G4 - OS possibilities?

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Hello Friends,

Just joined this knowledge pool and hope to learn more about what I've just bought:
eMac 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 brand new in box, bought for an office IT capability but sat unused. It's the 80gb non-superdrive model loaded with Panther.

I'd been looking for one for a little while to replace my hard-worked hot-rodded G3 [Panther OS], so I'm happy with my purchase.

I'm going to put as much memory in it as I can [a pair of 512's is max I believe?], so that it's as fast as possible. The main question is: I know it will operate Tiger but, will it operate Leopard and would I even want it to?

Here in the UK, several people have told me that Tiger is magnificent because all bugs are ironed out and it's highly developed: the same cannot be said of the new OS apparently? I've not used either. Maybe a pre-Intel chip machine can't cope with Leopard, I just don't know.....any help very much appreciated.

What's involved in getting rid of the eMac's current OS please - I won't be needing the Panther [10.3.9] that it comes with?

thanks for your kind attention,

Jules
 
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If you want to continue operating any Classic (OS 9) applications, then stay with Tiger. Yes, it will operate Leopard, especially with that maximum RAM. In order to get Tiger or Leopard you'll need to purchase a full retail version of either. That model of eMac is a very good computer, and should be free of the infamous capacitor issue.
 
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http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/

Only took a min to find that your system will take leopard.

You know, that's not all that helpful... the OP is asking for advice and a point of view, not just 'yes your machine is capable of running Leopard, here's the link'.

Jules - Tiger is a great OS, and most applications will still work fine with it. However your machine will run Leopard. It's worth noting that not all G4's were created equal, and the eMacs G4's were the least equal of them all (they lacked the L3 cache I believe). Additionally it got short changed on the GPU as well. The Radeon 9200 lacked shader support (needed for some of Leopard's effects).

You may be able to upgrade to 2GBs according to some sites, but officially it only supports 1GBs.
 
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Stick with Tiger.
 
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Tiger is a great OS, and most applications will still work fine with it. However your machine will run Leopard. ... (they lacked the L3 cache I believe). The Radeon 9200 lacked shader support (needed for some of Leopard's effects).
You may be able to upgrade to 2GBs according to some sites, but officially it only supports 1GBs.

You're right about the Cache Zoolook, that model of eMac has both L1 and L2; but the graphics card is a 9600 with 64 Mb DDR (ref: Mactracker and http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/stats/emac_1.42.html) And yes, unofficially, 2 Gb RAM is supported. Wow, that eMac will really hum!
 
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If you want to continue operating any Classic (OS 9) applications, then stay with Tiger. Yes, it will operate Leopard, especially with that maximum RAM. In order to get Tiger or Leopard you'll need to purchase a full retail version of either. That model of eMac is a very good computer, and should be free of the infamous capacitor issue.

Thank you so much...I can leave all the OS9 apps on the G3, so that's not a concern. I heard that only the full retail discs would guarantee proper running, but I didn't know about any 'capacitor problem'.....I thought I was avoiding problems completely by buying the last of the line in new-in-box condition. Now that seems questionable too?
 
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Jules - Tiger is a great OS, and most applications will still work fine with it. However your machine will run Leopard. It's worth noting that not all G4's were created equal, and the eMacs G4's were the least equal of them all (they lacked the L3 cache I believe). Additionally it got short changed on the GPU as well. The Radeon 9200 lacked shader support (needed for some of Leopard's effects).

Thanks for the explanation: I don't appreciate the L3 cache or GPU significance I'm afraid and don't understand the inequality analogy:- apart from the lack of superdrive [not needed] and the larger 160gb HD [not needed], I thought I'd bought the best of that range - now I'm not so sure?
 
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And yes, unofficially, 2 Gb RAM is supported. Wow, that eMac will really hum!

I'd heard a whisper that this was possible BUT Apple don't recognise it.
What are the potential pitfalls of running a pair of 1GB cards....does anyone know?
 
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I'd heard a whisper that this was possible BUT Apple don't recognise it.
What are the potential pitfalls of running a pair of 1GB cards....does anyone know?

To answer a couple of your concerns ...
Capacitors - the infamous eMac capacitor problem had been identified and rectified before the 1.42 model was put out. You should not experience any such problem with your eMac. You have indeed bought the best of the eMac range.
RAM - as far as I know there are no pitfalls other than buying bad (cheap) RAM. There's a lot of discussion/debate about brand, but the two names that tend to rise above the flak are Crucial and Kingston (just don't buy RAM from Apple, it's too expensive). The type is PC2700 DDR SDRAM. I'll leave it to you to source a supplier but many US contributors go online to OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/ for Mac-specific supplies.

