How slow could you REALLY go?

[zappaesque]

I have a 12 inch Powerbook G4 that is running at 1.5 ghz and is maxed out in RAM (1.25 gb), and also has a 60 gb mSATA SSD with an adapter. With the many, many tweaks and optimizations that I've found here and other places, I've got things running to the point that it's a very usable machine for web surfing, email, writing, and watching video with CorePlayer (what an amazing piece of software- just amazing). PPC Media Center is also a great tool for downloading those "slow" YouTube videos. The machine shows its age here and there, but I am still able to take it with me and use it just like any modern notebook. I use it even more than my HP laptop these days, and that's an i7 machine!

Per the topic, though- I don't have any experience with Macs any older than the Powerbook (I plan on remedying that soon, though. I'm hooked now!), but I'm salivating at the prospect of taking an older machine and tweaking it to run as fast as possible.

 

[Gamer9430]

Here is my Mac retirement home:

Basically all of those G4 Macs in the picture - 5 of them - are IMO unusable. Even the G4 1.7 GHz Cube with 1 GB RAM and G4 1.25 GHz iMac with 2 GB RAM are IMO unusable. There is also a 2.0 GHz Core Duo white iMac in there which is usable, but just barely with its 2 GB RAM, platter drive, and OS X 10.6. The fact that it sometimes struggles with even 480p Netflix drives me up the wall.

The two laptops I do use regularly are a 2008 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook running Lion and a 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro running El Capitan. My current drivers are that latter MacBook Pro and a Core i7 870 27" iMac, but my Kaby Lake 12" MacBook arrives today to replace the MBP, and a Kaby Lake Core i7-7700K 27" iMac arrives this week to replace the older Core i7 iMac.

Some suggestions on the iMac Core Duo, you can actually upgrade the CPU on it to a Core 2 Duo, which is heads over heals better than a Core Duo. You can also flash the firmware to the next model up so you can use 3.5GB of RAM instead of 2GB. Lastly, once you upgrade to a Core 2 Duo, you can run up to Mountain Lion with full support using MacPostFactor. You can use newer OSes than ML, but there will be no graphical acceleration, which renders it to be pretty useless.

I have both the 17in model and the 24in model. The 17in was a Core Duo (specifically bought that model to get the ATI graphics instead of the horrible Intel GMA graphics), then I bumped it up to the best Core 2 Duo that would be compatible. With that, I upgraded to Mountain Lion and now it works great. The 24in was given to me with a dead GPU, but I was able to get another GPU and now that iMac too runs Mountain Lion really well.

From the looks of it, you have a 20in model, so you can do the upgrade as well. It’s a bit annoying to do, and I wouldn’t recommend it if you aren’t experienced with taking apart computers and such as it can get a bit challenging to remove the screen and the motherboard.

Also, if the 1.7GHz Cube CPU isn’t being used, I know of a 450MHz Cube that would love a beefy CPU upgrade

 

[amagichnich]

Basically all of those G4 Macs in the picture - 5 of them - are IMO unusable. Even the G4 1.7 GHz Cube with 1 GB RAM and G4 1.25 GHz iMac with 2 GB RAM are IMO unusable.

Don't let LightBulbFan hear that...
But honestly, I don't know how exactly you define 'usable' but I think a tweaked and maxed out G4 is still usable today. If it is for Netflix, an early Core 2 Duo can handle it.
Actually... my PB handles everything except web browsing way better than the BlackBook - thanks to CorePlayer 720p and some 1080p without any problem

 

[Dronecatcher]

I used to think Alex Jones went off the deep end in 2004, mainstream news has outdone him

Currently, trying to keep up with current affairs (in the UK) is like being locked in a cell with a paranoid, delusional, suicidal manic depressive.

 

[reukiodo]

WOW!!!! It is the definitive Mac G5!! Are you even able to watch bluray movies with it??

I would imagine that you could, if you use Linux(which gives you a non-prehistoric VLC version).

I've never tried. As mzs mentions, I think it is more due to software than hardware. I mostly used it for backup storage.

 

[EnriqueG]

A TiBook should do it.

Debian/OS 9

99% of my computer time is reading PDFs, writing with Word and IMAP mail. That is still not only possible with Mac OS 9, I find myself even more productive with classic Mac OS than OS X.

Debian will be there for LaTeX and maybe a bit of web browsing.