Apple Macintosh SE/30

Apple Macintosh SE/30

Apple Macintosh SE/30

I have the main unit, keyboard and mouse.

type computer
country USA
year 1989
os MAC OS 6.0.5
cpu  Motorola 68030
speed 16 MHz
ram 1 MB
disk 1.44 MB
hd 40 MB
graphic 512 x 342
colors grey
sound tone generator
ports two ADB, floppy DB-19, SCSI DB-25, printer,
modem, speaker, internal expansion

The Apple Macintosh SE/30 — The Compact Mac Powerhouse

Released in January 1989, the Macintosh SE/30 is widely regarded as the finest compact Macintosh ever produced — and by many measures, simply one of the finest Macs in the company’s history. Combining the beloved compact form factor of the SE with the Motorola 68030 processor and a 32-bit data bus, the SE/30 delivered performance that rivalled or exceeded much more expensive Macintosh workstations in a machine no larger than the original 128K. It remains highly prized by collectors and vintage Mac enthusiasts to this day.

The 68030 Revolution

The 16 MHz Motorola 68030 processor was a massive upgrade from the 8 MHz 68000 of earlier compact Macs — offering not just raw speed improvements but also a built-in memory management unit (MMU), a 256-byte data cache, and a 256-byte instruction cache. The 32-bit data path (versus the 16-bit bus of the 68000) doubled memory bandwidth, and the SE/30 could be expanded to an extraordinary 128 MB of RAM — enabling workloads simply impossible on earlier compact Macs.

The PDS Slot and Expandability

The SE/30’s single PDS expansion slot enabled a remarkable range of upgrades including Ethernet cards, processor accelerators, and even colour video cards. A network-connected SE/30 with a large RAM expansion was a genuinely powerful workstation that served many organisations well into the 1990s, long after its official discontinuation in October 1991. The machine’s combination of compact size, high performance, and expandability made it particularly popular in space-constrained professional environments.

Collector’s Favourite

The SE/30 is today one of the most sought-after vintage Macs, prized both for its excellent performance (it can run System 7 smoothly and handle many modern vintage Mac applications) and for its historical significance as the pinnacle of compact Mac engineering. Finding one in good working condition is increasingly difficult, making any collection that includes one genuinely fortunate.