Tinkering with a Power Macintosh MDD G4 "Windtunnel" (dual 1.0 GHz)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- Looking at a "Windtunnel" PMG4 that really lives up to its name. I think I am dealing with an overheating problem.
If you know the exact characteristics of the original heatsink screws (thread pitch, length, size, etc.) please tell me. The previous owner lost a few of them! (This is the kind of thing I'd have figured was in the Apple service manual, but it's not.)
Very curiously, Debian never caused the fans in this system to rev up even slightly. Perhaps their processor idling algorithm is better or their software is better optimized/behaved than Mac OS X. Neither did Debian ever exhibit the periodic instability of Mac OS X.
By the way, this computer does in fact have a modem in place. That's just another hazard of making videos very late at night.
There was a Power Macintosh G5 that I probably could have talked my way into owning, but those things are a massive white elephant that I just don't want. (I have one already that's in need of some love. The aluminum case and its styling do not appeal to me in the slightest.)
Interestingly, it appears that the power button LED is pulse-width modulated even at "full" intensity. It's solidly lit in "real life". The blinking you see is a result of the camera's shutter and the PWM drive frequency "beating" against one another.
Hardware Monitor for Mac OS X: www.bresink.co...
Finally, I did happen to notice that some time after the computer revved its fans up, that the cricket's stridulations (your word for the day and apparently Firefox's as well) became louder!
Truly amazing amount of metal to do very little. Years ago, added components made these high-end video editing stations. I configured several at a now defunct company.
You got luckier than I did. I got that very same machine for free a few years back from my old volunteer gig and was never told what exactly went wrong with it. Plugged it in and got a REAL smoke test for sure from the power supply. Ended up finding a wiring diagram and wired up an ATX PSU to it and to my amazement, it still worked fine.
AFAIK, the 'ol MDD lives to this day, albeit with Dell0304 as I simply had no use for it.
"Mac OS X will be installed on the "Incredibly Noisy Macintosh" volume."
Absolutely Wonderful.
Soundtrack by "Boeing Test Facility"
Wind tunnel indeed. I loved your story of this computer's bringup!
Lovely to see a Mac on this channel - it's been too long! I'm quite a 'fan' of this machine style. For such a small space, you can fit a fair bit of stuff in the case. I have the Dual 1.25GHz with the copper heatsink, and it has never been as loud as yours. As far as I know, it still has the original thermal compound.
Just as loud as I remembered!
Funnily enough though, I have a Dell OptiPlex 780 SFF kicking around that spins up much higher, and much louder than this thing - I'll have to do a video of it some day as well.
I'm watching this on my South Georgia porch and you just made me perk up and notice the crickets chirping outside.
i just got a G4 just like this
on craigslist for $10 as is not working. got it working with in 5 minutes of fiddling with it. it came loaded with a clean install of OS 10.5 on a 60GB HDD + a clean 150GB HDD, 2GB(4x512mb), 64MB Radeon 9000 Pro and a dual 876MHz CPU
Perhaps a thread finder tool at an auto parts store? When I was working at one we had that tool behind the counter for the public to use free. I know this video is old, and the project may not be around any more. I have been binging your posts and enjoy them quite a bit. You can really squeeze the last drops of useful life from old hardware, and I admire that. i hope to see more, but I understand the lack of enthusiasm to engage with the endless trolls and outright idiots. Thanks for what you have made!
I got the screws from someone who was parting out a similar machine. Yes, a thread finder might have worked and had I thought of it, I could have borrowed one.
Now it seems that I can't find the heatsink.
That machine does actually have a modem in it, it's screwed (and plugged into) the motherboard right next to the cable you mentioned goes to it. That cable is simply the connection to the jack at the back of the case.
There's a lot of Mac related things floating around in your brain isn't there Colin ;)
Wobbled I work with Macs on nearly a daily basis, so yes.
I have no idea what I was thinking when I said that. I didn't catch it until I'd uploaded the video -- so there is a note in the description.
