You can check out the old television commercial for the most powerful Macintosh ever by visiting this link: http://d57-175-48.home.cgocable.net/Main/quadra.html
This commercial is being served up on a Power Macintosh 7200/90.
Enjoy!
You can also check out Bill Gates in his speech on the Macintosh standard by visiting this link: http://d57-175-48.home.cgocable.net/Main/gates.html
Enjoy!
the most powerful Mac ever would be one from the 512k/SE family.
not because they were good number crunchers, but because they are still so indelibly etched in the psyche. when most folks think of macs (at least anyone over 20), they think of one of those. that is a powerful image to put on someone's visual short-list.
Everytime I watch that old commercial for the Macintosh Quadra, I find myself thinking how such a scenario would be equally applicable to the current incarnation of the Mac OS: Tiger... Change the twisting road to a visual of snapping twigs and bending shrubbery in a jungle, and you've got the Tiger... Poised to pounce on Windows and deny it its last breath...
DDTM:
The 512k/SE were the most powerful Macintoshes ever? You'd never guess it from the number of these old Macs heading to the graveyard (landfill)... Personally, when I think of powerful Macs, I think of the Quadra 840AV...
the still find their ways into new commercials and advertisments.
I would put the bondi imac as a close second. the power I speak of here is that of the mind set.
as far as sheer power, number crunching, etc, there will be tons of debates, but i think the 9600 with a G3 upgrade is going to be a strong contender...
How about the "wicked fast" 40mhz IIfx? That original $10,000 price tag was pretty powerful.
Hey DDTM, I'm curious, is that a pic of you in all your posts? It's certainly the visage of a wisened sage.
The 30fx was a modded IIfx in a heavy steel tower case, with the processor overclocked to 50MHz or so; built by a company called 68000. My previous employer bought one back in the early 90's, and I'm told they spent $40,000 on it, including a RAM upgrade, a video card, and a big (19") monitor.
That machine was still in use -- running MacDNS -- when I left that employer two months ago. I submitted some photos of it to lowendmac.com a while back; you can see them here. I still keep in touch with the guy who replaced me, and I'm hoping I can snag the 30fx as a keepsake sometime soon when they clear out some old gear.
It was the hottest thing going in its time. Then Apple came out with the 68040-powered Quadras. My former boss bought three of them in 1992 & 93; I saw the invoice on two of them, and each one cost just over $21,000 (with memory, video card & monitor.) The memory (128MB) was about half that cost!
I'm drooling over that photo. My only hope is to beat you to that machine. Oh man, the horsepower that thing must have..
Did you ever get to try it out?
The Dash 30? Yeah, I drove it daily (nightly, actually -- evening shift, four 10 hour days a week) for about 18 months when I first started doing electronic prepress work, in about 1994. I used Quark, Illustrator & Photoshop on it regularly, prepping electronic files for flexographic printing -- trapping, imposition, color correction, etc... When I got to it it was one of the slower machines in the group. I had trained on an SE (and also had an SE at home) so it was wonderful with that huge color monitor, 96MB(!) of RAM, 160MB of HD space, and that cooking processor, but I had also used the Quadra 950's on occasion, and by then we also had one of the first 8100's, so I was a bit underwhelmed with the 30fx's abilities. It did alright, but I'd jump on one of the faster machines any chance I got.
Right now the 30fx is running 7.6.1, and it's snappy enough, but I'll take a 1GHz or better G4 or G5 running Panther or Tiger over it any day. I'd like to have it more for the novelty of it, as a collector piece.
If you're drooling over the main photo, be sure to check out the other photos that are linked further down in the copy; the bottom left photo shows the top of the machine with the cover off (six Nubus slots and the standard complement of ports), and the bottom right shows the front with the cover open. It was designed as a very easy machine to work on; laid out very well.
I realize that the iPod isn't *technically* a Macintosh, but it is one of the most powerful consumer images of Apple. You mention Macintosh, people look at you funny. You say "Apple Computer" and they sort of come out of their half-baked state. You say 'iPod' and they immediately know what you're talking about.
Cheers,
The Czar
No, that is Kissinger. I am several years his junior.
But thanks!