The very first Mac minis came with ether a Core Solo T1200, or one of two Core Duo 32-Bit CPUs. These CPUs hold back the 2006 Mac mini from being able to take advantage of a newer OS, increased RAM capacity, and overall better performance. Now in 2025 these first-gen Intel minis are cheap to […]
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Longtime users of Windows will note that window tiling has been available since windows 7, a feature that recently made its way over to macOS Sequoia. But what if I told you this is something you could actually have done on Mac OS X Leopard, way back in 2010 even on a PowerPC Mac? Introducing […]
The 2020 5K Intel iMac was the very end of the line for any and all Intel iMacs, and was the third-to-last Intel Mac to be discontinued – selling until March 8th, 2022. This final model iMac receives some upgrades over the 5K 2019 model, as well as the notorious addition of the T2 security […]
As we are nearing completion of the “tech spec” index on Low End Mac with the release of the final remaining Intel iMac articles, we are looking into revamping existing articles overall. A lot of things have changed over time, much new software has released, community projects developed, etc; and it’s worth reflecting such things […]
The SuperMac Spectrum/8 LC video card is an accelerated 8-bit video card for the LC PDS (Processor Direct Slot). It originally retailed at US$799 and was MacUser’s third choice video card/19″ display option in the February 1992 roundup of LC PDS solutions.
This was nearing the end of the line for the Intel iMacs altogether, and perhaps you’re thinking: doesn’t this have a T2 security chip since it’s from 2019? Rest assured, it doesn’t. The appeal of the 2019 model 5K iMac is precisely about the jump-up to Intel Coffee lake, combined with the lack of a […]
A quarter of a century ago today, Apple introduced a brand new operating system to the world as a successor to Mac OS 9, the press release for this is still up on Apple’s website to this day. It replaced the base code and entire underlying system which all Mac OS versions were previously based […]
I was always the type of person who upgraded my phone every year through my carrier, until I wasn’t. I was always the type of person who looked at phone specs and conjured in my own imagination what the experience could be like. I’d get so hyped over the new stuff that my own excitement […]
I have already looked at the origins of the computer mouse in Mouse Design: 1963 to 1983, ending the story before the Apple Macintosh was introduced in January 1984, the first affordable personal computer to ship with a mouse and Graphical User Interface (GUI). This is the story of mouse development on personal computers, primarily […]
Certain older Macs are able to take advantage of adding an external graphics card through modification. This is article is broken up into 3 parts, as it contains a lot of information and pictures. Please refer to part 1 of the article for hardware/parts prerequisites. Sections 1 through 5 are contained in part 1, Sections […]
Hey Low End Mac friends! It’s been quite a while since I’ve written my last piece. Sometimes life and the real world gets in the way, but here we are again with a great piece that leads us up into the summer season when folks have a little more free time on their hands to […]
Today’s Macs are far more potent than they’ve ever been, particularly from a performance standpoint. Even if not everyone agrees on design these days, you have to admit they’re slimmer than ever, faster than ever, and some design refinements have been made over the years. In this case, why are some late Intel Macs still […]
This 5K 2017 iMac has a socketed CPU, a SATA 3.0 port, Four memory slots for PC4-19200s DDR4-2400T RAM, an NVME style PCIe x4 SSD blade slot, and an AirPort card slot which appears to also be of a PCIe interface. This iMac also uses slightly faster DDR4 over its 1080p 21.5″ counterpart, at 2400 […]
This was the end of the line for the smaller Intel iMacs altogether, and perhaps you’re thinking: doesn’t this have a T2 security chip since it’s from 2019? Rest assured, it doesn’t. There were no 2020 or 2018 4K iMacs, and this model came with Intel’s 8th gen coffee lake processors, the same generation used […]
Although only $200 separated the purchase price of the base model Mid-2017 1080p iMac versus the 4K Mid-2017 iMac, the differences inside couldn’t be more drastic. On the surface and on the outside they look to be the very same machine.. until you start tearing one apart and realize how much more upgradeable the 4K […]
