Help Me Identify a Macintosh Computer
February 24, 2014 4:43 AM   Subscribe

I am looking for help identifying a Macintosh computer I used in the late 90s (details inside...no pictures).

Greetings all.

After my most recent MacBook Air purchase, it got me thinking of the first Macintosh computer that I used. Simply for curiosity sake, I would like to know. Here are the details:

- I took my first job out of university in May 1998.
- The company I worked for was Mac-based so we all had Macintosh desktops.
- Based on knowing the company that I worked for, there is a good chance that the computers were not purchased that year - we could have been using desktops that were 2 or 3 years old (or older).
- They were not like these.
- It was more like this - as in my computer had a separate monitor that sat on the hard drive (that was horizontal) and had a one button mouse with a cord.

Anyone have any idea what Macintosh desktops were kicking around from 1996-1998ish (again, it could be even earlier) that would meet these requirements?

I am just curious as to what Mac I was using back then and what the Specs were (operating system, memory, etc). Hope someone can help.

Thanks again.
posted by dbirchum to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)
 
I'm going to say power mac

Use this: as a guide
posted by chasles at 4:55 AM on February 24, 2014 [1 favorite]


Performa 600?
posted by Catseye at 4:56 AM on February 24, 2014


Have you tried digging through Low End Mac?

My suspicion is that it's towards the bottom (LC or later) of this page, though that skews a little earlier than your time frame. If that fails, try the pre-G3 models, but they seem to be mostly towers or monitor-and-computer-in-one (I don't remember enough of those models to know if there were exceptions).
posted by hoyland at 4:57 AM on February 24, 2014


Best answer: Here's a photo timeline.

Could be a performa, LC, Quadra, Centris.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 4:57 AM on February 24, 2014 [1 favorite]


The Quadras and Performas were the thing then.
posted by colin_l at 6:08 AM on February 24, 2014


Response by poster: I think it might have been a Quadras or a Performa!

Thanks all!
posted by dbirchum at 6:16 AM on February 24, 2014


This is a good visual guide to Macs. It could really have been anything from a Quadra to a 1st-generation G3 desktop (I had one of those)
posted by furiousthought at 9:33 AM on February 24, 2014


What kind of work did you do on that Mac? That could narrow down how old the Mac might've been. I have a hard time believing a company would make its employees work on Quadras or Performas in 1998.

I'm betting it was a PowerMac, probably one of the 6x00 or 7x00 series. See EveryMac for complete details on all the pre-G3 PowerMacs.

It could have also been a PowerMac G3 Desktop if it was newer than you suspect.

There's also the chance it was one of the many Mac clones of that era. I personally had a Umax SuperMac at that time, and my school had a lab full of Motorola StarMax clones.
posted by WasabiFlux at 12:45 PM on February 24, 2014


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