrade
- Mac Pro, Quad 3GHz
I have to say, that the G4 Sawtooth was one of the most dependable, durable, upgradeable, just plain solid machines I've ever used, let alone owned.
I got it "pre-owned" from my place of business and the thing absolutely kicked arse for many years afterwards. I only upgraded to the Mac Pro a year ago, and had still been using the Sawtooth as my main machine.

[tao51ny]

On the laptop side, my fave was definitely the Pismo G3. In addition to those very flexible drive/battery bays, I could upgrade everything without a fuss. That thing followed me nearly 5 years. I started with OS 9, then went up all the way to Panther, a 1GB ram extension, a bigger HD, and even a G4 processor upgrade (but that ran a lot hotter, forcing that very loud internal fan to kick in a lot more often). Tiger finally convinced me to move up to a G4 1.5ghz, followed very quickly by a MacBook Pro. But every once in awhile, Apple just makes this product that lasts and lasts.

[hillstones]

The best Macs ever made were the SE/30 and IIci for all the reasons people have already stated. They were reliable and fast workhorses! I worked at SDSU's Aztec Shops Computer store as the Apple Computer Student Rep and the department was run with SE/30's and a single IIci with the Portrait Monitor. The IIci was also a FileMaker Pro server for handling Apple Loan quotes.

My first Mac was the Mac Plus, upgraded to 4 MB of RAM. It still works and sits on my bookshelf, but has a flaky analog board. Back in those days, you had to format your own hard drive and install the system (System 6.0.3) yourself.

The Mac Centris 650 was also a great Mac, and a great replacement for the IIci/Quadra 700. It was also upgradable to a 50 MHz 68040 processor. it was extremely reliable and then I sold it 4 years later for the Power Mac G3 Desktop. Also reliable, but noisy with the plastic case and high speed CD drive. Used the G3 for 5 years and then sold it while it was still worth money. I used my PowerBook G4 15" Ti 867 MHz with a 20" Apple Cinema Display for a few years until I bought my current Mac, the iMac G5 2.1 GHz (iSight). I love the design and love how quiet it is! I also have an iMac G4 17" 1 GHz, that has been upgraded to 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, AirPort, and Bluetooth.

I have also owned a Duo 230, 280c, and PowerBook G3 WallStreet II before the PB G4 Ti. I will keep the Ti because it is in mint condition, and can still boot OS 9 whenever needed.

Recently found on eBay are other great classic Macs that I enjoy using: Mac LC 575 (also upgraded with the rare Power Macintosh Card for dual booting 33 MHz 68LC040 or 66 MHz PowerPC 601, and a CommSlot Ethernet Card), PowerBook Duo 2300c and PowerBook 540c. I love playing the old classic CD-ROM games on the LC 575. The LC 575 also has the beautiful and mint condition Apple Extended Keyboard II.

[jldinsdale]

I disagree with Andy - I think the greatest Mac you've ever owned is the newest one you currently use.
Along the thread of the article though, although the first Mac that I actually owned was the Powerbook 520, my best Mac was the first Power Mac G5 Dual 2 GHz equipped with a retail ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.
After years of going with clones and Powerbooks, the G5 tower was by far and above the fastest speed increase between machines - it would boot up seemingly instantaneously - and the first machine I could play Quake 3 at 1600x1200 resolution with 180+ fps! It was also the fastest machine I'd ever rendered 3D with and composited After Effects project files in a fraction of the time it would take with my previous G4 tower.
That machine stayed with me for about five years, first as the trusted powerhouse workstation, then relegated to media server when the Aluminum iMacs came out.
Ah the memories.

[ole9]

SE/30. I still have one, and it still boots. I used to have a full page portrait monitor for it (third-party) but that died a while ago.

Second place goes to the PPC 601 with the x86 coprocessor because it was so cool to be able to run a PC and a Mac side by side. It wasn't terribly useful but it was terribly cool.

[People_Eater]

No love for the Powerbook G3 "Pismo"? That's got to be Apple's finest portable ever made. For a while, it seemed to be about the only thing making Apple stand out from the crowd, as many people defected from the platform.

[People_Eater]

natinja said:

My favourite Mac was an Amiga 3000 upgraded with a 68060 processor running the Shapeshifter Mac emulator.

Oh, absolutely.

