Sam Wrote: I hate to say it, but this shows you're not a SERIOUS Mac-Head. I can live without the floppy, but not having serial ports on the Professional Model is CRIMINAL! Just where am I supposed to plug that $500 Graphics Tablet I bought three months ago? At least they included a ADB port, which is probably their way of admitting that the keyboard and mouse that is ships with SUCK! Things they did Right: 10/100Base-T (I had to add 100Base-T to my 8500/180) Top of the line model has UW SCSI ADB Port Good Graphics Card with plenty of memory USB Things they did Wrong: No Floppy (Yes, if you think back I said this was good for the iMac) No Serial Ports <-- Someone really should be shot! Someone buying this to replace a high end system is likely to have some expensive peripherals they don't want to have to replace or buy a serial card for. Undecided: Firewire The "New Look" <-- For a professional system it doesn't look very professional, but then I guess they're targeting the art market. Having said that, I need to start saving my money up I think. I want one of the high-end model, and will have to add another 128Mb, Serial Ports, and maybe a floppy drive. Or, I can just be smart and buy a G3 accelerator for my existing setup. Actually a LS120 would probably be the way to go, and should be an option. On an interesting note I just looked at the build to order web page to double check on the LS120 and found the following note "Note: The Ultra SCSI PCI card and the DVD-RAM drive are planned to be available in February. The three 36GB Ultra2 SCSI drives with dual-channel SCSI PCI card and Gigabit Ethernet PCI card are planned for March." Looks like if you want one and can afford the extra's waiting until about March might be a good idea. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |

John Ruschmeyer wrote: Oh. Well, I think you just helped me to make up my mind. Looks like my 8500/180 will be getting a accelerator card, instead of being replaced. If they think I'll give up a "Apple Extended Keyboard II" for a crappy USB keyboard they're CRAZY! I still need to consider how long the OS will continue to support my system. MacOS X Server only supports G3 systems (not upgraded ones), the question is what will MacOS X itself support. True, a floppy isn't really the right answer, but a LS120 would be better than a ZIP drive as it would allow the reading of those old floppies. Well, I've got 3 serial devices; Modem, HP 5MP, and Tablet. I had to move the printer to a Ethernet-to-Localtalk converter when I got the tablet. I'm not worried about the lack of Modem, I only use the one on the Mac for emergencies when my normal link to the net is down or if I need to dial into work and my main UNIX box isn't up. USB yes, EIDE yes, but Mac's have traditionally been SCSI. I'm undecided because I've yet to see any use for it. However, when the iMac came out there wasn't much use for USB, now look at the Market. I'm more worried about it clashing with my PDP-11's, OpenVMS systems, and UNIX systems :^) Of course I am crazy enough to consider using a iMac for a System Console for a PDP-11/44 :^) Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |