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Score! Free G4 Powermac!

K

kakkoiimac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2006
110
0
Paradise
I just recieved a free g4 from one of the guys that I work with...a dual 1.25 G4s and 512 MB of Ram...

Just a few quick questions...it is only running Panther right now, and i am going to upgrade my laptop to a Leopard in Oct...if i get the family licence can i use it on this G4? would you recommmend using the new OS on it? Any other recommendations?
 
DoFoT9

DoFoT9

macrumors P6
Jun 11, 2007
17,586
99
London, United Kingdom
it should be able to handle the new leopard OS pretty sweetly. not with that ram however... youd need at least 2gb. id suggest 2gb.

uumm you would have to buy leopard seperately when it comes out.

if you have a copy of tiger (thats able to be installed on the b4) put that on for the mean time.

wow im so jealous, ive been after a g4/g5 for a file server for ages!.
 
ricgnzlzcr

ricgnzlzcr

macrumors 6502a
Jun 7, 2005
802
0
Nice. I wish someone gave me their mac. Unfortunately you can't use the same copy of leopard on your powermac. I'd put a copy of tiger on there though. It's a very capable machine.
 
cal6n

cal6n

macrumors 68020
Jul 25, 2004
2,096
273
Gloucester, UK
If, as you say, you're buying the family pack, then of course you can install it on both machines. You can install it on up to 5, I believe, and it'll be universal binary after all. It'll probably be reasonably happy with 1 GB of RAM but you should really think about getting the best graphics card you can find, probably an ATI 9800 pro. There's actually plenty of life left in the later G4s, especially the duals.
 
K

kakkoiimac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2006
110
0
Paradise
Is it possible to boot this G4 in target disc mode? Im trying to inorder to reimage and it wont start up...maybe that is a feature that came out after this computer...
 
Multimedia

Multimedia

macrumors 603
Jul 27, 2001
5,212
0
Santa Cruz CA, Silicon Beach
The Dual 1.25GHz G4 PowerMac Is The Best G4 Apple Ever Made

kakkoiimac said:
Is it possible to boot this G4 in target disc mode? Im trying to inorder to reimage and it wont start up...maybe that is a feature that came out after this computer...
Click to expand...
Target mode should work. That is the BEST G4 PowerMac Apple ever made. The Dual 1.43 had problems. You scored a KEEPER. Never sell it.
 
K

kakkoiimac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2006
110
0
Paradise
I am glad i was able to pick it up. I think i am going to drop at least another 512 in there and may get the video card. However, i cant get it to boot into target disc mode...it dings and starts to start up, then it just turns off...any ideas on what may be the problem?
 
fblack

fblack

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2006
528
1
USA
kakkoiimac said:
I am glad i was able to pick it up. I think i am going to drop at least another 512 in there and may get the video card. However, i cant get it to boot into target disc mode...it dings and starts to start up, then it just turns off...any ideas on what may be the problem?
Click to expand...

Try holding " T " down when starting up, that should put computer in Target Disk mode.
 
P

pro2.66

macrumors newbie
Aug 14, 2007
1
0
Germany
kakkoiimac said:
I am glad i was able to pick it up. I think i am going to drop at least another 512 in there and may get the video card. However, i cant get it to boot into target disc mode...it dings and starts to start up, then it just turns off...any ideas on what may be the problem?
Click to expand...

I left my old G4 at my folks when I moved out to Germany.

Last time I was home, it hadn't been used for a while (possibly since I left). The little battery for the PRAM was flat.

Took that out and pushed the button to reset (while the system had power) and back to life.

Batteries are quite easy to get a hold of.

Be good,

A
 
K

kakkoiimac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2006
110
0
Paradise
thanks for the repies...as far as holding T, i tried that and it still shuts down. I am a little worried because when i go to start up disk in the software prefs there is not an option to start in target disc mode...

thanks for the advice on the battery, i will see if i can pick up a new one. However, i can boot into the computer regularly so that may not be the problem...

if anyone else has any ideas, i would be much obliged. I love having this machine, because the only other mac i have had is my laptop and i cant open it up without voiding the warranty. So this is the first time i have ever got to open one up and mess with the hardware :)
 
scottlinux

scottlinux

macrumors 6502a
Sep 21, 2005
691
1
Yeah that machine performs pretty darn good. Here are some benchmarks:

http://www.geekpatrol.ca/2006/01/geekbench-comparison/

What’s surprising here is that the Quad Power Mac G5 was beaten by the Dual Power Mac G4 and the Mac Mini. I know the G4 has more cache (256KB L2 and 2MB L3 per CPU) and more integer units than the G5 (the G4 has three simple and one complex, while the G5 has two), but I still didn’t expect it to do better than a G5 at twice the clock speed. John’s suggested that Blowfish uses simple operations and can keep all four integer units on the G4 busy, which would explain how the G4 is able to outperform the G5.
Click to expand...
 
0

0939084

Cancelled
Apr 23, 2005
117
0
You will definitely be able to use the same copy of Leopard on both, the disk itself is UB/Dual Bootable.
 
MacsRgr8

MacsRgr8

macrumors G3
Sep 8, 2002
8,284
1,753
The Netherlands
Multimedia said:
Target mode should work. That is the BEST G4 PowerMac Apple ever made. The Dual 1.43 had problems. You scored a KEEPER. Never sell it.
Click to expand...

Yep!

I also own a MDD Dual 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4 (FW 800 model).

1.5 GB RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro (recommendation!)
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 PCI sound card
Logitech Z-640 speakers
Alchemy PCI TV card
iSight
1 x 200 GB, 1 x 250 GB HD.
LaCie PhotoVision 20"
... and MOMO Racing Wheel! :D

Running Tiger, and occasionally play F1 CS 2000 and Nascar 2003 on it.
For the rest I use it as a testing machine, and simply don't want to part from it.

I think it looks absolutely marvelous.

Here's a (bad) pic of it:
 

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law guy

law guy

macrumors 6502a
Jan 17, 2003
997
0
Western Massachusetts
Congratulations on the PM. I'm coming to the realization that the G4 is a fantastic processor. My dual 1.42 has 2 gigs and is a very fast booting, fast machine in general. I'm running 10.4.10 now and see no reason not to upgrade to 10.5 in October. Also, by way of a report on updated software - as you might expect the lastest iLife iteration also works well / quickly.

Changes I've made - I've added a 500 GB Mybook Pro FW800 drive for large files. I added the RAM a few years back. Software OS / iLife upgrades.

Enjoy.
LG
 
MorzillA

MorzillA

macrumors 6502
May 16, 2007
302
0
Miami
MacsRgr8 said:
Yep!

I also own a MDD Dual 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4 (FW 800 model).

1.5 GB RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro (recommendation!)
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 PCI sound card
Logitech Z-640 speakers
Alchemy PCI TV card
iSight
1 x 200 GB, 1 x 250 GB HD.
LaCie PhotoVision 20"
... and MOMO Racing Wheel! :D

Running Tiger, and occasionally play F1 CS 2000 and Nascar 2003 on it.
For the rest I use it as a testing machine, and simply don't want to part from it.

I think it looks absolutely marvelous.

Here's a (bad) pic of it:
Click to expand...


NICE pic, WOW what a beauty that G4 Dual!!!!
 
K

kakkoiimac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2006
110
0
Paradise
I have tried to install the new iLife, but it seems like iMovie is a no go. We will have to see how the rest works. I do appear to have some sort of open firmware problem when i try to boot to Target disk mode...any general info on how to reset the open firmware?
 
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