Need help configuring my G4

Hey all.
New to mac 3 weeks now. I originally got a Power Mac G4 for free from a coworker. I had always been curious about mac, but the prices kept me away. Anyway the specs are as follows:
PPC 733Mhz 256kL2/1mbL3
1gb PC100 RAM (512x2)
Geforce 2MX 32mb AGP
60gb Western Digital
Zip 250
DVD-R/-RW drive
Airport ready, but not present
It only has one drive mount thing, missing several i/o backplates, and no mouse or keyboard. The star screws on one side that secure the plastic side to the chassis has all 4 screws missing.

I got it up and running with a retail version of 10.4.6, then upgraded to 10.4.11. Running Mac Office 2008. The main reason for it was to familiarize myself with mac (I have been a PC tech for 15 years) and for basic word processing as well as playing Runescape MMORPG.

The word processing is as expected, and Runescape is sluggish.

It ends up my 10 year old son really likes goofing off on the mac and playing runescape on it (even though he has a dual core system with a high end PCIe card in his room)

My son and I were bouncing around a few thrift stores and swap meets today, and picked up another G4 with the following specs:
Dual PPC 533Mhz 2x1mbL2
512mb PC100 RAM (256x2)
ATI Radeon 32mb AGP
20gb Maxtor
Zip 250
CD-R/-RW drive (no DVD read)
Airport ready, but not present

We were not sure that the G4 would work, but for $20 I could get enough parts out of it to complete my G4. Ends up the one purchaced today works just fine.

Now on to the actual question:

I want to combine the best hardware from both machines to make one good one for my son to play Runescape, and the leftovers for word processing. I can reinstall because I have office and Tiger DVDs, as well as, a stack of hard drives and DVD drives. What configuration do you suggest, and where can I get the wireless card to put in the slot behind the PCI slots?

Zeke_D said:

I want to combine the best hardware from both machines to make one good one for my son to play Runescape, and the leftovers for word processing. I can reinstall because I have office and Tiger DVDs, as well as, a stack of hard drives and DVD drives. What configuration do you suggest, and where can I get the wireless card to put in the slot behind the PCI slots?

Click to expand...

First congrats on getting those G4's!

Both of those Powermacs are known as "G4's". You were using the term "G4" pretty liberally in your post..and it was sort of confusing which one you were talking about at some points.

Anyway...basically most of the hardware on the 733mhz G4 is superior to the 533mhz machine. So you probably wouldn't want to swap anything from the 533 into the 733...other than some of the ram (if you have slots available on the 733)...and maybe the hard drive from the 533...and then have two hard drives in the 733.

As far as purchasing parts for the 733. You really have to be careful what you buy. Apple sometimes makes a lot of design changes from model to model...so a lot of times hardware from other Mac models (newer or older) are not always compatible.

There were actually two different 733mhz Powermac G4 models...a 733mhz "Digital Audio" model in a "Teal" accented case...and a 733mhz "Quicksilver" model that has a Silver colored case & had two easily visible drive doors on the front.

Also...the 533mhz G4 computer has a 2x AGP video slot, and the 733mhz G4 has a 4x AGP video slot.

So where to get parts...e-Bay...or the same way you got these two computers. Garage sales & just getting lucky.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

p.s. Ooh...and the Airport card. Lots of them on e-Bay. They usually sell for about $25-$30 bucks.

Thanks for the G4 tip, although I don't quite understand what you are saying the 733 is a 733mhz "Digital Audio" model in a "Teal" accented case. the dual 533 is also a "Digital Audio" model. I do have ATI and Geforce cards laying around, but I noticed the ones in the G4s have some kind of extra edge connector in front of the AGP edge. Can I use any AGP card, or just ones that have the extra edge thingy? I found a G3 on the side of the road, and harvested the I/O shields and case screws, so now both G4s have complete hardware.

pigoo3 said:

First congrats on getting those G4's!

