I’ve owned a lot of Macs over the years (and yes, a PC or two along the way), but there is still one that stands out as my favorite. I suppose there are many reasons why one specific machine rises to the top of my attention, but admittedly, they have all been pretty darn awesome.
I was doing some research on my first Mac, making some cost comparisons of computing then vs. now. That started me on a beautiful walk down memory lane, and before I knew it, I had compiled quite a list of machines that I had owned. It was longer than I expected it to be, actually. I probably even left a few off. But there was one Mac in particular that made me pause and contemplate – “Yeah… what a great friend and workmate… We had some good times… I really miss that bad boy, got me out of some jams…” You know, the usual nerdy reflections.
A Blast of Macs Past
From my first 16 MHz SE/30 with 4 MB of RAM and a 40 MB Hard Drive to the 2019 MacBook Pro I am typing on now, the number of Macs are, well… numerous. Smattered across the timeline is a Quadra, a Bondi iMac, a half-basketball iMac G4, a Power Mac G4 and a G5, several Mac minis, a few additional later model iMacs, at least one PowerBook, two MacBooks, three MacBook Airs and five or six MacBook Pros. And remember when Apple allowed Mac clones for awhile? Yep, I had a Motorola StarMax back in the day.
So, what is my favorite Mac out of the lot? It was the 2010 17-inch MacBook Pro (MacBookPro6,1) that made my heart leap ever so slightly. Yes, I have had much faster and more tricked out computers, and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do today with that specific hardware, but this model holds very fond memories.
Why I Loved the MacBook Pro (2010, 17-inch)
First…
…the screen. I loved the 17-inch screen. I didn’t think I could ever live without it. (I’m still having a hard time getting over it.) Glossy? Nope, non-glare matte finish. I was a programmer and musician and had my eyes glued to that thing all day and didn’t want to deal with eye-fatigue. Sure, it was heavy and caused years of back problems having been slung around my shoulder as I traveled, but oh, the real-estate! Made both discectomies worth it.
Second…
…the speed-bump. This particular computer replaced a 2007 17-inch MacBook Pro I had, which was an Intel Core 2 Duo. I went straight to an Intel Core i7 with this one. The heavens opened, and the angels sang. 🎶 I was able to do things with a mobile computer that I couldn’t have dreamed of previously.
Apple’s tagline for this model was “The fastest, most powerful MacBook Pro ever. Times three.” Dang straight it was.
Third…
…did I mention SSD? I didn’t? Well, it had a Solid State Drive – something which I had never used before. A ginormous 512GB of storage space as a matter of fact. Who in their right mind could ever use up that amount of space?! (C’mon, be honest, we have all had that similar thought at one point in our computing lives.) I also maxed out the memory with OWC RAM – a whopping 8 GB! I was blown away at how much more productive I had become.
I was thinking about ripping out the Slot-loading SuperDrive and replacing it with a Data Doubler, but opted for an external drive instead. Kids + Disney + DVDs + Road Trips + 17″ Screen = Daddy gets an OWC Mercury On-The-Go FireWire enclosure instead.
Fourth…
…precision aluminum unibody case. Tuff stuff – ’nuff said.
Your Favorite Mac
So, is it odd to have a favorite Mac? I can’t be the only one. And does it have to be the newest and shiniest? Or is it like children where you aren’t supposed to prefer any one over the other? I hope I’m not alone, so I’m counting on you to let me off the hook by sharing your favorite memories in the comment section below!
Hello Mark,
Your story sent a twang through my heart!
I am presently using an early 2011, 17 inch MacBook Pro. It is my 2nd 17 inch MBP, both of which I love. (I know, I know, time to get a newer Mac)
My first Mac in 1989 was a Quadra 610, which, at the time was pretty amazing for me since I was a new Mac user at that time, having only ever used a PC.
I’ve had several more Macs, two of which were G5 towers (I’m using the tower cases as the supports for a “Mac Bench” I designed. It keeps the memories alive!)
Being my own IT and repair person for most issues, I also service my family’s Macs. I love taking them apart and getting them back to health again!
By the way, don’t count us old folks out about using Macs. I am a 73 year old woman, and my mom still is a Mac user at age 96!
