Got a Mac Mini for $30!

PsycoGeek

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 25, 2000
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OK, so it's not a new one. And it's a Power PC, 2005 or 2006 with Tiger. I actually got it for case modding, but it works so I might use it as a media PC. VLC still had downloads for Power PC variants of OS X!

Anyone have any idea as to how I can expect it to perform? If it sux as bad as my current media PC it'll get modded into something, but I don't know what. Any ideas on that one?

I forgot what the case size was but intended it for a media PC mod anyway. Won't fit a Mini-ITX board, and Intel's new Mini STX boards aren't available yet, as far as I know.
 
Well consider its about 10 years old, it won't be a huge power house. But there still are some neat power pic only programs out there. Especially some older games, but most also had Windows variants.

As far as modding goes, there might be quite a bit of work to cut and fabricate to get an ITX system tomfit, but it's easier these days than it was even 5 years ago. As long as you got the tools and the will power, you can do it. If you are just looking for media playback and don't need it to be super powerful, I would look at doing a raspberry Pi 3 in it.
Most of the guts still are worth quite a bit on eBay. Lots of businesses like keeping older equipment running because of the software they have works well and they don't want to upgrade, so you could probably sell the guts for more than what you paid, just have to put some work into it on eBay.
 
I was looking into a Pi 3 myself, but want to give this a go first. What the hell, ya know? My media PC is just as old & has windows, stutters & gives me gray blocks all over the screen while playing back from my NAS box. OS X is much more efficient with everything. My MacBook Pro was able to play 13 simultaneous and different movies from it at the same time, & ALL were smooth. The media PC can't even handle one & it's a Core 2 Duo. Granted, my MBP is considerably more powerful...

Besides, I want to get rid of Windows for good.
 
It's gonna be pretty slow. VLC will at least give you decoding support for modern codecs, but without hardware acceleration. It might struggle with H265 content and other modern codecs for this reason.

An rPi 3 will be quite a bit more robust at video playback if that's your use case.
 
I finally got the system updated to 10.5.8, all the latest everything from Apple. You are absolutely correct CEpeep...... it is too slow for any video. I have determined what it can and can't do. No: youtube, soundcloud, Radiotunes.com, or DI.fm, no video playback at all. What can it do??? iTunes. So it looks like I have a neat little case I have to stuff something into. Still hoping Intel makes the 5x5 Mini STX boards available soon.
 
It will handle YouTube and Soundcloud just fine, mine does anyway. You'll have to run the old Flash plugin, though. Make sure you're using TenFourFox: TenFourFox: A fork of Mozilla Firefox ESR 38 for the Power Macintosh and Mac OS X Tiger PowerPC no other browser comes close. Some HTML5 content is supported too, but as you noticed video is too slow without hardware acceleration. Flash and QuickTime support this on the G4 for certain formats, so those are your go-to players.
 
Yeah, I already retired my Core Solo Tiger Mac Mini due to slow web loading and 2GB ram limit. I should have waited a year for the faster Core 2 processors, but hey, it happens :D
 
I was looking into a Pi 3 myself, but want to give this a go first. What the hell, ya know? My media PC is just as old & has windows, stutters & gives me gray blocks all over the screen while playing back from my NAS box. OS X is much more efficient with everything. My MacBook Pro was able to play 13 simultaneous and different movies from it at the same time, & ALL were smooth. The media PC can't even handle one & it's a Core 2 Duo. Granted, my MBP is considerably more powerful...

The smug self-satisfaction tearing down that poor old PC is just sad.

The reason your retina demolishes that old Core 2 Duo is because it has the robust 4k-capable video acceleration of a modern Intel video chip, and you also have FOUR TIMES AS MANY threads as the old Core 2, and each of them is significantly faster, making multiple video streams a piece of cake.

But you keep on pretending there's something magical about OSX if it makes you feel better kicking puppies. Or you could try actually stressing your unbalanced machine and try playing a modern video game at anywhere near native resolution.

Oh sorry, did I just kick your poor puppy?
 
OK, got TenFourFox and the flash plugin, now all I have to do is take the time to try them. Thanks CEpeep!
 
OK, got TenFourFox and the flash plugin, now all I have to do is take the time to try them. Thanks CEpeep!

For actually using the Flash plugin, you'll use Safari. 10.4fox for everything else, including HTML5 audio and video.
 
Got another question.... what are the chances of getting ANY usb wireless adapter working with it?
 
based on my experience with Macs (specifically the G3-G5 era) here is what you can expect.

Thing will be slow as hell, hot as hell, and loud....as hell.

But it is a MAC so sell it to a hipster who doesn't know better.
 
I just might skeeder! I noticed how loud it is as soon as the CPU started heating up during the re-install of 10.5.

If I keep messing around with it I just might hook it up via my Netgear powerline networking stuff.
 
IBM's chips were great little processors (PS3 used them), but they never made one that ran remotely cool. The G5 series when Apple packed 4 of them into a box, they watercooled the whole thing--first time I ever saw an OEM manufacture with a watercooler.
 
I've got a G4 Mac Mini, OS X is useless on the damn thing as there's literally no software available for it.

I overclocked mine and stuffed MorphOS on it, now it's essentially my PPC based Amiga.

I don't know where the hell you got the idea that OS X is so efficient? I run everything here from my main Ubuntu Mate based Linux PC through to my 2012 Mac Mini with 16GB ram and home made fusion drive through to a Windows 10 based gamer with a 980Ti and 2700k @ 4.8 Ghz - There's no way I'd claim the Mac has any specific advantage over any of my other machines.
 
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