sheerpoetry

Q: Should I upgrade a Powermac G4?

Hi!

 

My dad recently purchased two Powermac G4s and a monitor at a college auction. The hard drives were removed.

 

I love older Apple computers and want to get them working just for the sake of entertainment, but that's not really practical as we have nowhere to keep them running.

 

My dad is currently using a Dell he bought about four years ago (I think), but finally wants to try Apple products, deciding "they're a whole different ball game" (something I tried to tell him before he bought the Dell).

My question is: is the G4 (mirrored drive doors) still a usable computer? Is it worth putting a little bit of money into it to get it going again? (My dad basically only does email and eBay on the computer, with occasional Craigslist browsing And a video here and there. Nothing too earth shattering.)

 

I've found a 500GB hard drive with Leopard already installed and the RAM is at half capacity. I'd think his current USB keyboard and mouse would work with it, but I also already have both from my old iMac project as a backup. I just love the older Macs.

Posted on Sep 13, 2014 2:03 AM

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Q: Should I upgrade a Powermac G4?

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  • by BDAqua,Helpful

    BDAqua BDAqua Sep 13, 2014 12:28 PM in response to sheerpoetry
    Level 10 (123,670 points)
    Sep 13, 2014 12:28 PM in response to sheerpoetry

    In many respects the MDDs were the worst G4s Apple ever produced, but should be fine for web use & such with a better broeser that Safari 10.5.8 has...

     

    TenFourFox is the most up to date browser for our PPCs, they even have G4 & G5 optimized versions...

     

    http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

     

    I'd avoid version 24 though, as it no longer supports plug-ins like Flash.

     

    http://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/downloads/list

     

    SeaMonkey seems pretty fast also, with many options...

     

    http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

     

    http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/

     

    The last version with Mac OS 10.4 and PPC support was SeaMonkey 2.0.14.

     

    The last version seamonkey-for-ppc - 2.26 RELEASE - Mac OS X 10.5.x - PPC.

     

    http://code.google.com/p/seamonkey-ppc/

     

    PROJECT SITE:

     

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/seamonkey-for-ppc

     

    register for updates at the SourceForge seamonkey-for-ppc project page

     

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/seamonkey-for-ppc

     

    Might also look into iCab & OmniWeb versions.

     

    It may have choppy video depending on which Video Card mostly, but CPU also.

  • by sheerpoetry,

    sheerpoetry sheerpoetry Sep 13, 2014 12:57 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 13, 2014 12:57 PM in response to BDAqua

    Oh, really, they were bad?

     

    The other one is model M5183--would that be better to use?

     

    Thanks so much for all the browser links! I personally tend to avoid Safari anyway and was pretty sure Chrome wouldn't be available for that system, but didn't know what to try or how to find it!

  • by BDAqua,Solvedanswer

    BDAqua BDAqua Sep 13, 2014 1:14 PM in response to sheerpoetry
    Level 10 (123,670 points)
    Sep 13, 2014 1:14 PM in response to sheerpoetry

    Well, the M5183 PCI Macs were far more reliable, but also far far slower, not likely usable for Internet video today.

     

    Biggest problem with the MDDs was for some reason Apple thought heat didn't rise... lets suck air in at the top & exhaust it at the bottom... LOL.

     

    They were the noisiest also, often called  Wind Tunnels or Quad Nostril Beasts, that may not be a problem with age though.

     

    My 3 MDDs all died premature deaths, Some of my Macs 10-20 years older than them are still running.

  • by kahjot,

    kahjot kahjot Sep 20, 2014 7:34 AM in response to sheerpoetry
    Level 4 (1,347 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 20, 2014 7:34 AM in response to sheerpoetry

    They definitely are noisy, and you don't really want them on the floor sucking in dirt. Apple provided an upgrade for the first MDDs which consisted of a quieter fan and power supply. I installed this upgrade in my MDD 867. Eventually that power supply failed, which was the main problem with the MDDs.

     

    As far as I can remember, the MDD worked fine until the death of the power supply, at least 5 years. Eventually I put the original power supply back in and didn't think there was much of an overall increase in noise. So I think the quieter fan contributed more to reducing the overall noise level.

     

    I still have the MDD for legacy apps and general nostalgia. I upgraded the graphics card at some point and maxed the RAM early on. I personally prefer Tiger for these machines. It runs well and is one of my favorite Mac OSes. You can still use TenFour Fox with Tiger. It is definitely slow, however.

     

    You can probably find a PCI SATA card on eBay if you want or need to add higher-capacity, newer hard drives to it.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Sep 21, 2014 9:58 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 6 (13,852 points)
    iPad
    Sep 21, 2014 9:58 PM in response to BDAqua

    WOW BD!

    Really??!! Three G4 MDDs all died premature deaths?

    I must have just been very lucky, then.

    I purchased one of the last display model PowerMac G4, MDD, 1.25,Ghz CPU when the CompUSA chain was going under.

    I purchased this in late 2003 and it really went the distance for me up to 2011 when I was, finally, able to retire this PowerMac for a 2009, Intel 3.06 Ghz,  27 inch screen iMac.

    I have since, carefully,  stored this PowerMac so it would not be damaged in anyway as it was still operational when I stopped using it.

    That PowerMac was a really terrific Mac and awesome investment for me and I really gotten my money's worth from this Mac.

    I always thought the G4 MDDs were rock solid Macs based on my own experience.

    I never let my Macs sit on the floor. I like the overall design of these MDD towers. ( I know the tower design for these has always been based on the older Blue & White PCI G3 model towers, but the gray and clear color scheme with the semi-toy box look was real cool).

    I maxed the RAM out, added two additional internal 128 GB  hard drives, a 256 VRAM ATI Radeon X800XT video card, PCI slot fan and additional PCI SCSI card, and additional PCI USB 2.0/FireWire 400 card.

    This MDD ran like a champ for over 8 years with no issues other than the fairly loud fans.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Sep 22, 2014 10:42 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 10 (123,670 points)
    Sep 22, 2014 10:42 AM in response to MichelPM

    Yep, all 3, 1.42GHz DP models, & that doesn't even count all the repairs & upgrades I did to keep them alive for a too short of time.