With the release of the new M5 MacBook Pro and iPad Pro on October 22nd, we’re 5 generations into the Apple Silicon lineup, marking half a decade since Apple Silicon became available for consumers. . . . Although the new chip was announced quietly, it’s hard to remain silent about something – it gives pro-level […] The post M1 vs M2 vs M3 vs M4 vs M5 appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
A YouTuber by the name of SURGE⚡️ posted a video back on July 6th 2025 upgrading a 2018 Mac mini to an 9-core i9 CPU. . . The Intel chip appears to be an I9-9980HK, the same which is used in the 2019 16″ 2.4 GHz i9 MacBook Pro. . (Above: MAC MINI 2018 i9 […] The post Someone upgraded a 2018 mini with an 8-core i9-9980HK appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Fresh from the Low End Mac tech Mailbag is a CustoMac submission from one of our community members, Dan Schnur. He put together “The newest 2025 model year Macintosh IIci”, and this thing has a completely brand new, purple logic board! Gives it a strong Sonnet upgrade kind of vibe, the way it looks. . […] The post I’d like to present to you: The newest 2025 model year Macintosh IIci appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Last year on October 29th 2024, Apple unveiled a totally redesigned Mac mini, alongside the M4 iMac, and the new M4/M4 Pro/M4 Max MacBook Pros. It features a new chip with a 3-nanometer fabrication process, a new thermal system to go along with it, upgradeable internal storage, new ports on the front, and more noteworthy […]| Low End Mac
On September 10th 2025 I made an iPhone 17 launch-themed wallpaper to go along with our website, using the SF Pro Rounded font. This is a revised version using one of our chosen open-source fonts, Open Runde, for readers to enjoy without worrying about licensing issues – and is available in 4K. Alternatively, you may […] The post Get the (revised) Low End Mac “thermal” Wallpaper appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Good Morning Everyone, As Low End Mac continues to grow, we strive for it to still be useful and relevant even when contemporary computers look nothing like what they do in our website banner anymore. We’ve had a remarkable breadth of changes over the last year such as gaining multiple contributors, adding hundreds of articles, […] The post Site graphics, our new banner, and.. one more thing. appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
According to a recent post by Ask Perplexity on X: “The internet as we knew it is dying. AI content went from ~5% in 2020 to 48% by May 2025. Projections say 90%+ by next year. Why? AI articles cost <$0.01. Human writers cost $10-100.” (Source for original image: AskPerplexity on X – URL to […] The post Low End Mac contains 0% AI generated content. appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
With the new M5 chip quietly added to the entry-level 14-Inch MacBook Pro, it showed up alongside the M5 iPad Pro on Apple’s website, and the M5 Vision Pro. It comes as no surprise the chip has the greatest Single Core performance score of any Mac up until this point, further raising the bar. On […] The post 14-Inch M5 MacBook Pro (Late 2025) appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
In continuation of the site updates posted before, we will continue covering changes in the form of periodic posts whether they’re big or small. We want our readers to see the changes done to the site, many small ones can be time consuming and hard to notice. . This article reflects the most recent updates […]| Low End Mac
Back on August 6th 2025, I put together a few ideas in Photoshop CS4 to redo the banner for our website. After making some tweaks and finally getting around to it, I’m proud to present the new one! Be sure to clear the browser cache for our website if you’d like to see the new […] The post Time to clear your cache! The newer, cleaner site banner is here. appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Hey everybody, Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. Low End Mac has always been community-based since its creation in April 1997, helping others maximize the life of their Apple gear for nearly three decades. Since our low points between 2014 – 2018, we’ve reached several milestones along a […] The post Our Progress in 365 days appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Picture this: You can see an entire map of earth with all the time zones, where the sun is shining on earth now, clocks for many cities around the world, a moon calendar, sun calendar, and more, all within a self-contained app. The best part is, you can have it right now on your PowerPC […] The post PowerPC Mac App Highlight: Hourworld – WAY more than just timekeeping (Part 1) appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Does anyone remember the smooth intro from the iPhone 17 launch on September 9th? You may come across a brand new Apple commercial strikingly much like the intro to the iPhone 17 launch stream, called “Design is how it works“. The video stuck out to me in the creative way they showcased Apple design, using […] The post Design is how it works, A new Apple commercial appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Back in September 2023, a 24-Inch 2006 polycarbonate iMac ended up in my hands, and I’ve had ideas for years on what to do with this specific model – which mostly came to fruition with this project. Fast forward 2 years, this iMac is alive and kicking, working as well as ever. “Lunar Leidenfrost” in […]| Low End Mac