To enhance your forthcoming experience with your eMac, make sure you visit these two sites:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/stats/emac_1.42.html
and
http://lowendmac.com/imacs/emac-2005-1.42-ghz.html
A very useful application to have on your eMac is Mactracker, which is regularly updated to include the latest Mac computers.

Enjoy your machine - I think my eyes are a slight jade colour.
 
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Run Tiger instead of Leopard on your eMac. Although the eMac can run Leopard, it runs applications slower on Leopard because there is more memory devoted to running Leopard, similar to PCs:
When I was big on PCs, I had a 1.63 GHz IBM T41 Thinkpad. Yes you could run windows vista on it, but a lot more of the system resources were being devoted to running vista on it, compared to the extreme which would be windows 98 which takes little to no resources to run it. Hope that makes sense to you!
 
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Thanks for the explanation: I don't appreciate the L3 cache or GPU significance I'm afraid and don't understand the inequality analogy:- apart from the lack of superdrive [not needed] and the larger 160gb HD [not needed], I thought I'd bought the best of that range - now I'm not so sure?

Your machine is a good find, don't worry. However the PowerMacs at that time, with the same speed CPUs, were even more powerful. In fact you can see YouTube demos of 1.5ghz G4s running 2 or 3 3D games at the same time with 10 or 20 other apps running, it's insane. For an 'entry level' machine, the eMac was pretty good.
 
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Thanks so much to all who have helped crank-up my knowledge: belunos, hughvane, Strimkind, Zoolook and xj6jaguar1985 - I'm now happier that I ain't bought a dud!

Still not sure whether anyone would actually recommend running a pair of 1GB Ram cards?

Also, what on earth do I do to change the OS that the eMac has shipped with please. The seller has Tiger discs to send me BUT the Emac is equipped with Panther from new?
 
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Enjoy your machine - I think my eyes are a slight jade colour.

Thanks, but no need really...I've only come this route myself because I've bucked the trend; love the clarity of the early eMac/iMac CRT's in preference to flat panels, the only one's of which I've been impressed with were really, really expensive!
 
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Get those Tiger disks, they are either the full version or upgrade disks, so leave panther on there and run the update to Tiger when the disks arrive

Then download the tiger combo update to make Tiger bang up to date
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html

hughvane provided the link to everymac about the Ram, the info on that link means that users have installed 2 gig of RAM and it works, in all probability there were no 1 gig RAM sticks on the market when Apple released that Emac, hence the fact it is not on the original Apple specs
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/stats/emac_1.42.html
 
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Get those Tiger disks, they are either the full version or upgrade disks, so leave panther on there and run the update to Tiger when the disks arrive

Then download the tiger combo update to make Tiger bang up to date
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html

hughvane provided the link to everymac about the Ram, the info on that link means that users have installed 2 gig of RAM and it works, in all probability there were no 1 gig RAM sticks on the market when Apple released that Emac, hence the fact it is not on the original Apple specs
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/stats/emac_1.42.html

Thanks so much louishen, I thought that the HD would need wiping back to zeroes and a full install of a proper, authorised Tiger would be what I needed to do - didn't appreciate that Tiger would work with Panther as an update and thence to the combo pack?

If this is how I do it - easy....I'll keep you all posted and WILL install the 2GB of quality RAM. Should then be a nice computer.

many thanks once again - I'm indebted to all you experts.
 
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Still not sure whether anyone would actually recommend running a pair of 1GB Ram cards?

You should be fine with 2 x 1 Gb RAM sticks, bearing in mind previous advice about brand.

Also, what on earth do I do to change the OS that the eMac has shipped with please. The seller has Tiger discs to send me BUT the Emac is equipped with Panther from new?

That machine should have shipped with OS 10.4 Tiger (ref: Mactracker). The disks that will be sent to you (I presume) may be the grey eMac-specific ones that will work with that machine only. They are system restore disks. If you're lucky, you may receive the black-colored full install Tiger disks.

If you're not so fortunate, you will need to purchase Tiger from Apple or Amazon or eBay, but be extra vigilant about the veracity of claims made by online auction sellers.
 

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