Should I buy a G4 MDD?

aknisely · May 19, 2008

I'm looking to buy my first Mac and I'm on a very limited budget. I've been looking around on ebay at G4 Powermacs and have found a few good deals, especially on dual MDD's. Do you think one would be a good purchase to make? My current setup is running at 2.0Ghz with 512mb ram. For rendering with Blender I also use an old Compaq with a 867mhz processor and 128mb of ram. I was thinking about getting a good priced dual 1.0 or 1.25 and upgrade it to 1.5 GB b of ram if needed. I will be using Blender and gimp mostly. Would this be good for my needs or should I just save my pennys for another year or so and get something then?

mcjacksonnelson · May 19, 2008

well, the good thing about getting that machine is that you'd be able to keep upgrading the OS for a while. however, apple is supposed to stop supporting PowerMac machines within the next year or so. it all depends on if you need the machine right now. but if you can wait and save up, i would go for a brand new machine.

p.s. im still using my 733 PowerMac i bought in 2001. sometimes its even faster than my dual 1.8 g5 i have at work.

dtravis7 · May 19, 2008

We really do not know when Apple will completely phase out OS support for the Power PC, but they will down the line. The next OSX might not be out for 1.5 years or more considering how long it took for Leopard after Tiger.

This is just a guess but I would think next time the G4 will be left out then the G5 later on down the road. Only time will tell us what will happen.

For now and if you are really broke, a 1.25Mhz G4 would be fine for basic uses and considering what you are using now for Blender.

How much are the G4's you are looking at? A 1.25Ghz is a MDD (Mirror Drive Door) PowerMac. It will run Leopard fine for now.

Reason I am asking about the price is the bottom Mac Mini is not a lot at $599.

If you do go with the MDD PowerMac, give it as much RAM as you can afford.

harryb2448 · May 19, 2008

G'day and welcome to the Forums.

Buy the best you can afford. If for now that is a MDD so be it. I hunted and hunted until got the very last model FW800 1.25DP, June 2004, and am very happy with it.

Research the model as there are four different types of MDD and some of them run pretty hot and loud. Leopard runs superbly with 2GB RAM and an upgraded video card also helps.

When you get the machine, if you go for the MDD, you can download CHUD programs to assist with fan control, Temperature Registers to monitor heat and so on.

aknisely · May 19, 2008

Here are a few that I was looking at
http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Power-Mac...yZ111418QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Power-Mac...yZ111418QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Do these seem reasonably priced?

I was thinking about getting a Mac mini but I still need to buy a car and I dont think the parents will let me spend $600 on a computer when I dont have a car.

Also, the machine I'm currently using is running Ubuntu so right now i'm torn between buying a Mac or building a new Linux machine.

Tanner31593 · May 19, 2008

You could just get a Mini, and buy a bicycle!

harryb2448 · May 19, 2008

If you were to buy one of the two, suggest look closely at the second as the FW800 is a later model. For what they are asking should come with keyboard, mouse and Tiger install discs.

Minis may well suit some folks, but remember they have a laptop HDD, being 2.5" compared to a desktop 3.5" must do more work for similar capacity which equals faster wearing? Also video cards are not as swappable as a tower, and make sure you understand how to crack one open to update HDD and RAM.

Lawrence Ip · Jan 15, 2009

The G4 1.25 DP MDD PowerMac

aknisely said:
I'm looking to buy my first Mac and I'm on a very limited budget. I've been looking around on ebay at G4 Powermacs and have found a few good deals, especially on dual MDD's. Do you think one would be a good purchase to make? My current setup is running at 2.0Ghz with 512mb ram. For rendering with Blender I also use an old Compaq with a 867mhz processor and 128mb of ram. I was thinking about getting a good priced dual 1.0 or 1.25 and upgrade it to 1.5 GB b of ram if needed. I will be using Blender and gimp mostly. Would this be good for my needs or should I just save my pennys for another year or so and get something then?

These are excellent machines when taken care of (like most things). Mine has been running exceptionally well since installing CHUD 3.52 and enabling NAP Mode (basically NAP tells the Mac to chill out rather than run at 100%... not to be confused with Renicer or the like). If you are able to put up with the latest Tiger 10.4.11 over Leopard (Tiger really is "The One" for these machines) you will get a few more years out of it, just as long as your power supply doesn't give (make sure to relplace the PRAM battery when you pick one up). The Mini... Well it's a great little machine and will serve most well if you want the basic deal. I use PowerMac specific software that runs very smoothly (expected). Yet under Rosetta on other machines those same apps are so SLoaH.... Yep... It's all about what you wanna use it for and the apps that get those things done. ;D

Enjoy Your Mac

Lawrence

alfonsogomez · Jan 17, 2009

Go for it!! You will not regret buying that. My mate bought two powermac g4's from ebay all at bargain price (£50) in immaculate condition! They run quite quick but his only concern is that it doesn't support some video editing programs like Final Cut and what have you. Apart from that its a great runner!!