On October 5th 2011 around 3 PM pacific time, Steve Jobs passed away at his Palo Alto home at the age of 56. A founding member of Apple, a CEO who turned his company around, a human being whose vision not only defied his critics, but changed the very nature of how we interact with […]| Low End Mac
I think I finally figured out the trick to the thermal paste, making sure it doesn’t get pushed off the CPU die. Experimenting some more after the last article, I made a square O-ring shaped buffer out of layered clear tape, sitting on the CPU. This way the heatsink doesn’t press all the way down […] The post This is a Mid-2003 Power Mac G5 :) appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
Imagine if you could take some features from newer versions of macOS, and give them to Mac OS X Leopard running on a PowerPC Mac? That’s exactly what we’re gonna do today in this article. I’m gonna cover a small compilation of apps and tweaks where the end result is a more modern PowerPC Leopard […] The post Give your PowerPC Leopard Mac some modern features appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
This light utility gives you the ability to properly format SD cards and Micro SD cards on your PowerPC Mac. Older versions of Mac OS X recognize SD cards as USB flash drives if they mount, although may have trouble formatting in Disk Utility. . . Macs did not have SD card slots or Micro […] The post PowerPC Mac App Highlight: SD Card Formatter appeared first on Low End Mac.| Low End Mac
The choice of Aluminum marks a second major shift in the type of materials used in the frame of flagship iPhone models. Up until the 14 Pro, iPhones used Stainless Steel, then transitioned to Titanium with the iPhone 15. With the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, the choice for an Aluminum alloy was made […]| Low End Mac
Does the new style look familiar to you? Even though they talk about a “Glass UI”, there are many Aqua-themed visual cues in WWDC this year, especially to the intro for the new macOS. This year the transition in the presentation started as a Sequoia wallpaper, with a water droplet morphing the visuals before ultimately […]| Low End Mac
The ARM transition as well as new devices are not off topic at Low End Mac. It impacts the future of Apple, as the platform moves through its fourth hardware architecture with Macs. It will make Intel Macs and old iPhones low end sooner than you might like, but sooner or later the ARM Macs […]| Low End Mac
To the surprise of the Mac community, Apple announced the third generation Mac Studio on 2025.03.05 and started shipping it the following week on 2025.03.12. The $1999 MS ships with a 14-core 4.5 GHz M4 Max chip and a 32-core GPU, and the $2499 has the 16-core CPU with a 40-core GPU. For those clamoring […]| Low End Mac
With the new 13″ and 15″ form factors finally sporting the latest M4 Apple Silicon chip, the new MacBook Air enters slightly more powerful territory – joining the likes of the Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and the M4 iMac. This latest chip features faster clock speeds on both performance and efficiency cores over the base […]| Low End Mac
Certain iMacs from the early 2010s and late 2000s have an MXM GPU slot inside them, allowing for the graphics card to be replaced or upgraded. All 27″ and 21.5″ 2009 – 2011 iMacs have an MXM 3.0 slot, with the exception of the late 2009 21.5″ iMac with the base GeForce 9400m GPU. MXM […]| Low End Mac
Ever since the Touch Bar MacBook Pro came out, I wanted it to be brilliant – many others included. However when Apple came out with the 2018 model year not only the problems for the 2016-2017 MacBook Pros were becoming more widespread, the specs were also a massive improvement over the 2017. Namely, the 2018 […]| Low End Mac
This iMac is basically a giant 13″ 2017 MacBook Pro but with replaceable RAM and no battery. Kaby Lake was the end of the line for the non-retina iMacs with only a single CPU option, and rema…| Low End Mac
Let’s take a step into the wayback machine.. back to 2017 – whatever happened to the TouchBar? In hindsight, it’s easy to tell from a future when this model has just been phased out – the implementation felt offbeat. This model also suffered from keyboard and LCD flex cable issues, as well as the one the year prior. It prompted Apple to make a slight redesign to the keyboard and flex cable in the 2018 13″ to remedy the issue, but a redesigned scissor keyboard was only released in 20...| Low End Mac
Although the outgoing Mac Pro had a 6 year run, it received few, if any updates during that time. In the weeks, months and years preceding the release of the 2019 Mac Pro, the crescendo of silence surrounding the Mac Pro led many to believe Apple was going to axe this model from the lineup. The 2019 model finally introduces Thunderbolt 3 to the Mac Pro, returns to a tower form factor in an all-new design, and offers a total of 8 PCI Express expansion slots. The last Mac with close to this man...| Low End Mac
