As with last year's list, there are a lot of good products that are not on this list, and many categories that are not listed as well. What is on this list are my ten personal favorites by category, based on what I've tested or general reader and industry reaction this year.

Each item in this list is worthy of mention, not just from my experience but also based on feedback from other Mac owners. 1998 was a year that saw G3 upgrades and systems drop in price to more affordable levels while performance increased (a nice combination). Several new products due to be introduced in early 1999 will raise the bar again, especially in the areas of systems and graphics card performance. It looks to be a very interesting year.

In most cases clicking on the product name in the list will take you to my review of it, where you can learn more of why that particular product was chosen. Otherwise the link will take you to the manufacturers product page.

1. Mac OS System: Of the systems I owned or tested, I had a hard time choosing between three of them, each significant in its own way.
   • The PowerBook G3 Wall Street showed the world why Apple is still the leader in form and function. Although the early 13.3" screen models were marred with screen issues, these notebooks make the competition look like a brick. Virtual PC running on a well equipped (RAM wise) PB G3 has made many an associate ditch his PC laptop. And these will only get better...

   • The Apple G3, although disappointing in some areas (early models had the RageII graphics chip, all were limited in expansion capability), these models were instrumental in Apple's road to recovery, providing a low cost/high profit margin excellent performing machine that the masses could afford. Their ZIF socketed CPUs paved the way for lower parts count, high performance upgrades as well.

   • The Apple 9600, although not a new system for 1998 it was finally available at an affordable price (under $1600). With 6 PCI slots, a 300W+ power supply and 12 Dimm slots this was one of the best Macs Apple ever made in many ways. Too bad the Kansas motherboard exhibits lower memory speed that leads to lower than normal video card performance for instance. However in tests I've run on my overclocked 9600/400, performance was actually better than an Apple G3/333 in may real world apps. It's still one of my favorite Macs.

2. Best Value in a G3/750 CPU Upgrade Card: Any of the 220/110 G3 cards now selling for $330 or so are an amazing value. As noted in the FAQ, there are some compatibility issues but overall I've gotten so many mails from ecstatic owners reporting unbelievable performance that I'd be remiss to not mention these cards. For reviews see my CPU Cards page. Owner comments and ratings from a survey back in the spring is noted in my G3 CPU Card Owners Survey Results (organized by card brand and Mac model).

3. Fastest (non-ZIF) G3 CPU Upgrade: The XLR8 400 ran plug and play in every system I tried it in. No other card I tested ran near that bus speed (50MHz) in either of these systems (Genesis and 9600/350). The PowerLogix G3/400 sounds promising based on one reader's feedback but there are too few samples to know if that's typical.

4. Best Apple G3 ZIF Upgrade: It may not be fair to select one since I've only reviewed the PowerLogix PowerForce G3 ZIF (I have recently received a XLR8 400 ZIF to review) but with a faster spec'd cache and consistent praise from owners (and stellar performance) - the PowerForce G3 ZIF won't disappoint.

5. Best Value in Storage: The Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10GB IDE drive (see my G3 Upgrade article) was the best value I've seen - large and as fast as most SCSI drives costing twice as much. However it only works in IDE Macs like the Apple G3 and 6400.

6. Best SCSI Hard Drive: The Seagate Ultra2 Cheetah drives (10,000 RPM) got rave reviews from all owners I know. I was not lucky enough to own or test one but they are reportedly faster and cooler than my previous model Cheetahs here that really fly. Note that IBM's new Ultra2 10,000 RPM drives are said to be even faster. I intend to buy one to test early next year.

7. Best Game Video Card: Although it needs a fast CPU to show what it can really do - the Microconversions Game Wizard 12MB Voodoo2 card was the best Mac gaming card (in my opinion) for 1998. Although delivery problems and high prices keet sales lower than expected the recent $199 price and better supply make this card easy to recommend. Honorable Mention: VillageTronic MacMagic 8MB Voodoo1 card ($99 SRP). See the Unreal Tips and Tricks page for links to benchmarks of these two cards. For reviews of many of last year's graphics cards see my video cards page. For discussions on 3Dfx cards and software see my message boards.

