I used to think the MDD was, but every time I turn it on, it's so loud that I'm starting to soften to the Quicksilver.
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Which PMG4 Was Actually the Apex?
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The MDD was known as the Windtunnel. Some companies (particularly audio/video companies) sold hush cases for the MDD. But aside from that, yes it's the pinnacle. The noise it makes is irrelevant.
The MDD is the closest you are going to get to the tech level of the G5. The cooling inside the case is better, it's more expandable and it had faster CPUs.
I have a Quicksilver. It's limited to 1.5GB ram, while all the other G4s had 2GB. I did everything I could to that QS to make it outperform a low end G5 and it did. But only as long as I managed to keep it running. The thermal design inside the case is bad. You cannot load up every PCI slot, slot in a 1.8Ghz Dual G4 CPU (Sonnet Duet) and add drives and other things without the Mac melting down. The QS will either consistently freeze or start eating PCI cards.
If you want to run the QS with the door open that might keep it running if you have everything I had. But who knows. I had a cat and I wanted the door closed.
Great Mac the Quicksilver. Not the pinnacle.
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Early 2003 (FW 800) had dual 1.42 GHz but CPU upgrades exist to go beyond that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4
Later G4 Macs had newer versions of Open Firmware but that doesn't affect performance much (except for support of GPUs with more VRAM which you can add to older Macs with a nvramrc script).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4
Later G4 Macs had newer versions of Open Firmware but that doesn't affect performance much (except for support of GPUs with more VRAM which you can add to older Macs with a nvramrc script).
Code:
Mac OF version ATY,Fcode versions BAR support Notes
TNT Development A5c1 Open Firmware, 0.992j 128MB BAR support
7500,9500,8600,9600,Power Tower Pro, etc. Open Firmware, 1.0.5 128MB BAR support 256MB requires Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X nvramrc patches (see PowerSurge.of of joevt/XPostFacto for documentation of patches)
Power Mac 5400,6400 Open Firmware, 2.0 256MB BAR support
Beige G3 Desktop Open Firmware, 2.0f1 1.49, 1.49 256MB BAR support
Beige G3 Minitower Open Firmware, 2.0f1 1.49, 1.53 256MB BAR support
PowerBook G3 Wallstreet Open Firmware, 2.0.1 1.54 256MB BAR support
PowerBook G3 Wallstreet PDQ Open Firmware, 2.0.1 1.54, 1.59 256MB BAR support
Power Mac 4400 and 7220, Motorola StarMax Open Firmware, 2.0.2 APL-1.0b33 256MB BAR support
Power Mac 6500,TAM Open Firmware, 2.0.3 APL-1.0b33 256MB BAR support
Power Express Open Firmware 2.0a9 256MB BAR support
Power Express Open Firmware 2.3 256MB BAR support
Beige G3 (v3) Open Firmware, 2.4 1.49, 1.53 256MB BAR support
Power Mac G3 (Blue & White) OpenFirmware 3.1.1 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac1,1 1.1f4 BootROM built on 04/09/99 at 13:57:32
Power Mac G4 (PCI Graphics) Yikes OpenFirmware 3 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac1,2
iMac OpenFirmware 3 1.69, 1.73, 1.77 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac2,1 4.1.9f1 BootROM built on 09/14/01 at 13:18:04
Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) Sawtooth OpenFirmware 3 1.69, 1.73, 1.77 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac3,1 4.2.8f1 BootROM built on 10/11/01 at 14:12:47
Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) OpenFirmware 3 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac3,3 4.2.8f1 BootROM built on 10/11/01 at 14:12:47
Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio) OpenFirmware 3 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac3,4 4.2.8f1 BootROM built on 10/11/01 at 14:12:47
Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver) OpenFirmware 3 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac3,5 4.2.3f1 BootROM built on 08/01/01 at 11:14:42
