Updating my old G4 mini

Hey everybody,
I'm new to the forum. I have an old G4 Mac mini running Panther that I want to upgrade. I assume that the most I can do is install Leopard, and so long as I buy the full install, I don't have to update to anything else first (i.e. Tiger).

Is this true? Is it worth it to upgrade?

This isn't my main machine (I also have an intel Macbook) but I like to have a second machine around and I might try to hook up my mini to my TV to be able to watch programs downloaded on iTunes.

I also want to share the iTunes libraries between my two machines and right now I'm not able to do that with Panther on my mini.

Here are the specs of the mini:

Machine Model: Mac mini
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.42 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.9f1


Thanks!

You might also want to upgrade the RAM to 1GB especially for Leopard. There are videos all over the net that show how to take the top off the G4 mini and how to upgrade the RAM.

If you purchase the Retail version of Leopard, it will install with no issues.

Hey dtravis7,

Are the MHZ for my machine a problem for running Leopard?

I just read somewhere that 867 MHz is required but my old mini only has 167 MHz if I am reading the numbers right.

Is installing Leopard possible? If not, what is the highest OS X that I can upgrade to?

Thanks very much.

Please don't take this in an insulting way as it's not.

167Mhz is the BUS frequency. You want the Clock Frequency. Click on the Apple in the top Left of the screen and on About This Mac. It will say Power PC G4 1.25Ghz or so.

I am not sure which G4 Mini you have but the minimum Clock frequency is 1.25GHZ and the last Minis had up to 1.5Ghz both way over the requirement for 10.5.

In other words even the slowest G4 Mini meets the requirements for Leopard.

I hope this helps.

And you have already supplied the info it is a 1.42GHz machine, and that is the processor speed, which is nearly twice as fast as Leopard's required 867MHz. 1,000MHz is 1GHz.

And as Dennis suggested put more memory in as it will handle 1GB. Here are the machine specs:-

Apple Mac mini G4/1.42 Specs (Mac mini - M9687LL/A*) @ EveryMac.com