Imac G4 800mgz 17"

VanneDC · Sep 21, 2010

hi, i just bought an Imac G4 17 inch screen, (not too sure about the rest of it, as i bought it for the Isight firewire camera that was with it) and was just wondering if i could do anything useful with this machine.

Its going to be replacing a Imac C2D 2.16 24 inch as my wife never uses it. When she does, all thats required is internet, word and itunes/sync with her Iphone 3g. (so the other is a waste, and ill save around 800 bucks >

*evil, evil laugh*

whats going to be the best way to go about getting use outa this thing? For starters, can i Overclock it to say a gig? I think this puppy will be on a 100mhz fsb and has the nvidia MX4 32 gig vid card in it.

ive seen a few OCing emac sites, and ive seen the 133Mhz OCing site, but the 800hmz 100fsb eludes me. Is it possible?

What is the max ram that i can shuv in there? and worthwhile upgrading the harddrive? (whats the largest this unit will recognize) has a 80 gig drive atm iam told. IDE only i would suspect?

now, the quation must be asked, Panther or Tiger? (iam assuming leopard being outa the question?)

Iam not sure on the condition of the unit, picking it up in about an hour...

ill report back to as to what it comes with..

Also just wondering if its possible to hack the base off it and stick it on a non working 20 inch G4 imac? or are they a totally different connector?

cheers

V.
any other mods anyone can recommend, iam rather handy with a soldering iron etc.

MacHamster68 · Sep 21, 2010

overclocking is theoretically possible , but not adviceable unless you find a cooling solution as the fan inside the iMac g4 is constructed to be very quiet , unlike the eMac who's fan is constructed to extract no only the processor heat but also the heat from the crt ,and its heatpipe is overengeneered and i guess would not even have a problem to cool a G processor in theory , so the emac doesn't really ever overheat even the 1.42's which are overclockable to 1.92 ghz

nevertheless you can overclock it the same way as the eMac ,as they have the same processors , but you have to find a solution to get a fan inside that can cope with the heat produced by the overclocked processor , some have tried it and fried the imac g4 in the overclocking attempt , so you have been warned

but the 800mhz iMac will cope with internet and wordprocessing , dont know anything about iphone syncing ...

drewdle · Sep 21, 2010

You might need to overclock as, because of your phone requirements, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place software wise.

To elaborate; your system is very similar to mine, and will run Tiger (OS X 10.4) very comfortably, but in order to sync the iPhone with the latest and greatest iOS you're going to need Leopard (10.5), which is required to run iTunes 10. The problem here is that Leopard is going to be fairly poky on this machine, even with maxed out memory, thus overclocking might theoretically help, but like others said, you can also fry it, so you have to be careful. If you keep the system stock, Leopard will refuse to install (867Mhz minimum processor requirement), so you'll have to use LeopardAssist, a program that fools the installer, to get around that. The final issue with iPhone sync is that these iMacs didn't get USB2.0 until the 1.25Ghz machines shipped, so transferring a hundred songs to her iPhone is going to take ten minutes.

Not to say that the computer isn't good. I like these machines a lot. You are in a tough position with the iPhone however. (I have a 3rd gen Nano, so it doesn't matter for me).

MacHamster68 · Sep 21, 2010

the iMac g4 is a lovely machine , a design icon and can still be used for basic stuff like office work and internet browsing , and only because of a thing like a iPhone trying to overclock and kill this little beauty (i dont talk about the iPhone) is not what the iMac G4 deserves
it should be treated like a true icon placed on a good visible desk in the living room to be admired and to show people you got taste

get the wife a hackintoshed netbook for syncing her iPhone in the kitchen
its cheap and does the job

666sheep · Sep 21, 2010

Hey Vanne, you can OC this thing to 900 MHz max. I've done few of these and some were unstable. Heat is main problem, like MacHamster said. If you're handy in soldering, then chance to kill your Lampshade is nearly zero.
If it would overheat, it will freeze.
FSB isn't overclockable, at least till this time nobody did it AFAIK.
So, if you want to try: http://macflowerpot.com/thunder//iMacG4Chart.html

But, as always, decision is up to you

Graphics in this version of iMac G4 is capable to work in Extended desktop mode (unlike GF2 which was installed in 15" 700 and 800 MHz ones). You need to use Screen Spanning Doctor to unlock this feature in OF.

Other mods/upgrades which are coming to my mind:
- max out RAM to 1GB
- SATA drive with SATA->IDE adapter (I've installed 2.5" 7200 WD BEKT in my eMac this way, and it's flying, especially in comparison to its stock HDD)
- SSD - if you got spare amount of AUD

. It could be PATA with 2.5->3.5" adapter, or SATA with SATA->IDE adapter.

And answering your last question: base of 800 won't fit to 20" "head". Connectors are different, exactly like you wrote.

VanneDC · Sep 22, 2010

Bit of an update,

I got the Imac home, and its a nice sample. No scratches, no blemishes/yellowing and the screen is perfect.

