Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

jamesfowler2k

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 3, 2004
34
0
Hi all i have the chance to buy a g4 powermac 466mhz, only problem is it dont turn on. i guess this is the psu... where would i get a new psu for it and what kinda price you looking at? also would a pc psu work in the mac? thanks
 
You might want to stay away from that one...

Hi James,

You are looking at a Digital Audio (the series included the 466, 533, dp 533 667 and 773 mhz machines). This replaced the venerable Sawtooth series and unfortunately they also added some 'new' features... one of these being ADC (the Apple display connector used to power Apple's LCD's). When this occured the power supply was changed from a standard 20 pin ATX to a 22 pin proprietary with the additional pins supplying power to the ADC ports on the Logic Board. Without some step up voltage converters you cannot use a PC ATX PSU on the digital audio board (you can use an ATX PSU on the Sawtooth generation).

When Apple then went to the Quicksilver line (733, 867, 933 and DP1G) they also added 4 more pins to a secondary connector which is used for the higher draw of the newer processors. You can, however, use a Quicksilver supply to power a Digital Audio by not hooking up the 4 pin connector (letting it float) and disconnecting the purple wire (I would have to go read to find out which pin that is) out of the 22 pin connector.

So your options are a Digital Audio PSU or a Quicksilver PSU, both of which are not cheap. Count on ~ $200 used from an online retailer or take your chances on Ebay for ~$100+. This is just to get you started, the Logic Board may be kaputt leaving you with a door stop.

Best,
Rob
 
also can i upgrade the cpu to like the sawtooth thing? or is it not posible? 1.2ghz i hear u can up it too, id also if the cpu was upgradable i would probally put over a 1gb of ram init, also would it be pos to change the cd drive in it to a like 3rd party superdrive? if not internally i spose i could use the firewire ports...
 
Worth is all subjective :)

If only the PSU is dead it should be worth 200-300. (depending on accessories included)...

The Logic Board can take up to 2gb of ram (but it only has 3 slots, so you would need to buy 2 * 1g Dimms, or the more common 3 * 512 to achieve 1.5 gb).

Processor upgrades are endless, and more seem to be on the way... any dual CPU upgrade will work also from companies such as Sonnet, Powerlogix or my favorite Gigadesigns.

Any Pioneer (yes, buy a Pioneer) DVR will work where the current DVD / or CD-RW is located. Your best bet is a DVR-107 or 108. ~ $100.

Hope this helps.
 
so basicly i could put a 1.2ghz g4 upgrade and around 1.28gb of ram in this? i also have a spare 100gb ibm deskstar looks same as the 30gb deskstar in this so id have a 1.2ghz 130gb 1.28 ram desktop for around 300 quid? how much is the upgrade to cpu
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.