Thanks to all the OWC bloggers. I really get a lot out of the articles!
With best regards,
Carol Sierzega, Mount Holly, NJ
Thanks Carol, it is fun to walk down memory lane!
Straight-up, my all-time fave is the one I’m currently typing this on, a mid-2012 13″ MacBook Pro (2.9 i7), maxed-out to 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD, and USB-3 on-tap. The fact that I could upgrade the thing (versus any contemporary MacBook) makes all the difference in the world. And it can run Catalina if I care to, but I’m fine with High Sierra for now.
Only thing possibly better? A quad-core version of same!
@OWCLarry
I miss using my 2011 MacBook Pro 17″. Loaded out with 16GB of memory & Dual SSDs-was super fast, stable & the screen was nice for the eyes. I’d like my latest 16″ MacBook Pro more if it had half the stability my 17″ had.
My Wallstreet wouldn’t die. My most reliable laptop hands down. Extra battery, various drives to load in, floppy, cd, SuperDrive. And then when OS X came along you could dual boot in OS 9 or X. Lots of business trips and airports. I used it for 10 years. Last month I needed data from a floppy believe it or not. I found the laptop in the basement. I pulled it out, dusted it off and kept my fingers crossed. I heard that old startup chime and watched the extension icons line up. I couldn’t stop grinning.
I still love my 2011 last-hurrah 17-inch MacBook Pro!
BUT I have loaded up 16 GB of RAM (not the original posted limit of 8GB), and a 2TB Samsung SSD. It still screams, and does most critical applications. Yet the older OS will not load updates of Notes, Keynote, or other Apple office apps past the last 2019 update. I also host Parallels with Windows 10 on it so I can easily share Microsoft Office files with Microsoft coworkers and clients. Nooo problem!
My now senior eyes need that real estate which that big 17-in display provides.
My current laptop is a 2010 MacBook Pro 15″ with maxed memory. I’m stuck two system upgrades behind Catalina but I still use it for my university lectures and portable computing. I think it’s my favorite Apple since IIe and SE30 time!
In 10-12 years we have purchased 4x Mac minis , 4 iMacs 5 x MacBook Pros, 1 x Mac book Air, 2 x 13” iPads 2 x smaller iPads, I guess we Love Macs
LOL
Started with a used Mac Plus. It had Hyper Card on it and was enamored with the possibilities. Went to a low end G3 – it’s what I could afford – and enjoyed working with it through OS 7-9. Then got a used MDD G4 dual boot which is still my main Mac. It runs the software I use – Pro Tools, Photoshop, GoLive, Appleworks. It’s probably my favorite out of the bunch with the Plus being a close second. I’m now running 10-4 Fox on it and, at times, the limitations for my needs show up. I do have a iMac (early 2008) that was given to me running OS X 10 that I am gently forced to use for stuff like some web sites and video needs. Plan on using the G4 until nothing runs any more. Like I said the important stuff, for the most part, still works and that’s what’s important to me (it’s what I’m using right now for this post).
I still use my MaBook Pro Mid 2010 15.4. I agree all the aspects you mention but no doubt the mate non glare display is the best. I have a problem running High Sierra when the video card is in use it crashes. I found that a condenser is the problem but I am afraid to damage, then I use it with caution.
The 2011 MacBookPro 17″ was the best up until the dreaded graphics defect materialized. SATA-3 speeds for SSD made it a workhorse in our company. Everyone hated to see them die forcing the switch to dongle-hell retina machines. Quad-core i7 rocked!
I still have a soft spot for the Blue&White G3. Tricked out, it was a super machine for the time. I still have one sitting on the corner of desk. Cannot bring myself to send it to recycling.
The Quadra 700 was another super sweet machine. Fast, Easy to upgrade…there really was nothing finer in the Nubus days.
My favorite setup was my PowerBook Duo 230. Loved having the tiny laptop when I was out and about and then slipping it into the Duo-dock at home with a nice big monitor and peripherals attached. Too bad it never caught on.
I love my iMac mid 2010. I’ve had some issues but overall it’s a great machine.
