A stock CC is best avoided for actual use, but a CC with an LC550 logic board (fast 68030 and and hugely improved architecture) makes a really elegant little machine, though there is an art to installing a System on one. The LC550 logic board, despite what people say, is NOT identical to the Color Classic II's (more vram in the former than the latter, and a different identifier in the ROMs), though it is close enough to one to work in every way like a Color Classic II but for System installations and some Utilities. For running period software, it is a genuinely pleasant machine to use, comparable in speed to a IIci.

I use my CC"II", which is a CC with LC550 logic board, 36MB RAM, ethernet, 68882 co-processor, 1 GB HD, and running System 7.5, mostly for Hypercard, occasional writing using Nisus Writer 5/ Microsoft Word 5.1 (depending on the mood and needs of the moment), and for the odd game of Cribbage. All these are designed to work on a small screen, which is key. I also rather like certain of the old high-end Claris Applications on it: Resolve, for instance, is very powerful and is designed for use on a machine of this era.

I would never advise the 640x480 hack, by the way. Quite apart from ruining a gem of a machine, the need afterwards to view numbers or text through a magnifying glass does not make for anything that could legitimately be called an "upgrade." Bad, bad idea — says the middle aged, bi-focally challenged oldie up here in the northlands.