Macintosh Bible, 8th Edition, The

Buying a Used Mac

Ah, so you're looking for a bargain? You say your cousin Bob has a sweet little Mac Plus he's willing to let you have for $500? Before laying down the dough for a used Mac, keep the following in mind.

Of Processors and Slots

The Mac made a couple of major technological leaps in the past several years. Two of the most important were the switchover from the 680X0 Motorola processor to the PowerPC processor, and the change from Apple's proprietary NuBus slot to the ubiquitous PCI slot.

If you're looking for a used Mac capable of handling the demands of modern computing, you'll seek one with both a PowerPC processor and PCI slots. Not only are 680X0-based processors too weak to handle most modern applications, but many of today's ...