My Favorite, was alittle box, had 2 of them, one had strawberry color and the other one was blue. They had programs I could play music and just real simple to tell it to record it.So I made a few recordings that way. Started with Apple IIe bought a accelerator IIe card, entire computer on one card, and it would go in slot 3 and then a 192 I think it was memory card that would go in the other slot three card.
had to put more heavy duty power supply and another fan on it. faster IIe around, loved it. Slow games became arcade fast, so it was great. Got a MacBook Pro now 2009 and upgraded to max memory 8 Gigs, then what really made a differnce a 1TB Solid state hard drive. Turns on raelly fast, but websites dont like it now. Cant do hotmail, it wont let me check email. talked to hotmail people repeatedly and no one knows why all they tell me to do is get chrome as my brower, Wanted to get updated quicktime that records video, its no longer aviable. So stuck, Want a new one but that aint gonna happen. They cost to much, do not want to get a used one that is a resonable price that is gonna be obsolute in a couple of years. this on is already obsolute. Spelling errors, well obama happens. Loved the old red and blue mac, one had a dvd player the other one didnt, so I liked the dvd player model. We moved and wife made throw them out in the trash, they were old. She thinks like that, its old, get rid of it.
Mine was a PowerMac 8600. The first computer I bought without compromise, it was what I wanted. 8 ram slots, 3 PCI, and a bunch of drive bays. Had Vram slots. Filling all 4 with one meg cards gave you “near broadcast quality” video and sound. RCA and S-Video ports built in. Had a 2 gig hard drive. And the Iomega Zip drive. Which was awesome until the “Click of death”. This computer also introduced me to Bungie’s Marathon. A friend had bought an external Zip drive and it came with a sample copy. His SE/30 couldn’t run it very well and he let me have it. They was that. Several 2 o’clock in the morning sessions with the kids in bed. Still mad at Microsoft and Bungie over Halo. This was also the computer that would introduce me to Other World Computing. Originally the 8 RAM slots would yield 512 Megs of RAM with 64 meg cards. OWC tested the 128 meg cards and found the Memory Manager would handle it. In 1997 I had a computer with a Gig of RAM! Ultimately a processor daughter card would allow G3 and G4 processors to replace the 200Mhz 604. I think I ended with a 500mhz G3. I found the IBM/Hitachi Enterprise Hard drives used SCSI. They had unbelievable reliability. Also had a SCSI scanner. I would later add an EIDE card, USB/Firewire Combo Card, and a VillageTronics 3DFX Voodoo card. 8 megs and it ran hot. But I could play Future Cop 3D. Upgraded the CD Drive. The 390 watt power supply (others were 220 at that time) ran three hard drives as well. It also had the case from the 9600 that literally unfolded to get to everything. My PC friends used to say to me “But Macs aren’t expandable!”.
My favorite would have to be the PowerBook 3400, an amazingly powerful laptop that actually had a woofer behind the display. I don’t think any laptop before or since has had that rich of sound.
Not my very most favorite, but a game-changer; the first Mac that had expansion slots – the Mac IIci.
Mirrored drive doors G4 tower all filled up with ram, HDD drives, and optical drives. Worked wonderfully, looked great, opened satisfyingly. No subsequent or current towers even come close to its elegance. After I reluctantly gave it up for more capability, I stayed with MBPs until the 24in iMac early 2009 desktop which is my second favorite desktop. I reluctantly gave it up for the 27in iMac with the 5k screen for the resolution ease on aging eyes. My current 2017 27in iMac is ok but fake thinness doesn’t match the industrial design quality and usability of my favorite two. I also keep a 15in MBP around for walk-abouts–and fight the cult of thinness.
My first was the Mac SE 30 with the 40Mb with Adobe Illustrator 88. Like watching paint dry compared to today’s speed. LOL.
My favorite laptop is my MacBook Pro 2011 17”, the last of the 17” produced and I still use it to today because of that viewing area for on the go video editing.
My desktop that I just keep adding upgrades to is my Mac Pro 2010 5,1 which, outside of the motherboard, is filled with OWC upgrades and is my mainstay. It’s just a solid computer even up against the 2013 and the overpriced 2019
I’ve had all the usual computers that followed in between those which I used to use in a render farm. I’m thinking of adding a Mac Pro 2012 and adding all the bells and whistles later this Summer since there’s nothing else to do. LOL
Never owned a PC, just emulated it for testing purposes only.
