Creative ideas for using a Mac Mini G4?

[El Awesome]

Hey guys,

I have an old Mac Mini G4 laying around, working perfectly fine, and I have no idea what to do with it. My main computer is a super-fast hackintosh that acts as some sort of homeserver as well as my gaming machine and my machine to do work. Then I have a MacBook Pro from 2008 as a backup machine, which also works fine.
I already thought of ripping the Mac Mini and fit one of Intels NUC boards inside, but I still wouldn't know how to use the machine and as it still works I don't want to kill it. It's a cute little Mac
I guess nowadays it's too weak to play 1080p videos smoothly, which means it can't be used as HTPC as well. I don't need some sort of server as well...
I'm not gonna sell it, because I'm not getting back what I paid for it years ago.

So do you guys have any creative ideas of what to do with this little thing?

 

[Goftrey]

In-car multimedia? Hook it up to a monitor & put in the spare room? If I was in your position though - I'd go down the NUC route & make it one kick-ass HTPC. Trust me, you'll feel guilty at first... But you'll soon get over it . It'll still play SD videos, DVD's & music perfectly fine as it is though so you've got nothing to lose by hooking up to your TV anyway.

 

[GermanyChris]

Hey guys,

I have an old Mac Mini G4 laying around, working perfectly fine, and I have no idea what to do with it. My main computer is a super-fast hackintosh that acts as some sort of homeserver as well as my gaming machine and my machine to do work. Then I have a MacBook Pro from 2008 as a backup machine, which also works fine.
I already thought of ripping the Mac Mini and fit one of Intels NUC boards inside, but I still wouldn't know how to use the machine and as it still works I don't want to kill it. It's a cute little Mac
I guess nowadays it's too weak to play 1080p videos smoothly, which means it can't be used as HTPC as well. I don't need some sort of server as well...
I'm not gonna sell it, because I'm not getting back what I paid for it years ago.

So do you guys have any creative ideas of what to do with this little thing?

Welcome back!! you built your hack then disappeared. Whats up?

 

[El Awesome]

In-car multimedia? Hook it up to a monitor & put in the spare room? If I was in your position though - I'd go down the NUC route & make it one kick-ass HTPC. Trust me, you'll feel guilty at first... But you'll soon get over it . It'll still play SD videos, DVD's & music perfectly fine as it is though so you've got nothing to lose by hooking up to your TV anyway.

I had an idea today: My hack is upstairs, my TV downstairs. I have ethernet connection through my whole house.
Now, what if I connect my upstairs PC with a downstairs HTPC and then do some gaming via ScreenSharing? Via WiFi, I didn't even try to because the input lag way way too high. But what about nice and fast Ethernet-connection? Would it work to let the upstairs hack do the work and show it via the HTPC on the downstairs TV?

Welcome back!! you built your hack then disappeared. Whats up?

Hahaha thanks I wrote you a message with link to my build log. I'm actually still in the process of building it (WTF, I know). I had it running for some time and now I'm putting the wc-loop on. The loop itself is done, now I just gotta do some work on my desk to fit it nicely inside
I actually wasn't gone, I was visiting this forum every now and then (especially the Mac-gaming subforum )
I wanted to finish the hack back in February, but life has got me with a lot of stuff to do since then.. I hope to finish it before summer comes

 

[Intell]

I had an idea today: My hack is upstairs, my TV downstairs. I have ethernet connection through my whole house.
Now, what if I connect my upstairs PC with a downstairs HTPC and then do some gaming via ScreenSharing? Via WiFi, I didn't even try to because the input lag way way too high. But what about nice and fast Ethernet-connection? Would it work to let the upstairs hack do the work and show it via the HTPC on the downstairs TV?

Playback media via Screen Sharing/VNC? It doesn't work very well, even on a 1GB network connection.

 

[MisterKeeks]

Playback media via Screen Sharing/VNC? It doesn't work very well, even on a 1GB network connection.

A bit of an understatement. VNC is horrible for media.

 

[Intell]

A bit of an understatement. VNC is horrible for media.

Yea, Apple Remote Desktop/Screen Sharing is based off of VNC and on full quality it works, but there are graphical glitches on slower machines and random blue lines. It also requires a lot of bandwidth.

 

[MisterKeeks]

Yea, Apple Remote Desktop/Screen Sharing is based off of VNC and on full quality it works, but there are graphical glitches on slower machines and random blue lines. It also requires a lot of bandwidth.

Of course, I've never had the chance to use it on a 1GB connection like Intell...

 

[El Awesome]

So I guess there isn't any alternative via Ethernet?

 

[macalec]

Maybe use it as a media/iTunes server.

Hey guys,

I have an old Mac Mini G4 laying around, working perfectly fine, and I have no idea what to do with it. My main computer is a super-fast hackintosh that acts as some sort of homeserver as well as my gaming machine and my machine to do work. Then I have a MacBook Pro from 2008 as a backup machine, which also works fine.
I already thought of ripping the Mac Mini and fit one of Intels NUC boards inside, but I still wouldn't know how to use the machine and as it still works I don't want to kill it. It's a cute little Mac
I guess nowadays it's too weak to play 1080p videos smoothly, which means it can't be used as HTPC as well. I don't need some sort of server as well...
I'm not gonna sell it, because I'm not getting back what I paid for it years ago.

So do you guys have any creative ideas of what to do with this little thing?