Vintage Macs: Compact Macs

The compact Macs are those all-in-one Macs with built-in 9" and 10" screens, starting with the original Macintosh with 128 KB of memory introduced in January 1984. Models are listed by MacBench score, which approximates real world performance.

The Mac Plus in Star Trek IV.

The Mac Plus had a minor role in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

model	MacBench (v. SE)	Speedometer 3	MIPS
128K	0.8		0.7
512K	0.8		0.7
512Ke	0.8		0.7
Plus	0.8	0.9	0.7
SE	1.0	1.0	0.7
Classic	1.0	1.0	0.7
Color Classic	1.7		3.9
Classic II	1.8	4.0	3.9
Performa 200	1.8		3.9
SE/30	3.2	4.0	3.9
Color Classic II	4.6

• The compact Macs, Matthew Glidden, Profiles in Networking, ATPM, 2002.06. LocalTalk and ethernet networking for compact Macs.
• Technical Specs for Macintosh Classic, Apple. Index to specs for all compact Macs.
• The original Macintosh, Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 2001.05.29. An in-depth look at the original Macintosh and how it shaped future Macs.
• System6, the email list for those who choose to use System 6.0.x.
• Macintosh SE Support Pages, Chris Adams. Good info for SE, SE/30 owners.
• Index of SE/30 video cards
• Macs that kill: The final part of a Mac family saga, Stefano Scalia, The Mac Mind, 11/7. The joy of Macs - until one hits you in the side, breaking your ribs in a car accident.
• Dove enhanced Mac 512, b.b., MacArchaeologist. First upgraded from 128K, the Dove Mac Snap SCSI upgrade added SCSI and brought memory to a full megabyte.
• Benchmarks: Mac Classic II, 10/11. Was the SE/30's replacement really as slow as many claim?
• Benchmarks: Macintosh SE/30, 10/10. We upgraded our SE/30 over the weekend and ran it through its paces. It holds up nicely for an eleven year old machine.
• Benchmarks: Mac Plus, 10/9. We upgraded our Mac Plus from 1 MB to 4 MB, allowing us to run System 7.5.5 and benchmark it. Also, Mac Plus with Brainstorm Upgrade.
• Mac System 1.0 Headquarters, Dan Vanderkam. See how far we've come.
• Get your compact Mac on the Web, Jag's House. Seminal article on getting a Mac Plus, SE, Classic, Portable, or PowerBook 100 on the Internet.
• Classic printing for classic Macs, Manuel Mejia Jr, Mac Daniel, 6/15. Why the best printer for a classic Mac may be the venerable ImageWriter II.
• Games for '030s, Brian Rumsey, Low End Mac Gaming, 5/26. A look at games that run nicely on the old 68030-based Macs.
• What can you squeeze into a compact Mac?, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 5/18. There's still life in those little Macs.
• New life for old compact Macs, Charles Moore, Applelinks, 5/18. "If you have an old compact Mac that you would like to revive, say for a child or for a casual computer user who just wants a machine for email and word processing...."
• Web access for System 6 Macs, Jag's House. Any Mac the supports System 6.0.8 can access the Web.
• How To: Power Colour Classic, Stuart Bell. How to upgrade a Colour Classic to Power PC.
• Jag's House launches System 6 email list
• Making a video adjustment tool, Chris Lawson, Mac Daniel, 3/24. Would you believe you can craft one from an old toothbrush?
• A rescued Fat Mac, Jonathan Wise, My First Mac, 3/6. "I found my first Mac in the garbage...."
• Hands on: Sonnet Presto Plus, Mark Looper, Low End Mac, 3/2. It's finally shipping, but how much does it improve performance (in this case, of a Color Classic)?
• System 6 for the Macintosh, Ruud Dingemans. If you have an older, slower, memory-limited Mac, System 6 is fast, stable, and still very usable.
• Cruising the web in black & white, John C. Foster, MacWeek, 10/20/1999
• 30-pin SIMM memory pricing, ramseeker
• Applied Engineering AE HD+ FAQ, Adam Takessian. The ins and outs of Applied Engineering's 1.4 MB floppy for the 512Ke, Plus, and 800 KB SE.
• Venerable Old Macs (68000-based models)
• Best Sites for Classic Macs
• Email lists: Vintage Macs, Vintage Macs, Classic Macs Digest
• Classic Macs, Mike & His Mac
• Pseud040 lets 68030-based Macs run 68040 programs - I've even heard of Mac OS 8.1 running on a IIsi!
• Links to System 6.0.8 and 7.0.1 
• Software Compatible with 68000 CPU

RAM Charger from Jump Development ($40) lets you get the most out of your RAM - especially helpful on Macs with 10 MB or less. By launching applications using the minimum amount of memory they need, RAM Charger lets you run more programs. It also works well with RAM Doubler. You can even download a demo.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.