Yes. Yes. Yes. I have the same 17″ Mac Book Pro. It was my main machine, even though I had a Mac Pro 3,1 for heavy lifting.
About 2 years ago, the GPU in my 17″ MBP failed. Ended up getting a souped up 2018 MBP. Hate it. It has a garbage keyboard, which I sent in for repairs under warranty. It is still flakey, so I’ve had to resort to using a external bluetooth keyboard in order to get anything done. Apple must have been brain-dead to stick with that butterfly keyboard as long as they did.
Kind of ironic; I had a 17″ MBP that I loved, loved, loved. And, moved on to a 2018 15″ MBP that I hate, hate, hate.
You lucked out. The 2019 MBP has an improved “non-butterfly” keyboard. I’m stuck with a piece of junk I bought in 2018, that they can’t even fix under warranty.
I’m going to wait. If the new “non-butterfly” keyboard proves itself, I may opt for a new MBP in the near future. But, I am not going to be “stupid” twice. If I do buy a new machine, and the keyboard doesn’t prove itself within the 1st 30 days, that MBP is going straight back to Apple, to the ATTN: Tim Cook.
Yes. I miss my old 17″ MBP. It served me well for many, many years. It holds many fond memories and at least, THE KEYBOARD WORKED FLAWLESSLY!
I have the same complaint about my iMac’s “Magic” keyboard. My old fingers just don’t work well with it like the keyboard in my MacBook Pro 17″–it was the best. Don’t know why they didn’t “port” it to other machines as a standalone.
I still use my MB Pro (1 TB SSD, max RAM, matte screen) with High Sierra for the occasional legacy app, but have been forced to the iMac with Mojave for some business apps. Still resisting Catalina. Won’t purchase a new MB 16 either until I see how they fare.
I have empathy for your situation. The keyboard is our main interface to the computer. Without a rock solid keyboard, it compromises the whole system.
I have the Model A1843, external Bluetooth Apple Magic Keyboard connected to my MacBook Pro. It’s the only way I can use the computer. Frustrating.
Macintosh SE/30. Added a color video card for an external monitor. ;-)
I’ve owned: Bought a Macintosh spring of ‘84 then a Mac 128k, Mac Plus, SE/30, PowerBook, PowerMac, iMac (froggy green), Cube, Mac Pro 2009, 2 x MacBook Pro, MacPro 2013, MacPro 2019.
Never owned a PC.
I love this article. Provided an opportunity to reminisce about my past macs.
My all time favourite was my black G3 Powerbook (Pismo). I have had quite a few mac laptops since this one but none have replaced the place in my heart that my Pismo holds. For the time period, it was sleek, fast had all the bells and whistles and was the ultimate swiss army knife type of portable. I loved the expansion ports which could easily be swapped for drives, batteries, etc. I also loved typing on the keyboard.
I used this mac as my primary computer for 9 years without fail. I often replaced the internal components when needed and even upgraded it to a G4 processor near the end. It continued to purr along and likely would have lived on if it had not been stolen.
I enjoy the design of the new mac laptops including the metal finish, but do I ever miss the flexibility and expansion capability of my Pismo.
Apple defined the best of the best at the time and I was always proud to show of my Pismo.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane
My son introduced me to computing with the Commodore 64 which I upgraded to the Commodore 128 (still have them both along with the floppy disc drives, dot-matrix printer and VGA monitor. From there I went to the 6500 with the diskette slot. (computer is long gone, but still have the box and the files copied to my current hard drive. From there I went to the iMac G3 (blue and white, which I still have. That led me to the clamshell blue and white iBook, which I still have, but with a frozen hard drive. From there I went to a 21-inch iMac and a 17-inch Powerbook, both of which I still have, except the Powerbook got dropped and the cost of repair exceeded it’s usefulness. Then came my 15-inch Laptop Pro and finally my 27-inch iMac. Not to mention my iPad II, two iPad minis, two iPad pros, iPhone 5 and iPhone 7. To say that I’m an Apple fan is an understatement. If you want to include printers, I have an Epson CX-4800, 2 WF-610’s two Epson WF 2630’s and one WF -2730. As you can see, I never throw anything away!