My favorite power mac I ever had was a digital audio dual 450mhz G4. Back in the days when Tiger was still usable that machine rocked! Powerful stable as hell. I must admit I do miss it perhaps if one comes my way I will pick it up for nostalgia sack
I certainly hope that you are able to get this machine up and running. I really do love the late Power Macs....well, as much as a Windows man can. I always do like your computer content!
So far nobody has come forward with any information about the screws, and I lost another one not long after making the video. (It's under the dryer, if I could be bothered to move it.)
I have the 2x867Mhz version of this machine in perfect working order. Bought it new in 2002 with Jaguar. Only part replaced in mine is the harddisks.
I retired it in 2007 with a Mac Pro but its still something I can fire up. I'm on a trip now but I will be back next weekend if there is anything you want me to check out for you I can try to do that. :)
Hi, uxwbill, I really enjoy your channel. I also love these computer videos. Keep up the good work!
That is a dual processor unit. I had one of those and loved it. The smaller lower fan is for the dual processor which can get warm and the fan will spin up as it gets warmer. I used mine for 10 years without any issues. I loved it.
I still have this, and finally managed to track down the needed hardware. Only now I can't find the heat sink! I guess it's always got to be something...
Being born partly def I generally don't mind loud computers as I'm wearing headphones/earbuds most of the time anyways, but good lord this system is as loud as my household vacuum, and shop air compressor.
***** Well ever since Woz left the company, and Jobs returned Apple has been more about form over true function, and I think that was the case here where Jobs said make it look good, slap a high price on it, and the idiots will buy it even if it's loud as all fuck, and barely works without cooking itself to death lol! Just look at their newest IPhones that have what they have called in their own terms "Touch Disease" meaning they sold people a defective product, and are still making people fork out almost $200 to get their units fixed calling it user error instead of doing the right thing of fully admitting their product is shit, and outright giving their customers a new unit. Old Apple with Woz I loved, everything Apple after that can go fuck itself.
I have a PM G4 'Quicksilver 2002' which is the model immediately before this one. I got my hands on a 1.8GHz single processor upgrade for it. Just got to a part in the video where you mentioned doing the same! I had mine setup to be mom and dad's computer, just this last Christmas I finally got them a 2010 iMac to replace it with, much newer and faster.
I did 2 videos on rebuilding a MDD G4 DP system. Mine is the last model you mention, and during the process of repair, I upgraded the CPU to a 1.33DP card out of an XServer, which fit perfectly, so I have some insights to share with you, and you are very welcome to watch those videos to see what I am talking about.
First thing, as you mention there are components on both sides, including a rather large chip with a heatsink, which I am assuming is the memory controller. That little fan on the case in front of the motherboard blows are ( very small amount ) through some makeshift ducting that exists under the motherboard to cool that controllers heatsink. In the case of mine, that chip developed bad solder joints as it is a BGA. The heatsink standing upright on the motherboard does indeed cool ( or make the best effort it can anyway ) the audio amplifier on the back side, which has an impressive watt figure, and I do have those Pro speakers that go along with it. They sound decent.
Second, I think you are missing the cpu retention clip that is part of the black bracket you mention. I can't tell for certain if you are or not, but mine has a clip on that black bracket that the cpu card slides into and has some spring tension to keep that side of the card down.
Third, the holes on the CPU card are mounting holes, but they are used to fix the cpu board directly to the heatsink that comes on the Xserver version.
The cpu board on mine also had a bit of a bow in it, and I think the way Apple mounted the cpu card directly to the heatsink on the Xserver models was a much better way to go instead of relying on pressure from the PCB to keep the die(s) in contact with the heatsink.
I spent a lot of time on my Dual 867mhz MDD trying to tackle the noise, what with the third party programs, firmware updates, and looking into aftermarket fans and power supplies. It was in use as a dedicated minecraft server at the time so it was of importance but I soon had a machine powerful enough to run the server and play on at the same time. Just as well as the windtunnel was still noisier than any other computer I owned.
