ID my Powermac G4

[Danyl]

Hey all

First post (so please be gentle!)

I bought a second hand Powermac G4 off ebay a few months back and I'm going to see if it can be my main machine at home.

I'm trying to identify exactly what model/release of G4 it is. Through a lot of googling and browsing these forums, I think I've narrowed it down to either a Powermac G4 (AGP), a Powermac (Gigabit Ethernet) or Powermac (Yikes!/PCI).

But I'm confused as to exactly which one it is.

It has the following specs:

G4 500mhz processor
2 Firewire ports at the rear
2 USB ports at the rear
ATI video card (the machine isn't in front of me at the moment, I think it only had a very small amount of memory).
DVDROM
10 gig hard drive

Anyone help me identify what type of G4 this baby is?

My second question is, I want to run OS X. What version is best for the older G4's? I want a brisk machine for browsing, iTuning and word processing stuff so is an older version of OS X going to be faster/better or is Tiger the best bet?

My intention is to load it up with some more RAM from an old iMac (it will be around 700mb RAM when I'm done).

Thanks in advance

 

[dtravis7]

If it for sure a 500 Mhz G4 then it's a G4 Sawtooth (AGP Graphics). The Yikes had no AGP slot and the top CPU was 400 Mhz. The Gigabit had either a single 400 Mhz or Dual 450 or Dual 500 Mhz G4's. I own one. Tiger will run but give it all the RAM you can afford. The G4 Sawtooth will take 4 512Meg PC100 Dimm's for 2GB RAM. Just be sure the 512Meg Dimm's do not contain High Density chips. Panther 10.3 will work also but it's getting a bit old and Safari which can not be updated to the newer versions is way out of date. I would up the RAM and run Tiger. It's a lot more modern for todays Web sites.

If we can help in any way, let us know.

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/sawtooth-power-mac-g4-agp.html

That is a URL to your machine.

Also if it were a Yikes, the Audio Jacks would sit Side by Side instead of One on top of the other like the Sawtooth.

 

[Danyl]

Cool! The Sawtooth it is.

Thanks for the quick reply mate appreciate it.

Getting back to the "which OS X" version, though, I don't want to run Tiger just because the machine "can". I pretty much have the option to install one of the earlier versions of OS X (10.2 for example) if it will be faster for general every-day useage.

Basically I'm willing to sacrifice a newer version of OS X for optimal performance.

 

[louishen]

IMO opinion Tiger runs very well, if not better than jaguar and panther

 

[harryb2448]

For sure Tiger as you have been advised on your AGP Sawtooth model. One very important thing if you have not used OS X previously, you have to update the firmware to 4.2.8 and probably f1 after that.

If you go to About this Mac and click on More info, the firmware appears as CD Boot Rom version, second bottom line. If it is not 4.2.8 whilst running OS 9 go to the Apple web site and look for Firmware Upgrades and download both the 4.2.8 upgrade AND the insturctions as this is on e of the only times you will ever use the program mer's button on the front pan el.

After upgrading, launch into an erase and install version of Tiger. If you have some OS 9 programs, make sure you select 'Install OS 9 Driversl on reformat.