Whats left to do on my G4?

[Intell]

Lots of useful info on this post. Thanks guys

Without wanting to hijack this thread will the dual 1GHz from a Quicksilver work on a dual g4 450 MHZ mystic?

Yes, the only CPUs that are not cross model swappable are the Mirrored Drive Door ones and I think the PCI PowerMac G4 ones.

 

[Lil Chillbil]

Ok So I installed a 5400rpm 120gb hard drive and a led cooling fan that glows blue and looks cool at night. Then I overclocked it using that software hack that I found in an older thread of this forum got it up to 533mhz processor. Think that thread was called "I just software overclocked my g4" or something like that. Finaly I bought a radeon 7000 32mb video card that runs youtube great in 240p. But anyway I bought a duel core 2ghz stock specs g5 tower for $100 that I also want to pimp out and get up to max specs. so i'm dropping the g4 summer plans in favor of a much greater outcome with the g5. This g4 will still serve me as my main music hub and text/photo editor.

Any advice for the g5 will be appreciated

 

[Intell]

You mean the thread where the person says he/she overclocked it but really just changed the values the firmware reports to Mac OS X? You can't overclock an OEM G3/G4/G5 via software, only by resoldering the tiny jumpers.

 

[Lil Chillbil]

yes that thread
and yes I know that I just did that so I feel like its faster

 

[macuser453787]

yes that thread
and yes I know that I just did that so I feel like its faster

LOL that is funny! If you ever decide to go all the way with upgrading the G4 then a CPU upgrade will easily allow you to run Leopard on it - no need to step down to Jaguar Panther etc. unless you just want to for some reason. I run 10.5.8 on mine no problem with only 1.5GB RAM (though would REALLY like to find some kind of workaround that would allow the machine to recognize more than 1.5GB). Hmmmm...

 

[Lil Chillbil]

its like painting a smart car like the dukes of hazzard it may not go faster
but it looks faster

 

[Litany]

You don't need to use an ide drive. There are sata to ide adapters available

So? You're still limited to 128GB either way.

 

[Ariii]

Taylor i used to own a similar machine,and panther run's better then jaguar...however as both have outdated web browsers (could run camino 1.6 on panther) but still to many page errors ect....i would suggest if Lil plans on using as internet browsing machine,to run mac os 9.2 and use classilla...

I don't know... Opera kept it pretty well updated . I've ran Classilla in Classic Environment from Puma, and it wasn't buggy at all. And if you use WPA or any other encryption other than WEP, you won't have any way at all to make that work. Linux is also a pretty good option. You could also try Debian maybe, and I'd recommend installing FVWM as your window manager. I do that on my clamshell iBook and it can run with no lag whatsoever on 366 MHz and 192 MB of RAM, so your PowerMac G4 can almost definitely handle it.

 

[Lil Chillbil]

Ok guys I just installed a usb 2.0 card in one of the pci slots. 2 external slots 1
internal usb port. I stuck a 8gig flash drive in the internal slot and i'm using it as like a 2nd small hard drive for pictures.

 

[Cox Orange]

Why is everyone suggesting lower OS than Tiger?

I ran Tiger on my iMac G3 400MHz, 1GB RAM just well and Browser wise... there are alternatives like TenFourFox, Camino and others, that are still updated.
Why do you recommend expensive upgrades, where it seems he will be using it for light stuff? I do not suspect, he means big photo editing, when he is talking about using it for photos, or are you, Little Chilling Bill?

Where the heck does somebody find a 128GB IDE hard drive anymore?

- Ebay is flooded by IDE drives from 1GB-500GB (only existing 750GB IDE Drive is a Seagate that goes for 50-90EUR). 120GB or 160GB IDE drives are not that expensive. 120GB SATA-Drives are cheaper, but with the adapter the price is nearly the same...

@ Intell:
are you sure a Quicksilver FSB133 CPU will fit in a AGP G4 with an FSB of 100MHz? I thought I remember only AGP and Gigabit go together as well as G3 and G4-PCI and there was someone who managed to get a quicksilver CPU running in an D/A, but he did with soldering.

 

[Intell]

Are you sure a Quicksilver FSB133 CPU will fit in a AGP G4 with an FSB of 100MHz? I thought I remember only AGP and Gigabit go together as well as G3 and G4-PCI and there was someone who managed to get a quicksilver CPU running in an D/A, but he did with soldering.

About 90% sure. Never tired it myself, but others have. The only thing is the CPU speed may not be what it is rated for because it'll be on a slower fbus or you can change the multipler on the card to make it run with a 100Mhz fbus or change the Sawtooth to run with a 128Mhz fbus (133Mhz is unstable) with faster ram. You'll also have to move one of the IDE connectors on the board because the CPU is bigger then the Sawtooth's. You'll also have to provide it with a 12v rail, as the Sawtooth's connection lacks it.