I just did a video myself on an eBay find I picked up yesterday, a 2006 eMac G4 1.42GHz which I find to be more capable even if not as easy to work on - and using a CRT that late is a rarity also really, although it was indeed discontinued that year.
I have a few variants of this machine. It will take 4x hard drives with an additional caddy. I also have a 256 Mg Graphics card and a SATA card to boot form an SSD.
They do make a lot of noise but I use mine to rip CDs and make up my own mixes and they play them in the car.
Keep going it's quite rewarding when you have a running version.
I'd love to put this thing to some good use. Nobody's ever stepped up with the specs for the heatsink screws, and no hardware store that I have access to has anything remotely close. It actually ran a lot more quietly under Debian PPC than it did Mac OS X, which came as quite a surprise.
uxwbill probably silly question. Have you tried apple/there website?
I got the MDD with the dual 1.25GHz dual G4, beautiful machine! I got Mac OS 9 installed on it
I have refurbished a few of the older aluminum G5 machines at work, every once in awhile someone comes in and picks one up for $30 or $40 bucks, even though I do explain they have become virtually useless at even simple everyday tasks. I think people buy them just for nostalgia sake or something, but let me tell you, refurbishing any of the older PPC machines is never short, sweet, and to the point. I run into some kind of hurdle on every single one I ever work on. I almost never have the same problems refurbishing a Dell Dimension Windows box from the same era.
That thing's louder than my ProLiant Gen5!
My god how cool I’ve been looking for one for a LONG time
a lot of these came with the almighty infamous "IBM deathstar" Hard drives. Which ended up dying in a very short time. My old job we had one come in that had one that died to the click of death.We opened up the drive (it was gone anyway) and noticed the platters were clear! The heads crashed so severely, all that was left was the clear glass media.
There's a good change the missing card was a SCSI card, you could optionally get it with one of those and the matching SCSI drives if you ordered it that way.
That thing is crazy loud! I would install a aftermarket fan control tool, so that does not happen so often!
Wouldn't that make the system kill itself with heat?
watch the video, it was loud cause it wasnt making proper contact and didnt have paste
I recall dealing with some G3 or G4 Macs years ago that absolutely would not run right unless you had a genuine apple logo'd hard drive. It was something to do with the CMD IDE controller chip that needed the special Mac firmware on the drive. I found that out the hard way after having to make numerous trips back to someone's computer after I upgraded the hard drive.
As far as my experience has gone with machines like this one he has, and my Quicksilver 2001, they tend to be OK with any make of drive. But I know some have been very picky over the years, like the newer Macs that will not read a temperature sensor on a drive that's not an Apple supplied one. What a frustration...
Really enjoyed this video :) I look forward to the followup!
It *is* quite amazing how much of a difference software optimization (and SSE2 support) can make.
-A dual-CPU PPC G4 at 1GHz can't smoothly play 240p
-A single-core Athlon XP (K7, SSE) at 2.2GHz barely handles 360p (92% CPU load) using Firefox's HTML5 player, under WinXP.
-A single-core Athlon 64 (K8, SSE2/SSE3) @ 2.4GHz can easily handle 720p (76% CPU load) using Chrome's HTML5 player, under Win7.
I have an old Athlon 3000+ lieing around (XP). I should try to get it to play youtube once I get around to reinstalling windows on it. It's a Compaq Presario, the model number slips my mind.
BALL-TRACKING USB MICE EXIST!
They seem to be about as rare as a working installation of Windows 10 -joking but not really-, if not more, around here.
And don't say that model is loud until you've seen a quad-G5 Power Mac.
Good luck getting that to work. I think one of the G4 had a 'fan patch' that updated the firmware cause the fan was nossey.
I'm still looking for heatsink screws. The firmware is fully updated, and was before I got the system. It's the heatsink that seems to be the big problem, since it doesn't sit level without all screws in place.
Could you harvest them from another broken computer of the same type? You could find a 'dead' for parts one on ebay, maybe? I wonder if someone over at 68kmla.org/forums/ would know where to get a replacement screw.?
