Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
If you had a PowerMac G4 MDD laying around, what would you do with it?
- Thread starter tekboi
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
sell it if you want some return on your money. Give it away or donate it if you wanted to feel good.
I'd sleep with it as my teddy bear and make love to it.. I know, gross, right? No, seriously... I would put it to good use. There is still plenty of power and life left in a dual 1.25 or dual 1.42 MDD or MDD FW800.
If it really is MDD and not FW800 and you would have some Mac OS 9 software which you for some reason can't or don't want to run in Classic Mode then I suppose that machine would be great OS 9 machine. I recently sold my Dual G4 1.42GHz and the buyer wanted me to downgrade the OS to Tiger and install Classic to it since he had some old OS 9 software he wanted to run. He had true need for that machine while I didn't.
But if you are asking what you should do with that machine then apparently you don't have true need for it. I own my iBook just for fun and don't have true need for it, but of course this can be thrown into the closet while PowerMac G4 takes a lot of space with all the accessories so owning a one just for fun is bit more difficult
But if you are asking what you should do with that machine then apparently you don't have true need for it. I own my iBook just for fun and don't have true need for it, but of course this can be thrown into the closet while PowerMac G4 takes a lot of space with all the accessories so owning a one just for fun is bit more difficult
Overclock it! G4s are known for overclocking.
Try removing resistors,graphiccelarator and aticcelarator.
I am not aware on other machines but on a Pismo you could overclock by connecting points on the CPU board, I know, I did but switched back soon, wasn't stable.(500 to 550 MHz)
Yes, I meant that they are not that great overclockers in general. I have overclocked two of them, one was 733 to 867, anything higher caused machine not to boot. Second one was Dual 867 to 1000 with small instability.
So I dunno if they are "known for overclocking" the same way like Core 2 Duo is.
If it's the version with FireWire 400 and not 800, you could dual boot leopard and OS 9 which would be pretty cool. You could also upgrade the graphics card and have pretty much any PowerPC or Universal Binary game be playable. I wouldn't mind having one of these for older software. My current situation prevents me from having a second desktop due to space and I need something that runs Adpbe Cs6.
I have two MDD's. One is mantioned in the sig and works 24/7 as a general purpose server (web, FTP, files etc.) the other's a backup, because although the first MDD works fine, I acknowledge that it is not necessarily 100% reliable.
Is it the most suitable machine for that task? **ll no, but it's a solid and affordable platform (once you add a SATA-card).
RGDS,
Is it the most suitable machine for that task? **ll no, but it's a solid and affordable platform (once you add a SATA-card).
RGDS,
This was my first idea. Would be GREAT as a server. I've been having trouble finding a copy of leopard server. Guess i'll find something on amazon or something...
Leopard is not a cheap buy, and Leopard Server even less...
I got mine with my First MDD (I paid 180 € for the LServer disks, and the machine was basically free).
Depending on what you want to use the server for, even a non-server OS might do. Some things like file&printer sharing, web sharing etc. are included in "basic" MacOS versions (see System preferences->Sharing for the included options).
RGDS,
----------
I know someone with two dead MDDs so he's used them to make a little trestle-style table
With a glass top? I've seen one of those made out of B&W G3's and one based on G5's.
EDIT: Hot da**! Someone's even making them for sale http://www.mactechnology.co.uk/apple-powermac-g5-dual-coffee-or-reception-table-16-p.asp
RGDS,
Depends... if it was a FW800, especially a dual 1.42, I'd hot rod it just for sh--s and giggles because I love doing that, and that was a solid machine with some great compute power. If I didn't have my Quad G5, that'd be a fun machine to run old PowerPC games on.
If it was one of the early wind tunnel MDDs I'd just sell it though. Not much love for those, and the noise, sheesh.
If it was one of the early wind tunnel MDDs I'd just sell it though. Not much love for those, and the noise, sheesh.
If you will be using it as a home server you don't need any of the extra management features of Leopard Server. File sharing, printer sharing, web sharing and remote management are all built into standard Leopard (and Tiger?). If you need anything else, check out Macports - you will find most Unix software is available to you as well.
I'd probably turn it into a wireless media server for the whole house to use. Never owned one wonder how it would be :/
Personally I feel that any machine which is used for any serious work should (especially on a 24/7 basis) should have a backup rig on standby.
OTOH,
Then again, words do have somewhat different meanings for different people, I do not feel that solid and not necessarily 100% reliable are an oxymoron (with or without quotation marks). If your understanding differs, you might ask me to explain my view (or usage of words) in stead of making snide remarks
RGDS,
OTOH,
andseveej said:
are hardly the same thing.
Then again, words do have somewhat different meanings for different people, I do not feel that solid and not necessarily 100% reliable are an oxymoron (with or without quotation marks). If your understanding differs, you might ask me to explain my view (or usage of words) in stead of making snide remarks
RGDS,
This might be a late response but I bought my PowerMac G4 MDD with the intention to use it exclusively for iMovie '06.
The day came that I could make the first movie project on it and I didn't really like how iMovie worked, so I almost bought a copy of Final Cut Pro 2.0(?) but I didn't because I'd just go ahead and make my videos on my PC anyways.
What I do use it for now is GarageBand and to keep all of my music, along with my iMac G3.
The day came that I could make the first movie project on it and I didn't really like how iMovie worked, so I almost bought a copy of Final Cut Pro 2.0(?) but I didn't because I'd just go ahead and make my videos on my PC anyways.
What I do use it for now is GarageBand and to keep all of my music, along with my iMac G3.
My MDD (FW800) is currently hanging out with 4 80gb drives in raid 0+1 (with a 40gb boot disk). Quit possibly one of the single most reliable computers I have owned.
Before that I used it as my main machine
Before that I used it as my main machine