I Get It

As far back as I can remember, I've always been a tinkerer. If it could be taken apart, I would do it. I had this compulsion that things can always be improved- particularly physical, hardwired things, although this philosophy now applies to methods, procedures, and processes. I got my first PC ėcompatible" while I was in Jr. High school- my Apple 2e was growing steadily obsolete for what I wanted, and PCs were just the most incredible toys for a tinker. Besides, I wanted to expand my knowledge of Pascal (anyone remember the Pascal that was available on an Apple 2?!) and to create cooler programs.

I loved it. It was completely modular. Every item had a function, and every item could be replaced, upgraded, pulled apart, examined, and potentially modified. It was great, because it retained the feel of the old kit computers that appealed to the geek in me, but had current software and a LOT of interest within the school's compsci folks. Macs were just coming to their own, but were completely outclassed by the Amigas and Ataris- and none of these were particularly interesting- The Amigas and Ataris were relegated to ėgaming toys" while the Macs- well, lets just say none of my geek friends had any real interest in them.

As time went by, My PC has grown into a 386 machine running Windows. Wow. What a powerhouse. I spent countless hours fiddling with .ini settings, hardware configurations, and otherwise fooling with the hardware. Awesome stuff. VGA graphics became standard on PCs, leading to some pretty awesome games. Amigas and Ataris began to disappear from all those I knew radar- sure, I had friends who were interested in RTVF or music who continued to evangelize, but the rest of us just scoffed. Macs slowly but surely became entrenched in the new field of DTP, and us ėtrue" geeks scoffed at their underpowered specs and inflated pricetags.

Fast forward a few more years. My interest in programming all but faded. As I became a more social animal, I had less drive to spend countless hours in front of the computer, and the only functions I was using it for was homework or computer games. Soon homework became more of the DTP variation as my career interest began swaying in that direction. I realized that I needed a Mac.

The geek in me absolutely refused to consider anything made by Apple. At the time, I was working as a contractor for Apple in various capacities, and I was privy to much of their internal dealings and practices. Their offerings had monstrously inflated prices, closed architecture, and terrible support. In terms of price/performance ratio, their computers made no sense (As a sidebar, I've never been in love with the MacOS. It is functional, but really offered nothing as an improvement to me. The design and print industries standardized on it for various reasons (read:postscript) which is why I needed it). But then, two things happened: Apple released the 8500/120, and Clones have arrived. In a fell swoop, Apple released a powerful, expandable, and MODERN machine, and competition was introduced to bring at least some semblance of reality to pricing. I bought a PowerComputing Powercenter 132, a 20" monitor with the new ATI Mach64 video card to drive it. It was expensive (over $3000) but it was important to my fiance and me. This machine was eventually replaced with a Umax S900 with all the trimmings.

Fast forward to last month. I am now married and operate a boutique design firm. As our workload increased, we got a G3 upgrade for the S900. All hell broke loose. The machine was unstable, slow, and problematic. I won't bother you with the gory details but it took over a week, with a BUNCH of calls to tech support and quite a bit of costly downtime (and frustration) to get the problem, some conflict between the Initio Card and the Railgun, resolved. And then, the little lightbulb flashed over my head.

I get it.

I finally understand the necessity of a closed system. Up to now, I have never really considered the effort put into the computer as any real and expensive cost. Sure, Macs always needed less attention, and they seem to just work, but there was a price to pay, monetarily, performance wise, and features wise. The offsetting cost of maintenance and update never really occurred to me. Apple clones and expansion capabilities brought all these PC hardware nightmares to the Mac world in a big way (certainly not to the same scale, but nonetheless) and I now have a real appreciation for folks spending more money for preconfigured solutions directly from Apple that they never tinker with.

Today, Apple offers some powerful and compelling machines for far more reasonable prices then ever before, and if I were to buy a machine for my business today, Apple's offerings would be most compelling. Maybe I've grown up, maybe Apple did. It's probably a little bit of both. Ultimately, a computer is a tool, and the tool that is the most productive is the most valuable one.

My Comments (Mike Breeden):
I had to make a comment here. As shown many times in the daily news, G3-ZONE and Yosemite (B&W G3) page, just because you order a pre-configured system from Apple (or anyone else) is far from a guarantee of trouble-free operation, especially with a brand new model. In fact some businesses have reverted back to older Mac models due to compatibility issues with hardware and software (many being addressed now) with the new B&W G3s. The lack of legacy hardware support (requiring purchase of more adapters/cards) and networking issues (especially in mixed 10/100 networks) have also been commonly reported issues.

I personally (and hundreds of thousands of reader mails agree) welcome an open box. I'd rather have options for future performance upgrades, even at the risk of some compatibility issues. Look at the number of 7x00/8x00 systems that are still pleasing their owners due to CPU upgrades and the ability to add new devices (graphics cards, etc.). A closed box is a dead end in most cases, exceptions being the warranty voiding products offered in some cases. It often costs no more to get the model with PCI slots, ZIF socket, etc. - and give me options any day. Next week, month, or year you may be glad they are there.

Upgrade options and an open box are not things that are universally bad, and one bad experience should not color your perspective. Problems happen, in every system and platform, even from simple software upgrades. Thankfully the Mac is many times easier to troubleshoot in most cases compared to the PC.

Upgrades always have the potential for problems, but in most cases with the proper selection of components, reading manuals and following instructions it can be very rewarding and often cost effective way to extend the useful life of your Mac. There are always exceptions however and that's why web sites such as this one are so popular. If you need a 6 PCI slot Mac, upgrading may be the only option ($1000 PCI expansion chassis are available but I personally refuse to pay that price for a cheap PC ATX Case (under $100), passive PCI backplane and an interface card when my 6 slot 9600/350 cost only $1599).

Alex's Umax S900's design includes a unique PCI-PCI bridge chip that requires some special considerations when upgrading. See the S900 Tips page and other S900 pages linked on the Tips/Misc features page. These pages have owner reports from the last few years on this model and are a must read before considering upgrades. Also check the Freq. Asked Questions (FAQ) and site contents for links to reviews of CPU cards, SCSI/IDE upgrades, Graphics cards and compatibility information of various upgrades and systems.

As as general comment on the headaches of support/upgrades, I worked at a company with almost 1000 PCs with only a few Macs for many years. The support/ownership costs for the Macs were literally zero compared to the PCs (due to the complex mix of different mfrs hardware and software and the OS complexity under the GUI skin). Their original Quadra 840AV and 660AV are still doing good work and only recently were replaced with a new (biege) G3. In that same period PCs were replaced on average two to three times. The Mac group literally never need support, the PC network was often a constant series of problems.

In general with the right product selection upgrading your Mac is a very satisfying experience. Hundreds of thousands of reader mails generally report similar experiences. However new OS versions, drivers, non-standard or new Mac models and certain upgrades mixing with some specific hardware addons can complicate the mix. That's why I started the site - to help as much as I can in making information, tutorials and reviews available on as many Mac upgrades (CPU, Video, Storage, Systems) as possible. Didn't mean to write a book here. :-)
-Mike Breeden
xlr8yourmac.com