Yep, its an 800mhz 100fsb G4 imac
768 mb ram
Wifi moduale installed
Mac pro keyboard (white) and mighty mouse
60gb backup firewire drive
Firewire Isight cam
17 inch screen MX4 32 mb vid card

user manuals and cds

Cds:
Original Instal media (about 5 disks)
Panther retail on 3 cds
Tiger DVD (drop in cpu disk)

and a bunch of other cds...

Its a (US) Imac, not an aussie one as the dude i got it from had it since new an bought it in the states. (yep, has US power plugs)

Hmm.. thinking about what to do with this puppy....
oh and all up it was 255 AU

the Isight cam sells for roughly a hunge here.

drewdle · Sep 22, 2010

VanneDC said:
Bit of an update,

I got the Imac home, and its a nice sample. No scratches, no blemishes/yellowing and the screen is perfect.

Yep, its an 800mhz 100fsb G4 imac
768 mb ram
Wifi moduale installed
Mac pro keyboard (white) and mighty mouse
60gb backup firewire drive
Firewire Isight cam
17 inch screen MX4 32 mb vid card

user manuals and cds

Cds:
Original Instal media (about 5 disks)
Panther retail on 3 cds
Tiger DVD (drop in cpu disk)

and a bunch of other cds...

Its a (US) Imac, not an aussie one as the dude i got it from had it since new an bought it in the states. (yep, has US power plugs)

Hmm.. thinking about what to do with this puppy....
oh and all up it was 255 AU the Isight cam sells for roughly a hunge here.

With all the stuff you got with it, that's a great deal. Especially the iSight cam. Nice!

Plymouthbreezer · Sep 22, 2010

Just throw a copy of Tiger on there, and you're good to go.

My iMac G4 is still very alive, despite running an older version of OS X (10.4.11) and being manufactured in 2003. To top it all off, you can't beat the design!

VanneDC · Sep 22, 2010

thanks!

Hey Sheepy, how many of the ones that you OCed failed? is it possible to stick a better fan on there? (lemme guess its custom heatpipe?)

Id say the extra 100mhz is proberly stuff all anyways, would have been nice if i could have got it to 1.0ghz or so..

what about the innards Sheepy, if i get a busted 1.25ghz 1mac g4, and swap the inards around? would that be possible? once again, iam looking at internal case design (will they fit) and the lcd connector....

MacHamster68 · Sep 22, 2010

there had been attempts to fit other fans inside with some side effects ,lack of cooling of some parts ,the iMac fan looks like a standart fan but isn't , as the iMac fan and especially the fan housing are designed that it can suck air out of the iMac from the centre but also pushing air to the sides to create a circle in air flow inside to cater cooling for the complete dome and not only for the centre
here a good picture to make it more obvious what i try to describe

and if you look at the position of the fan it becomes more clear why it needs to push air to the sides

so by fitting a standard fan these parts dont get enough cooling as direct underneath the fan is a very important restriction towards the logicboard and thats the harddrive and optical drive

so even if you would fit the most powerful fan you can find it would make a good harddrive cooler , but the rest gets freaking hot, as apple thought about this airflow very carefully when they did design the dome, as you can see in the last picture the dust gets evenly spread on the logicboard
that was a little hint to open the iMac g4 once in a while to clean it inside

MacHamster68 · Sep 22, 2010

another bit of info i came across (i plan to get a iMac g4 too as its missing in my collection)
read that article
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/IDE/big_ide_drive_support.html#storytop

drewdle · Sep 22, 2010

They changed the motherboards a lot with each new revision. A few examples:

- The 700/800Mhz machines have one case heat transfer point. The 1/1.25Ghz have two.
- Wiring points were consolidated significantly on later revisions, meaning different length internal cables.
- The ports (USB and Firewire) swap positions between the two major revisions, which coincides with the USB becoming 2.0.

Thus, the upper and lower case are matched on each revision. You could swap the entire case from one machine to the other, though to do this you'd likely need to buy a whole iMac, which defeats the point.

666sheep · Sep 23, 2010

VanneDC said:
thanks!

Hey Sheepy, how many of the ones that you OCed failed? is it possible to stick a better fan on there? (lemme guess its custom heatpipe?)

Id say the extra 100mhz is proberly stuff all anyways, would have been nice if i could have got it to 1.0ghz or so..

Of 6 OC'ed so far 2 were completely stable. 900 MHz was max for 800 one (@ 1.0 GHz some won't even chime, some KP'ed at boot). I've also done USB 2.0 1.0@1.25 GHz succesfully.
Overall stats are not impressive as you see. That's why I gave up with Lampshades.

But, in case of 800 MHz, I think that heat wasn't the issue (because one of them was totally stable). It's like in PC world: one CPU will OC great, another won't.

drewdle said:
They changed the motherboards a lot with each new revision. A few examples:

- The 700/800Mhz machines have one case heat transfer point. The 1/1.25Ghz have two.
- Wiring points were consolidated significantly on later revisions, meaning different length internal cables.
- The ports (USB and Firewire) swap positions between the two major revisions, which coincides with the USB becoming 2.0.