8. Best Utility Software: Micromat's TechTool Pro 2 is one utility I'd not want to be without. Norton 4.0 disappointed me and if I had to only have one troubleshooting/disk repair tool it would be Tech Tool Pro 2 without a doubt. It can test almost all your Mac's components and now does disk repair and optimization as well. Kudos to Micromat for a extended beta test period as well. Tech Tool Pro often finds the real cause of problems that get blamed on other hardware. I also want to mention Virtual PC and RealPC, which were both updated to use 3Dfx cards installed in your Mac under Windows.

9. Best Game: Unreal finally arrived after years of waiting and networking issues aside it was worth the wait. Honorable Mention: Tomb Raider II and FutureCOP (at $20 FutureCOP is a steal)

10. Most Innovative Product: The iMac. Not the machine for everyone (esp. those that love to tweak and add upgrades in the box), but you can't deny that it has really made an impression worldwide and boosted Apple's bottom line. Honorable Mention: Vimage's L2 cache slot upgrades for older Macs, which breathe new life into many older Macs that were previously dead ends as far as CPU upgrades. Check out their site for upgrades for Apple 4400, 54/6400, 55/6500, 20th Anniv. Macs, Starmax series and more. And I can't forget to mention MicroConversion's amazing iMac Voodoo2 card. Althought it didn't ship in 1998 it has created quite a stir based on reports of those that have been lucky enough to see a demo. It will be on sale at MacWorld SF in early January I hear.

Products to Watch in 1999

Here are my picks for the hottest items to become available in 1999

• Graphics cards: ATI's Rage128 series has a very fast graphics engine with multitexturing in a single pass, world beating 32-bit color performance, OpenGL support and up to 32MB of RAM. See their press releases for more info. Village Tronic's 3Dfx Banshee cards also promise amazing speed and 3Dfx game compatibility. See my NextGen Q&A on their Banshee cards for more details.
  Farther out and somewhat in doubt now after the 3Dfx/STB deal is the Voodoo3 (Banshee 2). I'm still betting we'll see a Mac Voodoo3 in 1999. And as mentioned previously, iMac owners can rejoyce when the $199 Voodoo2 card ships from MicroConversions. There are also rumblings on a nVidia TNT based Mac card that may see the light of day in 1999.

• Systems: Apple Yosemite and Sawtooth designs are eagerly awaited. Bargain hunters may want to watch for fire sales on existing Apple G3 systems still in the channel. The G4 CPU chip is set to arrive in 1999 as well, with MMX crushing Altivec extensions and performance far exceeding the G3 (as well as support for multiple processors). Basil M. "Baz" Gravanis just wrote that a recent EE Times noted that Apple is working with IBM and Motorola to ensure that Altivec extensions are present in all G4 processors (not just Motorola's G4). This will ensure more consistent support for Altivec.

• Drives: Larger and faster hard drives (both SCSI and IDE) are set to appear next year. Prices should continue down making current models an even better bargain. UltraDMA66 IDE drives will further close the gap between SCSI and IDE performance.

• Portables: Apple's consumer portable and next generation Wall Street will again steal the thunder from Wintel laptops. We'll all be winners in the race for faster, better, and lower cost portables. Expect a higher performance graphics chip as well, with Rage128 features being rolled into the RageProLT I predict.

• Flat Screens: Both TFT LCD's and the new Trinitron flat tubes will be all the rage. If only prices would come down the LCD's would be very attractive (I'm sick of the radiation and the massive space tube monitors take up). Hopefully more graphics cards will offer digital outputs so that lower cost, better image quality LCD Displays before more popular. Without the analog converter (needed with standard graphics cards) all digital LCD displays have cleaner image quality (and should cost less to make as well).