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Power "Macintosh" G4

lepidotós

lepidotós

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 29, 2021
687
757
Marinette, Arizona
maxresdefault.jpg

I've actually been sitting on this for a few months, but I saw this box that spells Macintosh out in full on a G4 tower. Would anyone around at the time please clear up whether this was just on the PCI Graphics model or if contemporary (Speed Dump and earlier) AGPs also spelled the name out in full? If not, that makes the PCI even more of a weird transitional model than it already is.
Thanks.​
 
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Pretty sure the default disk name is still "Macintosh HD". At least it was up to very recently. I pre-named my Monterey partition on my Mac Pro so I don't know if it would've been called Macintosh HD or not. However, the Finder's about window still shows "the Macintosh desktop experience".
So while they might not display the full name on the box anymore, it isn't completely gone.
 
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Certificate of Excellence said:
Flux lord
Click to expand...

Nah, those names are always a play on the vendor (for external) size etc.

Got a Samsung branded ext. HD -> Sumsang
The 3GB USB3 -> 3x3

In the old 2010 MPro:

The SSD boot drive -> SchnellSchnell (FastFast)
The TimeMachine -> BecksUp
The "scratch" disk -> ResteRampe (think about Dollar store)

I guess for the time being it will be :





StuStuStudio :p
 
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Actually, Apple dropped the "Mac" from the OS name from Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8), until Sierra (10.12), when the name changed to macOS.

I use the disk name "TheAbyss". I think I started using that with my first iMac (Graphite, Summer 2000) and saved space for that Mac OS X Public Beta that everybody was talking about at the time. The name showed what I thought when I lost track of files and folders - that they had dropped into a bottomless "pit of evil"
 
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The disk name on my M1 mini is "oh god oh f***" (uncensored of course) because I had picked it up amongst the concerns of quick SSD failure on these units. Bonus: The Time Machine disk attached to it is called "just in case"

On my PPCs, it's just a play on the standard "Macintosh HD": "Smolbook HD" for the Twelve, "PowerBook HD" for the Titanium, and "Hipsterbook Tiger" for the Companion, replacing Tiger with whatever OS happens to be on the various volumes.
 
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lepidotós said:
maxresdefault.jpg

I've actually been sitting on this for a few months, but I saw this box that spells Macintosh out in full on a G4 tower. Would anyone around at the time please clear up whether this was just on the PCI Graphics model or if contemporary AGPs also spelled the name out in full? If not, that makes the PCI even more of a weird transitional model than it already is.
Thanks.​
Click to expand...

I don’t want to complicate this any more than it needs to be, but while you may be right about the subtle slight-of-hand with Apple’s box packaging form the late 1999 Power Mac/intosh G4s, Apple continued to mark their purpose-built/marketed G4 servers as “Macintosh Server G4” through at least the Quicksilver models:

0545.jpg


I ordered a Yikes! in October 1999. That box indeed displayed “Power Macintosh G4”. I never saw a 1999 Sawtooth box because back then, there were no brick-and-mortar Apple Stores, these weren’t being sold at your local Staples, and aside from a scant handful of Apple Authorized Resellers in major cities, everyone I knew back then (including ad agencies where I did a lot of contracting) ordered and had these delivered to their address by FedEx/UPS/DHL/Purolator.

I guess if one at the time worked for one of those Apple Authorized Resellers (or inside one of the catalogue warehouses which handled a lot of the reselling), they would have known this fact the whole time. For the rest of us, not so much.

As for default hard drive name, the early 2015 MacBook Pro I used to use came with the startup drive labelled “Macintosh HD”, much as default Mac hard drives have sported going back to, at least the Quadra 840AV days.
 
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lepidotós said:
maxresdefault.jpg

I've actually been sitting on this for a few months, but I saw this box that spells Macintosh out in full on a G4 tower. Would anyone around at the time please clear up whether this was just on the PCI Graphics model or if contemporary AGPs also spelled the name out in full? If not, that makes the PCI even more of a weird transitional model than it already is.
Thanks.​
Click to expand...
Not only on the box. I have a 400 MHz PCI and the label on the back of the machine also says "Power Macintosh G4", Mac OS 9 reports it as "Power Mac G4 (PCI Graphics)". I think the early 1999 AGP models also have the same label but I'll have to double check mine because I'm not sure.
 
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Bug-Creator said:
It for sure is on my Studio (reminds me I need to find a "creative" name for that).
Click to expand...

