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Just bought an iMac G4 1.25GHz impulsively....

FocusAndEarnIt

FocusAndEarnIt

macrumors 601
Original poster
May 29, 2005
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Hey all,

impulsively put an offer for an iMac G4 1.25/256mb on eBay. Got it for $200 shipped.

I’m excited- but I don’t need it. Whoops. It’s the dream Mac that I never had as a kid. What should I do with this thing? My favorite macOS was Mac OS X Tiger so I am excited to go back to the old days.

Thoughts anyone on what I can do with it? It’s going to join my iMac G3 333mhz that was my first Mac that I called my own. That one is just sentimental value, running Mac OS 9.
 
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Which screen size is it? The 1.25 GHz came in 17" and 20" sizes. The 20" is quite sought-after, a rarity these days.
 
Congrats on the G4 iMac! Once the ram is upgraded, you've got yourself a pretty powerful machine.
If you don't have many modern computing requirements, why not try the challenge of making it your main computer? It's very capable of fast internet browsing (with the right tweaks), powerful old software, and most importantly, it runs Tiger, making it very satisfying to use.
 
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It's a 17". I think I'm gonna have fun with it and play around! I'll put an order in for a 1gb stick to bump it to 1.25gb. It seems upgrading to 2gb is possible but substantially more difficult to get to the non-user accessible slot. I've opened many computers throughout my day, but unfamiliar with how hard it is to get into the heart of the iMac G4's.
 
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FocusAndEarnIt said:
Wow guys I lucked out. The seller said he was putting it in the original box and realized it’s actually a 20” and not a 17” like the ad stated!!! 20” for $150 + shipping!! I’m thrilled
Click to expand...
Nice score. You'll appreciate the 20" display, since it's IPS the viewing angles + colors should be superb. I only have a measly 15". If you're interested in playing any games on it too it'll be pretty nice. Trying to edit video on one of these can be a fun task, figuring out the perfect settings/format to maintain quality while shrinking the file size. That's if troubleshooting is at all entertaining to you ;).
 
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FocusAndEarnIt said:
Wow guys I lucked out. The seller said he was putting it in the original box and realized it’s actually a 20” and not a 17” like the ad stated!!! 20” for $150 + shipping!! I’m thrilled
Click to expand...
wow, you're exceptionally lucky! i might be a little jealous, actually. o_O
big congrats to you on this awesome find. definitely a beast of a G4, especially once you get it upgraded.
if you're able, i also wanna really emphasize the difference having an SSD installed can make. it's a heaven send on these older machines. aside from boot times and general read/write upgrades, depending on the software it can actually make programs perform better outright. definitely a worthwhile upgrade after the RAM if you feel so inclined.
 
ultrasaw said:
wow, you're exceptionally lucky! i might be a little jealous, actually. o_O
big congrats to you on this awesome find. definitely a beast of a G4, especially once you get it upgraded.
if you're able, i also wanna really emphasize the difference having an SSD installed can make. it's a heaven send on these older machines. aside from boot times and general read/write upgrades, depending on the software it can actually make programs perform better outright. definitely a worthwhile upgrade after the RAM if you feel so inclined.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much. I’m really excited.
I have a 128gb ssd laying around I can plop in, but it’s actually a SATA 2.5” drive, not IDE. any recommendations on how to go about the upgrade? I would like to. And if I up the HDD to an SSD, I might as well bump the ram to a total of 2gb. I’ll just need to be sure to grab some thermal paste from what I understand.
 
FocusAndEarnIt said:
Thanks so much. I’m really excited.
I have a 128gb ssd laying around I can plop in, but it’s actually a SATA 2.5” drive, not IDE. any recommendations on how to go about the upgrade? I would like to. And if I up the HDD to an SSD, I might as well bump the ram to a total of 2gb. I’ll just need to be sure to grab some thermal paste from what I understand.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the thermal paste is part of what attaches the bottom and top pieces when you take it apart, so it's not optional to reapply it. Being that the machine is 17 years old, the paste is probably dried up chewing gum by now so a new application will do wonders for the temperatures of the machine. An SSD will help with this as well, they run a lot cooler. Pop some RAM in and you've got a killer machine for early OS X and even a bit of OS 9 stuff via the Classic Environment.

As for the hard drive, you can buy a caddie for the drive that makes it fit in a 3.5" inclosure, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Internal-Drive-Mounting-BK-HDDH/dp/B00G57BN1M

I must admit I'm envious of that deal, I've been on the hunt for a 20" G4 myself for a while. Easily one of the most lust-worthy Macs.
 
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FocusAndEarnIt said:
Hey all,

impulsively put an offer for an iMac G4 1.25/256mb on eBay. Got it for $200 shipped.

I’m excited- but I don’t need it. Whoops. It’s the dream Mac that I never had as a kid. What should I do with this thing? My favorite macOS was Mac OS X Tiger so I am excited to go back to the old days.

Thoughts anyone on what I can do with it? It’s going to join my iMac G3 333mhz that was my first Mac that I called my own. That one is just sentimental value, running Mac OS 9.
Click to expand...
I have also the iMac G4 1.25 20"

Ram, SSD, AirPort Card, new fan infos here
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-g4-usb2-upgraded-to-ssd-and-2gb-ram.1003716/post-24244588
 
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Does anyone have any insight into the SSDs this can take?

Thinking about potentially using this machine as a local network back up of important files in addition to living the good old days of Tiger.