Thus, the upper and lower case are matched on each revision. You could swap the entire case from one machine to the other, though to do this you'd likely need to buy a whole iMac, which defeats the point.

Like drewdle said. If you'd want to do case swap, you got to swap necks between them, because wiring and connectors are different between 800 and 1.25.

Little idea in matter of cooling: MacHamster's picture is good explanation how this fan works. I don't remember now, but it's possible that 1.25 has more efficient fan than 800. Maybe fan swap will be good idea? But check first is there any differences between them. IIRC both are Panaflo fans, but I don't remember now which models they are.

MacHamster68 · Sep 23, 2010

if i am not totally wrong there the fan in the iMac g4 reacts on cpu temperature by a set manner and like for example on a iMac g5 or mini G4 its freezing as soon as a certain max temp set by apple is reached to protect it from destroying the iMac
but the infos about if fanspeed is controlled or not differs on the whole www , some say it does, some say it doesn't

VanneDC · Sep 23, 2010

thanks for the info guys, may just pass this one back up for sale and keep my eyes open for a 20 inch 1.25 ghz model

sounds like Sheepy said, the numbers are not in favour of having a good outcome with OCing.

So thanks guys, i wont be OCing on that advise.

May pull this one apart and see how dusty it is like on the photos, but yeah, thanks much everyone

V.

VanneDC · Oct 2, 2010

Kay, sold the missus's iMac c2d and was checking out the little iMac g4.

It's actually a pretty good little unit and she especially loved how you can set the screen at so many different angles as she gets a sore back rather easily.

So I recon were gonna hold onto it for a while at least anyways, till a neat little 20 inch version comes along for cheap.

So iam gonna do 2 things..

1. Max out the ram
2. Stick a larger 7200rpm ide drive in there.

Couple of questions... What's the max ram I can stick in here? I see from the pictures 2 different modules. One a normal sized ram stick, and one a sodimm...

What speed and what size max for each?

Also, possible to stick a bigger than 250 gb drive in there? Or will it only read a max of 200 gb.

Any help would be great

666sheep · Oct 2, 2010

Max RAM is 1GB SDR PC133. You can install 250GB drive without problems. There's no limit like was in older G4s. Give it fast SATA drive, using this adapter.

VanneDC · Oct 2, 2010

thanks sheepy, ill get that adaptor and a nice fast 7200rpm drive..

in regards to the memory, system profiler says i have:

dimm0/j22 512mb
dimm1/j20 256mb

Which one is the sodim and what one is the standard desktop ram chip?

666sheep · Oct 4, 2010

^Don't remember now, but it's easy to see: unscrew bottom plate (4 little philips screws) and see what capacity SODIMM is

VanneDC · Oct 10, 2010

I just got a 1.0ghz fab 133 17 inch iMac g4.. Pretty much for the reason of wanting more ram than 1.0gb. I'll max the ram out to 2gb on this one, swap the HD for a 7200rpm jobby, and clean the inside.

I'll likely flog off the slower 800mhz one.

How do these fsb 133 units go to ocing? Any better results there sheepy?

It's also a 17 inch screen, so that's okay.

Cheers

Vanne :apple:

MacHamster68 · Oct 11, 2010

leave the iMac g4 as what it is a lovely beautyful
design icon from Apples pre unibody past
that still stands out from the crowed and everybody immediately will recognise it as a Apple computer
and its still capable of things you want from a computer today if you max out the ram
so dont try to destroy it with overclocking attempts , go back to basics ,
always remember this will not be your main computer ,
so it does not have to handle things your 27" i7 iMac has to handle ,
but you will get surprised if you choose to run software
that was intended to run on the iMac g4 and it just has to run classic too ,
as sadly it was one of the last Mac's that could do that

VanneDC · Oct 11, 2010

Yeah, your right, I'll leave her as is and cleanher up a tad, so love the span doctor hack, awesome for a 20 inch CRT for playing Starcraft on.

666sheep · Oct 13, 2010

VanneDC said:
How do these fsb 133 units go to ocing?

I've done 1.0@1.25 GHz and it was stable. But I have to mention that it died shortly after installing Screen Spanning Doctor. It booted but no video and none of available tricks was helpful. Maybe it was just a coincidence... but it convinced me about leaving Lampshade's CPU and graphics untouched next time

omtatsat · Oct 18, 2010

VanneDC said:
Yeah, your right, I'll leave her as is and cleanher up a tad, so love the span doctor hack, awesome for a 20 inch CRT for playing Starcraft on.

Yes I agree. Better than pulling all the " guts" out. Yuk!
I have Leopard on my iMac. Works well but a bit too slow for my liking.Also can't put in sleep mode. Will soon update to an iMac Intel Core from 2006.

VanneDC · Oct 18, 2010

Lol yes, it's a great looking unit, I ESP love the screen arm, makes life so much better for my wife as she had issues with her back a while back.

Iam going to go for just a faster HD and max ram initially only to 1gb as I don't have bigger than 512 sticks lying around. I'll see how it goes then.

Is there any games that run really well on this box?

Cheers

Imac G4 800mgz 17"

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