Mac II

The Macintosh II broke the compact Mac's mold in 1987, ditching the built-in screen for an external monitor and adding NuBus expansion slots and, for the first time, color. It was Apple's answer to the professional and scientific markets that needed real horsepower and real flexibility, not just a friendlier interface.

Models like the IIx, IIcx, and IIci refined that formula through the late '80s, each faster and more compact than the last, while the IIfx pushed the 68030 architecture about as far as it could go before the Quadra line took over. This is the Mac as workstation, built for people who needed to plug in a graphics card or a SCSI drive and get on with it.