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What is happening with Mac mini G4 pricing?
- Thread starter WindowsXPuser
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I'm not getting any mouse lockups, it was strange to hear that. Now I understand that I installed the latest MacOS9Lives version.
I bought mine for 50 euros without shipping one year ago, it is the 1.5Ghz 1Gb 120Gb model. Now I'm buying a second one for 69 euros (shipping included), this time a 1.42Ghz but with the original box and CDs.
I'm sure that their price will increase as they are one small option to run Mac OS 9 but I can not see how they could be sold higher than 150 euros, you can find many other alternatives to run Mac OS 9.
I love them because they are easy to store.
I do wonder how this will play out price-wise. Is this the new cube? I got my Mac Mini G4 in 2019 for less then 50 $ shipped, pretty much everything PPC has been done on it specifically. The GPU can max out any OS 9 game. It's one of the fastest G4s sold by Apple, and it was cheap back then. Now I'm not sure if now is the time to buy to have a set of spare parts or what.
I'm sure that now it's the time to get additional ones. I don't know if prices will increase dramatically but paying around 60-70$ for one seems like a reasonable price for me.
I prefered the Mini for practical reason, Cube is a different story. Now I'm trying to buy a iMac G4 15" 700Mhz, it makes no senses as the mini covers every possible use but the Cube and the iLamp are iconical.
I would compare the Mini to the NES Mini, SNES Mini and the rest of Mini consoles/PCS, indeed the Mac Mini is much better as you are getting the real thing for Mac OS 9.
Here in Turkey, the Mac mini G4s sell for peanuts. Mac mini 1103 in working condition w. Power Supply & various accessories sells for 200 Turkish Liras which is USD 12.00 The only flaw seems to be the unfitted aluminum cover at the backside, a common occurrence for the Polycarbonate Mac minis.
Seems to me like whoever opened this up in the first place was a little too scared to snap it back together afterwards or was too cackhanded to align it properly so that it would go in all the way. The aluminium top casing is relatively thick so shouldn't deform unless you took a hammer to it. There should be no problems in getting the bottom case to snap back in.
That price is a reminder of a couple of years ago when a chainstore of second hand electronics here in the UK were selling these for £25 max. I think it has more to do with the relative weakness of the Turkish Lira right now. 200TL probably was closer to £50-£60 not that long ago.
I am not able to close properly the Mini G4s. Mine are closed but somehow the back is not fully aligned, however I have no problems with Intel models (2006,2007 or 2009).
My little Mini G4 runs OS 9 amazingly well. Never had a single mouse lockup and the sound issue was solved by plugging in an M-Audio Transit I found online for $10. I upgraded the RAM to 1 GB and also installed an SSD. It runs OS 9 faster than any machine I’ve ever used.
My Mac mini G4 runs OS 9 quite well too. It even runs the built-in Bluetooth which I didn't expect. I didn't need to plug in any external sound card because it is the 1.25Ghz version.
Do the sound issues only occur on the 1.5GHz Mac Mini G4s? I have three silent upgrade models and I could never get sound working on them, not even with a supported OS9 sound card. I found a good deal on a 1.42 GHz Mac Mini G4 and I'm deciding whether or not it is worth buying (price is 30€). I'd intend to use it for OS9 so my questions is if sound is an issue with the 1.42 GHz models as well?
Yes it is reported that the sound issues on OS 9 only occur on the 1.5GHz models. My Mac mini is originally 1.25GHz but I modified it to 1.5GHz and installed a Mezzanine board with Bluetooth + AP Express module on it so it became very much like the factory-release 1.5GHz model. It's reported that the factory-release 1.5Ghz models have an audio card which is different than the 1.25GHz ones and that they are incompatible with the OS 9. More info: Mac OS 9 booting on: Mac mini G4 The only issue with the 1.25GHz is that the built-in speaker inside doesn't give sound. I have to use the headphone jack or connect an external USB powered speakers like Logitech Z205.
Thanks for the link. I've already read a lot on the MacOS9Lives forums but I really couldn't find a definitive answer. Do you perhaps know if sound works on the non-upgraded 1.42 GHz Mac Minis? Otherwise I'd have to look out for a 1.25 GHz as well since no sound is a deal breaker for me. Thanks!
My 1.42 had sound issues. Never could get system sounds working and sounds from the headphone jack were way too loud. Installing the M-Audio Transit and the drivers off of MacOS9Lives solved the problem entirely. Now everything sound related works. If you’re curious about which model of the sound card works here’s one on eBay.
