It differs from prior desktop Macintosh models in that it was built with industry-standard components such as an IDE hard drive and an ATX-like power supply.

It is contained in a stock desktop PC case fitted with Apple's distinctive curved nose piece.

The back is industrial-looking, while bent sheet metal fills the case's insides, sharp edges and all.

For the first time, Apple has abandoned automatic switching in the power supply, a small cost savings at the expense of international users' convenience.

It was also available as a "PC Compatible" system with a 166 MHz DOS card containing 16 MB of RAM and a Cyrix 6x86 processor.