Found this collecting dust

[bassist1217]

So I was in a thrift store walking around killing time while my girlfriend was shopping, and I happened to spot this bad boy sitting on the back shelf. I got to looking at it, and there was a tag hanging from it that said "bad pwr sup" and the price on it was $50. So I snatched it up, got it home, and plugged it up... I get the flashing question mark. Power supply is good, HDD has just been wiped. So now I just need to figure out how I can get Mac installed on it, and get a keyboard and mouse for it. I've been checking sites like Craigslist and ebay for those and a copy of Leopard.

I've been a Windows user all my life, and have toyed around with Linux some, but never Mac. I've wanted one, I just never wanted to spend the money a Mac usually costs.

 

[Kevriano]

Looks like a G4 to me. Nice find.
Tiger may be better suited to it really, depending on it's spec, which is hard to discover without an OS!

 

[bassist1217]

Looks like a G4 to me. Nice find.
Tiger may be better suited to it really, depending on it's spec, which is hard to discover without an OS!

It's the G4 MDD. It came out with Tiger, but being that it has the dual CPUs, I want to just go ahead and put Leopard on it. It should run it fine, if not, I'll pick up a better video card and another GB of RAM, because it already has 1 GB (2 x 512).

Is there a way to tell by looking at the insides what the CPU freq. is. I'm crossing my fingers hoping it's the 1.25 model, but we'll see...

EDIT: Removed the heatsink and found a sticker... it's the dual 867 MHz model.

 

[Nethfel]

Yup, that looks like the MDD version - see here: Power Macintosh G4 867 DP (MDD) Specs (Mirrored Drive Doors, M8787LL/A, M8570, PowerMac3,6) @ EveryMac.com

Probably as Kev suggested, Tiger would be your best bet. Myself, I'd prolly throw Linux on that and have fun with a PPC linux box (currently I have a PB 12" acting as a server running Debian 5.03 - works quite well actually!)

 

[cwa107]

As far as the keyboard and mouse goes, you can use a standard USB keyboard and mouse. No need for anything fancy.

 

[bassist1217]

Yup, that looks like the MDD version - see here: Power Macintosh G4 867 DP (MDD) Specs (Mirrored Drive Doors, M8787LL/A, M8570, PowerMac3,6) @ EveryMac.com

Probably as Kev suggested, Tiger would be your best bet. Myself, I'd prolly throw Linux on that and have fun with a PPC linux box (currently I have a PB 12" acting as a server running Debian 5.03 - works quite well actually!)

I'm not too handy with Linux, though. I have another rig running Mandriva, and I can't get it to cooperate. My music won't play from my external HDD (pictures show up) and I can't figure out how to install anything.

 

[pigoo3]

So I was in a thrift store walking around killing time while my girlfriend was shopping, and I happened to spot this bad boy sitting on the back shelf. I got to looking at it, and there was a tag hanging from it that said "bad pwr sup" and the price on it was $50.

Nice find at the Thrift Store! You paid $50 for it...it's probably worth around $80.

To get this "puppy" running (assuming nothing is wrong with it) you will need:

- USB keyboard & mouse
- monitor
- copy of OS 10.4 or 10.5 (which is going to run you at least $100 bucks)

Also be aware that an 867mhz processor is the absolute minimum to install 10.5...so 10.5 could be a bit sluggish on this computer...10.4 may be better.

256meg of ram was what this shipped with..and these days you should probably have close to 1 gig...so you may need to upgrade the ram once you get an OS installed on it...and figure out how much ram is in it.

Although you got it for a decent price...it may cost more than you think to get this computer running & useable.

- Nick

 

[toMACsh]

I've been checking sites like Craigslist and ebay for those and a copy of Leopard.

Based on your posts, I assume you know the difference between the retail disc and model-specific, gray discs.

Find Apple's phone number at the online Apple Store and call them. They were selling Leopard retail discs, but not listing them on the web site. Of course, the brick and mortars don't have 'em either. They're not cheap.

 

[Chris H.]

So I was in a thrift store walking around killing time while my girlfriend was shopping, and I happened to spot this bad boy sitting on the back shelf. I got to looking at it, and there was a tag hanging from it that said "bad pwr sup" and the price on it was $50. So I snatched it up, got it home, and plugged it up... I get the flashing question mark. Power supply is good, HDD has just been wiped. So now I just need to figure out how I can get Mac installed on it, and get a keyboard and mouse for it. I've been checking sites like Craigslist and ebay for those and a copy of Leopard.

I've been a Windows user all my life, and have toyed around with Linux some, but never Mac. I've wanted one, I just never wanted to spend the money a Mac usually costs.

(Drools)

That is a beautiful Mirror Drive Door. I have a Sawtooth G4 myself, nothing has gone wrong on it yet, I'm in the middle of a crisis though- I want to use it with Tiger Server and I want to fill in the hard drive spaces with more drives, and upgrade the RAM. You can't go wrong with these machines.

 

[stickerdontwork]

nice machine. i wonder if there is a way to upgrade the processor with out upgrading the mother board?

 

[Chris H.]

nice machine. i wonder if there is a way to upgrade the processor with out upgrading the mother board?

There is no way. These boards are proprietary, essentially the board varies from each release of the Power Mac G4. And what the board comes with, is in no way capable of handling a newer PPC chip- i.e. a Sawtooth board cannot handle a MDD PPC chip and vice versa. I was thinking about replacing the Sawtooth in my Power Mac G4, but then I decided it would ruin the sentimental value of the machine.

Plus I think the processor is glued.

 

[pigoo3]

There is no way. These boards are proprietary, essentially the board varies from each release of the Power Mac G4. And what the board comes with, is in no way capable of handling a newer PPC chip- i.e. a Sawtooth board cannot handle a MDD PPC chip and vice versa. I was thinking about replacing the Sawtooth in my Power Mac G4, but then I decided it would ruin the sentimental value of the machine.

Plus I think the processor is glued.

Not exactly. I think that you're mostly thinking about taking the CPU from one Macintosh computer & putting it into another Macintosh computer. So you are correct that swapping CPU boards from one Mac to another Mac generally is not possible.

But one upgrade option that is/was quite common (until the G5 & later computers) was a 3rd party processor upgrade.

Here's one for G4 Mirror Drive Door computers:

Sonnet Encore/MDX G4 Duet Dual 1.8GHz Proces... (XG4D-1800) at OWC

But at $589 it is very very expensive...and it wouldn't make much sense to buy it (you could buy a dual G5 cheaper).

This is one of the reasons why when folks ask about upgrading an older computer...we usually say it's not worth it...especially if we are talking a processor upgrade.

- Nick

 

[Chris H.]

Not exactly. I think that you're mostly thinking about taking the CPU from one Macintosh computer & putting it into another Macintosh computer. So you are correct that swapping CPU boards from one Mac to another Mac generally is not possible.

But one upgrade option that is/was quite common (until the G5 & later computers) was a 3rd party processor upgrade.

Here's one for G4 Mirror Drive Door computers:

Sonnet Encore/MDX G4 Duet Dual 1.8GHz Proces... (XG4D-1800) at OWC

But at $589 it is very very expensive...and it wouldn't make much sense to buy it (you could buy a dual G5 cheaper).

This is one of the reasons why when folks ask about upgrading an older computer...we usually say it's not worth it...especially if we are talking a processor upgrade.

- Nick

*Smacks forehead*

I remember someone here telling me that the very first time...and it isn't really worth it either.