Some History on the Best Mac Value Ever: The Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 The Mac Pro has went through many iterations over the years and with the advent of Apple Silicon, things have certainly come to a crossroads. The Mac Pro 4,1 from 2009 and the slightly revised Mac Pro 5,1 (sold from 2010 […]
The Mac Pro 5,1 has rode a heck of a wave thanks to a talented team of developers who have worked hard to keep these old machines running smoothly with OpenCore/OpenCore Legacy Patcher (and some other tools/patchers that were developed earlier such as the dosdude1 patchers) and has allowed the Mac Pro 5,1 (as well […]
Mac Pro Evolution Each design of the Mac Pro over the years has had its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to overall system architecture and design, including the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) options available. Many factors are at play when determining what kind of graphics card you can run with your Mac Pro as […]
Dear Low End Mac friends: Apologies for the very long hiatus on new articles on the website. Things haven’t been easy for a while. Over the summer/early fall, our founder Dan Knight decided to step away after around 24 years of running Low End Mac and its day to day operations as Editor in Chief. […]
I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. We’re a bit late on our Mac OS news update – the first for 2021. That’s because I was busy, busy, busy – sorry! But lots of activity in the (retro) Mac OS scene and many exciting projects we need to talk about! Sherlock is back. No, […]
Using your TV as a display for your Mac (or any computer really) has taken a lot of twists and turns over the years. Each era as display technology has evolved has seen significant progression, but not until recently has TV technology had the right mix of features, functionality, and price to truly be ideal […]
-->This is a bit of a throwback to my article from May of last year – Tri-Booting a Mac Pro 2,1 – not long before I had just procured my Mac Pro 5,1 (well technically a 4,1 that was flashed to a 5,1 with dual Intel Xeon 5680 CPUs with 12 cores at 3.33 GHz). […]
It’s safe to say that the Mac Pro 5,1 will reach the end of the line at some point in the next few years – even in terms of user base extended support such as patching tools that have allowed Catalina (and now Big Sur) to be installed keeping these Macs up to date for […]
Hello and welcome to our Mac OS news roundup #2. Christmas isn’t too far off and we’re all looking forward to the holidays, aren’t we? I’m especially curious about the new Mac OS related projects that are going to surface! SCSI2Ethernet board This is one exciting news! If you’re among the hordes lurking around ebay […]
Hello Low Enders! It’s been a while, so I’m going to enlighten all of you with a great new series on using the Mac as a media hub and how it has evolved over time. As we have gotten newer Macs throughout the years to integrate into our home theater setups, serving as our digital […]
It has been almost 10 years since I published my article Back to Mac OS 9, Because It’s All I Need on Low End Mac. Lots of things changed in my life since then – I got married, became a dad of three kids and I changed my job. But one thing remained in my […]
Hi Low End friends! Gather around! It’s time for another late night campfire story! Just like the camping trips you might enjoy with family and friends, and gathering around the fire, sometimes you need a late night snack and reach for a delicious Peanut Butter and Jelly out of the […]
Hi Low End friends! Let’s call this article part of a “new take” category of Low End Mac. Welcome to Low End Mac Campfire Discussions. Now relax and think of yourself in your backyard with family or friends, enjoying your favorite beverage and wondering where all the time has gone surrounding our favorite Low […]
25 years ago this month Apple introduced what has become known as the x200 series of Power Macintosh and Macintosh Performa computers. These machines have been ostracized by those of us in the Mac community, especially here at Low End Mac for almost as long. Now, more than 2 decades later, new data has come to light […]
Expansion and I/O Challenges with Older Macs Imagine the average 8-12 year old Mac sitting on your desk today.. Many are getting long in the tooth and have limited external upgrade potential or simply can’t even keep up with the best options offered today in terms of approaching optimal throughput for external graphics (also known […]
Several weeks ago I ordered a retro Mac CPU upgrade on eBay that I wanted to write an article about. I was very excited to get my hands on one; I’ve been keeping an eye out for years, and now I’d finally be able to run some tests and get an idea as to how […]
Apple really seem to be shaking up the tech world at the moment. But could this be too much for a veteran Apple user such as myself?
It was 26 years ago that Apple first introduced the Power Macintosh Line of computers, the Power Macintosh 6100/60, 7100/66, and 8100/80. The first Power Macs were an important step towards faster performance, and on paper they offered an incredible boost in performance compared to any of the 68040 based machines. The most basic Power […]
Here I am writing on an old machine, again. This time is a little bit different, though. I am not writing on an old Mac; this time I am writing on an Apple IIGS.
Greetings to all of you out there in Vintage Mac Land! It’s great to be back! 15 years ago this month my first ever article was published here on Low End Mac. After a nearly 13 year hiatus I am back writing for Low End Mac, and I am extremely excited to be here!
Hi Low Enders! It’s the Bash man again, with another happy episode of trials and tribulations getting my Mac Pro 2,1 in a stable triple boot state (queue crickets, darkness, and crackling campfire as you roast marshmallows and read on).
Hi Low Enders! It’s been a while, but like a fine wine some vintage Macs just get more sought after with age. One of those happens to be the PowerBook G3 “Pismo”. The Pismo PowerBook was announced this very day 20 years ago while Apple was in the middle of their “Think Different” campaign […]
The era of Macintosh Malaise is what I call the period from 2012 – 2019, and includes many of the Mac computers sold during this time period. The following is a list of what I call Carson’s Compromised Macs.
It was 20 years ago that the entire world was bracing for what was supposed to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of the world. Now we face another bug that could bring your Mac to its knees.
Dear Low End Mac Friends: It’s been a while. Life and other typical duties keep one busy, but when something extraordinary comes up, there’s always time to talk about it with our community. In this article, I will be discussing an interesting piece of hardware (a display to be precise) – the RCA MM36100. […]
Sad news for owners of Mid 2010 and Mid 2012 Mac Pros, no Catalina for them.
macOS 10.15 Catalina has just been announced, and it’s good news for older Macs.
Greetings Low End Mac friends! It’s been a while since I have written an article solely dedicated to Apple Tech and Gaming, but this one fits the bill perfectly. A while back I had gotten a hold of a Sony Trinitron KV-36HS420. I covered that TV in the article TV Technology: No ‘Catch-All’ Solution for Low […]
Macs are known to be generally more secure than their PC counterparts and relatively free of virus and malware attacks. But with the rise in popularity of Apple computers in recent years — thanks first to the so-called iPod halo effect and the iPhone, which brought on the dawn of the iOS ecosystem — the […]
Apple, Inc. has always been at the forefront of some leading technologies and innovations. Two of its three alternate computing interfaces that were designed to assist the disabled — touch and voice control — which were ahead of their time when first deployed back in the late 1980s, are now mainstream interfaces for use by […]
Apple did a very nice thing when it introduced the Power Mac G5 in June 2003 – it introduced a line that would use the same upgrade options across the board. Well, until the dual-core models shipped in October 2005, which we will mostly ignore in this article.
I love being able to plug in some headphones and listen for hours, but is the ageing 3.5mm (1/8″) socket disappearing or is it here to stay?
The earliest Macs with their all-in-one design used a simple coiled keyboard cable similar to what telephones used to use – and the perfect length for use on the desktop. But in 1987, we got the Mac II, a powerhouse computer that could sit on your desk or be set vertically on the floor beneath […]
Last year I made the switch from AT&T Mobile to Consumer Cellular. I was paying for more service than I needed, and I recently went through my data usage records to see if it is still enough for me.
Not everyone uses modern Macs. I spent a day with a friend who still runs 1997 and 1999 Macs 20 years on.