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Original Power Mac G4 Power Cable

ChrisFerri

ChrisFerri

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
83
14
New York
This will be a quick one but I'm trying to find out what the original power cord was for a Power Mac G4 Digital Audio is. I recently got one and it doesn't come with the power cable. Now I have a million power cables that work with it but I like to display my Macs and keep them as original as possible. Does anyone know if it was the one that came with the G3 iMac and Power Mac G3, the rainbow one? Or if it was different?
 
I think it was the rainbow one. I know the Sawtooth cable with the rainbow one. The white colour scheme didn't really come about until the Quicksilver era.
 
The MDD came with the white cable, similar in colour to the G5's. But not square like the G5's.
 
Intell said:
I think it was the rainbow one. I know the Sawtooth cable with the rainbow one. The white colour scheme didn't really come about until the Quicksilver era.
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+1

I'm pretty sure the Graphite cased Macs almost all used the rainbow cable. The majority of ones I've retired at work have had the rainbow cable, whereas the Quicksilver models usually have a white cable.
 
bigeasy_uk said:
I'm probably going to show myself up here, but can someone post an example of a rainbow cable?

I'm not sure what you are on about :confused:.
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Here ya go. They're translucent with the different colored wires visible through the thicker cord material, with a small Apple logo on the end connector.
 

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Mr Rabbit said:
Here ya go. They're translucent with the different colored wires visible through the thicker cord material, with a small Apple logo on the end connector.
Click to expand...

They stopped using that cable with the Digital Audio. I still have the original cable that came with mine. I also still have the cable that came with my father's. I actually have one of the computers still, as well.
 

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It would be great if a website like everymac.com or a similar site gave details of what cables came with what models. In the 90's, the cables were more generic than the machines. I ended up just throwing all mine together in storage. Now I have no idea which ones went with their respective machines unless they are from different decades/eras or are for Powerbooks. Even worse were the clones, which had the even more generic black power cables like every other non-Apple device.
 
velocityg4 said:
They stopped using that cable with the Digital Audio. I still have the original cable that came with mine. I also still have the cable that came with my father's. I actually have one of the computers still, as well.
Click to expand...

So the G4's before Digital Audio used the Rainbow and the Digital Audio used the same as the Cube? Just curious. I'm still working on my Apple Display and haven't bought a cable yet. Just want to be as original as possible. Side note about original as possible the G3 and G4 I have did not ship with floppy drives. I've found drives and the bezels to go with them that I could add. So the model itself wouldn't be as it was shipped but still true to how you could get it. Anyone have thoughts on doing this for display reasons? Keep them without it as is to show it off?

Also, they would have Been the Black Pro Speakers, right?
 
Last edited:
G4's never came with a floppy drive and only the beige G3's came with one. Could you mean Zip drives? They were an option on most G3's and G4's up to the MDD.
 
Intell said:
G4's never came with a floppy drive and only the beige G3's came with one. Could you mean Zip drives? They were an option on most G3's and G4's up to the MDD.
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Zip drive, floppy drive, potato patato. Same thing. I know they were an option but my question was if you were displaying them as a display piece would you keep them as is or put them in to show the options.
 
Not at all the same. Rather very different. I'd show them only as what their ID sticker states them as shipping with. If that particular machine shipped from Apple with a Zip drive, but no longer has one, I'd add it back.
 
ChrisFerri said:
So the G4's before Digital Audio used the Rainbow and the Digital Audio used the same as the Cube? Just curious. I'm still working on my Apple Display and haven't bought a cable yet. Just want to be as original as possible. Side note about original as possible the G3 and G4 I have did not ship with floppy drives. I've found drives and the bezels to go with them that I could add. So the model itself wouldn't be as it was shipped but still true to how you could get it. Anyone have thoughts on doing this for display reasons? Keep them without it as is to show it off?

Also, they would have Been the Black Pro Speakers, right?
Click to expand...

Not sure what cable the Cube came with. But that is the cable that came with the DA. Much later I bought a broken Sawtooth so I could mod the case for ATX and was surprised to see it had a rainbow cable. I had assumed all G4's came with the grey cable with the translucent ends.

I'm pretty sure the 2001 iMac also used the same cable. I can't recall if my sister go the Early or Summer 2001 model.

As for the speakers. I think the ones that pair up with the G4 DA are the clear round Harmon Kardon Pro speakers. I'm not sure if the iSub and/or Soundsticks were configurable options from Apple's online store. I've always had computers hooked up to full sized HiFi Stereo systems since the IIvx. So I did not pay too much attention to speaker options.
 
The Cube came with the power cable as pictured in post #14 by velocityg4. I don't think the iSub or Soundsticks were ever a configurable option, but you could by them from Apple. I'm fairly sure there were two different versions of the Apple Pro speakers. One with the white rubber cone and one with the black foam cone. The white one has a shorter cord and is meant for use with the G4 iMac. The black one has a longer cord and is meant for use with the PowerMac G4 series.
 
And, there's also the pro speakers that actually came with the cube:
 

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