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Got a powermac g4 what did I get?
- Thread starter nizmoz
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This is the model you got:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/specs/powermac_g4_733_qs.html
Officially it does not support Leopard but there are tricks to get it installed, Leopard wants 867mhz G4, also atleast 512mb RAM is recommended.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/specs/powermac_g4_733_qs.html
Officially it does not support Leopard but there are tricks to get it installed, Leopard wants 867mhz G4, also atleast 512mb RAM is recommended.
You might be able to find someone willing to sell a processor upgrade for the G4 but it would take some skill to replace it. You can not overclock it like the old Power Mac G3 via jumpers so that is out.
Best uses, a file server. You will be limited to 128 GB drives given LBA limits over the onboard IDE controller. Anything over Firewire or a PCI controller card would not have such a limitation but you options are rather limited nowadays.
The last time I really considered a Quicksilver would have been in 2007. Even then we were replacing them with spare Power Mac G4 MDD or just an Intel based Mac mini.
You can upgrade the CPU and GPU.
Both would make a huge difference, though it would be terrible at running Leopard with the stock GPU. With a GPU upgrade, you could hack Leopard onto it and get decent performance
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Ebay, people sometimes charge quite much for that particular OS because ot is the latest for PowerPC, Snow Leopard or anything newer is not available for PPC. Buying Leopard for old machine like that might not be ideal if you unsure what you are even going to do with that Mac. There are of course ways to get it for free.... As with the OS, 512MB PC133 SDRAM sticks are also often quite expensive considering that they are old technology, so going for max. ram might cost too much, again because if you are unsure why to own the machine.
Well I found out the RAM suppoedly is maxed out. The guy who had it before at my office had it maxed out. I see it has 3 or 4 (all slots are full) can't recall how many exactly of memory modules.
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Will try to power it up tonight.
Hmm not letting me post another picture I have of the inside.
OK updated first post with inside picture.
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Will try to power it up tonight.
Hmm not letting me post another picture I have of the inside.
OK updated first post with inside picture.
Wow 1.5 gig of ram. Not bad. 10.5.8 OSX. Need to put a bigger HD so I need a software install CD somewhere. Ugh. HD not going to happen...IDE hard to find and I thought I had a spare. :/ Oh well. Got a ton of SATA's.
Only has a 40 gig HD.
Only has a 40 gig HD.
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You could use Carbon Copy to clone the existing system to your bigger HDD mounted internally, thus avoiding the need for an install DVD.
this should help with your collection of sata drives
ide to sata
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like carbon copy you can also use superduper to clone your small harddrive install of leopard to larger drive
Superduper
ide to sata
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like carbon copy you can also use superduper to clone your small harddrive install of leopard to larger drive
Superduper
Alternatives:
- add a SATA card and some big disks (soft raid) and you have a file server.
- add another NIC and you have a firewall/web server/whatever server.
- install OS9 and you have a retro Mac
- just start using it and you have a workstation for light work.
Then again, if you don't have any use for it yourself, try to find someone you can make happy by passing it on.
RGDS,
I also got a couple of QuickSilver 2002s recently, if you like tinkering with older stuff they are great.
Put a OS 9 install in and head over to Macintosh garden, lots of classic software to pass some time on a cold day. Also grabbed a old CRT monitor as the older games run at lower resolutions that look better on a CRT I find than scaled down on a LCD.
The speed of the older machines does not matter much for OS 9 stuff, your 733 is fine.
Next I want to find a Cube to add to the collection.
Many judge them on how they run today's software, but to me at least that is not the point.
I have machines that can run today's programs fine, but it's neat to have some classic macs running software from that era.
Put a OS 9 install in and head over to Macintosh garden, lots of classic software to pass some time on a cold day. Also grabbed a old CRT monitor as the older games run at lower resolutions that look better on a CRT I find than scaled down on a LCD.
The speed of the older machines does not matter much for OS 9 stuff, your 733 is fine.
Next I want to find a Cube to add to the collection.
Many judge them on how they run today's software, but to me at least that is not the point.
I have machines that can run today's programs fine, but it's neat to have some classic macs running software from that era.
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There is an open firmware mod to allow large hard drives.
http://nanchatte.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/128gb-large-hdd-lba48-support-on-the-g4-cube-with-leopard/
Those quicksilvers are reliable and affordable and If you can max one out and with the right software. It will "just" work for Light browsing/photo editing and video playback in mactubes
I recommend the following software
-Slimmed down version of leopard
-Mactubes
-ilife 06
-Stainless or tenfourfox
I also recommend that you replace the pram battery as the one thats in there has reached the end of the line
I recommend the following software
-Slimmed down version of leopard
-Mactubes
-ilife 06
-Stainless or tenfourfox
I also recommend that you replace the pram battery as the one thats in there has reached the end of the line
I got one for close to free as it would not stay on.
Turned out, just needed a new Pram battery and a push of the MB reset.
That modification only works on Cubes/Digital Audio PowerMacs and newer. It does cause some strangeness when partition the drive. And Mac OS 9 cannot be on a partition larger than 128GB and it must be on the first 128GB of data on the drive or it won't boot.
You sir, (and many others on this site) are a wealth of knowledge.
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OP, that's not a worthless Mac. It will run Tiger extremely well as-is and be a nice machine on many levels. Depending on what video card is installed, you might want to upgrade to something with more onboard VRAM. The standard card that shipped with was a GeForce2 MX which had 32mb of VRAM. There was a GeForce3 64mb optional upgrade. There are likely other cards that would work. It's a 4x AGP slot. People here can suggest some options that are mostly inexpensive since you're likely not looking at spending big bucks.
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Back when I had to maintain a site of G4 machines, I would visit these two pages. In addition to MacRumors of course.
http://lowendmac.com/
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/
I like xlr8, but LowEndMac has gone downhill. If it you look at their homepage, it's a soup of links to other sites, and it isn't low end at all (2012 a Year of Great Change in Apple Portables). The only LowEnd things about it are the archives.
It's hard to think "Low End" when you see headlines like these:
They have been doing that for years. (since 2005?) It is mostly a relinking site with the occasional piece of new writing. Most of the updates are back to the site's own 5-13 year old news articles from the same day!
The only thing is that they relink to articles that have nothing to do with being Low End. Apparently they are moving to a CMS, so maybe we will see more content, but it frustrates me.
You gotta remember that LEM stopped being his full time job. I'd be pretty tough to keep the content up especially as diverse as theirs is and while still keeping a day job..
I gave him $20 a couple months back figuring I got that much from the reading the interesting tidbits from a website that has been live for 15+ years.
I gave him $20 a couple months back figuring I got that much from the reading the interesting tidbits from a website that has been live for 15+ years.
They used to have regular columns but basically everyone has left and moved on to Intel Macs. Charles Moore was the last regular there for a long while who posted a column every week or two, but he's been gone now close to a year.
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Thanks, familiar with both.