Finding the mirror door G4s locally is a pain, even at the PC recyclers. You could probably make enough to get this 1.25 Ghz shipped to you by selling yours off for parts! www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Powermac-G4-M8570-EMC-No-1914-/351960460112?hash=item51f27a6b50:g:6~QAAOSw9GhYf7h8
I know the challenge is the fun, but you might look at finding a G5 Dual on Craigslist, there seem to be many more of them out there. I picked up a Power Macintosh G5 2.0 DP for $50. We had 50 of them in our lab and they held up really well over our 5 year cycle - they could go into panic mode after an update, and with 9 fans in each of them, it was great white noise to drown out the talkers!
I have the Server tower about 2 versions before this model, the Digital Audio. It's about as loud. Way back when I maxed out the RAM, installed a PCI USB 2.0 card, a DVD burner and a bluetooth dongle. Still does everything but youtube pretty well.
I also have a few Xserves, including an earlier 1U G4, makes these towers seem almost silent.
Remove and/or replace the PRAM battery NOW, they leak like crazy on old Macs. Mouser sells them.
hay uxwbill i have been watching your videos lately and have been enjoying them and find them very intriguing =)
I think you should continue the adventure for Apple Powermac G4.
There certainly will be more said about this computer in the future. I want to do a lot more with it.
I've got a G4. :) When I found out it was the last mac to ever natively support OS 9, I decided that's what makes the machine special, and so I've stuck OS 9.2 on it. The raspberry pi sitting next to it makes a lot less noise, has superior components, and can also run Debian. :P
Interesting video.
I (still) have a "1st Generation" iMac G5 (the white one), from end 2004 (which broke down after 11 months and received a new logic board). It ran/runs "Tiger", but I don't really use it anymore. It has indeed become "obsolete".
And I own a "refurbished" mid-2011 iMac, which is running El Capitan quite nicely. Whoever owned it, took very good care of it, for it looks (and works - knock on wood) just like new.
That is very sad that The Internet has many slow websites which makes perfectly good older computers unusable.
I hope you find the missing parts! I'm a Windows man, but these late Power Macs are really interesting.
Those hold down screws have washers, i expected to see some helical springs under the screw heads to keep the pressure on, and possibly allow the natural leveling of the heatsink on the processors.
I like your discription, "a pershon" he he sorry bill :-(.
the cricket is still louder. :) I had to change the fans on a many of these machines. It was a free service from Apple.
But I wish I had one of those.
And I thought the SCSI Drive to my Amiga 500 was loud LOL
Even though these were deservedly known as the "Windtunnel", they should not be as loud as this one is. Someone didn't put all the CPU heatsink screws back.
I've never found replacements, so it sits and waits.
I actually had this and a G5 as my first Mac Towers… they both blew up on me due to overheating issues… what a time.
If your interested Bill.
You can download Mr Gecko's Youview. It's no longer actively developed I think the guy's meant to be working on a bigger project.
It allows you to watch UA-cam using Quicktime like the iOS devices instead of in the browser with Flash. It also allows you to comment and log in aswell as otherthings.
It works very well on my Powerbook G4 1.6 GHz with 10.4.
I'm also glad somebody is still maintaining an active interest in keeping the PowerPC architecture alive.
Especially as one day we may need legacy software support to do some things you dunno sometimes legacy systems run the worlds most important things.
Great video keep em up.
TenFourFox's author publishes the Quicktime Enabler extension, which does similar things and is under current development. If I use anything at all, that's what I'll use.
h.264 and WebM (VP8/VP9) are supposed to be watchable in their lower resolutions, but my Mac mini (1.25) won't do it even at 240p. This system got a lot closer.
CorePlayer is the best movie player for the PowerPC units. It's very efficient and takes great use of the AltiVec capabilities of the G4 and G5 chips. The software has been taken from sale years ago, but just this year someone made a patcher for it. Sure, it's technically not legal, but the software isn't for sale anymore either. I would've bought it if they still sold it because it does such an excellent job.
