“In 1989, I bought a brand new Mac IIcx. It was a speedy beast for its time, featuring a 16MHz Motorola 68030 processor. The dealer installed 8MB of RAM and a 100MB hard drive,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “At the time, I really thought I had a pretty high-end setup, short of a Macintosh IIx, but far more affordable. Equipped with software and an Apple LaserWriter II printer, it set me back $14,000 on a lease purchase deal.”
“By 1991, I had a IIci, with a 25MHz processor, and I kept expanding it with memory — it was the first 32-bit ‘clean’ Mac — a cache card and a 68040 accelerator. The latter gave me the equivalent of a Quadra, the fastest Mac of its time,” Steinberg writes. “In 1993, I made an arrangement for a small investment in my business, and used some of that money to buy a Quadra 800, with a 33MHz 68040.”
“I didn’t wait long for its successor, the Power Macintosh 8100 in 1994. This was Apple’s first foray into using the PowerPC processor on Macs, and the 8100 was essentially a Quadra 800 with the new parts. So it had a PowerPC 601 rated at 80MHz,” Steinberg writes. “These days, there’s little need to upgrade a Mac terribly often… According to published reports, there will be a fairly major refresh for the MacBook Pro, and lesser upgrades for other models.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s remarkable to look back and see the progress in capabilities taking such leaps, but there’s nothing quite like going from a hard drive to SSD (besides going from floppies to a hard drive, of course) for experiencing a massive boost in real-world speed.
October 27, 2016 is going to be a big day for Mac users!
SEE ALSO:
It’s official: Apple sends invitations for ‘hello again’ event on October 27th – October 19, 2016
Apple set to release Final Cut Pro, iMovie updates with support for new MacBook Pro’s OLED ‘Touch Bar’ – October 19, 2016
Get ready, Apple’s new Macs are finally set to arrive! – October 19, 2016
All-new MacBook Pro, refreshed MacBook Air and iMac, and more coming at Apple’s October 27th special event – October 19, 2016
Apple plans to launch new Macs at special event on October 27th – October 18, 2016
