A new Mac Mini

[eyoungren]

Picked up on eBay for $35, A1176. Original purpose was to replace my G3 Server. I'm reconsidering that and have some other ideas. Will see.

Came with 1GB ram and an 80GB HD. 1.83Ghz processor. I ordered 2x 2GB sticks shortly after getting the Mac ($14) so it's now got 4GB ram. I also had a 500GB SATA HD lying around so that went in too.

Didn't even turn it on when I got it, just took it apart to replace ram and HD. Apparently I did it right because it booted right up. Installed Snow Leopard and then Lion.

Tomorrow will be figuring out how to get El Cap on it using one of the patchers out there. Nice little Mac, very quick with 4GB ram.



PS. Came with the power supply. You don't often see that and therefore I consider the price an absolute steal. The power supply is worth $35 alone.

 

[retta283]

Good Mac, I put an SSD and 4GB RAM in mine and it's very speedy running Tiger-Mountain Lion. Boot times are incredible, faster than my 2020 iMac (not too surprising really, my 2020 iMac is a plagued computer). You definitely got a good deal on it, even without the power supply I'd say that's an acceptable price. They're going up on eBay from what I've seen. PPC Minis are getting harder to find too.

I'll be curious to see what it's like running El Cap if you can get it to do so. From what I recall, Yosemite and El Capitan are brutally slow and buggy, unusable for the majority of tasks. The patches could've gotten better since that time however. Mavericks is doable but not particularly great due to GMA 950, Mountain Lion is great.

 

[Amethyst1]

Picked up on eBay for $35

I paid 35 euros for mine, PSU included. I mean, a Mac mini without the psu isn't worth squat.

Tomorrow will be figuring out how to get El Cap on it using one of the patchers out there.

From what I recall, Yosemite and El Capitan are brutally slow and buggy, unusable for the majority of tasks.

This. Unless this is 100% headless or you're going to hook up an external GPU via the Airport slot it'll be an absolute nightmare.

 

[eyoungren]

This. Unless this is 100% headless or you're going to hook up an external GPU via the Airport slot it'll be an absolute nightmare.

It'll be headless. I only have a display and such attached right now so I can see what I'm doing. Once everything is set up, Vine Server gets installed and everything gets disconnected.

Regarding the price, the last time I was looking for a Mini it was for my other one (A1283). I saw a lot of Minis without the power supply and in doing a search just for the power supply it was running around $35-40. I was fortunate in late 2019 to find someone selling an A1283 with the power supply and display adapters for around $45. Which is why I was fairly happy with the price of this Mini.

 

[retta283]

Just a question if either of you (or anyone else) own both PPC Minis and early Intel minis. Due to the mentioned price of power supplies, I don't want to hunt a second one down if I don't need to. Is the 110w power supply from the Intel mini compatible with the PPC minis too or are they not interchangeable?

 

[Amethyst1]

Is the 110w power supply from the Intel mini compatible with the PPC minis

As far as I can see, yes - they share the same connector and voltage, and the higher wattage isn't a problem (if anything it's a plus since it gives you more headroom). The G4's PSU won't work with an Intel though.

 

[weckart]

Mavericks is doable but not particularly great due to GMA 950, Mountain Lion is great.

Is it? I always thought ML was only to be contemplated with the X3100 GPU as there were beta drivers for those but the 64 bit drivers for GMA950 were either too buggy or incomplete. Good to know if true but my 1176 (a flashed 1,1) bit the dust a couple of years ago.

Just a question if either of you (or anyone else) own both PPC Minis and early Intel minis. Due to the mentioned price of power supplies, I don't want to hunt a second one down if I don't need to. Is the 110w power supply from the Intel mini compatible with the PPC minis too or are they not interchangeable?

The connectors are the same but the wattage is lower on PPC - 85W. I know that using a PPC adapter on Intel doesn't work, prolly because of the lower wattage. You could try, I suppose.

 

[retta283]

Is it? I always thought ML was only to be contemplated with the X3100 GPU as there were beta drivers for those but the 64 bit drivers for GMA950 were either too buggy or incomplete. Good to know if true but my 1176 (a flashed 1,1) bit the dust a couple of years ago.



The connectors are the same but the wattage is lower on PPC - 85W. I know that using a PPC adapter on Intel doesn't work, prolly because of the lower wattage. You could try, I suppose.

Patchers have come a long way, the drivers are quite good now from what I have heard. It's still pretty laggy on anything higher than 1440x900 but doable for basic use.

Mavericks is doable too but the graphics drivers are missing so it's pretty slow, but not unstable. Compared to Mavericks on my 2006 MBP, which is a Pleasant experience overall, it's not usable for much more than the bare basics for extended periods.

 

[weckart]

Mavericks is doable too but the graphics drivers are missing so it's pretty slow, but not unstable. Compared to Mavericks on my 2006 MBP, which is a Pleasant experience overall, it's not usable for much more than the bare basics for extended periods.

Yes, I lucked out with a very cheap A1283 while looking for something else entirely. It's good for Catalina, which it runs now but Big Sur is a no go for the same reasons outlined above.

 

[Project Alice]

Just a question if either of you (or anyone else) own both PPC Minis and early Intel minis. Due to the mentioned price of power supplies, I don't want to hunt a second one down if I don't need to. Is the 110w power supply from the Intel mini compatible with the PPC minis too or are they not interchangeable?

