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What is the oldest Mac I can get with USB?

OSX can trace lineage back to NeXTstep, so really 1989 would be the correct initial release date (36 years ago.) There is still a lot of OSX that is direct from NeXTstep. The portability of NeXTstep (being microkernel based) is what allowed for the transition from 68k (original NeXT workstations) to PowerPC/x86, then x86-64 and on to ARM.

Though, by the same logic, Windows 11 can be traced back to Windows NT, so does that make it vintage?

If you want a smaller ADB based Mac, look at the Mac LC series. The LC III has fairly decent performance and isn't hard to come by. Though an older one with the Apple IIe card would be fun.
 
Mostly just mung about what's out there. Like I said I've got a dual G4 with OS9/X dual boot already, so I can run most of everything on metal. But I like projects and wouldn't mind getting more in to the Mac world.
 
There are adapters to get video output from the Mac SE/30 motherboard, which is one of the best in the compact Mac form factor. There are power adapters to power it from a PicoATX PSU as well... so it would be a good base for such a compact build.

You can add CPU accelerator cards and Ethernet, and it supports up to 128 megabytes of RAM.

There's even a few motherboard clones available: https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Apple_Macintosh_SE_30_Motherboard_78143494.html
 
There are adapters to get video output from the Mac SE/30 motherboard, which is one of the best in the compact Mac form factor. There are power adapters to power it from a PicoATX PSU as well... so it would be a good base for such a compact build.

You can add CPU accelerator cards and Ethernet, and it supports up to 128 megabytes of RAM.

There's even a few motherboard clones available: https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Apple_Macintosh_SE_30_Motherboard_78143494.html
These days the clone motherboards are almost a necessity. My gut feeling is that far greater than half of the SE/30 logic boards out there have been battery bombed.
 

"Clone" is a bit incorrect, because it implies that getting a run of this project made will net you a working usable logic board, it will not. These reverse engineered boards are more designed to save battery bombed systems that would otherwise be scrap. You'll need to use the original board for donors, because there are several Apple specific chips made specifically for Apple that haven't been made in like 30 years. The other chips, while jellybean parts at one time are also very old, haven't been made in decades and are getting harder to find.

Unless you have VERY deep pockets, it's not something I'd recommend. If you're starting off with nothing, you could easily sink near a thousand dollars into getting one of these boards completed.

And LOL accelerators, now we're talking multiple thousands of dollars. There's a MicroMac Carrera 68040 accelerator on Ebay right now in a fever pitch bidding war with the current price at $1050. Also a RasterOps color video card for another cool $450.

If you want a compact logic board that has *everything* and doesn't require gold bars to purchase, I'd recommend something like an LC III/III+ or Quadra 605. If you want to shoehorn them into something else, they're easy to power, and you can hardware mod the video connector to spit out a specific resolution. The LC III officially supports up to 36 MB, but can be modded to have 68 MB by adding a second SIMM slot and connecting some unused chip chip select/address lines. The Quadra 605 can do 132 MB, and both are far faster than a SE/30, and have color video. The price is still going to be in the hundreds unless you can find a deal somewhere though. I spent probably $250 on both of my Quadra 605s to repair and upgrade them.

The Quadra 605 can be made into a really fast machine. Stock they're a 25 MHz 68LC040, but can be overclocked up to 40 MHz. I have one of my Quadra 605s overclocked to 40 MHz and installed a full 68040. It has 68 MB of RAM and 1 MB of VRAM, it flies. The other I kept the original 68LC040 and overclocked it to a more modest 33 MHz, and it still performs well.
 
Though, by the same logic, Windows 11 can be traced back to Windows NT, so does that make it vintage?
By this logic, Windows NT can be traced back to VMS (1977) and macOS/OSX can be traced back to UNIX (1969).

I think "vintage" probably starts at 20 years old at the very newest.
 
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