Well shoot, I was going to comment both about the power light and the modem card, but I see you've already addressed these in the description. It's a shame that I recently recycled a handful of these; I definitely could have given you some heatsink screws had I known you would need them.
I have that same test monitor for all of my old computers
I believe that G4 was missing both HDD brackets, there should be another below the 5.25 bays. The reason why Apple used the 1U power supply is because the MDD G4 was packaged so densely. There wasn't room for the ATX-ish size power supply that was in the older G4s. I have to agree with you about Apple's hardware design. I bought an iBook G4 new from Apple, it was a 14 inch 1.42ghz model. To access that machine's hard drive, the machine has to be almost completely disassembled. It is something like 45 screws, all of different lengths and sizes. I think Apple knew they screwed up with that, because the next generation machine, which was the 1st gen Macbook, you could remove the hard drive just by removing the battery.
Those where pretty decent machines back in the time i remember having one and using the crap out of it doing imovie projects one of apples biggest offers and demands to encode fast. They also where great web surfer back in the day it crazy how the web gotten and how older machines have become so unusable now. Pretty much any of the PowerPC Apples pretty much are done for as far as being able to use on the web useable. Now looks like apple cutting support for pretty much anything thats over 5 years or older like the first apple intel which also on the bottle neck for just being useable on the web. Ive been using Apples all the way though first ibook, powerbooks and power mac. Good luck on your repairs hopefully ya get some use still out of that g4
My decision had a little to do with the frankly still pathetic state of Linux usability. Most of it had to do with comparing this machine's performance with another, to see if I might be dealing with another problem on the other system.
That old Mac sounds like a vacuum cleaner!
Indeed it does! Kind of reminded me of my old late 2009 MacBook I just had for a few months after having some issues with my late 2011 MacBook Pro. That MacBook is able to run the latest version, that being macOS Sierra, but my God did the CPU fan had to work overtime on that thing since running the latest OS on 7 year old hardware isn't the most ideal. I mean, it works, but it's not efficient at all.
Speaking of MacBooks and Macbook Pros, I've now got myself a brand new late 2015 MacBook Pro and it is amazing! Even when doing something as demanding as watching a 60FPS UA-cam video, the fan barely breaks a sweat! Just goes to show how far we've come with our technology now.
When I heard the fan I thought the plate for the mount were covering the fan vent. I did that once. The fan had to circulation so it would rev up. I took the plate the video port out and it was fine. It was a mistake on my part.
My aunt was scrubbing the carpets which is LOUD. That reminded me of this video
The new trashcan Mac Pros are actually still made/assembled in the US.
The Macs with the later PowerPC processors are well known for overheating and blowing a lot of air out of the case. The noise of the PowerMac G4 and G5 gets so loud that it sounds like most Servers.
PowerMac G5 with dual processors are perfect for winters though. I legitimately used one to warm up my room some years ago when my apartments heating was broken.
My 2006 Mac Pro keeps my room nice and toasty
hi it's interesting to see when people open up the inside of G4 towers and, seeing the state of the inside, what's left and what's been taken. I myself, having bought three G4 towers no all to well this, I've a quicksilver 2002 700 Mhz model, that came with a 17' studio display, still looks great, albeit a little slow with the 1.5 gig ram limit and, two MDD G4, 1 Ghz FW 800 single core, and a second top of the line dual 1.42Ghz with a proper copper finned heat-sink, the power-supply had blown so was going cheep, had to use the power supply from the single core one. Samsung power supplies are rubbish. have loved doing it up has four HDD and two DVD drives, with a 64 MB Ati card.
I might be weird but i kinda like the look of the OS 8.x interface.
Not sure if Power Mac G4, or racecar.
You are very right seen more of these with dead power supply's that I can count and there a bugger to fix and "used to" be expensive to replace. I tried to fix one PSU that actually had a hole burned in the pcb.
Having to mess with an older Parallel ATA HDD really makes you thankful for SATA.
