Want an old Mac

I still love my PowerMac G4, even though I've upgraded almost every aspect of it possible, it always ran OS9 like a champ.

Shaun.P said:

Hey there,

Looked into SheepShaver but found it far too complicated to understand.

Think I'll use it quite a bit. If not, I've not wasted too much money!!!

Are these quite upgradable? Thinking of adding an additional 512MB of RAM for £10. Graphics worth updating?

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Yea you haven't spent too much. It's no biggy. Upgrade RAM is a good idea.

As for Sheepshaver, take a look at my tutorial at http://www.redundantrobot.com/

I have an old G4 and 15" Studio Display I'd give up for next to nothing. A G5 iMac, too, if anyone is wants. PM me if you're interested. I wouldn't be asking much more than the shipping costs.

Good Plan

Have an iMac i5 27" but just picked up a G5 2Ghzx2 - I seem to spend more time on the older box at the moment. Still runs great although the acrylic Cinema HD display has chronic ghosting. Something about enjoying the older gear and putting it to good use.

Shaun.P said:

What do you use it for? Can you tell me what you upgraded?

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The one you won is a later (better) model, so well done, it should be lovely for your purposes.

From my original 400Mhz AGP G4's state I've upgraded the CPU, RAM, Graphics card, added a PCI SATA card so I can fit large modern hard drives, an eSata blanking plate at the back, added a USB 2 PCI card (was originally usb 1.1. only) and I used to have a TV card in there too, but I can use external USB 2 TV tuners now. It works fine for Standard Def TV. It's currently hooked up to a 46 inch TV, lol.

It was not exactly cost-effective (it's more a labour of love for my first Mac), but I haven't spent stupid money on it. Ebay is helpful of course.

It's primarily used for recording standard def TV and iTunes music playback now. I made the DVD drive multi-region too.

The PowerMac G4 you won is a great machine! It does not appear that OS 9 is installed on it...the seller said they had 10.5 Leopard on it, so that does not support Classic...

In any event, if you can find a version of ClarisWorks or AppleWorks, it will run in OS X (I think you need version 6).

If you can find the older install disks, you can put an older OS (like 10.4) on it that will support Classic...

For software, you should look at (google) Macintosh Garden.

You can also look at scooping up other old bargains, that include software or install disks, and use them on this machine as well.

I also meant to say, you should google the user group for the old WordPerfect program. They are on Yahoo! Groups. They have a Sheepshaver boot disk that is quite helpful. I have always found Sheepshaver to be tempermental on my Mac's...it works better for me in Windows, for some reason.

Just set al garbage arguments aside, and buy the most pretty one. The iMac snow globe. LCD is much easier on the eye when it comes to writing than fuzzy CRT. Bought one like new for 70 bucks, and it is a fantastic sidekick to my modern Mini, works good on the network, comes with nice speakers for some music etc.

The only downside (that goes with ALL Apple computers) is the keyboard. Don't know if the DAS keyboard comes in white yet, as for writing you need the best keyboard! My el-cheapo Logitech Ultra Flat keyboard beats any typing Apple has offered anywhere in history. But I have to say, the iMac G4 keyboard is among the better ones from Apple. The original Bluetooth crumble eater (A1016) was the worst ever.