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Mac Mini G4

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Icky
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Mac Mini G4

Post by Icky »

Finally got hold of the PowerPc version of the Mac mini the G4. I have wanted one of these for a while as you can run OS9, OSX10.4, 10.5, MorphOS and Linux.

Since getting the G4 from eBay I have upgraded the IDE HDD to a mSATA disk that houses an mSATA SD stick.

G4 opened and DVD / HDD caddy removed.
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HDD replaced with mSATA SSD stick adaptor. Using a 512GB SSD is far more than the original 80GB HDD.
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Options to boot to OS9, OSX 10.4 and OSX10.5
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Booting MorphOS to install
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Steve
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by Steve »

Nice :) I like the PPC era of Macs. I got myself a G4 Cube and a 1.67ghz 17'' G4 PowerBook. Have you heard of Sorbet Leopard? It's absolutely fantastic, I have Sorbet installed on both my machines. It's a modified version of Leopard with upgraded parts of the OS from Snow leopard, it's a LOT faster than leopard. It also comes with an awesome PPC app store and modern web browsers.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by rubber_jonnie »

I have a 17" Powebook G4, I've not tried much other than Tiger though as MorphOS at the time ran really slowly on it.

Lovely machine though.
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by CiH »

The Mac Mini G4 was my first non-Atari 'grown-up' machine.

I got it to access that broadband interweb thingy.

It did me nicely for a few years. I went on to the 2011 Intel edition. It was a nice machine, relatively cheap for a Mac, back in the day.

Currently have an M1 Macbook, which is sitting upstairs, whilst I type this on my phone (sigh!)
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by alexh »

Nice. Enjoy. They do benefit from maxing out System RAM and an SSD.

I've got one here. I've been looking to change it for the last version which had a 1.5GHz CPU and gfx card with 2x VRAM (64MB) but they are like rocking horse poo.
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Icky
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by Icky »

Steve wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 8:32 pm Nice :) I like the PPC era of Macs. I got myself a G4 Cube and a 1.67ghz 17'' G4 PowerBook. Have you heard of Sorbet Leopard? It's absolutely fantastic, I have Sorbet installed on both my machines. It's a modified version of Leopard with upgraded parts of the OS from Snow leopard, it's a LOT faster than leopard. It also comes with an awesome PPC app store and modern web browsers.
Hi Steve, yes Sorbet is pretty cool. Makes the Mini G4 feel a lot newer from an OS perspective (I know it's still old compared to the current OSX versions).
rubber_jonnie wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 9:23 pm I have a 17" Powebook G4, I've not tried much other than Tiger though as MorphOS at the time ran really slowly on it.

Lovely machine though.
Yeah always wanted a PowerPC chipped machine and have been looking around a bit. Went for this as it was a small form factor and not a big box in my ever complained about for taking up too much room retro collection. :)
CiH wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 9:29 pm The Mac Mini G4 was my first non-Atari 'grown-up' machine.

I got it to access that broadband interweb thingy.

It did me nicely for a few years. I went on to the 2011 Intel edition. It was a nice machine, relatively cheap for a Mac, back in the day.

Currently have an M1 Macbook, which is sitting upstairs, whilst I type this on my phone (sigh!)
My first Mac was when they went Intel, a nice iMac at the time. I haven't made it to the M series chips yet still holding out on Intel based Macs.
alexh wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:15 pm Nice. Enjoy. They do benefit from maxing out System RAM and an SSD.

I've got one here. I've been looking to change it for the last version which had a grx card with 2x VRAM but they are like rocking horse poo.
Yes, maxed RAM and SSD all fitted. Those last versions of Mac Mini G4s are difficult to find.
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by alexh »

The thing about Apple equipment is their original owners are in no way nostalgic, the majority are technophiles who want the latest technology as soon as it comes out and they usually don't care about past equipment in any way.

This means Apple computers do not hold their value at all, even the oldest ones, and unlike Amiga's you can usually pick up practically any Mac for next to nothing.

I did collect them for a while, Mac 128, SE, Classic, Color, II, Quadra, 7x00, 8x00, G4 iMac (each color), Powerbook, G4 iBook (each color), G5 iMac, G5 PowerMac, G4 MacMini etc. but the collection took up an entire room in my house and was worth less than my fully loaded Amiga A4000D :)
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mrbombermillzy
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by mrbombermillzy »

alexh wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 12:36 pm This means Apple computers do not hold their value at all, even the oldest ones, and unlike Amiga's you can usually pick up practically any Mac for next to nothing.
Hmm... I beg to differ. Well, the ones I wanted were/are still pricey. Namely the Quadra 660Av and the 840AV.

I have a 'big box' G4 Mac on the top of the cupboard which I dont have any plans for.

I am curious to see what @Icky does here with this one. MorphOS looks interesting.
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alexh
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by alexh »

mrbombermillzy wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 1:10 pm Hmm... I beg to differ. Well, the ones I wanted were/are still pricey. Namely the Quadra 660Av and the 840AV.
Is that because they were never sold in this country? Or were only on the market for a very short space of time? Absolute top spec so only manufactured in extremely low volume? These will be the EXCEPTION rather than the rule.

You can buy Apple computers from the same range, same era, sold in the UK for almost nothing. (e.g. Quadra 800 £84)
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Re: Mac Mini G4

Post by mrbombermillzy »

I have no idea really Alex; I havent gone far down the Apple route so I suppose you are right. :)

I guess the ones I found most interesting were these ones, as they had DMA capability and a built in DSP and TV in/out. However, the shipping from the USA was not kind and they both suffered from broken cases. :x
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