A 450 mhz G4 isn't pitifully slow is it?

[MovingTarget]

I can vouch for that. My iBook G4 wasn't really all that great until I upgraded it to 1Gb ram. Still running Tiger. 512 isn't enough for most macs.

 

[Steve]

I'm glad I found this thread, I am considering getting/building a PC for my mother this Christmas and in return I'd take her old G4. It's 400MHz, with 1GB of RAM (PC-100), and a PCI 9200. I take it from this thread that 10.3 will run faster on it than later versions.

What I'd like to know is, aside from the link about soldering to overclock, does OS X play nice with CPU upgraders? I know they're expensive but maybe I'll get lucky and find a deal. I'd like to get it up to around 800 MHz, and basically just use this machine for learning OS X.

 

[Eug]

CPU upgrades are too expensive.

I wouldn't bother with 10.3. It's too old.

 

[Steve]

Questions unanswered.

 

[Eug]

Again, don't bother with Panther. It's too old. Tiger is a great OS, but Leopard is even nicer... although it's a bit too new, so there are some software incompatibilities.

CPU upgrades generally work fine with Leopard. However, some of them require some gymnastics to get Leopard installed because:

1) Leopard requires an 867 MHz or faster CPU to install. However, once installed, Leopard works fine, even with slower CPUs. There are easy hacks out there to get Leopard to install on slower CPUs. Or if you have a second Mac, you can simply use target mode to install, or you can clone a Leopard install.

2) Some CPU upgrades have extra software or dipswitch settings that are needed to get Leopard installed.

However, like I said, I wouldn't bother, because you'll likely have to spend $200-300 to get a reasonable CPU upgrade. Used ones are uncommon, and even they usually aren't that cheap. You'd be better off just selling your machine and buying a used Mac mini, or else a used G4 iMac. Or else just use it with the G4 400.

 

[Steve]

Thank you!

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: Steve
I'm glad I found this thread, I am considering getting/building a PC for my mother this Christmas and in return I'd take her old G4. It's 400MHz, with 1GB of RAM (PC-100), and a PCI 9200. I take it from this thread that 10.3 will run faster on it than later versions.

What I'd like to know is, aside from the link about soldering to overclock, does OS X play nice with CPU upgraders? I know they're expensive but maybe I'll get lucky and find a deal. I'd like to get it up to around 800 MHz, and basically just use this machine for learning OS X.

osx is fine with cpu upgrades....think about osx86. they work fine with intel and amd machines. just make sure you use a compatible cpu with the mobo.

but honestly...if anyone was spending over 400 bucks to upgrade an old old mac, i'd just say to tell with it and get a mac mini.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman

Originally posted by: Steve
I'm glad I found this thread, I am considering getting/building a PC for my mother this Christmas and in return I'd take her old G4. It's 400MHz, with 1GB of RAM (PC-100), and a PCI 9200. I take it from this thread that 10.3 will run faster on it than later versions.

What I'd like to know is, aside from the link about soldering to overclock, does OS X play nice with CPU upgraders? I know they're expensive but maybe I'll get lucky and find a deal. I'd like to get it up to around 800 MHz, and basically just use this machine for learning OS X.

osx is fine with cpu upgrades....think about osx86. they work fine with intel and amd machines. just make sure you use a compatible cpu with the mobo.

but honestly...if anyone was spending over 400 bucks to upgrade an old old mac, i'd just say to tell with it and get a mac mini.

I meant those CPU upgrade cards, like Sonnet.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: bearxor
I just saw this today... Maybe you'd like to try it:

http://power-mac-g4.com/g4clockup.html

I wonder if those jumper settings would work with a Yikes! system, though it has a G4 400 I seem to recall reading somewhere that it's more like a G3 overall.

 

[bigsnyder]

10.4 loves Ram, you will even notice the benefit with the 450Mhz G4.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

I installed Tiger 10.4 on a 450 Mhz G4 and 196 Megs of ram and it doesn't run bad at all. I'm pretty impressed.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: indigo196
I am curious if Apple's EULA is even legal... but you are correct I was referring to Darwin which appears to be a 'free' version of OSX -- though they likely cut some stuff out.

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/

Darwin 9.0 appears to be equivalent to OS X 10.5 though the last binary release for it was Darwin 8.0 which is 10.4

Darwin will give you the OS X underpinnings, but it won't give you Aqua (Apple's GUI) and thus most OS X applications will not run on it.

 

[pukemon]

I'm running Tiger on a Power Mac G4/400 - but the only thing I really use on it is Firefox and the calculator widget. It runs well, but I have 1.5GB of RAM on it. I guess saving those PC100/133 sticks from the P3/original Athlon days were good for something. ;-)