So you probably wouldn't want to swap anything from the 533 into the 733...other than some of the ram (if you have slots available on the 733)...and maybe the hard drive from the 533...and then have two hard drives in the 733.

So where to get parts...e-Bay...or the same way you got these two computers. Garage sales & just getting lucky.

Click to expand...

Took the words right out of my mouth =) Ebay is great, as is Newegg. I used OWC to find the exact model of my MDD and narrow down exactly which parts I should be looking for, then searched ebay and the net to see what I could find. I would recommend putting as much ram as possible into the system for runescape.

I also have a 64mb radeon 9000 videocard which would fit in your 733 I believe, if someone could confirm this for me. I think that may help runescape run a little better.

Here are the System Profiler specs for the two video cards:

Chipset Model: GeForce2 MX
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 32 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0110
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 1045F



Chipset Model: ATY,Rage6
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 32 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x5144
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-73501-119

XMARLTONX said:

I also have a 64mb radeon 9000 videocard which would fit in your 733 I believe, if someone could confirm this for me. I think that may help runescape run a little better.

Click to expand...

Double the RAM, double the fun right?

You would think so lol. I just went from that 64mb card to a 128mb (the 256 radeon 9600 was almost as much as the computer was lol).

So what do you think? which video card should I use. I assume if I stuck an AGP4x card in the 2x slot it would what? not work, blow up, give us peace without honor?

Zeke_D said:

Thanks for the G4 tip, although I don't quite understand what you are saying the 733 is a 733mhz "Digital Audio" model in a "Teal" accented case. the dual 533 is also a "Digital Audio" model. I do have ATI and Geforce cards laying around, but I noticed the ones in the G4s have some kind of extra edge connector in front of the AGP edge. Can I use any AGP card, or just ones that have the extra edge thingy? I found a G3 on the side of the road, and harvested the I/O shields and case screws, so now both G4s have complete hardware.

Click to expand...

There were both a 533mhz "Digital Audio" Powermac G4 model...AND a 733mhz "Digital Audio" Powermac G4 model.

Both the 533mhz & 733mhz Digital Audio Powermac G4's look similar on the outside...but are different on the inside. Then like I mentioned...there's a 733mhz "Quicksilver" Powermac G4.

So we really haven't established which 733mhz Powermac G4 model you have.

As far as the video cards...if the ATI & GeForce cards you have are not "Macintosh" cards they won't work. The "rom" on the cards is different for Mac's than for Windows computers. If they're Mac cards...then just plug them in & see if they will work (assuming they fit in the slot...and assuming that the card you're putting in is superior to the one that's already in there).

- Nick

Ah I see. They are both Digital audio G4s. The ATI and Geforce cards are both mac cards (they were the cards out of the "Digital Audio" G4s) I tried them both in the 733, and could discern no difference in graphic performance.

pigoo3 said:

There were both a 533mhz "Digital Audio" Powermac G4 model...AND a 733mhz "Digital Audio" Powermac G4 model.

Both the 533mhz & 733mhz Digital Audio Powermac G4's look similar on the outside...but are different on the inside. Then like I mentioned...there's a 733mhz "Quicksilver" Powermac G4.

So we really haven't established which 733mhz Powermac G4 model you have.

As far as the video cards...if the ATI & GeForce cards you have are not "Macintosh" cards they won't work. The "rom" on the cards is different for Mac's than for Windows computers. If they're Mac cards...then just plug them in & see if they will work (assuming they fit in the slot...and assuming that the card you're putting in is superior to the one that's already in there).

- Nick

Click to expand...

My first question for you. You say the RAM is PC100. The Digital Audio and above used PC133. Most PC100 would not even post as it can not run at 133Mhz which is the bus on the Digital Audio.

Now on to the AGP card. Apple uses a different ROM on their Video Cards. You can't just put in a PC video card in a Mac. It will not work unless it's flashed for a Mac. Some can be if you can find the ROM for download.

