SSD Upgrade possibilities iMac G4 800mHz

[Berenod]

As you can read in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-g4-800-install-tiger-without-working-dvd-drive.2329974/
I have inherited this nice little iMac.

As the DVD is non working, I decided I was going to take apart the machine and give it a good clean-up, and taking advantage of it being open anyway, to try to upgrade where possible.

Already ordered a PATA DVD, and a 1GB set of PC133 SDRAM (one large and one small stick).

Since I have a few older 60GB SSD's lying around (sata2), I was wondering if I could use them by means of a sata to IDE adapter, and if it would gain me some extra responsiveness.

Obviously random access times wil be (much) better, throughput is someting else, as far as I can research the 2002 800mHz G4 only has a ATA/66 interface, whereas the 2003 models sport ata/100 interfaces (and the faster 7200rpm drives).

So, worth it? The adapters seem to fairly cheap (less the 10€), any difficulties to be expected?

 

[TheShortTimer]

So, worth it?

Definitely worth it!

Even factoring in the bus limitations, you'll still enjoy better performance than an old IDE spinner could ever deliver.

I have SSDs in my iMac, Mini and when I finally stop procrastinating and return to the disassembly, also one in my iBook G3. The difference is noticeable and you'll be shocked at how much the old IDE drive had hampered your iMac G4's capabilities.

The adapters seem to fairly cheap (less the 10€), any difficulties to be expected?

Providing that you buy one with a red PCB, you'll be ok. As an example, here is the Manhattan SATA 300 adapter that I used in my iMac G3 to allow it to interface with a SATA SSD.

Other adapters can be hit and miss where PPC Macs are concerned but the ones with red PCBs use the Marvell 88SA8052 chipset and they're faultless. I also have a couple in my QuickSilver and even installed one inside an external USB HDD enclosure so that it could use SATA drives.

 

[Berenod]

Thanks, good info!
I'll see if I can find a 120GB SSD and one of the red pcb Marvel chipset adapters....

 

[Amethyst1]

Obviously random access times wil be (much) better, throughput is someting else,

The low random access times is what gives you improved responsiveness. And the throughput, while bottlenecked, will still be better than the old spinner’s.

So — go, go, go

 

[Berenod]

Pretty active forum, had to hunt my thread quite far down after just a few days!
Starting to get the bits and pieces in, one by one...
Working IDE dvd (a nec, hopefully it'll get accepted by the iMac) and the Marvel based red pcb sata to ide adapter...

Still waiting on the ram, after that, ready to go!

Any tips on OS?

Tiger, or would that Sorbet Leopard be a viable alternative?

 

[TheShortTimer]

Tiger, or would that Sorbet Leopard be a viable alternative?

I'd go with Tiger but you could have both on the SSD and it'll give you an opportunity to decide which one you prefer the most or see if you enjoy having Sorbet Leopard as an additional choice alongside Tiger.

Some of my PPC Macs are double or even triple booting.

 

[Berenod]

All the bits and pieces have arrived!
Following things have been done:

• Cleaned all the contact surfaces for the cooling (and re-applied some decent cooling paste from Noctua)
• Replaced the Pram battery
• Added 512 mb of memory. I bought a regular 512 and a so-dim 512 stick, but apparently the regular is either faulty or incompatible. So reverted to the original 256 internal stick, with the now added 512 so-dim for a total of 768 mb.
• Replaced the faulty DVD with a second hand (9€) NEC pata drive. Works perfectly.
• Replaced the hard drive with a 120 GB sata SSD (cheapest decent brand I could find, 19€ Apacer, actual speed doesn't matter much with the 66Mb/s ide bus), through a Marvel chipset Sata to PATA adaper (the red PCB thingy).
• Re-assembled the lot after a thorough dust and cob-web removing
• Partitioned into two 60 GB partitions.
• Now instaling Tiger, and when that one is finished I'll stick Sorbet Leopard on the other partition

So far, very happy, total cost (seeing that the iMac itself was a free gift) around 40€...

