Is it an SE or an SE/30?

Oldmopars

New Tinkerer
Mar 5, 2026
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I am looking at buying a Macintosh that is listed as an SE. However in my research I have found some things that don't add up.
In the pictures I have of the Mac in question, there is only 1 drive slot. From what I have found, the SE had 2 and the SE/30 had only 1.
I understand there were upgrades available back in the day to upgrade your SE to SE/30 specs. From what I have read, the bezel had to change too.
While the front is marked as an SE, it has the 1 slot of an SE/30.
I do not have it yet, and it is coming from an auction site that the seller would not have any more info.
Any idea what the story might be?
 

Mark_W

Tinkerer
Feb 2, 2026
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If the front bezel says "Macintosh SE" and it's on the lower right corner then it's really an SE. If the "Macintosh SE" text is on the left then it should be an SE30 case, "/30" might be sanded off or faded for some reason, I've seen a few SEs without any text on front bezel before.

Also another way to tell se apart from se30, the front panel on SE has two cutouts for floppy drives, and the top one is blocked with a separate piece of plastic on single floppy models, including SE FDHD/Super drive:
1790873049624.png

On SE/30 you only get one cutout:
1790873242631.png
 

Trash80toG4

Active Tinkerer
Apr 1, 2022
1,506
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Bermuda Triangle, NC USA
I understand there were upgrades available back in the day to upgrade your SE to SE/30 specs. From what I have read, the bezel had to change too.
I don't know about replacing the front bezel, but it's not necessary and probably wouldn't have been included in an Apple upgrade kit. If it's a late SE, it might very well have the slotted chassis of the SE/30 for its vertical 030 PDS Card setup. But that's the part that would very likely have been included in the upgrade kit as all early to fairly late SEs had a solid top deck on the chassis.

edit: methinks changing the SE front bezel over to the slotted SE/30 chassis might be the source of some confusion?
 
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