Between the 2 cards you have there I am partial to the ATI. BTW that extra connector is for powering an Apple Cinema display through Apples ADC video port. Another Apple compatible card without that connector can be used as long as you do not own the Apple display that gets it's power through the video port.

This will give you the specs and some info on both machines.

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/digital-audio-power-mac-g4.html

Keep us posted on what you end up doing!

Zeke_D said:

Ah I see. They are both Digital audio G4s.

Click to expand...

Just so we are clear (or I'm clear). If both of your G4's look the same on the outside...then yes they are both "Digital Audio" Powermac G4's. But if they look different on the outside (colors & front face)...then the 533 is a "Digital Audio", and the 733 is a "Quicksilver".

- Nick

These are not the best pics but should do. First one is a Digital Audio, 2nd a Quicksilver. Front has almost oval doors on the drive bays.

There is a 733 Mhz DA but also a 733 Mhz Quicksliver. I own the Quicksilver 733 and a 667 Digital Audio.

And ALL Digital Audio's and Quicksilvers use an AGP 4X Slot and PC133 RAM .

I don't think the 4x would work in the 2x slot. I believe the 733 has a 4x slot, which is what you're currently using for runescape correct? I would find a compatible 4x AGP card. My 128mb card was 65 on ebay. I have a 64mb I can get to you for far less than that.

dtravis7 said:

My first question for you. You say the RAM is PC100. The Digital Audio and above used PC133. Most PC100 would not even post as it can not run at 133Mhz which is the bus on the Digital Audio.

Keep us posted on what you end up doing!

Click to expand...

I mistyped, all the DIMMs are pc133.

They are not quicksilvers, they are definately "Digital Audio" G4s.

I found a pair of Belkin USB2.0 PCI 32x cards that are Mac compatable. I added a card to each unit. The USB cards have an internal USB port, so I stuck some cheap 4GB thumb drives in there for no reason other than to do so. Is there a way to map the OSX equivalent of "My Documents" to it?

XMARLTONX said:

I don't think the 4x would work in the 2x slot. I believe the 733 has a 4x slot, which is what you're currently using for runescape correct? I would find a compatible 4x AGP card. My 128mb card was 65 on ebay. I have a 64mb I can get to you for far less than that.

Click to expand...

Hopefully it would be significantly less I am disinclined to spend money so my son can play Runescape, especially since he has an Athlon 64 X2 3800 with a GeForce 6800 GS to play it on. Still, I am interested in your 64mb card, how much you looking for for it?

Those Belkin cards work great. Have them in my DA and Quicksilver. Both have that 5th internal port.

On the saving to the flash drive, I right now can think of no setting to change the default document location. You can just go Save As and point to that flash drive.

I was digging through my shed 'o crap, and found one of my windows servers has a copper gigabit card that is compatable with Mac, I am going to install it into the 733.

I decided to put the 32MB radeon into the 733 as well, the active cooling may help down the road when playing Runescape.

I found a box of dell oem geforce 2s After trying about 4 or 5, I found a 64mb one that would allow it to boot. It supports the max resolution of my monitor, but the cursor is just a big square. Oh well, I am gonna try a SIIG sATA card in it next.

Zeke_D said:

I was digging through my shed 'o crap, and found one of my windows servers has a copper gigabit card that is compatable with Mac, I am going to install it into the 733.

Click to expand...

Are you 100% sure about this? I don't think there was a gigabit video card available ever for Macintosh computers up until the last year or so. Certainly not one that's compatible with a 9 year-old Powermac G4.

Or were you not talking about a video card?

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Are you 100% sure about this? I don't think there was a gigabit video card available ever for Macintosh computers up until the last year or so. Certainly not one that's compatible with a 9 year-old Powermac G4.

Or were you not talking about a video card?

- Nick

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was talkin about a pci-x gigabit ethernet card