 

[Amethyst1]

dded 512 mb of memory. I bought a regular 512 and a so-dim 512 stick, but apparently the regular is either faulty or incompatible. So reverted to the original 256 internal stick, with the now added 512 so-dim for a total of 768 mb.

I'd still look into going for 1 GB. Mac OS X loves RAM.

 

[Berenod]

I'd still look into going for 1 GB. Mac OS X loves RAM.

Will do, when I get another 512mb stick!

Right now, it works surprisingly smooth!

 

[TheShortTimer]

Will do, when I get another 512mb stick!

Right now, it works surprisingly smooth!

Congratulations on a job well done.

I'd still look into going for 1 GB. Mac OS X loves RAM.

I agree with @Amethyst1 - RAM can be picked up at bargain prices for old computers (or in many cases given away by people who have no use for them) so it's definitely worth going for the maximum amount available. You can never have too much RAM.

 

[Dronecatcher]

RAM can be picked up at bargain prices for old computers

I must be looking in the wrong place - I've never bought cheap retro memory!

 

[Berenod]

I must be looking in the wrong place - I've never bought cheap retro memory!

Here in Europe, if you want it fast you buy it on Ebay, for the 512mb pc133 they charge roughly 12€ to 15€ plus a bit for the shipping. Just look very carefull you're not buying ECC, loads of them around from (very) old servers!

If you look around on the local 2nd hand sites, anywhere between free and a few euro's, but it might take a while before you find them.

In my case on the old retro stuff, I see stuff passing by, thinking "why on earth would I need that for", not buying it, and then actually needing it a few weeks/months later and having a hard time finding it, kicking myself in the but for not buying it before

 

[Berenod]

And heck, for being als old and as small as those little transparant ball "pro speakers" are, they do sound pretty good!

After I installed Tiger, on first boot you get that intro with some fancy graphics and music, back in those days, that must have really been a kicker!

Today we're all way too spoiled

 

[Berenod]

And a happy birthday to my machine!
Give or take a few days, it has just celebrated its 20th birthday (released on january 7th, 2002)

 

[Dronecatcher]

Here in Europe, if you want it fast you buy it on Ebay, for the 512mb pc133 they charge roughly 12€ to 15€ plus a bit for the shipping. Just look very carefull you're not buying ECC, loads of them around from (very) old servers!

Yes, you can get lucky sometimes.

Just checked ebay - lowest price to top up my Sawtooth (3X512Mb PC100) - £60!

 

[Dronecatcher]

And heck, for being als old and as small as those little transparant ball "pro speakers" are, they do sound pretty good!

I had a G4 iMac when they were new and yes, those speakers sounded amazing - in fact the whole experience of unpacking that Mac was incredible

 

[TheShortTimer]

I must be looking in the wrong place - I've never bought cheap retro memory!

Really? I've always gotten lucky on eBay UK. I particularly like pre-owned Crucial RAM because of the lifetime guarantee: I bought a used 1GB Crucial branded module for my P4 and it failed after a year. I contacted Crucial's customer services dept and they arranged an RMA. Within a week I received a replacement.

Even better, I managed to load up my Sawtooth with 1.5 GB RAM that was largely obtained for free courtesy of checking Freecycle. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on your local groups because it's amazing what goodies are to be found on there with a bit of patience and persistence.

A very kind member gave me a fully working Amstrad CPC 464 with the monitor, games and even the manual.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Really? I've always gotten lucky on eBay UK. I particularly like pre-owned Crucial RAM because of the lifetime guarantee: I bought a used 1GB Crucial branded module for my P4 and it failed after a year.

It wasn't 99p was it? I bought a 1Gb stick for my eMac from Crucial for £29.95 - I sold it on ebay a few months later and it went for 99p!