Doq said:
The disk name on my M1 mini is "oh god oh f***" (uncensored of course) because I had picked it up amongst the concerns of quick SSD failure on these units. Bonus: The Time Machine disk attached to it is called "just in case"

On my PPCs, it's just a play on the standard "Macintosh HD": "Smolbook HD" for the Twelve, "PowerBook HD" for the Titanium, and "Hipsterbook Tiger" for the Companion, replacing Tiger with whatever OS happens to be on the various volumes.
Click to expand...
I’m very unoriginal with mine.
“PBG4 12”, or “Leopard” and “Tiger”. Lol
 
Doq said:
The disk name on my M1 mini is "oh god oh f***" (uncensored of course) because I had picked it up amongst the concerns of quick SSD failure on these units. Bonus: The Time Machine disk attached to it is called "just in case"

On my PPCs, it's just a play on the standard "Macintosh HD": "Smolbook HD" for the Twelve, "PowerBook HD" for the Titanium, and "Hipsterbook Tiger" for the Companion, replacing Tiger with whatever OS happens to be on the various volumes.
Click to expand...
I usually rename mine something descriptive like “166Main SSD” or “PowerBook HD”. That way if I mount a few on the network I know what is what instead of having a sea of “Macintosh HD”s :p
 
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scarlett7447 said:
Not only on the box. I have a 400 MHz PCI and the label on the back of the machine also says "Power Macintosh G4", Mac OS 9 reports it as "Power Mac G4 (PCI Graphics)". I think the early 1999 AGP models also have the same label but I'll have to double check mine because I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

The earliest G4s were brought to sale 31 August 1999; anything earlier from that year was the blue & white “Power Macintosh G3”. That you have a 400MHz PCI Yikes! model means yours was manufactured prior to the second week of October, as your unit’s serial will reveal.
 
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B S Magnet said:
The earliest G4s were brought to sale 31 August 1999; anything earlier from that year was the blue & white “Power Macintosh G3”. That you have a 400MHz PCI Yikes! model means yours was manufactured prior to the second week of October, as your unit’s serial will reveal.
Click to expand...
Oh I meant that as in early Power Mac G4s because Graphite AGP models were still made in 2000. I didn't mean "Early 1999".
 
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Ok, my mind was blown today. On Ebay, on one of my regular leisurely trawls for interesting stuff, I found a Sawtooth Power Mac G4... only, it wasn't a Power Mac- it was a Power Macintosh!

s-l1600-2.jpg


The plot thickens. It's clearly a Sawtooth, with the Sawtooth-style power button and specs.

Therefore, I think we need to revise our assumptions. To me, it seems that the first batch of G4s, Yikes and Sawtooths, were both called "Power Macintosh". The serial number indicates this one is from week 46 of '99, i.e. November. Based on the specs (DVD-ram, no modem, zip, 450mhz), this was the most expensive G4 at the time- the other two models were a Yikes 350 and a Sawtooth 400 at that stage.

Apple's messy G4 run started with Yikes 400, ST 450 and ST 500, which immediately changed to Yikes 400, ST 400, ST 450 in late August with the speed 'dump' announcement; by October it changed to Yikes 350, ST 400 and ST 450, and in December, it changed to STs 350, 400 and 450; only finally getting the original 400, 450 and 500 models in Feb 2000.

Because they were only out for a mere 3 months, and they were only the higher-spec models, the earliest Sawtooths are actually quite rare.
I had a Sawtooth from Dec 1999, called a "Power Mac". So perhaps the Sawtooths prior to the December revision are called "Power Macintosh" after all.

More evidence will be needed. Still, this is really weird. Apple subtly renamed it's whole product line without any fanfare.

The more I research these early G4 towers, the more complicated it gets... I may have to make a table. The other thing I didn't mention was the corresponding availability of the original Cinema Display and DVI graphite Studio Display. The Cinema Display wasn't available until December 1999 (in limited quantities), and the Studio Display was also not available right on release. Very early G4 Sawtooths didn't even have a DVI port, making them physically incompatible with those digital displays anyway.
I wonder if anyone ordered a DVI Studio Display, only to discover that their G4 didn't have DVI...
 
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mectojic said:
I had a Sawtooth from Dec 1999, called a "Power Mac". So perhaps the Sawtooths prior to the December revision are called "Power Macintosh" after all.
Click to expand...
I have a 450 MHz Sawtooth from December 1999 (it has the upgraded ATI Rage 128 Pro GPU instead of the standard ATI Rage 128) and its sticker says "Power Macintosh G4" (sorry for the bad picture quality):

1 (34).jpg


I also have a second 450 MHz Sawtooth, from January 2000, and on it the sticker already says "Power Mac G4".
 
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Pedro Passamani said:
I have a 450 MHz Sawtooth from December 1999 (it has the upgraded ATI Rage 128 Pro GPU instead of the standard ATI Rage 128) and its sticker says "Power Macintosh G4" (sorry for the bad picture quality):

View attachment 2176109

I also have a second 450 MHz Sawtooth, from January 2000, and on it the sticker already says "Power Mac G4".
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. What's your serial number, if I can ask?

Here's my (originally) 350mhz Sawtooth, named "Power Mac" from last week (week 52) of December. Perhaps Apple tried to transition the name around the turn of the millennium, and my unit is the earliest of that production run?

8645CBED-E41A-4E9E-B34E-9147780C1FE4.jpeg
 
mectojic said:
Apple's messy G4 run started with Yikes 400, ST 450 and ST 500, which immediately changed to Yikes 400, ST 400, ST 450 in late August with the speed 'dump' announcement; by October it changed to Yikes 350, ST 400 and ST 450, and in December, it changed to STs 350, 400 and 450; only finally getting the original 400, 450 and 500 models in Feb 2000.
Click to expand...

There was a discussion about this earlier in the week.
 
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