Low End Mac

The different types of SSDs in your computer - Low End Mac Whether you’re dropping an OWC Mercury Accelsior AHCI into an old Mac Pro, are replacing a 2.5″ SATA HDD with an SSD, or deal with mostly any Mac made after 2012, Solid State Drives have become the pr...

SSDs are common in computers these days, and today Low End Mac covers the different types you may find in your computer.

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In an Alternate Universe: Apple unveils the 2006 Mac Studio - Low End Mac Imagine this: an alternate earth, with alternate economics, influences, design teams, and whatnot. In this alternate universe, Apple unveiled the Mac Studio in 2006, alongside the first generation of ...

A throwback to April 2025 😁

(Fixed the thumbnail)

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Just wait to buy a new Mac - Low End Mac I must respectfully disagree with the new focus of Low End, er, make that High End Mac. Simply replacing your old Mac every two years, or three at most, isn’t the whole solution to Apple’s financial c...

Why ever buy a new Mac when you can always wait? Here at High End Mac, this is how you do it.

lowendmac.com/2025/just-wa...

What are some of the common image file formats? - Low End Mac Everyday when you see any sort of graphic in a GUI (graphical user interface), or in any printed media such as a billboard, poster, etc; they relate to different image file formats. Each format was cr...

Here's a new full-length article for today! Taking a look at the different image file formats we run into on our Apple gear...

lowendmac.com/2026/what-ar...

Project rewind: Fixing up an Original Titanium PowerBook G4 - Low End Mac Back in Late 2016, I had the fortune of finding a cheap ~$30 1st-Generation Titanium PowerBook G4 400 MHz, without too many scratches. It reminded me of the 1 GHz one I had way back in 2011, looked li...

New article! A brief, visual project rewind to when I fixed up my Titanium PowerBook G4.

lowendmac.com/2026/project...

A disassembled 16-inch M5 Max MacBook Pro with no NAND packages on the main board and two of the battery cells replaced with 1.8" iPod hard drives.

Due to rising NAND prices, Apple takes inspiration from the original MacBook Air and ships the M5 generation of MacBooks with iPod hard drives instead of SSDs. Despite the slower speeds, they earned improved iFixit scores due to the better repairability.

#AlternateTimelineApple

Get the Abstract themed LEM wallpaper for February 2026 - Low End Mac While I haven’t posted as frequently about Low End Mac wallpapers, I stumbled into an idea which I ended up turning into a wallpaper. It’s always fun to play in Photoshop, share creations with others,...

lowendmac.com/2026/get-the...

Now accepting donations on Ko-Fi - Low End Mac Hey everyone, Thank you all for continuing to visit our website, and being a better part of our community. We’ve always been a community-oriented website, and at the end of the day, we are volunteers ...

Got it setup! 😀

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Finally, a properly modern browser for PowerPC Macs - Low End Mac If a brand-new browser with TLS 1.3, WebGL, an up-to-date Javascript engine, NPAPI plugins support, and other modern features for PowerPC Macs with Leopard was on your bingo card for 2026.. here it is...

A new PowerPC Mac App highlight! Taking a focus on that brand new PowerPC browser.

lowendmac.com/2026/finally...

PowerFox Web Browser - A brand new browser for PowerPC (Beta) Power Macintosh, meet PowerFox Hello all, I'm very happy to announce the beta release of PowerFox Browser for the PowerPC architecture. PowerFox is not a derivative of TenFourFox. Rather, it is a ...

forums.macrumors.com/threads/powe...

PowerFox 26.2.1 for PowerPC Beta comes with 2026 SSL certs and looks very promising, considering I was able to login without issue, browsing many websites with their modern UI (including Apple)!

Why charging overnight doesn't ruin the battery anymore - Low End Mac There is a longstanding tech myth that’s been around for a while – that charging your devices overnight ruins the battery. While there is a grain of truth in this as it stems from the days of Nickel-C...

New article! On a similar vibe to yesterday's topic.

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Why a faster processor doesn’t always mean a faster Mac - Low End Mac In any Mac and many devices, the CPU is just one part of an interconnected system, whether you’re on a Power Macintosh 9600 with a 300 Mhz 604e, a M4 MacBook Air, a iMac Pro, or use an iPhone 17. Most...

Brand-new full-length article!