 

[Berenod]

Yes, you can get lucky sometimes.

Just checked ebay - lowest price to top up my Sawtooth (3X512Mb PC100) - £60!

Normally the sawtooth also takes PC133 (backwards compatible), and they for some odd reason (supply demand maybe) seem to be cheaper.

Lots of 512mb sticks around the 12-13€/piece available in mainland Europe.

You mention pounds, soo maybe you are UK based?
Buggered by Brexit then, paperwork, import and VAT **** on top nowadays.

I used to souce a lot of spare parts from the UK pre-Brexit, as ther alwats seemed to be a huge supply, now I just skip UK listings straight away.
Did it once, took ages to arrive, customs not agreeing to listed value, ...

 

[Dronecatcher]

Normally the sawtooth also takes PC133 (backwards compatible), and they for some odd reason (supply demand maybe) seem to be cheaper.

3XPC133 - £97.74! Think it's just bad timing

 

[TheShortTimer]

It wasn't 99p was it? I bought a 1Gb stick for my eMac from Crucial for £29.95 - I sold it on ebay a few months later and it went for 99p!

That definitely wasn't me! IIRC I paid around £10 for it.

In my case on the old retro stuff, I see stuff passing by, thinking "why on earth would I need that for", not buying it, and then actually needing it a few weeks/months later and having a hard time finding it, kicking myself in the but for not buying it before

This happened to me with an Amiga 1200 that I saw being sold for £15 GBP and an Atari Falcon that was going for even less. I dismissed them as old hat (I was an Amiga die hard throughout the 90s) and I've regretted that ever since.

I had a G4 iMac when they were new and yes, those speakers sounded amazing - in fact the whole experience of unpacking that Mac was incredible

Likewise for me with my Sawtooth - even though it was second hand, the experience of unpacking and setting it up was quite an event, particularly because my work colleagues were also excited at its arrival.

Normally the sawtooth also takes PC133 (backwards compatible), and they for some odd reason (supply demand maybe) seem to be cheaper.

Yes, I can conform this because I have PC133 RAM in my Sawtooth.

 

[Berenod]

Now doing a fully automatic, over the internet, update from 10.4.6 to 10.4.11

20 years after the machine was released and most people used dial-up as their means to connect the internet.
A 186 MB download must have taken a little while back then

 

[TheShortTimer]

Now doing a fully automatic, over the internet, update from 10.4.6 to 10.4.11

20 years after the machine was released and most people used dial-up as their means to connect the internet.
A 186 MB download must have taken a little while back then

It took me about a week to torrent a 700mb video file via dial-up during that period and that was with the PC left to run continuously till it was completed. I much preferred installing software from the cover CD-ROMs by magazines like Computer Shopper than waiting around for hours or even days for something to download - and that was providing that the download didn't time out or fail because the connection was lost due to noise on the line or some other random occurrence.

I remember one ISP had a fair use policy that limited you to an hourly session of browsing and in order to avoid penalties you were required to disconnect before the 60 minute mark elapsed, then reconnect again for another hour and repeat this ridiculous ritual for as long as you wanted to remain online. It seems almost unbelievable to reflect on that era and the business practices that were imposed upon consumers by ISPs.

 

[Amethyst1]

It seems almost unbelievable to reflect on that era and the business practices that were imposed upon consumers by ISPs.

Before I got 1 mbps broadband in 2004, I had 42 kbps via dial-up… which meant even a one-megabyte download was a matter of several minutes. And 9.6 kbps dial-up on the road… via an infrared-tethered Nokia 8210. “GPRS? What’s that?”

 

[Berenod]

Remember it all too well!

I'm getting to be a relic myself

As a little hint (and totally off-topic), in the pic my very first computer, given to me by my parents (bless them, has pretty much set my carreer path with that gift).

In my possesion for a tad over 40 years, an hope to be able to leave it in working condition to one of my kids when I get too old to realize what the thing is