Bought a PowerMac G4

So I bought a PowerMac G4 off of a lady today for $55. I thought it would be a neat little machine to play around with as I have never really owned a mac before.

I just had a couple questions for some of you more knowledgeable users. She didn't have any of the disks or cables that came with the computer. The cables aren't a problem (I have tons lying around), but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything vital with the disks.

I'm also considering upgrading it a bit to make it a touch faster (it's the 400MHz model with 256MB ram. I already purchased a gig of ram for it, but was considering upgrading the processor as well. The problem is, I'm having a heck of a time finding a processor from a website that I trust enough to buy from. I was thinking I'd like to put in a 1.42GHz dual core processor, but like I said I can't find one anywhere. Any ideas on this?

I also would like to put 10.4 Tiger (I think it's called) on it, as I've heard leopard doesn't run too smoothly on these guys. Am I able to just buy one of those $30 upgrade disks and use them? Or am I stuck spending $120 from Amazon to buy the full dvd?

If you are just interesting in trying out the operating system here and there, I would just stick with the current specs. you're going to end up spending much more than the machine is worth to get it working 'ok'. those specs are fine for just going through the OS and getting a feel for it. If you're serious about learning mac, I would highly suggest finding any intel mac so you can do snow leopard. lion will require a dual core cpu, mind you.

pm me about the os disks.

Picking up an old G4 was what get me started on Macs. You can find dual-processor modules on ebay, but it has to be from the same family, the fastest one for your generation of G4 will be ~450 Hz. Be sure to get the dual-version heatsink, if you upgrade the chip module. Gave this one to friend's daughter.

I later bought a MDD (mirror drive door) single core, and upgraded it to duals. It could hang OK surfing, with Opera. Was loud as heck.

If you like the OS X experience, my advice is to save and buy a used Macbook or 20" iMac, with intel chip.

Exactly, there are many different generations of G4 processors, and it sounds like you have one of the earlier ones. That 1.4GHz CPU you wanted may not work. Find what generation it is and then see what the max specs are.

No RISC, no reward.

The AGP PowerMac G4 goes up to 500MHz and the PCI PowerMac G4 goes up to 400MHz according to lowendmac.com.

The faster Sonnet G4 upgrades daughterboards start around $100 on ebay for 800MHz or 1GHz G4 versions if it's compatible with your model. Not worth it IMO.

If you want to run Leopard, just buy a G4 model that's compatible with it. I believe most 866MHz and faster G4 models are compatible.

pxc said:

If you want to run Leopard, just buy a G4 model that's compatible with it. I believe most 866MHz and faster G4 models are compatible.

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I can confirm this, as I still have my very first PowerMac G4, a single-core 867Mhz Quicksilver, at home running 10.5 (and admittedly, given it's age, it runs it fairly well).

Admittedly it's at its max memory capacity (1.5 GB) and has an upgraded graphics card, but still.

ToastyBread said:

Admittedly it's at its max memory capacity (1.5 GB) and has an upgraded graphics card, but still.

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My G4 eMac with 1GB memory runs Leopard pretty well too considering how old it is. Before Apple completely yanked (unofficial via a hack) PPC support from the old Xcode/iOS SDK, I was using it for iPhone development. It was somewhat acceptable.

pxc said:

My G4 eMac with 1GB memory runs Leopard pretty well too considering how old it is. Before Apple completely yanked (unofficial via a hack) PPC support from the old Xcode/iOS SDK, I was using it for iPhone development. It was somewhat acceptable.

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Yeah, it was a sad day (of sorts) when they announced that Snow Leopard wouldn't run on PPC-based systems, but as it stands, I still keep the G4 around and running. The old Quicksilver-style cases are still my all-time favorite Power Mac/Mac Pro case design style.

Plus, I figure with Lion now dropping Rosetta support, it's good to keep something around that can run the occasional old application.

ToastyBread said:

Yeah, it was a sad day (of sorts) when they announced that Snow Leopard wouldn't run on PPC-based systems, but as it stands, I still keep the G4 around and running. The old Quicksilver-style cases are still my all-time favorite Power Mac/Mac Pro case design style.

Plus, I figure with Lion now dropping Rosetta support, it's good to keep something around that can run the occasional old application.

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My fav cases too, the mdd looks like POOH! but the qs's looked dam sexy!

Thanks for the info guys. I ended up finding a 10.4 disk and installed it on the 10gig hdd to test it out and it runs pretty good. I'll probably upgrade to an 80 gig I have lying around sometime here. I also ordered some more ram for it, but I'll probably end up keeping the processor the same as I looked into some of your recommendations and the price just doesn't seem worth it.

Btw, am I able to dabble with some iphone development on this machine running this version of osx?

jeoff_b said:

Btw, am I able to dabble with some iphone development on this machine running this version of osx?

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No. The current iOS SDK requires an Intel Mac running Snow Leopard. Older versions (3.1 IIRC is the last) include most development tools needed to develop iOS apps on PPC Leopard systems, and even run the simulator, via unofficial hacks. Tiger is not supported by the iOS SDK.

There are GNU based tools to make iOS apps, but you need a jailbroken device to install required libraries and your own apps onto it. It's really a pain IMO. That's about the closest you'll get on your system.

But you can install an older SDK with PPC/OS X 10.4 support and play with Mac OS development. There is a lot you can apply from learning Objective-C and Cocoa programming on OS X to developing Cocoa Touch apps on iOS.