The one I have now, a 2015 15″ MacBook Pro. 1TB SSD, 16 GB Ram, some flavor of i7 Pentium quad core in it. Old style keyboard not the butterfly. Very solid beast. I’m not sure I could find a meaningfully better new computer now.
The last iteration of the MB Pro 17″ is my favorite. I’d still be using it, and I did up until last December, but a couple applications I need will soon require Mojave, so I bought a used iMac 21″ from OWC. Very nice machine, but I most miss the nice keyboard and the Firewire connections on the MB Pro.
I now have to run my three Mercury Elite Pro externals with USB–a step backwards! (Yeah, I could buy all new enclosures with Thunderbolt connections–but $$)
I still have the MB Pro, and a couple older MB Pros and a PB G4. Wish I could have kept all the older one–from the Mac 128 to the IIsi to the IIci and then several iterations of the PB, but I’d need another room to house them all.
Fun article, BTW. Thanks for conceiving it.
The Mac that was the first computer of my own and not the “family computer” is still my favorite. Dual 500Mhz PowerMac G4 Gigabit Ethernet. Original drives were (1) 40GB ATA & (2) 36GB SCSI drives with a PCI 2-channel SCSI Card (was one of the last times that Apple offered a SCSI built-to-order option). Original RAM was 256MB but upgraded to 1GB (first time I ever made a purchase with OWC). I still fire this thing up from time to time to play games or mess around with old programs for fun
My favorite Mac — or at least the one I remember with a great deal of fondness — was a Mac IIcx. It was my first color Mac and it served me for many years, first as my primary Mac and then running a bulletin board system (BBS) for a long time. It ran the speedy Motorola 68030 processor, had three NuBus slots (although I don’t remember using any of them…), and it was the first Mac I owned with an internal hard drive. The Mac I owned before this one was the Mac 512K (“Fat Mac”), which I eventually outfitted with a 20MB external hard drive.
Of course, I love my current late 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro. It’s everything I dreamed of back in the 1980s – fast, portable, incredible display, you name it.
I have to say that my favorite was the Powerbook G4 12″. It was powerful, small, and simple. Perfect shape and size. Heavy by these days standards, but could be used in airplanes (remember that?) even if someone lowered the seat in front. My second would be my current Air 11, but I actually don’t like the wedge form factor. My third would be my original Mac II.
MacBook 2017, my second as I had the initial USB-C MacBook. Both were 512gb. Reason: these do absolutely all I need. Couldn’t ask for more. Reason for upgrade: newer technology, pass me down to family. Major gripe: I have been a Mac owner for over 30 years. I have always bought AppleCare from resellers within the first 12 months. I went to do that this year: and found that I had to buy from Apple and I had exceeded the now 60 day time limit. I talked myself blue with Apple support at a couple levels to no avail. I stopped short of writing Tim Cook.
Hard question to answer! My first mac was a Beige Model M0001 – I did spec work for a start up IC company in Sunnyvale CA (Zytrex). That company was bought out by Sahni and after a period of being laid off was hired by Sahni to do spec work again on the same computer! They were a IBM PC house so after we transferred the specs I got to buy the Mac and take it home! Sahni went out of business and I went to MMI (Monolithic Memories Inc) – some Macs but not for me! Ultimately back to PA and a few years with Commodore – still have a C64 and a C128 (don’t know what happened to my Amiga 2000). Then off to Penn State University (last job before retiring and we went from 1 Mac lab and a few macs to almost 60/40 with Macs in the majority – ended up with 2 “Cheese Graters” Single and double cd/dvd drives) Think I like Macs?
Mac mini (Late 2012)
2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
Upgraded to 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 from OWC
Upgraded to 1 TB Micron SSD from OWC
about 12TB of hard drives on external USB connections
Dual 23″ Acer monitors
Wired Apple full keyboard with numeric keypad
Apple wireless Mouse
Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920
Currently running MacOS 10.15.5
Never had a machine last as long and still stay current at that!
