New To The Mac World

[jetta02awp]

Hey everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Nick and I'm a long time PC junky. I have always wanted to try to jump into the Mac world and found a G4 Dual Core (QuickSilver?) 1 Ghz, 1GB RAM and 80GB HDD with OS X 10.4 with 17" Flat Panel, keyboard, mouse and HP printer for $80. I figured this would be a great opportunity to pick it up and dive in.

First impressions were wow! Super fast boot compared to Windows especially on an older computer.

I do have a few questions...

1. I would like to wipe it and start over from scratch but do not have the OS disk. Is there a recovery partition on the HD like most "box" PCs?

2. What is the latest version of OS X that I can use on it?

3. Wireless Networking? I have a Netgear WG111 USB network adapter and have downloaded the Mac OS drivers but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Has anyone had success using one of these? Or should I actually buy and Airport card for it?

4. Are there internal drive bays to add more hard drives? and if so are they SATA or PATA?

Thanks in advance! I look forward to being a member of the Mac community!

 

[chscag]

Welcome to the Mac Forums.

1. No recovery partition. Apple just started using one with the release of Lion.
Without an install disk, you will be limited to what you have and not able to do any trouble shooting. A disk is a must.

2. The latest version of OS X which can be installed on that machine is Leopard. (10.5.8) Finding a Leopard retail disk (which is what you need) is difficult and can be expensive.

3. I'm not familiar with the wireless capabilities of that machine but generally, wireless adapters are not easy to get working right with OS X. And I really don't know if that machine can accept an Airport card.

4. Again not sure. But that machine likely uses PATA not SATA.

One of our older machine experts should be along soon to answer your questions better than I can. Stick around.

 

[kiscix]

The old G4 PM's are quite upgradable, to a point. I only recently got rid of the last of mine, and to be honest they're good, reliable machines.

If you're running 1ghz, it would be worth finding out if it's a quicksilver (one 'hole' at the bottom, drives at the top) or the Dual Optical (four 'holes' at the bottom, drives in the middle).

To answer your questions:

1. You'll need to get a full version of the install disc - for that box tbh i'd recommend OSX 10.4 (tiger). You should be able to pick these up on eBay, but make sure you get the full release as many people sell the 'gray' discs which can only be used for a specific computer and will be useless to you.

2. 10.5 Leopard is the best you can run, but for optimum performance on a 1ghz G4 i'd get 10.4 Tiger. I run Leopard on my PowerBook G4 @ 1.5ghz, and although it's acceptable for day to to day web browsing etc it's not as snappy on a G4 as Tiger is.

3. As chscag notes, wireless can be a little temperamental. I've used Sonnet stuff in the past on PowerMacs with no issues - best advise is give it a go and see what happens. If it doesn't work you can always get a 'proper' Airport card and you've not lost anything!

4. Drives on your machine are IDE (pata) but if you're relatively confident working inside the box you can add a SATA controller on to the PCI socket. If memory serves, depending on the year and exact model there's always one or two spare drive bays for something else to be hooked up. If you're lucky and have a Dual Optical then I think you have space for two more total in addition to the original drive.

I'd just pop the machine open and have a play around - the G4 PM is very easy to open and work on!

 

[jetta02awp]

I went to Micro Center today and picked up a Asus USB wireless adapter that said it was compatible with Mac OS X 10.3-10.6 So I bought it for $17 and it works just fine. Also, I contacted the previous owner and he managed to find ALL of the software that he had for it and gave it to me. Including and original OS X Tiger DVD. Thanks for all the info kiscix

 

[Mac23]

Sounds like you got a good deal for $80.

 

[chscag]

I went to Micro Center today and picked up a Asus USB wireless adapter that said it was compatible with Mac OS X 10.3-10.6 So I bought it for $17 and it works just fine. Also, I contacted the previous owner and he managed to find ALL of the software that he had for it and gave it to me. Including and original OS X Tiger DVD. Thanks for all the info kiscix

Great. Glad you got it working. Have fun with your "new" machine and visit us often.