OpenFirmware 3 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac3,5 4.2.5f1 BootROM built on 08/16/01 at 22:19:35
Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) OpenFirmware 3 1.73, 1.77, 1.83, 1.86 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac3,6 4.4.8f2 BootROM built on 09/30/02 at 10:24:31
Power Mac G4 (FW 800) OpenFirmware 3 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac3,6 4.6.0f1 BootROM built on 02/20/03 at 13:52:27
Power Mac G5 1.6 (PCI) OpenFirmware 4 256MB BAR support Apple PowerMac7,2 5.1.5f2 BootROM built on 09/21/04 at 11:58:53
Power Mac G5 1.8 (PCI-X) OpenFirmware 4 Apple PowerMac7,2
Power Mac G5 2.0 DP (PCI-X) OpenFirmware 4 Apple PowerMac7,2
Power Mac G5 1.8 DP (PCI-X) OpenFirmware 4 Apple PowerMac7,2
iBook G4 OpenFirmware 3 1.94 512MB BAR support Apple PowerBook6,5 4.8.7f1 BootROM built on 09/23/04 at 16:13:38
Power Mac G5 ? (one of the following 3) OpenFirmware 4 Apple PowerMac7,3 5.1.8f7 BootROM built on 10/26/04 at 16:30:32
Power Mac G5 1.8 DP (PCI) OpenFirmware 4 Apple PowerMac7,3
Power Mac G5 2.0 DP (PCI-X 2) OpenFirmware 4 Apple PowerMac7,3
Power Mac G5 2.5 DP (PCI-X) OpenFirmware 4 Apple PowerMac7,3
PowerBook G4 15 inch Early 2005 A1106 OpenFirmware 3 Apple PowerBook5,6 4.9.1f1 BootROM built on 01/21/05 at 10:51:16
Mac mini G4 OpenFirmware 3 1.95 512MB BAR support Apple PowerMac10,1 4.8.9f4 BootROM built on 03/23/05 at 14:22:23
PowerBook G4 DLSD OpenFirmware 3 1.95 512MB BAR support Apple PowerBook5,8 4.9.5f3 BootROM built on 09/22/05 at 16:17:32 ; allocates BARs by descending size when 512MB BAR exists
Power Mac G5 Quad OpenFirmware 4 512MB BAR support Apple PowerMac11,2 5.2.7f1 BootROM built on 09/30/05 at 15:31:03 ; allocates BARs by descending size when 512MB BAR exists
PowerBook ? OpenFirmware 3 Apple PowerBook5,9 4.9.6f0 BootROM built on 10/05/05 at 16:45:50
It’s all subjective. My MDD is louder than my QS. I think of my G4 PMs the quietest is my Graphite. Also its hum/resonance is very pleasing/calming. Something about it is just so nice sounding. If I didn’t have to talk to people all day, I’d record that hum and listen to it all day long with some over-ear headphones. 
Yes, MDD is the pinnacle of G4 Powermacs.
Yes, MDD is the pinnacle of G4 Powermacs.
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I have a 2x1.25 GHz MDD...
and a 2x1.0 GHz QS...
and a 1x733 Digital Audio...
and a 1x450 G4 Cube
and a 1x350 B&W G3.
I guess you could say that when it comes to collecting machines, I'm a PowerMac guy. Only an iMac which was my parents before they upgraded, I otherwise don't have the space.
The MDD rip-roars wrt performance. I love it. I just don't love its sound. My B&W G3 is the quietest of all, it seems. Digital Audio coming in second. G4 Cube only seems to perform well under MacOS 9 and 10.2, seems to straight up choke with Tiger.
and a 2x1.0 GHz QS...
and a 1x733 Digital Audio...
and a 1x450 G4 Cube
and a 1x350 B&W G3.
I guess you could say that when it comes to collecting machines, I'm a PowerMac guy. Only an iMac which was my parents before they upgraded, I otherwise don't have the space.
The MDD rip-roars wrt performance. I love it. I just don't love its sound. My B&W G3 is the quietest of all, it seems. Digital Audio coming in second. G4 Cube only seems to perform well under MacOS 9 and 10.2, seems to straight up choke with Tiger.
Mine seems softer sounding, but I have some repair work/parts replacement to do on it before I can actually use it.My QS sounds as equally noisy as the MDD.
I didn't realize that the AGP and GigE PMG4s supported 2 GB RAM, then the Cube and QS models backed down to 1.5 GBs.
Honestly the best of the Graphite towers was definitely the GigE revision. Most of the machines had dual proc's, then came the Digital Audios and they made all of them single proc's again.
GigE feels like a machine they cared about and wanted to make sure it'd run Mac OS X really, really well by taking advantage of the multi-processor capabilities.
