Apple

I will soon be getting my hands on a G4 powermac, it is a 1.25GHz dual core model, I also believe it is an MDD, it does however have the mirrored doors. It already has an airport card installed, I am also getting a 23" monitor and keyboard with it.

Specs (AFAIK):
1.25GHz Dual Core
1.25 GB ram
160GB HDD
Airport Card
Mac OS X 10.xx installed

What I would like to know is, what should I do to upgrade it and what OS should/could I run on it.

I am planning to upgrade the 1.25GB of ram installed to 2GB of ram (I believe it is SDRAM). Then I will try to install a USB 2.0 card. Then I would like to know if it is worth upgrading the graphics or installing a SATA card, or even both.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


-Indyman007

Your description of the machine is a little confusing, but it sounds like the machine is a dual processor MDD, not a "dual core" system.

You'll probably want to make sure that the machine has been upgraded to the latest firmware. If it hasn't already been upgraded, you'll need to boot it from a writable MacOS 9 filesystem in order to run the firmware update.

I don't have any experience running Linux or any of the non-Apple BSDs on this particular hardware, so I'll limit my comments to versions of MacOS.

The first question to ask is whether or not you want to boot MacOS 9 on this machine or if you want to run Classic apps under OS X. If neither, then I'd recommend installing Leopard (MacOS X 10.5.x). Leopard will perform quite nicely on this hardware, and it still receives security updates, etc. from Apple. Aside from a slight performance decrease compared to Tiger (10.4.x), the only significant disadvantage of Leopard on this machine is that Leopard doesn't support Classic.

If you want to run Classic apps or boot into MacOS 9, then install OS 9 first, and then install Tiger on top of it, unless you have software which specifically requires an older version of OS X. Tiger will give a nice balance between being reasonably up to date while having very good performance. Unfortunately, Apple no longer provides updates for Tiger, and some third party software packages are beginning to drop support for Tiger, too.

If this were my machine, I'd probably either create two partitions on the existing hard drive, or I'd add a second internal IDE/ATA hard drive. On one partition/drive, I'd install a bootable OS 9.2.x first, followed by installing Tiger on the same partition/drive. On the other partition/drive, I'd install Leopard. This configuration would let you boot natively into MacOS 9, MacOS 10.4.x, or MacOS 10.5.x.

As far as hardware upgrades go, it's reasonable to add more RAM, particularly if you plan on running Leopard, though it's not critical. If you boot into MacOS 9, it'll only see 1.5 GB of RAM, IIRC. Adding USB 2 ports is a good idea, but keep in mind that they will operate in USB 1.1 mode when booting under OS 9. If you need high speed external storage under MacOS 9, Firewire or SCSI are the only real options. The only thing likely to have a major impact on performance would be getting a new video card if it currently has a low spec card installed. Just be sure to get a card that has native support for Leopard technologies like Core Image. There's a bunch of info about that on the net. Also, some people have had good luck flashing less expensive Windows versions of cards into Mac versions . I wouldn't bother with a SATA upgrade.

Good luck -- it sounds like you're getting a very nice machine.

My experience with G4s is that having a Quartz Extreme supported gfx card makes the world of difference when running 10.4 or 10.5. Being faster then 8XXMhz (825?), it should run 10.5 fairly well - though I recommend 10.4 if you are turning this into a fileserver. I run 10.5 Server on my 1.25 eMac with 1GB of ram. Does good as a file server, not so well as a daily surfer (needs more ram, 10.5 is a pig).

A top end G4 is a pretty mice machine for older games. My 400mhz sawtooth (cpu overclocked to 533 / bus overclocked to 133) with a Fx5200 gpu, was just enough to really enjoy Quake 3 @ 1280x1024. If you find your self wanting more, single cpu G5s are a dime a dozen and perform excellently with 10.5.

Thanks for the replies .

I will add more information, pictures etc when the mac arrives.
I will try to run MAC OS X 10.5x on it and see how it responds. I would like to use it as a normal computer, word processing, watching videos (not online, it would be too slow).

I am trying to get my hands on a decent GFX card, any suggestions on what one?
As for RAM, at the moment on 2 out of 4 slots are being used, so I will just transfer some older ram from other PCs for now.



-Indyman007

Very nice! I'm jealous!

Indeed. It's a very nice system.
If you want to put a better video card in the system, I don't think you will use the apple diaplay anymore. From knowledge that make used the proprietary ADC connector.

Nice score, those big monitors were greta

The G4 MDD is a really nice machine. This website will help you out a bit.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_1.25_dp_mdd.html

I tried NetBSD on a dual G4 a bit older than that one, but it only recognized one proc. It would be interesting to know how it works on your model. I'm hoping to put it on my dual G5 when it is retired from desktop duty.

I'm now running Linux on it, but it's not doing much at the moment.

I don't know anything about running OS X on a G4, so I won't comment on that.

For the GFX card, you will need an ADC adapter of some sort if you move to a more modern card. That system I believe can do AGP, so your best bet will be to search around for a PC equivalent card and flash it. That is what I did to get an fx5200 working in the G4 Sawtooth I had. DirectX 9 cards like the Fx5xxx and Radeon 9xxx series will have the quartz extreme support you want.

Your G4 may already have it though. Best to check under System Profiler before replacing the card.

I have been wondering, is it possible to install a TV card on the G4 powermac, as I believe they use 64-bit PCI slots? I am not too sure on this area.

Sure. Just look for something that's from the right vintage on eBay. There are a bunch of reasonable external solutions, too. Some of the older El Gato solutions should work nicely on your machine.

that is a nice machine. I really like the older macs with their curvy see-through cases, especially compared to the bland aluminum ones (powermac g5 and up).

I like the newer cases, they look more, professional.

I am, however, a bit confused as to the TV card, which ones exactly can I use? They just say Mac Friendly...
Would this one work? http://www.elgato.com/elgato/int/mainmenu/products/tuner/hybrid08/product1.en.html
I would also have to buy a USB 2.0 card .

That one probably wouldn't work. The spec page says it needs an Intel CPU. You'd want to look at older hardware, like the EyeTV 2.

Is this "EyeTV 2" just referring to the software?


Then I could buy the actual hardware and then enquire about previous versions.

Under Technical Information and System Requirements it says you need an Intel cpu. So no.

Hmm, guess I will have to look into that. I would like to be able to receive televsion on the mac, but I don't even know what the reception would be like.

I'll have to find some fitting hardware.

It should be arriving next week, Thursday I believe, I shall then post pictures and relavent information.

Would I be able to flash something like this?


-Indyman007

http://themacelite.wikidot.com/wikidownloads2

There is an excellent resource for vga roms.