 

[Lil Chillbil]

I don't do anything big I just import photos from my quicktake 200 and edit them to make them funny just for kicks

 

[Lil Chillbil]

Ok guys I finally got my g5 tower for only 100 bucks
everything on it is stock and out dated even by g4 standards and I only got the tower and the power cable
The Starting specs for this upgrade are
duel-2ghz PowerPC G5 processor
512mb ram
Radeon 9600 pro
250gb 5400rpm hard drive
10.3.2
DVD reader drive

 

[Cox Orange]

About 90% sure. Never tired it myself, but others have. The only thing is the CPU speed may not be what it is rated for because it'll be on a slower fbus or you can change the multipler on the card to make it run with a 100Mhz fbus or change the Sawtooth to run with a 128Mhz fbus (133Mhz is unstable) with faster ram. You'll also have to move one of the IDE connectors on the board because the CPU is bigger then the Sawtooth's. You'll also have to provide it with a 12v rail, as the Sawtooth's connection lacks it.

Ah, ok, thanks.
that 12v rail thing was what I was remembering dim...

... out dated even by g4 standards ...

Not wanting to say much more on this subject, but one last reply. If you add just about 4GB of RAM, this G5 as it is now is fully sufficient for your needs. But if you want to do it for fun and your own enjoyment of modding things, then you can of cause upgrade it still...

 

[Lil Chillbil]

So I just did the following
installed 2.5gbs of ram and got it up to 3gigs total
ran a laser eye cleaning disk in the dvd drive for a few minutes
wiped the hard drive
did a clean install of Tiger
installed a 80gb slave drive
installed microsoft office 2004
updated to the latest software versions

its running great but i'm still using my g4 as my main until
the upgrades finish later this summer

 

[Lil Chillbil]

Ok so Now the specs are
2ghz duel core powerpc g5
3gb Ram
duel 500gb Hard drives each 7400rpm
Radeon 9600 graphics card
os X 10.4.11

This upgrades coming along great

 

[laptoplover2]

I recently bought a g4 tower
400mhz powerpc g4
10gb hardrive
16mb video card
64 mb ram
cd drive
zip drive
os 9.2.2

I bought some stuff and I upgraded the specs up to
400mhz powerpc g4
80gb harddrive
16mb video card
2gb ram
dvd burner drive
zip drive
os x 10.4.11
I also bought it a 17" studio display monitor apple keyboard and mouse
10 100mb zip disks and a external 3.5 inch floppy drive with 50 1mb disks

so I want to know what else I should upgrade this summer

You live around here? You can have my 15 inch apple studio display, i have no computer for it.
It's looking good so far, I doubt you could upgrade the CPU but if you were to somehow, like maybe by getting the motherboard of a new PowerMac G4 in there, that might help make it a bit snappier. Use OmniWeb as your browser, the latest version is compatible with Tiger, it's still very fast, uses plugins, and very customizable. You can get a later version of Flash Player on it that's not officially supported on Tiger but still works flawlessly here, http://macpowerpc.com/2013/01/30/adobe-flash-11-5-for-powerpc/

 

[rabidz7]

It's doable, but for the money you'd spend on extra cooling, you could purchase a used dual processor G4. They go pretty cheap on eBay. Here's a link to a dual 1GHz from a Quicksilver for $30. You'd need to purchase a heat sync as well. I know on OWC's website, they sell CPU upgrades that are compatible with a Sawtooth, Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Audio, and Quicksilver...so I know the Dual G4 from eBay can physically fit in your Sawtooth. I'd just wait and see if anyone else on here can verify a Dual 1GHz from a Quicksilver will function properly in a Sawtooth.

An apple manufactured G4 over 667MHz will not work in a sawtooth.

 

[Intell]

An apple manufactured G4 over 667MHz will not work in a sawtooth.

Yes it will, it just needs a 12v rail on one of the screw pins.

 

[Swampus]

An apple manufactured G4 over 667MHz will not work in a sawtooth.

Not exactly true. They're not plug & play, but you can do it. You need to supply 12V DC and adjust the bus timing ratio to match the Sawtooth's 100MHz bus and possibly remove your ATA 33 connector, but it can be done.

Edit: A Digital Audio module would not require the 12V feed, but a Quicksilver module would need it.

 

[Lil Chillbil]

You live around here? You can have my 15 inch apple studio display, i have no computer for it.
It's looking good so far, I doubt you could upgrade the CPU but if you were to somehow, like maybe by getting the motherboard of a new PowerMac G4 in there, that might help make it a bit snappier. Use OmniWeb as your browser, the latest version is compatible with Tiger, it's still very fast, uses plugins, and very customizable. You can get a later version of Flash Player on it that's not officially supported on Tiger but still works flawlessly here, http://macpowerpc.com/2013/01/30/adobe-flash-11-5-for-powerpc/

pm'ed you... but man was this a blast from 1st thread past

 

[rabidz7]

Yes it will, it just needs a 12v rail on one of the screw pins.

And to remove an ATA connector!

 

[Intell]

And to remove an ATA connector!

That isn't a requirement, just a recommendation.

 

[Swampus]

That isn't a requirement, just a recommendation.

Aye. Though tedious, it's possible to remove the plastic part of the connector and carefully bend the pins in such a way to accommodate both the daughter-card and use of the motherboard ATA33.

 

[666sheep]

^^^It's also possible to solder it on underside of the board. PITA, but doable.

That isn't a requirement, just a recommendation.

For QS CPUs it's more like a requirement. Daughtercard is too big to fit without removing connector. QS CPU also requires QS heatsink, QS heatsink requires case modding (or heatsink modding) and so on.