What is interesting to me on this topic of “noise” is the loudness (decibels) vs hum (frequency). I find them all loud in that their fan compliment are all completely noticeable (even a B&W). That doesn’t bother me at all as I grew up with loud case fans (gen Xer) so it’s not like a gen Zer going from a quiet M1 MacBook or iPad to one of these comparatively crazy noisy powermac boxes and commenting on it from that perspective norm. For me it is about the frequency they make. It can be calming and pleasant all the way to grating in scope. Since fan noise was a thing and wasn’t going away with this gen box, it was for me more about how the fan hum was perceived; its quality (or lack there of) - was it calming, pleasant & complimentary to the PC desktop experience or not so much? Of the PPC Powermac boxes I own, my ranking on hum/frequency is:
PMG4 graphite GigE
PMG4 Quicksilver
PMG3 B&W
PMG5 DC 2ghz/Dual CPU 2ghz
PMG4 MDD
PMG4 graphite GigE
PMG4 Quicksilver
PMG3 B&W
PMG5 DC 2ghz/Dual CPU 2ghz
PMG4 MDD
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Same. Born 1970.
First PC was in 1990, a homebuilt 286 I got from a local SysOp. During that time it was customary to figure out if your PC had frozen or not by listening for hard drive activity. Hard drives were noisy too. Between that and the LED activity you could tell if a long install was progressing or not.
As many here know, I do not shut down my computers. That goes all the way back to that first PC. It was also never off. And probably my C64 and C128 before that. I just turned off monitors. So, a 'loud' computer was always on and running in my room. Except for particularly annoying fans, I've never minded this stuff. I have Tinnitus so some of it actually serves as white noise.
Take that as you will though. I'm a guy who believes that the sound of propellers, turboprop engines and jet engines is the greatest music ever made.
PS. One of my hardest adjustments to converting to Mac was no LED for the hard drive and almost silent hard drives (although the latter is not exclusive to Mac).
What about the sonic booms, though? 😋Take that as you will though. I'm a guy who believes that the sound of propellers, turboprop engines and jet engines is the greatest music ever made.
Also it sounds like I need to pop open the PSU, put quieter fans in it, and show some more respect for my MDD
LOL!!!!
If you're making a sonic boom on a DC-3, a C-130 or a 747 you probably have greater problems to deal with than the noise from a G4 MDD. Like pulling out of that 90º full power straight down dive, 'cause that's the only way these aircraft are ever going supersonic, LOL!
i must be in a minority, because my mdd makes almost no noise. it's infinitely quiter than the g5's ive used.
You can replace all the fans in the MDD with ones that have the same CFM, but are much quieter. A lot of people used Noctua fans for that.
Is your MDD second hand? Or did you buy it new? If second hand, it's possible that the fans were replaced before you acquired it.
I like the Gigabit Ethernet. Dual CPU guaranteed, 2GB RAM, pretty wide assortment of Mac OS versions and generally supports everything else just fine, can use the Radeon 9800 Pro. I don't know how well it handles a 133 bus, but I plan on finding out. 100 is just fine regardless, and faster CPUs and a good SATA card are bigger performance enhancers.
We didn't pop into existence as 20 year olds in 2019, we had our fair share in the form of hand-me-downs and family computers for the older members. My first PC was probably from 1999 and ran Windows 2000; after that, I had one from 2003ish with the only major upgrade being a 7650 GT that I used into 2014. On the other hand, a lot of Millennials haven't looked back, and forgot what this stuff is really like.
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There was a factory dual DA-it was a dual 533.
I put together a collection at one point(still have it, albeit in storage) of a factory version of every CPU speed DA tower. The 466 and single 533 are by far and away the most common, and the higher spec ones(dual 533, single 667, single 733) are a bit more of a challenge. Interestingly enough too, the dual 533 and the faster singles have a separate CPU fan. It's in the same location as you'd find the one on the Quicksilver, but is attached to the heatsink and IIRC is powered from a header on the CPU card. There's a plastic cover that fits over the entire heatsink to direct air flow.
Despite the lower RAM amount and most being single CPUs, there's still a lot that perks up the DA over the earlier ones. The 133mhz system bus makes everything speedier, and they also have a 4x AGP slot. The latter in particular opens up a lot more GPU options. The DA really has more in common with the Quicksilver than the earlier G4 towers.
BTW, if you check system profiler for the DA and QS you would see that the 4th RAM slot "exists" but of course there's no actual place to put the RAM. I seem to vaguely recall(it's quite literally been years since I looked at one) that there's a spot on the LoBo where it looks like there could be a 4th RAM socket. I've often wondered if it would be possible to install one there. @dosdude1 is that something you've ever looked at/experimented with? I'm guess there's a reason why Apple went to the trouble of "creating" the slot on the board and then not fitting it, but I don't know why.