This iMac is basically a giant 13″ 2017 MacBook Pro but with replaceable RAM and no battery. Kaby Lake was the end of the line for the non-retina iMacs with only a single CPU option, and remained available for purchase all the way through October 29th 2021. The i5-7360U was soldered onto the logic board […]
An introduction and some history A bit over a decade ago, Apple released the 2011 MacBook Pro with the now infamous Radeon 6000 series discrete Graphics Card. Both the Early and Late 2011 models were prone to spontaneous failure which has been well documented online starting with initial complaints in the Apple Support community. Eventually […]
Certain older Macs are able to take advantage of adding an external graphics card through modification. This is article is broken up into 3 parts, as it contains a lot of information and pictures. Please refer to part 1 of the article for hardware/parts prerequisites. Sections 1 through 5 are contained in part 1, Sections […]
Certain older Macs are able to take advantage of adding an external graphics card through modification. This usually requires external power, the corresponding adapters, can be done via the mini-PCIe slot or MXM slot, and come with case-by-case caveats as most of this was never intended to be a thing. Once installed and properly connected, […]
While this has been covered elsewhere online, it will be posted here for our LEM readers! A few years back, a LEM Facebook group user found a neat trick on getting a cost-effective, more modernized Bluetooth/Wifi solution for his Power Mac G5. Though his was a PCIe model, there is an easy way to get […]
Although this topic has been documented elsewhere, it will also be covered on Low End Mac for our readers. While bluetooth and wifi technology have since moved onto newer standards – Bluetooth 5.3 and Wifi 6 respectively, this adapter offers a pop-in replacement where the old AirPort card was. Rather than shoehorning a full-on PCIe […]
The butterfly keyboard is no more – the 2020 retina MacBook Air has a new-to-it scissor style keyboard. This model also makes the leap over to 10th-gen Intel Ice Lake CPUs, which are also found in the 2020 13″ MacBook Pro with 4 Thunderbolt ports. The 2020 ‘Air and 4-TBP ‘Pro are the only Macs […]
Between the Late 2018 model and this one, there are almost no discernible differences – one could be forgiven for thinking it’s just a new model in name. In fact, the differences are so minuscule, it may as well be a late 2018 MacBook Air. You get a 49.9 watt-hour battery versus the 50.3 watt-hour […]
This was the first major design overhaul of the MacBook Air since the original. While there were some iterative changes after the 2008 and 2011 MacBook Air, they largely looked the same, especially to anyone in the market for one. The Late 2018 MacBook Air was the last ‘Book to gain a Retina display, as […]
We’re all familiar with silver, space gray and now space black.. but what about all the other colors? This wasn’t enough, as colorful Macs started trickling back in. We had gold and rose gold with the late intel MacBook Airs and MacBooks, and finally had colorful iMacs again with the M1 iMac. Ryan Anderson made […]
The following is an article about a story of what happened to a LEM group member’s peculiar Power Mac G5, as well as the experiences I had troubleshooting my own. I was browsing our Low End Mac FaceBook group a few nights ago, when someone posted about having issues with their Power Mac G5 potentially […]
Fresh to the Low End Mac mailbag from FaceBook User Michael Vega: “Possibly known knowledge, but I wanted to show a proof of concept and I’m glad it works. I have a thunderbolt 3 dock, but it works with Thunderbolt 2/1 Macs. My work laptops are a current generation of Lenovo PCs with Thunderbolt 4, […]
Just like the 2019 model year, the 2020 intel model year is differentiated in name by its amount of thunderbolt ports. The awkward naming scheme caused confusion to some, when in reality it was separating the low/higher end 13″ models, like the non-TouchBar models that came before it. The 2020 model year 13″ MacBook Pro […]
The 2019 13″ MacBook Pro saw a slight bifurcation in the way the product was sold. They added a TouchBar to the 2x Thunderbolt Port Model, and started differentiating them in name by their amount of… thunderbolt ports. The 13″ model stuck around with 8th gen CPUs whilst the 15″/16″ made the leap to 9th […]
This was the very last and final A1466 ‘Book, a design dating back to Mid-2012 with the release of the Ivy Bridge Intel CPUs. The base’s i5 was bumped from 1.6 to 1.8 Ghz, and the i7 option remains the same as what was available in 2015. The ’17 ‘Air comes with 8 GB of […]