M-Audio Transit Portable USB Interface | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for M-Audio Transit Portable USB Interface at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Because the 1.42 GHz was released simultaneously with the 1.25 GHz ones, it must have the same internal audio card as the 1.25 GHz and so its audio should work as good as the 1.25 GHz.
That being said, the sound level from the headphone jack is way too high by default that is, you have to turn the volume down at iTunes if you're using a speaker system without a volume knob. Otherwise even at half the volume at iTunes the sound gets way too high. @Todd H said for it "the headphone jack was way too loud" I wouldn't call it too loud but rather say just too high because the sound isn't distorted. If the speaker system has a volume knob then you wouldn't even notice that problem of volume being too high.
That being said, the sound level from the headphone jack is way too high by default that is, you have to turn the volume down at iTunes if you're using a speaker system without a volume knob. Otherwise even at half the volume at iTunes the sound gets way too high. @Todd H said for it "the headphone jack was way too loud" I wouldn't call it too loud but rather say just too high because the sound isn't distorted. If the speaker system has a volume knob then you wouldn't even notice that problem of volume being too high.
I have a G4 1.5 and I use the M-Audio Audiophile USB as I get no sound at all from the Mini otherwise. Now I have another G4, a 1.42 and I will try MacOS9 in this unit, I will update the info.
Going back to the initial topic of this post, I have tried to find G4s in ebay.es without any luck. Here in Spain you can find them in other platforms but not in ebay. Now I have two units so for me is more than enough unless I find a real bargain.
Oh that for MacOS9 is tempting, because I'd love to try some music stuff on a 9 but my clamshell iBook absolutely can't handle that sort of stuff.
Can you install OS 9 and OS X side by side on these? What's the hard drive size limit?
That price thing is definitely some insane eBay thing again... I was just looking at these Minis from a local online sales site by chance, and they're around 40-80€ per piece.
Can you install OS 9 and OS X side by side on these? What's the hard drive size limit?
That price thing is definitely some insane eBay thing again... I was just looking at these Minis from a local online sales site by chance, and they're around 40-80€ per piece.
YES. You can install the OS 9... and OS X “side-by-side” IF you multi-partition your HD / SSD and place each OS on a separate partition. Currently, I do have one G4 Mini with a 1 TB SSD installed. (I did multi-partition that for certain.) http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,5955.msg44517.html#msg44517 You might want to read through that entire thread.
As for music… depends upon what your actual end-goal software or DAW tasks might be. (No PCI slots in a Mini.)
As for music… depends upon what your actual end-goal software or DAW tasks might be. (No PCI slots in a Mini.)
Thanks! I just recall that there's some hard drive size limit for OS9, isn't there? Although, it's quite a challenge to even fill up with software alone.YES. You can install the OS 9... and OS X “side-by-side” IF you multi-partition your HD / SSD and place each OS on a separate partition.
As for music… depends upon what your actual end-goal software or DAW tasks might be. (No PCI slots in a Mini.)
Yeah no need for PCI slots, but USB 2.0 for a keyboard, Firewire for an audio interface and a jack output would suffice. I'd still do the actual heavy lifting on my main machine. Thinking about the Mini because my 1Ghz iMac G4 is so-so for GarageBand – so much so that I rarely want to set up the keyboard for it.
Yes you can install OS 9 & OS X on the same HDD. I installed OS 9, 10.5.8 and 10.5.9, three of them onto a 160GB Seagate Momentus IDE HDD. But there is one detail which you'd better consider: You should first install the OS 9 and then the OS Xes because the OS 9 installation wizard brings all partitions up and asks which partition to install. After you start the OS 9 installation wizard, it erases the other partitions which means that if you had installed some OS X onto any partition, it is deleted. Actually that is what I experienced as I attempted to install multiple OSes onto HDD. I first CarbonCopyCloned 10.5.8 into the first, 10.5.9 into the second partition and then tried to install OS 9 onto the 3rd partition, and then the OS 9 wizard erased the 1st and 2nd partitions and I had to CCC the OS Xes all over again.
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I have a 22.5GB 9.2 partition on my iBook G3, and 15 of those are completely free. 8GB should probably be a reasonable OS 9 partition size if you aren't using it as a DAW or a video editing machine.
However, I see that you are, so I'd probably go for 64GB+ or get a firewire hard drive.