My fave was my 2003, 17 inch, 1GHz iMac G4. My 1st new Mac! I had been buying used Macs from friends as they upgraded; so it was pretty terrific to get a Mac, new in the box. Did great stuff with iMovie, then Final Cut Express, iDVD, GarageBand!! Continued to used it for transcoding analog video & audio until it was stolen in 2018.
1.) Original Mac (1984, and immediately upgraded to 512k memory in Austin) with 2nd diskette drive. Fun, amazingly easy to use, very intuitive interface. Still have it.
2.) Powerbook 180 (grey scale display, good processing speed, good battery life, and great design. Still have it.
One of my favorites was the first Macintosh I owned, a Mac Plus. I maxed out the RAM to 4 MB, added an internal fan to help keep things cool, and attached an external 20 MB SCSI hard drive.
I used the Mac Plus for electronic design (CAE) as well as using various CAD programs to design the house we currently live in.
As for recent Macs, the 27-inch iMac is my preferred workstation, but I will admit my favorite laptop was the last version of the 17-inch MacBook Pro.
Tom
The Mac IIci was the classic desktop computer. It was a big improvement over the IIcx. It wasn’t top of the line but gave you everything you needed with plenty of expansion. And it was super easy to open up and tinker with. Software was also easier to troubleshoot in those days.
Your list of Macs from Christmas past was a trip down memory lane. My first was a Mac SE and I had many of the same machines as you did over the years, including several clones…Motorola and Umax. The next one was always my favorite, but the standout was my 27” iMac that I upgraded with an SSD. The speed increase was so impressive that I could not stand to use a rotating drive machine again.
What about bad OS ? Catalina is very bad for me first time in a long time I’ve had this grief
Good question, Ian. That might make for another interesting post. I’d have to go back and research all the OS changes over the years to jog my memory, but I bet I’d land on the one that gave me the most “wow” at the time.
My Apple history begins with the Apple 2. I had the original Macintosh and have stayed with the MAC for all of these years. I have not opted for the latest and greatest because of the change of ports, enormous cast plus the reduction of ports. I still have a series of Power Mac Pros and am primarily working on my 2010 3.33 GH 6 core model. I have 5 external drives totaling 4 T and three internal totaling 3 T. I also still own and use my i7 17″ Mackbook Pro when traveling.
I enjoyed your revealing your favorite Mac.
Thanks for sharing yours!
My favorite was the 17″ laptop. I still have it but it doesn’t work.
If Apple reintroduced it with all the current components I’d get one in a New York minute/
You are certainly not alone!
I started on a Mac SE in 1988. And when we talk about “my favorite Mac,” we need to be clear that we mean the Mac relative to the technology at the time. I would say that my favorite Mac was the Apple Power Macintosh G5 1.8 DP (PCI-X) that I got in 2004. It was just a very elegantly designed (and upgradeable!) machine for its time, and it ran very well. I loved it!
I’m still using my favorite a mid 2012 13inch MacBook Pro 2.9ghz,1tb ssd, 16gb ram ( from OWC) , I’ll be using this until Apple will not allow it to update he OS X .
Same here. Upgraded the RAM and added 1TB SSD – Bam! New computer that runs great! Considerable difference from my first Mac – a 512KE in the late eighties. Bought it from a friend for $1800.00!
I too had a 2010 17″ MacBook Pro, and was really pissed when in 2012 Apple decided to drop it.
I was faced with a dilemma – whether to dump my 2010 and buy a 2011 obsolete machine just for the quad core i7, or to forget about it and limp along for the next few years with a dual core. I chose the latter, and still have that 2011 to this day.
After that, I gave up on MacBook Pros for a while and switched over to iMac 5Ks which were like 17 inchers for the desktop crowd. I got a 2014 and a 2017 – after, once again, Apple didn’t release a 2018 iMac 5K – only to have them release a 2019 with better processors growl.
My next Mac – which I only use when my 2017 iMac 5K is down for maintenance or I’m traveling (fat chance of that nowadays) – was a 16 inch MacBook Pro which finally comes within a stone’s throw of a 17″era real estate.