I have two Minis, a G4 1.5Ghz and a 2009 2.0Ghz C2D.
I only have one PSU, and it works on both. I can't remember which one it came with. I might have even bought it separately.

 

[eyoungren]

Looks like I'm going to keep it in Lion now. Still have to sort out how I'm going to use it but I seem to be getting nowhere fast in trying to assemble a patched El Cap install.

Still should be good for the general idea I have I think.

 

[eyoungren]

Well, first idea is to use the Mini like I had originally intended to use the G3. Carbon Copy Cloner backups. The Mini does all the backing up and I don't have to set it up per Mac.

Going to be busy setting that up though.

PS: Now headless with screen sharing via Vine Server.

 

[eyoungren]

OK, cool. Just use the Mini to stream my music to BT, keeping my MacPro free.

Connected to the G3 Server where the music is store BTW. Apparently Nightingale works on Lion.

 

[netsrot39]

I have two Minis, a G4 1.5Ghz and a 2009 2.0Ghz C2D.
I only have one PSU, and it works on both. I can't remember which one it came with. I might have even bought it separately.

I can also confirm that 85W does work with a 2009 Mac Mini. Like you I have 2 Mac Mini G4s (1.5 GHz) and I also have the 2009 Mac Mini, twice, an early 2009 (2 GHz) one and a late 2009 (2,53 GHz) one. They are wonderful machines and it is astonishing to see how far the Mini has come in 4 years (comparing the original ones with the white chassis).

I'd like to mention that the OP could upgrade his Mini even further, I think the 1,1 could take a T7600 if the firmware is flashed to 2,1. I know this from some videos on YouTube and some posts online so it is only hearsay since I don't have that machine. Anyways good deal on that Mini. I also use one (the early 2009 one) headless as a file server. Btw what is the advantage of Vine Server compared to the built in screen sharing that comes with OS X? I've always used the built in screen sharing option but for access over VNC I'm using third party apps (Jump Desktop and Chicken).

 

[eyoungren]

I can also confirm that 85W does work with a 2009 Mac Mini. Like you I have 2 Mac Mini G4s (1.5 GHz) and I also have the 2009 Mac Mini, twice, an early 2009 (2 GHz) one and a late 2009 (2,53 GHz) one. They are wonderful machines and it is astonishing to see how far the Mini has come in 4 years (comparing the original ones with the white chassis).

I'd like to mention that the OP could upgrade his Mini even further, I think the 1,1 could take a T7600 if the firmware is flashed to 2,1. I know this from some videos on YouTube and some posts online so it is only hearsay since I don't have that machine. Anyways good deal on that Mini. I also use one (the early 2009 one) headless as a file server. Btw what is the advantage of Vine Server compared to the built in screen sharing that comes with OS X? I've always used the built in screen sharing option but for access over VNC I'm using third party apps (Jump Desktop and Chicken).

My new Mini is a 2,1. The one in my garage is a 3,1 (Early 2009).

The advantage of Vine Server is that it will load as a service at boot time. Have you ever had to reboot the Mac only to find out that stock screen sharing is disabled at the login screen?

At that time it's either a guess with a keyboard or having to attach a display to see what you're doing. Vine Server allows you to see that end of the boot process AND the login screen.

 

[netsrot39]

The advantage of Vine Server is that it will load as a service at boot time. Have you ever had to reboot the Mac only to find out that stock screen sharing is disabled at the login screen?

At that time it's either a guess with a keyboard or having to attach a display to see what you're doing. Vine Server allows you to see that end of the boot process AND the login screen.

I see. Thanks for pointing that out. I think I never ran into that problem though since I have automatic login enabled on my Mini and if for some reason I can't connect to it via VNC anymore (it happens ocassionally when the Mini is running for days or even weeks without shutting down) I use an iPhone app to reboot it (https://hobbyistsoftware.com/off).

 

[retta283]

Just for the hell of it I decided to install Yosemite on my 2007 Mac mini and it's a total flop. I cannot even get it to install, I got as far as the install screen where it said "Now installing OS X on partition" and the blue bar went until about the X logo above it, then froze. After that froze I had to hard shut down the machine, and now the Mini refuses to even boot from that USB.

This, my failures with past El Cap installs on 2006/07 Macs along with OP's failure to install El Cap along with many stories I have heard online leads me to conclude that the realistic maximum OS for these machines is Mavericks. It may be technically possible to install higher but it's not a long term usable system and the caveats are many.

 

[retta283]

It would seem that partitioning the Mini's hard drive from that Yosemite installer paralyzed the whole disk and broke the already installed OSes too, so there's that...

 

[Amethyst1]

I might have to give this a go on my 2006 Mini with the Radeon HD 6870 bolted on - after I replace the "beefy" Core Duo T2700 with a 64-bit single-core Celeron M 520

 

[Riviera122]

I remember wanting that year's Mac mini model when it came out, trying to justify the increase in price compared to the low-end Windows laptops I was used to... Decided against it, as I thought an iMac would be a better all-round package. Nice pickup

 

[eyoungren]

Today. I rolled the Mini back to Snow Leopard. Not because I wanted to, but because tracking down certain apps for Lion seems to be more trouble than it's worth. So, I simply decided to fork the backup of my 17" MBP to the Mini by cloning it. There were a few updates but mostly I can use all the stuff I need now.

So, that's where it's going to stay. The middle ground between my Intels and my PowerPCs.