With Apple having opened the door to 'compatible' Macs, Umax released a swathe of machines based, as with all of the 'clone' manufacturers, on the PowerPC 603 and 604 CPUs and the Tsunami, Alchemy and Tanzania motherboards. Umax's 'SuperMac' series (in all of it's guises and sub-titles) lasted surprisingly well but, with Apple withdrawing from the compatible market, the company had no option but to pull the plug.

Released in August 1996, the SuperMac C600 series (known as the Apus 3000 series in Europe and Asia) eventually grew to include nine different variants, all housed in a very neat and 'warm' mini-tower case. Unlike Motorola and others, who favoured the PC style 'steel' case, Umax followed the path set by Apple and went with a plastic case on top of a steel chassis. This, naturally, reduced noise and, more importantly, retained the 'warm and friendly' feel that typified the Apple machines - buyers certainly didn't feel as put off as with certain other of the clone machines. It also had the added benefit of being a good deal lighter despite offering six drive bays.

Under the case Umax went with a modified Tanzania motherboard and, although providing a CD-ROM drive as standard, utilised the onboard SCSI system rather than rely on the IDE bus used by the hard drive. Elsewhere the 'Apple influence' was very much apparent. While Motorola had opted for PS/2 and VGA connections, Umax stuck with the tried and tested 15 pin monitor connection and good old ADB - perhaps not revolutionary but comforting to the 'nervous' buyer. Expansion was covered by six drive bays (3x3.5" and 3x5.25") as well as 3 PCI slots and a Comm-2 slot (typically used for the optional modem) - more than enough for all but the most extreme of users.

Initially released in 160MHz, 180MHz and 200MHz flavours, the series would eventually ship in 240MHz and even a 280MHz guise (both of which came with a built in 'CacheDoubler' that boosted performance even more). Along the way Umax also released several variants that included in-built modems, different amounts of memory (both main and video), hard drive etc. The most curious version was the C600vPC which was shipped with a copy of Connectix's Virtual PC pre-installed.

Selling for as little as $1400, the C600 was definitely far more appealing to the buyer-on-a-budget and, although technically no better or worse than any of the other 'compatibles', it was well made, solid and reliable. There were still 'problems' and the lack of, as standard, onboard Ethernet connectivity no doubt raised concerns with business buyers, but, at this kind of price, it wasn't going to be the end of the world.

Having been a little bit disappointed with the StarMax machines and their dreadful PC style steel cases, the Umax Apus 3000 instantly felt far more 'Mac'. With a chunky plastic case, the machine manages to evoke that 'warmth' that Apple managed to imbue into their machines. There's also the added bonus that it doesn't sound like a jet fighter taking off when it's powered up. From the front it does still look like a PC though, but without the magic coloured fruit logo, it's not always easy to spot something as being a Mac.

Popping the hood, the Apus could very well be an Apple product. The board and component layout are typical and even though everything is housed in a steel chassis, it's still easy to work with once you figure out that removing the base late releases the locking bar that releases the riser card that releases...

Aside from the addition of a PCI USB card (woohoo), my machine was 'as delivered' with a 200MHz CPU, 64Mb RAM, 2.1Gb hard drive, and a CD ROM drive. Not exactly radical stuff but enough to give the Apus enough grunt to handle most day to day tasks. The headphone socket on the front of the case is a nice touch but the lack of networking (aside from AppleTalk) is certainly a black mark against it.

The expansion options are pretty good (3xPCI and one COMM slot, 2x5.25" drive bays) but you can very much see that the Apus was aimed at the budget end of the market and actual onboard connections are very much 'minimal'. That said, if it fits your needs then the Apus is a solid little machine. Admittedly it offers nothing technically above the StarMax machines but it just feels nicer to use. Given the choice, the decision is clear.