I'm not a fan of the connectors that were chosen for SATA. The best thing I can say for them is "finally, laptop and desktop drives have the same connectors".
uxwbill in tight spots unclipping SATA cables that have a latch on them is just all kinds of fun, but it's still an improvement over the big fat "what's airflow lol" ribbon cables. No master/slave malarkey either.
Is that monitor an HP w1907? If so, I used to run the same one with my old G5, so it's sure a funny coincidence. Even with TFF, the G5 (and this was a dual-processor model) was an absolute slug at browsing the web. The w1907 now joins my 22" Dell on the desk surface along with a ThinkPad T61p, which outperforms the G5 by a significant margin and operates whisper-quietly, even under heavy load.
I still find it amazing that Apple was able to transition from a design as ugly as the G3/G4 to something as beautiful and timeless as the G5 in such a short span of time, but that apparently didn't leave them any resources to make the internals any better.
The only way to make the internet even somewhat usable on these machines is to have lots of memory, and I'd even go as far as using an SSD. I have a PowerMac G5 dual 2.3 (not the dual-core model, simply dual-processor) and since they're SATA I tossed a SanDisk SSD into it. It's very snappy doing anything but internet stuff, where it slows some but is still somewhat usable. Somewhat. The PowerPC Macs are cool and collectible but if you're doing anything on the Web, they're useless.
I miss my old G4 :(
still looking forward to the next video ☺
Kernel Panic? Yes, back in those days Macs were really finicky about ram.
Aloving the sound. Music to my ears.
well I do wish I could help on this one as I had a MDD g4 go through my hands at one point, though what I got was a shell. so I don't know if I would have had the screw for it, but it does look like the screws that were used in other G4s, so maybe it won't be hard to find a match. unfortunately my system was the single 1.25g G4 variant, (I still have the cpu, though it's never been tested.) so I don't know if the heatsink would have matched anyway, that system was pretty much scrapped as I had no room for the case. to me the quicksilver was the better variant, as it used a better layout for the drives. as for a G5, I don't blame you, that whole line had a myriad of issues from overheating, bad caps, bad power supplies, leaks in the watercooled models, etc I only have one because someone gave it to me, it was supposed to have been the dual 1.8ghz model, but one of the cpus had gone bad, it was beaten battered, and basically stripped bare. but for the most part did power up, the project that resulted led me to basically take parts of three PCs, including case fans, optical drives, hard drives, Assorted sticks of ram, a flashed video card, and throw them together. it's not pretty and is basically a Frankensteined system. but it does run, I have 10.5.8 on it and the hottest I have ever made it get was 140 under a pretty heavy load. I actually have pictures of the inside lol, it's pretty scary
I hate that when parts are missing
I believe that those holes that would have fit screws were used if that same processor board were to be fit in an XServe of the same era and type, but don't quote me on that
steve jobs had some wicked designs
If you mean wicked as in dumb, yeah he had a few.
17:18 Those are screw holes. That Mac was definitely tampered with and some idiot lost the screws.
Also, the GeForce 2MX is not original. Must've been downgraded at some point. And TenFourFox does perform better on dual-processor systems.
Yeah it came with one of two video cards a radeon 9000 pro 64mb or a nvidia geforce4 ti 128mb
Also the GeForce 4MX as a baseline card. I have one with a factory 4MX in it.
I have some spare parts from the DDR-based AGP G5 that might help this issue. there's a 9600 or 9700 card and some RAM, but it'll have to be 4 sticks of 512 since the G4s only accepted 2GB maximum.
I have the same story. I recently got one of those from a thrift store. Its was a smoker's computer. One of the CPUs burnt out as soon as I plugged it in. lol. I got a new board and used Arctic Silver. But yea those boards are prone to flexing over time. And on certain early models the audio has tremendous feedback and noise. You got lucky the CPUs didn't burn out. You should be okay once you get another screw, and use decent thermal compound.
Try not to run the machine while its open. The larger black fan is responsible for cooling the CPU heat sink. But I'm sure you know this already =p
I've been considering building my new i7 machine into one of these cases. I picked up a couple of them for peanuts a few years back. But now I look at that interior... ..airflow is gonna be an absolute arse to manage.
