iMac G4 20" (2003) redux - 2 GB RAM, wireless Bluetooth peripherals

[Eug]

This is really a continuation of posts from this thread but I thought I'd show some pix in a new thread.

I have a bunch of G4s, including the last G4 20" iMac with USB 2, from almost a decade ago (late 2003). I've since downgraded almost of my other G4 Macs to 10.4.11 because 10.5.8 on them with all the various security updates has become incredibly slow. Even with 1.25 GB RAM, they will page to disk just surfing with Safari, bringing everything to a crawl. However, the 20" iMac can be upgraded to 2 GB RAM, so I did that. Way, way better for surfing. No pageouts in 10.5.8 with casual use.

Sorry for the colour balance, but the iMac picture was taken under incandescent light.

I was happy to learn that with some Apple-issued drivers for 10.5.8, you can also add the aluminum wireless Bluetooth keyboard and the Magic Mouse. I had one of each extra sitting in the cupboard, so now I can put them to good use.

I bought it used, and it came with 1 GB PC2700 CL3 ECC and a 256 MB SODIMM. I've since replaced the SODIMM with a 1 GB stick of CL2.5.

Specs:

OS X 10.5.8
1.25 GHz G4 (167 MHz bus)
2 GB DDR333 PC2700 RAM
nVidia GeForce 5200 Ultra 64 MB (I get the Dashboard ripple! )
20" 1680x1050 LCD
160 GB WD 7200 rpm hard drive
Pioneer DVD+/-RW
USB 2.0 & Firewire 400
100 Mbps Ethernet
802.11g
D-Link DBT-120 Bluetooth adapter
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard (aluminum)

So, the moral of the story is:

With a G4 and 1.25 GB RAM or less, I would recommend 10.4.11.

With a G4 and 2 GB RAM, I would recommend 10.5.8, particularly if want to run the latest Bluetooth peripherals and some other stuff.

Next up is my 1.7 GHz Cube. It only has a 100 MHz bus which really slows it down, but it does have 1.5 GB RAM and a GeForce 6200 (hacked PC GPU). Right now it has 10.5.8 on it, but I'm thinking I might just have to downgrade that to 10.4.11 as well. I've already done that with my iBook G4 1.07 (1.25 GB) and my iMac G4 800 (1 GB).

 

[h2co32]

Love the old G4's. Excellent design, decent screen, and lots of nostalgia. Just obtained a 15" with OS 9.2.2 and OSX 10.3. Fun stuff!

 

[Eug]

Which 15"? The later ones run quite nicely with 10.4, at least if you have sufficient memory. 10.4 is the minimum I use on G4 Macs, even with my G4 450 Cube. 10.4 just seems more mature. Speed on 10.4 isn't any slower than 10.3. If anything, it might be faster actually. It also comes with Dashboard (which can eat up memory, so it's often best not to use it), and Spotlight (which is extremely useful IMO). Also, some apps require 10.4 or later, such as Microsoft apps like Office 2008 and Remote Desktop Connection. Also, Quicktime 7 is only available on 10.4 or later, and the 10.4.11's Safari is a significant update.

I don't use OS 9 at all, nor do I use Classic, but 10.4 also supports Classic if you need it.

 

[scootermaster]

HOW DARE YOU SIR?!

Just for this outrage, we must now discuss the overall power consumption of these iMacs!

 

[Eug]

Heh. I'll have to do some Wattage measurements on this 20" iMac. I'll guess it will be closer to 100 Watts rather than the 70-something for my 15".

BTW, Yahoo! Mail's new UI runs quite slow on these G4s. The UI requires extensive loading of bloated JavaScript. It's using it for drop down menus and stuff, but I'm thinking that they could write less bloated code. It's just a frickin' email reader interface after all.

One way around it is to turn off JavaScript and it then will allow you to revert it back to their classic mail interface which works just fine. Then you can turn JavaScript back on but Yahoo Mail will stay on the classic UI. It's stupid they don't have an option to let you downgrade. If you upgrade to the new UI, you're stuck there unless you know this particular trick. Most n00bs wouldn't know to do this.

 

[fr]

I also have a G4 iMac and a G4 Cube. I use them for decoration.

 

[Eug]

Heh. I'll have to do some Wattage measurements on this 20" iMac. I'll guess it will be closer to 100 Watts rather than the 70-something for my 15".

Depending the screen brightness and CPU load, it can max out at over 100 Watts, or idle under 50 Watts.

 

[Eug]

Hmmm... Magic Mouse scrolling works, but you don't get the iPhone-like momentum scrolling where it continues to scroll after you flick it.

With 10.5.8, as soon as you take your finger off the mouse, the scrolling stops dead in its tracks, sort of like with a scroll wheel on a 3rd party mouse. Ironically, the Magic Mouse scrolling prefs show that iPhone-like momentum scrolling in its demo.

However, the driver and OS actually do support it. You can turn it on with this command:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseMomentumScroll -bool yes

Now I get momentum scrolling. Sweet!