Is an old G4 400 good for anything?

[majordude]

I've got an old G4 collecting dust. Other than being a great dust collector, is it good for anything? It's circa 1999/2000.

 

[bankshot]

Put a few disks in it and make it a file server?

 

[Moof1904]

Without knowing how much RAM/HD, etc. it has, it's tough to be certain. One of my Macs is a 500 MHz G4 laptop with 512 megs of ram and in the past six months I've used it for various roles, including:

-installing OS 10.4 tiger server and running it as a file server on my home network
-carrying it around as a roving laptop to stay in touch with email and such while traveling
-using it as a Retrospect backup server to back up all the Macs on my home network
-using it to host my iPhoto and iTunes libraries to share with all the computers in the house

There's plenty of life still left in a G4, especially if it has even a minimal amount of RAM.

 

[clindner]

Check out this thread: What can I do with an old G3

I was basically thinking of the same things you are thinking of. At the moment, I have mine upgraded to OS X, and just sitting on my home network waiting to be used for something. I took away the monitor, keyboard and mouse, and access it remotely using VNC.

 

[CRAZYBUBBA]

Yes!

I have a G3 iMac (See signiature) and I actually use it more than my powerbook (See signiature) despite the fact that the PB is much faster.

Basically don't try to watch dvds or divx movies on the computer, or play any intense games. But if you're looking for it to do internet/microsoft office/ non-demanding flash games then you've got what you need.

 

[vanmacguy]

I've got an old G4 collecting dust. Other than being a great dust collector, is it good for anything? It's circa 1999/2000.

Sure! As someone mentioned, throw some disk in it and make it a file server.

Open up the port and make it a playtime webserver. Open the port and make it a remote file server with FTP.

None of these require much memory or processor power, just disk and disk is cheap.

I'd love one to play on. I fried the main board in my G4 a few months ago. I bought it off eBay to use for the things I mentioned but alas I fiddled and blew it up.

Cheers.

 

[mbcracken]

2nd vote for file server

Mine resides in my daughters room as her first mac.

Mine is an old G4 350 Yikes. It gets her onto her Webkins page and all.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[motoxpress]

I got my son a G4/400 and he loves it. He has 10.4 on it and uses it for Photoshop and iLife. It is certainly not speedy for these apps but it works and he doesn't seem to care. I just have to make sure he doesn't try them on my MacPro so he doesn't know what he is missing

-mx

 

[product26]

good for plenty of things... just slower.

we use them for basic client machines at work.

they run M$ RDC, M$ office, email, internet... etc.