Positive it isn't a vacuum cleaner disguised as a computer?
That computer sounds almost exactly like the inducer in my furnace. Just as useless on the modern Internet, too. :P
If you ever experience a flame rollout, you may come to the conclusion that your furnace is quite good at rendering "Flash" content.
Thank you, I'm here all day, except when I'm not.
I have a Mac Mini G4, running tiger
By the way, Your machine does have a modem
it is actually the card with the plastic white piece with a red logo on it
next to where the airport car
Such is the hazard of making videos late at night, or when I'm tired.
uxwbill Thats something I can understand, working on computers alot
I recently got a Dell PowerEgde T410 dual processor that I am getting ready to be used as a main computer
My PowerMac G5 could be classed as a wind tunnel too! :p It's a dual 1.8 G5 system with 2GB RAM, and when that thing does anything (from booting the OS to playing games) it revs up quite a fair bit. At full speed, it's probably loud enough to blow out windows, haha.
I'm not too much into Apple's PCs. It's not the hardware that I have the problem with either. It's that "Do it all for you" attitude that they take with them. I'm one of those who likes to select his on options. I also don't like the fact that Apple's write positional data to the hard drive every time you move an icon, window, or anything else on the desktop's workspace. Should the power fail during one of these writes, it usually corrupts the file tables. Having to reinstall an OS just because I was moving something when the power failed is not an attractive thought. I'm told they did away with this in JFS4 since the advent usage of SSDs. The cost is still prohibitive for me though as I can't excuse spending nearly $1000.00 more for a computer that does essentially the same thing as one I can build for that much less including software. I don't hate Apple. I just think they committed to a poor implementation for their OS and they overcharge for them. For me, that's a fail.
Both sides of the argument have very valid points. What I want depends greatly upon what I'm doing. When the computer is a means to an end, a "stop along the way", I don't want to play 20 questions or usability nightmare. I want to get my work done and move on. Other times I do enjoy digging into a good computing project and being able to specify exactly what I want.
Like 'em or hate 'em, Apple has had their moments where they really DID just "get it right" almost all of the time. Unfortunately, and just as it happened when Steve Jobs left the first time, I feel they're going off the track again.
You should try to get your hands on the dual CPU dual core PowerMac G5 that thing gets pretty loud, and is liquid cooled. It also gets really hot.
Not all of those were liquid cooled. I have an air cooled dual CPU PMG5.
As the liquid cooling system has a reputation for being unreliable (along with doing a lot of damage if ever it does leak), I don't like the visual styling of the G5, and I think they're a white elephant, I'll pass. The one I've got needs a lot of work and parts, and I'm just not sure I care enough to invest in either.
Borrow from Peter to pay Paul!
www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Powermac-G4-M8570-EMC-No-1914-/351960460112?hash=item51f27a6b50:g:6~QAAOSw9GhYf7h8
Apparently the previous owner swapped out the video card. The tag showed it was shipped with a Radeon 9000 Pro.
Maybe I meant "9000" when I said "7000". In any event, that would be a FAR better video card for this system. I'm pretty serious about bringing it up in reasonable amounts, so I'm on the lookout for a reasonably priced and capable video card. (The Radeon X800 seems like it'd be a good midrange choice out of what's available. I'd like to find one I won't have to crossflash -- just because I'd rather not be bothered with it -- and that won't cost a fortune.)
*****
Still, the GF2MX would've been a quicksilver card iirc. My girlfriend's MDD has the 9000Pro and it's definitely a capable card.
One downside to any pre-9500 ATI card and pre-5200 Nvidia card is the lack of CoreImage support (and it's flakey on the 5200).
The X800 or X850 would be the top end this machine will take. I haven't seen cheap Mac versions on eBay though.
The X800 is a great choice if found for an affordable price. I got very lucky and got a pre-flashed (it came from a PMG5) X800 for 10 bucks.
