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Mixing Intel and PPC in my lineup?

G

GanChan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 21, 2005
617
27
I have an old PPC Mini and an iBook G4 which have always played well together. I'll be buying an Intel Mini soon, and I have a couple questions:

1. Are there any conflicts in networking or sharing data between an Intel Mac and a PPC Mac?

2. If my new computer has Leopard on it, and Rev.A Leopard turns out to be all buggy or something, will I be unable to install my existing copy of Tiger instead? (I think it's 10.4.5 or something around there.)

Thanks. Apologies in advance if these are dumb questions.
 
when you get the mini, I suggest creating at least 2 partitions. One for your retail version of tiger (~ 8 GB or so) and leave the rest for leopard. that way you can at least use tiger for a while if you are unhappy with the initial Leopard release.

Sorry, don't have the other info as I only have PPCs myself, but I don't see why networking bt Intels and PPcs would be a problem if the software is the same
 
1. No.
2. No. The retail version of Tiger that you have is PPC only. The only way to get Tiger for Intel is if you buy a new computer and seeing as your computer cam with Leopard you won't have got it.
 
Cromulent said:
1. No.
2. No. The retail version of Tiger that you have is PPC only. The only way to get Tiger for Intel is if you buy a new computer and seeing as your computer cam with Leopard you won't have got it.
Click to expand...

Is that right? I have a family pack of Tiger that installed just fine on both PPC and Intel machines.
 
Naimfan said:
Is that right? I have a family pack of Tiger that installed just fine on both PPC and Intel machines.
Click to expand...

Yes it is correct. From the Apple website :

What's in the Box
  • DVD containing Mac OS X 10.4.6 and Xcode 2
  • Printed and electronic documentation
Hardware Requirements Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger requires a Macintosh with:
  • PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor
  • Built-in FireWire
  • DVD drive is required for installation
  • At least 256MB of physical RAM
Click to expand...

10.4.6 was released before the Intel processors were available. 10.4.7 was the first version (if I remember correctly) that supported Intel processors.

What does it say when you run Activity Monitor on your Intel Macs where it tells you what processor the software is designed for?
 
flopticalcube said:
Yeah, unfortunately depends where the Tiger disk came from. If it came with one of your PPC Macs then no dice. If its a retail copy then 10.4.5 should be OK.
Click to expand...

Hmm my mistake then. I was under the impression that Apple had not released a retail version of Tiger compatible with the Intel machines as they all came with the Intel version of Tiger anyway meaning there was no need for it.
 
Interesting. I just looked at Activity Monitor and the only PPC processes it shows are Version Cue and HP Communicator. Everything else shows Intel.

I looked at the Family Pack box--it's version 10.4.6. I'm currently running 10.4.10, but installed it (10.4.6) on a 17" iMac C2D and then updated it to 10.4.10. (I've also installed it on a 1.33 GHz PB and a 1.0 GHz eMac.)

I just saw your second reply--maybe all versions of Tiger will run on any Intel Mac, so there's no need to so state on the box? Maybe, but that just doesn't feel right....
 
Cromulent said:
Yes it is correct. From the Apple website :



10.4.6 was released before the Intel processors were available. 10.4.7 was the first version (if I remember correctly) that supported Intel processors.

What does it say when you run Activity Monitor on your Intel Macs where it tells you what processor the software is designed for?
Click to expand...

10.4.4 was the first Universal release.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.4#Version_history
 
One thing to remember: If you set up a wireless network and your router has 802.11n capabilties, the network will only run as fast as your slowest computer. For example, I have an Apple Extreme router but a G4 iMac on the network sometimes along with my new iMac. If the G4 is on at the same time, I'm only networking at 802.11g speed.

Mick
 
My full setup on my home network is an intel C2D mini, a G4 dual 867 and a B&W G3 upgraded to a G4 600. Everything works perfectly together.
 
Italchef said:
One thing to remember: If you set up a wireless network and your router has 802.11n capabilties, the network will only run as fast as your slowest computer. For example, I have an Apple Extreme router but a G4 iMac on the network sometimes along with my new iMac. If the G4 is on at the same time, I'm only networking at 802.11g speed.

Mick
Click to expand...

In mixed mode, n based machines will run at 130mbps maximum. While not as high as n only, its still faster than g speeds. The OP wants to buy a Mac mini which is wireless g so his network would be restricted to that anyways.
 
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