The 2011 MBP 17 is now for family use, but I can’t use it for most tasks because it lacks peripherals. Nobody makes ExpressCard/34s any more, and nobody makes Thunderbolt 1 peripherals, meaning the fastest supported port is USB 2. I did have a 802.11ac dongle, but it plugged in to a USB 2 port.
The 16 inch MacBook Pro is a joy to use, and doesn’t suffer from the fusion drive headaches that my iMacs have (they both have 3 TB fusion drives).
I’m waiting for the next evolution of the iMac 5K and will buy that with SSD storage (which seems to have come down to prices humans can afford). I’m just sick to death of fusion drive APFS headaches.
Hands down my favorite was my 2009 iMac with a Core i7, which finally bit the dust in 2019, ten years of solid service. I increased the original 4GB of RAM to 12GB and replaced the HDD with an SSD over the years, so now my replacement 2017 iMac (refurbished) with the Fusion Drive is not really much faster, makes more noise, and is harder to upgrade. Sigh…
My favourite Mac out of the many I have owned is my old 2007 Mac Pro 2,1 (2 x 3GHz Quad Core Clovertowns), hooked up to a 30″ Cinema Display. OS updates are dead for me, but I love this machine. I travel a lot nowadays and rely on a Macbook Air, but when I’m home, you’ll find me on my Mac Pro.
My first MAC was an LCIII total cost including scanner and Apple printer about £1600.00 about 1986. A huge amount translated to today . My daughter was studying Graphic Design. Todays Macs are relatively cheap. I have never really though in terms of favourite.
If Mac OS is right much of my upgrading possibly unnecessary.
I miss my old Apple II+. It was beefed-up with with the language card which brought the on board memory to 89K, if I remember. I bought it when I attending UO, majoring in economics, and Computer and Info Science, and all my friends, at the time couldn’t understand WHY I had bought it. I was able to modify the operating system, which lead to being very, very careful about maintaining copies. One of the course I was taking (Graphics?) required Basic. Thinking that all Basics were the same, I wrote a graphics program, that somehow I got into a PDP-10 again, if memory serves) and found out the hard way that all BASICS were NOT the same. I had a modem (1200 baud? 800 baud?) that was useless for school because they didn’t have a way to connect. Later, I got a hierarchical database that allowed data to span 250 5 1/4″ disks. Pretty sure I was one of the first people to transfer data between an Apple and a PC (I think I still have the BYTE that championed the first IBM). And of course, games. Now I’ve got 3 Mac Pros (latest, the trash can, and I had the orginal, water cooled, but it died a horrible water death and got replaced), iPhone, iPad, a mini Mac, MacBook Pro, another earlier MacBook Pro, and I’ve probably left one out. And, I can claim to have seen One Infinite loop when it was a dirt road.
Currently using my MacPro, 2008, with OWC 1 TB PCI SSD, 2TB Mercury SSD on an internal sled, 32GB Ram, replaced the optical drive from OWC. Love this machine. Dual quad-core processors.
Currently my 2017 MB Air, purchased new in 2019. 8GB ram, 512 SSD, i7 processor. This is my 3rd MB Air. Sought this out due to the 2 USB ports, SD Card slot. Won’t buy a new MB unless they offer dongle-less computers again.
Thanks to Larry and OWC for being there for all my Mac needs.
We are thankful we can help keep your gear running better and longer!
2006 MacPro with 23″ Cinema display. It rankest and flawlessly until I had to retire it, finally, because it would only run 10.7.5, Magnificent construction. My only modification was to swap the hard drive for a SSD (From OWC) in 2014. I would still be using it today if it could run a later operating system. My daughter has the display as a second monitor in her office.
I have owned an IMSAI 8080, a Mac II, a PM1500, a Desktop PM G3, PM G5 (2.7 GHz dual-CPU, liquid-cooled (still have it), a MacBook Air, and a Mac mini, but my favorites are the 4 Hackintoshes I have built from 2014-2019. Why? Personal connection to things I build myself.