Can you revisit this Power Mac
Didn't even know systems this old even had L3 cache, my 2010 Athlon II processor doesn't even have L3 cache haha.
I have one of these still sitting around. I got random crashes. The problem was the hard drives that go in the carrier you have there. The drives are mounted right next to the heat sink and they heat the drives up till they shut down. I moved them to the bays under the optical drives which are slightly slower buses but never had a crash after that.
when you going to do a follow-up video to this one
When someone produces the specifications I require to get more heatsink screws.
uxwbill for sure thanks for the reply
I believe iCab still release PPC browsers.
I wonder whether that G4 or the quad G5 is actually louder in full windtunnel mode. I've only had the latter personally and, man, it is impressively loud when it gets going.
Owning both a 1.42GHz DP MDD, and a G5 Quad, from my findings, when you really push them, the Quad is more loud.
Have you ever seen a 478 socket melted ? I found a pc on the road side it looked good until I took off the cooler and got a surprise
I don't have any pics but it happned
huh, i believe i own the same screen. hp w2007v?
Fixerupper or not, I am legitimately jealous of that computer, as well as your 9600. I grew up with Macintosh computers and those are two models I've always been interested in owning.
The 9600 350 simply because it's one of the most powerful pre-Gx series beige tower computers Apple ever made, and I grew up with all those beige Macs... And the G4 MDD because I view it as the most flexible and powerful Mac for running anything short of really old software meant for System 6 and before.
The 9600 would also be interesting to install 7.6 on just for a trip down memory lane. Go play Prince of Persia or something. But if I was going to do that, I think I'd actually rather get a really weird clone, one of those ones with four processors or something dumb like that.
A great thing about the 9600 is that there are PCI card processor upgrades that effectively put it right on par with a G4, due to being a G4 processor on a card.
yes. these power supplies are infamous for failing. I once trashpicked a computer like this, it was totally strapped and I could actually sell the power supply for 150€ (approx. 160 US$) in an eBay auction.
Shelf Queen....that's pretty good!
actually i think MDD can run OS9 BUT you haveto hunt for a modified OS9 Disc image. but if you want to upgrade the Graphics card, you have a HUGE list of options both Stock mac cards and PC AGP Cards that can be Flashed than a Power Mac G5, (about 4 PC Cards that can be flashed) vs the G4's that have a varied 20ish cards (and i envy you having the MDD G4 i have a Quicksilver 833mhz Model)
Some variants of the MDD can and others cannot.
What I really want is someone to step up and deliver the goods on exactly what kind of screws are used to hold the heatsink in place on these machines. There's going to come a time when I will decide it's never going to happen, and it won't survive a purge.
Some MDDs can run OS 9 but not the FireWire 800 ones (what I have)
mac garden has tiger downloads
That Macintosh model, mostly sounds like a server.
Wasn't that mentioned Mac Mini the one you reviewed on your website a long time ago?
5:23 that wire plugs into that circuit board with the canadian flag on it below the PRAM battery
It does have a modern but that cable isn't hooked up
When was the last time that Zenith tv was turned on and what do you use it for?
8 out of 10 MDD G4s I've seen had an issue with leaking caps on the PSU. The PSUs on these SUCK! All of the Quicksilvers. 466MHz Sawtooth on the other hand, these seem to be built for eternity. Of, course all of those machines are mostly useless these days, aside from nostalgia and because it looks cool.
emac owner here, mine also had bloated caps
What about all of the Quicksilvers? I have one that has worked great since I first got it in 2010.
Mine's been running for ages but still works great... I know it will die eventually though :(
@@qwertykeyboard5901 eMac is so cool, basically an opaque iMac G3 with a G4 CPU!
I have 7 of these computers ranging from the single core 1.25 MHz version through to the dual 1.47 MHz version.
The dual 1.47 no longer boots but just gives a flashing power indicator.
The rest work fine and I have filled one with 4 hard drives to rip all my CD collection.
Basement Crickets are good luck, from what I've heard.
I have an old G3 that still works only needs OSX redone