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Why does it look like it could be radioactive?

Why does this look like it could be radioactive

Tech Specs Index - Horizontal View - Low End Mac 68K Macs PowerPC Macs Intel Macs Apple Silicon Macs Desktops Portables iDevices CustoMacs Mac Pros Clones / Other Power Macs CPU / GPU Index PowerPC iMacs Newer iMacs PPC PowerBooks 68K PowerBooks iBo...

The new UI is being worked on, and the basic structure is almost done.

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Cleaned up this one in Photoshop CS4, really like how it came out!

Introducing - "Horizontal view" for our website UI - Low End Mac Good morning everyone, As always, thank you for taking the time out of your day to stop by and read, and being a better part of our online community. As the website continues to grow and evolve into 2...

New site update today!

lowendmac.com/2026/introdu...

Our FaceBook group surpasses 14K members - Low End Mac As of a few days ago, we reached 14K members in our FaceBook group – 7 months and 2 days after crossing over 13K members on June 26th last year. This is the most we’ve ever had in our group ever, and ...

lowendmac.com/2026/our-fac...

A Casio keyboard that has a bunch of real keys but the main section is a touchscreen with a keyboard shown on it

...but have you ever used a keyboard with a touchscreen with a keyboard on it?

Install an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 TI in Your Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1 - Low End Mac Despite the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 (2006/7) models hitting past the 10-year mark, there is, surprisingly, a great amount of hardware that is still available for use. In contrast to the age of the older (...

Out of every Mac I've owned, this is the one I miss the most. I'm looking to build (and keep) an even better version of this Mac Pro 2,1 I had back in 2015-18.

lowendmac.com/2018/mac-pro...

Cooling a Power Mac G5 with frigid outside air - Low End Mac There came a point in time where an idea dawned upon me which I wanted to try out: how would my Power Mac G5 run while cooled with frigid, outside Arctic air? I thought about it for a while, not wanti...

With the massive winter storm glazing over the US, what better time to do an article like this?

lowendmac.com/2026/cooling...

Apple first hit the 1 GHz mark 24 years ago, Today - Low End Mac Nearly a quarter-century ago, the second generation Quicksilver Power Mac G4 was announced alongside an updated, brighter 20-Inch Apple Cinema Display. The 2002 Quicksilver Power Mac G4 is starts at 8...

New piece for 2026.01.28 😁

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LEM Newsletter January 27 2026 - Low End Mac It’s been a busy month back at Apple, as they’re gearing up for the eventual release of the M5 Pro & M5 Max MacBook Pros, sending out iOS updates for older devices, and just announcing the AirTag 2. T...

New article for today! A consolidation of recent events.

*Reposting to fix the date.

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16 Years Ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPad - Low End Mac 16 Years Ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPad – a third category device between iPhone and MacBooks touted as being “far better at some key things“, such as: Web Browsing, Email, Photos, V...

A 2nd new article for today! Here's a quick look back 16 years ago, in remembering the original iPad.

lowendmac.com/2026/16-year...

Minecraft 1.8.9 for PowerPC Macs - Low End Mac Officially, Minecraft 1.5.2 was the last version playable on any PowerPC Mac, as it was the last version playable on Java 5. The release date of 1.5.2 is May 2nd 2013, around the same time retina MacB...

Here's a throwback - Minecraft 1.8.9 is indeed a thing for PowerPC Macs on Sorbet Leopard.

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Apple rolls out iOS 18.7.4, iOS 16.7.13, iOS 15.8.6, and iOS 12.5.8 for older devices Apple has started rolling out iOS 18.7.4, iPadOS 18.7.4, iOS 16.7.13, iPadOS 16.7.13, iOS 15.8.6, iPadOS 15.8.6, iOS 12.5.8, and, surprisingly, iPadOS 12.5.8 even though Apple introduced the iPadOS br...

Believe it or not if you have any iPhone going as far back as the 5s.. you have an update today. Yes, Apple rolled out iOS 12.5.8 today - which means your 2013 iPhone 5s has a security update.

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Restoring an A1048 Apple Keyboard - Low End Mac I had this keyboard sitting amongst my pile of keyboards for quite some time – probably a few years or more. I can’t remember exactly how I got it, either; as I had a few of these, it was stuffed away...

New article!

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