Picked up a 1.42Ghz G4 Mac Mini today!

[Tony Danger]

£50! Got it from a local facebook group! Can't complain eh. 1.42Ghz G4, 1Gb RAM, 80GB HDD.

Previous owner says it's been in a box for a while, so he can't remember his passwords, so I can't instally or remove anything just yet. Borrowing a leopard install disk off someone tonight and going to get it formatted. Will probably open her up too and clean out the dust.

Looking forward to having a play with the old dear.

 

[jbarley]

Good luck with your new treasure, I'm sure we'll hear from you again.

 

[eyoungren]

Nice! Always wanted a Mac mini when they came out. It's a really cool little Mac!

 

[ptdebate]

If I'm not mistaken, these are actually better than the early Intel minis because they have discrete GPUs.

 

[MagicBoy]

Swings and roundabouts. The ATI has hardware T&L and dedicated VRAM so can play games better, the Intel has Core Image support for OS X apps.

 

[bse5150]

I have the same model. It's one of my favourite Macs...Next to my 11" MBA.

 

[Hrududu]

If I'm not mistaken, these are actually better than the early Intel minis because they have discrete GPUs.

You'd think that, but they're really not anywhere near the performance. Having owned both Core Duo and G4 Mini's there is nothing to compare really. The later 1.5GHz Mini had a 64MB 9200, so in graphics performance alone it might edge the 950, but every other factor is slower making the Intel Mini a much more usable machine.

 

[weckart]

If I'm not mistaken, these are actually better than the early Intel minis because they have discrete GPUs.

The max of 1GB of RAM is a sore point, especially as the first Intel Mini can be modded to accept up to 4GB.

 

[Tony Danger]

I opened it up last night to clean out some dust. Boy it was dirty in there. stripped it down, cleaned it up and put it back together again.

Now to work on streamlining Leopard. It's a bit slow. Is it possible to put an SSD in these old machines?

 

[gooser]

I opened it up last night to clean out some dust. Boy it was dirty in there. stripped it down, cleaned it up and put it back together again.

Now to work on streamlining Leopard. It's a bit slow. Is it possible to put an SSD in these old machines?

i used to have one of those. never opened it up to clean it and one day i burnt it up.

 

[Tony Danger]

I figured it could do with a dust. If the thing ever dies I'm going to repurpose the case for my raspberry pi and a nice chunk of storage and turn it into a could server.

 

[ptdebate]

I opened it up last night to clean out some dust. Boy it was dirty in there. stripped it down, cleaned it up and put it back together again.

Now to work on streamlining Leopard. It's a bit slow. Is it possible to put an SSD in these old machines?

Yes. I would recommend buying an mSATA IDE enclosure and putting a budget mSATA SSD in there.

 

[Tony Danger]

Would this fit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007N6PTWI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Ihbjvb0N5W4AG

Most I've found connect on a corner, not direct opposite.

 

[ptdebate]

Would this fit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007N6PTWI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Ihbjvb0N5W4AG

Most I've found connect on a corner, not direct opposite.

For a proper fit, you'd need something more like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/mSATA-to-2-...907?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23474b07db

An enclosure that approximates the form factor of an actual IDE drive rather than just the bare PC board. With the one you linked to, you'll have to find your own way to secure the mSATA drive in the Mini's drive bay, which won't be ideal.

 

[weckart]

Would this fit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007N6PTWI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Ihbjvb0N5W4AG

Most I've found connect on a corner, not direct opposite.

As you are in the UK, go for this instead. It uses a Marvel chip and is probably the best converter around.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lycom-ST-...igh-Speed-7mm-2-5-IDE-SSD-Drive-/131427729970

Or you could order from Scan directly at the same price and possibly get free postage if you are a Hexus forum member. Pity Scan dropped the free delivery to Argos it offered when I got mine.

 

[tom vilsack]

If I'm not mistaken, these are actually better than the early Intel minis because they have discrete GPUs.

Um NO! I have owned a number of ppc mini's and also early intel mac mini's...the Intel mini's will leave any ppc mini in the dust.

While the ppc mini's are nice the 1g ram max and 32/64mb 9200 ati gpu just slow things down...

Tony: try using OnyX 2.0.6 to turn off dashboard and spotlight,2d dock ect and other animations...Monolingual 1.4.5 to remove unneeded languages...

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

https://ingmarstein.github.io/Monolingual/


edit: another program I use is Appcleaner 1.2.2 to remove unwanted leopard apps (in pref just uncheck first 2 boxes to allow to remove default app's)

http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

 

[Tony Danger]

Thanks folks. Just waiting for my leopard install disk to arrive and I can get started on this!