Can this thing take a 1 or 2 TB SSD? I read something somewhere about TRIM and how older Macs, which didn't have SSDs as a thought, can degrade SSDs quickly. Thoughts? I was thinking about picking up this Crucial 1tb SSD.

I noticed that OWC offers an upgrade solution for iMac G4s, but limits the SSDs to 500gb. I'm not sure if there is a reason why?

Also - would appreciate people's thoughts on this in terms of upgrading the SSD.
@TzunamiOSX - I was not able to find the adapter you used for delivery in the US

This video shows an alternative way: (start at 7:35)

Albeit, not the safest way to do it, securing the drive with electrical tape. That being said, not sure how unsafe this is - that iMac is pretty compact and I don't see things moving around too much in there to cause issues. Appreciate input.

It appears he used this adapter. Could also use the bracket that both @TzunamiOSX and @retta283 suggested. Though I am unsure if the adapter & the drive could both fit.

Appreciate your thoughts!
 
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FocusAndEarnIt said:
Can this thing take a 1 or 2 TB SSD? I read something somewhere about TRIM and how older Macs, which didn't have SSDs as a thought, can degrade SSDs quickly. Thoughts? I was thinking about picking up this Crucial 1tb SSD.
Click to expand...
Since it supports drives larger than 128 GB but can only boot from APM, 2 TB is as far as you can go without shenanigans. The absence of TRIM is overrated on modern SSDs in my experience.
 
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FocusAndEarnIt said:
Does anyone have any insight into the SSDs this can take?

Thinking about potentially using this machine as a local network back up of important files in addition to living the good old days of Tiger.

Can this thing take a 1 or 2 TB SSD? I read something somewhere about TRIM and how older Macs, which didn't have SSDs as a thought, can degrade SSDs quickly. Thoughts? I was thinking about picking up this Crucial 1tb SSD.

I noticed that OWC offers an upgrade solution for iMac G4s, but limits the SSDs to 500gb. I'm not sure if there is a reason why?

Also - would appreciate people's thoughts on this in terms of upgrading the SSD.
@TzunamiOSX - I was not able to find the adapter you used for delivery in the US

This video shows an alternative way: (start at 7:35)

Albeit, not the safest way to do it, securing the drive with electrical tape. That being said, not sure how unsafe this is - that iMac is pretty compact and I don't see things moving around too much in there to cause issues. Appreciate input.

It appears he used this adapter. Could also use the bracket that both @TzunamiOSX and @retta283 suggested. Though I am unsure if the adapter & the drive could both fit.

Appreciate your thoughts!
Click to expand...

Do you want to use a mSATA or a SATA drive?
 
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TzunamiOSX said:
Do you want to use a mSATA or a SATA drive?
Click to expand...
All I know is that mSATA is smaller. I don't care, to be honest. Is there an advantage of mSATA for this iMac?

I'd prefer a reliable but on the cheaper side drive that is sizable – 1tb would be great.
 
FocusAndEarnIt said:
All I know is that mSATA is smaller. I don't care, to be honest. Is there an advantage of mSATA for this iMac?

I'd prefer a reliable but on the cheaper side drive that is sizable – 1tb would be great.
Click to expand...

For a mSATA you can get a 2.5” IDE housing. But this is only interesting for laptops, because you need a 44 to 40 adapter for the iMac.

This solution is a bit more flat then a normal SATA with a big SATA to IDE Adapter (better for cooling).
 
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TzunamiOSX said:
For a mSATA you can get a 2.5” IDE housing. But this is only interesting for laptops, because you need a 44 to 40 adapter for the iMac.

This solution is a bit more flat then a normal SATA with a big SATA to IDE Adapter (better for cooling).
Click to expand...
Gotcha. Not following you on one thing, though. The 44 to 40 pin adapter - do I need this regardless, or only with an mSATA?
 
Loved the design of the old G4 PowerMacs. Saved a couple which were being sent for recycling at a company I worked for. I keep thinking I'd like to just gut it and retro-fit some newer x86 components in there to make a stealth Linux server.
 
FocusAndEarnIt said:
Does anyone have any insight into the SSDs this can take?

Thinking about potentially using this machine as a local network back up of important files in addition to living the good old days of Tiger.

Can this thing take a 1 or 2 TB SSD? I read something somewhere about TRIM and how older Macs, which didn't have SSDs as a thought, can degrade SSDs quickly. Thoughts? I was thinking about picking up this Crucial 1tb SSD.

I noticed that OWC offers an upgrade solution for iMac G4s, but limits the SSDs to 500gb. I'm not sure if there is a reason why?

Also - would appreciate people's thoughts on this in terms of upgrading the SSD.
@TzunamiOSX - I was not able to find the adapter you used for delivery in the US

This video shows an alternative way: (start at 7:35)

Albeit, not the safest way to do it, securing the drive with electrical tape. That being said, not sure how unsafe this is - that iMac is pretty compact and I don't see things moving around too much in there to cause issues. Appreciate input.

It appears he used this adapter. Could also use the bracket that both @TzunamiOSX and @retta283 suggested. Though I am unsure if the adapter & the drive could both fit.

Appreciate your thoughts!
Click to expand...
Get the red adapter. green one has problems. owc doesn't have a bigger ide ssd because no one made them. no
mSATA. Use regular.
 
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dlopan said:
Get the red adapter. green one has problems. owc doesn't have a bigger ide ssd because no one made them. no
mSATA. Use regular.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I’m missing it. What red adapter are you referring to?

edit: assume you mean this?
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Addonics/ADSAIDE/

I already bought the green one but haven’t installed it yet. Can you provide any insight as to what problems the green one has?
 
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