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List of originally "included" peripherals by Mac model?

kerobaros

Well-known member
Has anyone put together a list of what keyboards/mice/displays/etc were "standard equipment" with each Macintosh? I'm finally making plans to give my systems proper permanent setups, and I think it would be more fun to have the original peripherals, or something like them, as opposed to a big KVM switch.

Apologies if this has already been asked. I seem to remember seeing a discussion about it, but a search didn't pull it up; maybe it got eaten in the forum crash.
 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
hmmm.... not that I know of. Most Macs included a packing list, I have one for the educational/lab pack model of the Mac LC 520 for example.

For the most part:
  • "Pro" modular Macs from the II until the group just before the beige G3:
    • OS media & documentation
    • mouse
    • power cable
    • sometimes a microphone
    • RARELY (on literally only one or two models pre-G3) a keyboard, I think the 8600 and 7600 or 7300 had an optional AppleDesign keyboard, almost no others did
  • Performa, iMacs, home/smallbiz powermacs (4400/6500) depending on market/bundle:
    • OS media & documentation
    • disc binder with discs for other bundled software
    • keyboard (keyboard II on the 200/400/600, Design Keyboard on the 630+)
    • mouse
    • anything else relevant to the specific bundle, e.g. modem+cabling, printer+cabling, display+cabling
    • sometimes a microphone
  • LC series for education
    • OS media unless it was a lab pack, at which point one OS media and documentation kit was shipped per lab/classroom's worth of computers
    • Keyboard II (ADK later on)
    • mouse
    • sometimes a microphone
  • Laptops
    • OS media
    • power supply
    • sundries related to that specific model and/or things that were included, e.g. modem cable
      • 1400 -> book covers, for example
    • (though I'm less clear on what this meant for specific models -- my tibook included a modem cable, power supply, svideo -> composite adapter, dvi -> vga adapter, and a single apple-branded dvd-r disc, some MBPs I unboxed later had thinned that down to just the power adapter and maybe the phone line cable.)

Acknowledging here that some of these machines, e.g. Quadra605, Performa 475, LC475 or the 630, 6200, 6300, and 6500 series were sold into several of these market, meaning that, say, an LC 6200 would include the OS and otherwise be relatively bare. The one other caveat to any "Pro" models is, I don't know how that shook down for basically anything int he 4/6-series, e.g. pro model of the powermac 6200-6500 may still have bundled an ADK since that was a standard part of the packaging for that machine.


Unless you meant "what's normal for each era" at which point the answer is basically "go hog wild, and use whatever you can find, the only things that aren't really realistic is newer peripherals on older systems, but it's your collection and you can do what makes you happy"
 

chelseayr

Well-known member
as a small footnote, the performa if it was indicated in coming with a teleport modem then there pretty much would (as far as I know of) always be a microphone included only because the comm slot modem was often bundled with megaphone 2.09 being included on the performa-specific 7.5.x disc itself
 

joshc

Well-known member
For the most part, the only actual peripheral/accessory you got was a mouse and sometimes a microphone. Keyboards were mostly kept out as people could choose between either a standard or extended one bought separately. Later on that changed a bit, and the consumer/entry level models did come with the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II and Apple Keyboard II once those existed.

Like Cory said, refer to the packing list for the model you want to match everything up with.
 

kerobaros

Well-known member
Well, I suppose here's a followup question then. Is there a list of Apple's peripherals with release dates, and possibly even end-of-life dates? I am especially interested in the latter day USB peripherals and LCD monitors, I've got a G4 and a G5 that I'm mostly focusing on here.
 

Corgi

Well-known member
Well, I suppose here's a followup question then. Is there a list of Apple's peripherals with release dates, and possibly even end-of-life dates? I am especially interested in the latter day USB peripherals and LCD monitors, I've got a G4 and a G5 that I'm mostly focusing on here.
Only somewhat decently sourced, but I typically use Wikipedia for this sort of research, at least as a springboard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Studio_Display_(1998–2004).
 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
In addition to Wikipedia, EveryMac has some good notes: https://everymac.com/monitors/apple/

G4s/G5s sort of each cross-over into one another and into the previous and future design eras. The Pro Keyboard started with some G3s and then the PowerMac G4 and continued into the first-gen G5s. The "ice-cube-tray" keyboard started in the G5 era but also shipped with some late G4s, and into the Intel era. But, a G5 wouldn't look bad with the newer flatter keyoard, either.

Some keyboard notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_keyboards

Both of those systems will likely have shipped with the pro mouse, save fora couple early G4s that shipped with the smaller keyboard and the puck mouse.

But, because of USB it was becoming significantly more common to just use third party peripherals. A Logitech M110 you can go buy at an office supply store wouldn't look out of place, for example. G5s are when Apple's own bluetooth keyboards started happening.

Using non-Apple displays was also common in this era, but that's at least as much down to what your preferences are. I often use Dell UltraSharps on my old Macs because they have 4-port USB hubs built in. (Though, that said, I also have a QS'02 with a beige colorsync monitor from 1997 on it, so...)
 

volvo242gt

Well-known member
^That, plus when Apple went USB, it wasn't uncommon to see a MS mouse attached to a Mac. Heck, I'm currently using a MS Comfort Mouse 1000 on my A1286. More comfortable than the Apple offerings, plus it does have the extra buttons and scroll wheel.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
Yeah, in my circles non-Apple displays were more common than not by quite some way in the early G4 era. CRTs were still used from older setups (colour matching and vewing angles were better) and there were a lot of Formac displays.

The Mac Mini in particular was advertised literally as "Bring your own" keyboard, mouse and display. I had an old 19" CRT, Logitech keyboard and apple pro mouse on my Mini.
 
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