Hacks: One “Haswell” (i7-4770K), one Skylake (i7-6700), two Coffeelakes (i7-8700 and i9-9900K). Running MacOS Tiger 10.4.11 on the G5, MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 on the Haswell and i7 Coffeelake, MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 on the i9 Coffeelake, and (given to neighbor) MacOS Catalina on the Skylake.
Sorry, that was a PM 9500 (typo).
Hi OWCMark,
Surely you meant 8GB and not 8TB of RAM? :-)
LOL – nice catch! I will definitely fix that typo. :-)
You are not alone. Same computer, same love, but I DID use the data doubler! The addition of an external CD/DVD writer was a simple task and my “young” one has his own devices…
I still have it as a legacy machine and use it to add audiobook files to my iPod Nano and music to my iPod Classic since Catalina is particularly un-friendly to iPods with the elimination of iTunes. It holds my entire music collection and has it’s own little accessible hidey hole to reside when it’s not being used.
The screen was wonderful and when Apple came out with the 16″ I dove for it. 16″ is the next best thing, and it’s processors are wonderful for my photo work, but still…
My current favourite mid 2012 MacBook Pro 15″ 16GB and 500 GB SSD. Previously it was my 2011 15″ MacBook Pro. And, I still love my old 2009 13″ White MacBook because it keeps on ticking. Now if we did not have to deal with software glitches and kernel panics that we did not worry about in the past….
My favorite iMAC computer is an early 2008 Mac Pro Tower, which is still working. I bought it at the top of the line and have upgraded the computer as much as Apple will let me. I love the easy access to the case, and love the fact that I can upgrade the computer myself. I am so disappointed that Apple will not allow this computer to be upgraded.
For me, it was the hemispheric iMac G4 I got way back in 2002. Easily the coolest Mac I have ever owned. It was my first Mac with OS X and I did a lot with it – burned several DVDs since it had a SuperDrive. I upgraded the RAM to 768 MB and put in an AirPort card. Had a lot of fun with that machine.
The coolest feature for me was the swivel arm!
My fave was actually before the macs, the apple ][ because it was so expandable, but if I had to stick with macs it would be my centris 660AV. For the same reasons. I kept that for years because of all the lovely ports I have not seen before or since on a mac. S-Video ….
Yes, I too love my 17 in Mac book (the older one – the newer one did not hold up). In fact, I’m still using it as DJ computer. The downer is many web sites refuse to allow the version of Safari on their sites. Too old and outdated they say.
I need a magnifying glass to read these 13-inch screens in some applications.
Oh well, it will have to be replaced sometime soon just so I can communicate with others.
Probably my favorite Mac because of what I put in it.
A 512ke, with a massive 20MB HyperDrive partitioned internal hard drive.
I was on the road one week and one of the partitions would not open. I called HyperDrive and was given instructions over the phone on how to move the contents to another partition. Worked in time for me to make a presentation the next morning.
After working through a group of Macs I ended up with a new 8600 tower. As time went by, I udpreded the processor to a plug-in Sonnet G3, then a G4. Many RAM slots. Many RAM cards. Five hard drives. I added a 9600 for an associate. Kept it right up to being able to install 10x. Finally gave up and moved to a Ti Book.
I use the same 2010 17 inch MacBook Pro with a 1TB SSD i7. I agree that it is fast. I’ve been able to edit video and work with After Effects at amazing speeds. It kept up with my 2008 Mac Pro and anything else I used. It smoked the PC I had a work.
I too upgraded the RAM to 8GB from OWC. That was a great decision.
I love the 17″ screen. I still like this computer.
Mine met with an unfortunate demise, otherwise, I’m sure I’d still be using it in addition to my current setup!
I don’t think it could be my all-time favorite, it just has a warm spot in my heart. It was my first Mac, the PowerBook 180 I bought in 1989. I don’t remember the specs on it but it ran everything I needed to run my photography studio. I learned to use Filemaker to make all the forms I used in the business, invoices, price lists, advertising copy, customer files, and all that type of stuff. My printer was the HP 4ML that ran perfectly, requiring only one repair to replace the fan, for 25 years! I still have the PB180, and every few years I drag it out and it still works like new. My new 27″ iMac loaded with everything I could ever want is my real favorite, now.