The Amiga 3000 was a great machine, and a very decent Mac. The best part about it is that you didn't have to use MacOS all the time, only when a particular Mac application was required. You get to spend the rest of your time with Intuition, the excellent shell and real-time video processing.

[mike3k]

I second the SE/30. One cool thing about it is you could get a video card and add an external color monitor (which I did with mine). I even ran A/UX (Apple's first Unix) on my SE/30.
The Macs I owned were:
Original 128 (purchased Feb. 1984)
Mac Plus
Mac SE/30
Macintosh IIsi
PowerBook 100
Duo 270c (with the mini dock only)
Mactell XB (Tanzania-based clone)
Blue & White G3/350
iBook G3/466 SE (Graphite Clamshell with firewire)
White iBook G3/500 (Dual USB)
PowerMac G4/500 (upgraded to 1 GHz G4; this is the oldest Mac I still own)
Original 12″ PowerBook G4/867
15″ PowerBook G4 1 GHz
Mac Mini G4/1.42 GHz (currently in use as a DVR)
iMac Core Duo 1.8 GHz (first Intel Mac; replacement for ADP development system)
Original 15″ MacBook Pro Core Duo (2.0 GHz)
MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (Santa Rosa), 2.4 GHz
12″ Aluminum MacBook 2.4 GHz

[manolo]

For me, the best ever, was the Power PC 8500...

[fhirsch]

My best Macs: SE/30, Desktop G3, MacPro. The best of different times. My SE/30 is long dead with an ailment common to the MacPlus and similar: leaking capacitors. My G3 is still up and running 10.4.11 with 768MB of RAM. And I love my MacPro

[adavies42]

the first mac i "owned" (for loose values of ownership) was my parent's plus, but i'd have to say my favorite would be the beige g3/300 minitower that i bought freshman year of college. it carried me right through to graduate school, from os 8 to jaguar, and on the rare occasions when i need to boot it in os 9, it still feels far more natural than anything i do on my leopard-equipped air, let alone my poor pbg4, which just crawls these days. the os 9 finder, instabilities and all, was a masterpiece of ui, and for that, i think the g3 will always remain my personal favorite.

[tvmitch]

What a fun thread to read through, great posts by all.


First Mac was in 1992, when the folks bought a LC II and 13" color monitor from an educational teacher discount program. Mom opted for the somewhat expensive Apple //e card and 5.25" floppy, but we never really used the //e stuff that much. 4MB RAM, 80MB hard drive. Got RAM Doubler and I had at least two rows of extensions installed on that thing. Slow as molasses. I remember getting a SCSI Zip drive for it. Gasp! One Zip disk holds my entire hard drive! Never tried to connect it to the Internet, and it sits in my basement on a shelf.


Next Mac was a Power Mac 6500/250 with 15" monitor. What a terrible, awful machine. We had nothing but problems with it, although it did have a TV input card, which was neat.


I got a toilet-seat iBook SE 366mhz for college, and in those days of Napster, my hard drive filled quickly. I remember buying an external Iomega CD burner, running over USB 1.0, that had a burn success rate of about 5%. It did not have Firewire. I paid a local idiot-run Mac store to have that upgraded to a 40GB hard drive.


Now, the answer to the question. The best computer Apple has ever made, and my favorite, is the 12-inch PowerBook G4. I would still have that computer if it had any make of Intel processor. It was the perfect computer for me as a Communications student...wireless Internet built-in, DVD reader to watch movies, Firewire for video editing in iMovie. Didn't weigh me down, and the battery lasted forever. My laptop was better than everyone else's at school. I actually had two, one was the original, and then I got the 1.5GHz model, which was the last (fastest) laptop made that booted into OS 9. I think it's just about the best computer Apple ever made.


Also had a Mac mini, and then a close second for my favorite computer is my white MacBook C2D, which does everything.

[aluminum]

The best Mac? My tangerine iBook. I took it home from CompUSA with an Airport card and base station on a Friday evening. I still remember that summer evening surfing the net on the back porch with it the night I brought it home. I had upgraded from an aging Performa 6100 AV. Imagine going to a tightly wound business meeting in 2000 and opening that orange clamshell up - I did it - and everyone asked where my floppy drive was (after they commented on how cute my computer was)! It is in its original box upstairs, after serving as the living room laptop for several years...My MacBook Pro is great, but not nearly as much fun.