Power Macintosh G4 Tower

Michael Black wrote:

>>
> SUrely it has a model number. DOn't expect us to guess.
>
>
> Michael



Jeez ... sorry. I didn't realize there was more than one model. This
is apparently a 2002 quicksilver with a single 800 mhz processor.
Checking on the Apple site gives me the ram specs as pc133.

The harddrives listed for this machine are:

—40GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
—60GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
—80GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA


Are these IDE drives or is this a serial drive? Thanks!
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

In article <fmmh94$v2s$1@news.albasani.net>,
"Sarah D." <not_valid.TakeThisOut@notvalid.address> wrote:

> Michael Black wrote:
>
> >>
> > SUrely it has a model number. DOn't expect us to guess.
> >
> >
> > Michael
>
>
>
> Jeez ... sorry. I didn't realize there was more than one model. This
> is apparently a 2002 quicksilver with a single 800 mhz processor.
> Checking on the Apple site gives me the ram specs as pc133.
>
> The harddrives listed for this machine are:
>
> —40GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
> —60GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
> —80GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
>
>
> Are these IDE drives or is this a serial drive? Thanks!

Those are parallel ATA (or IDE) drives. Often referred to as PATA these
days. I do believe that model is not subject to the 128GB (or 137GB
depending on how you count) limit so you can stick some fairly large
HD's in there.

It's an ATA-66 bus, but it should support the 48 bit LBA drives.

Greg B.

--
Actual e-mail address is gregbuchner and I'm located at gmail.com
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

Sarah D. wrote:
> Michael Black wrote:
>
>> SUrely it has a model number. DOn't expect us to guess.
>>
>>
>> Michael
>
>
>
> Jeez ... sorry. I didn't realize there was more than one model. This
> is apparently a 2002 quicksilver with a single 800 mhz processor.
> Checking on the Apple site gives me the ram specs as pc133.
>
> The harddrives listed for this machine are:
>
> —40GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
> —60GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
> —80GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
>
>
> Are these IDE drives or is this a serial drive? Thanks!
>

This will take standard IDE drives, no size limit on these machines,
300GB are quite a good price at the moment, you can run OS9.2.x or OSX
up to 10.4.11 with no problems, if you want to run 10.5.x there is a
small hack you have to do to fool the installer
(see: <http://lowendmac.com/osx/leopard/openfirmware.html>)
The Mac will take standard PC RAM (Up to 1.5GB)(However it is best to
get ram that is certified to work, as Mac's are less tolerant of out of
spec memory)
Good places to try are Memoryx (<http://www.memoryx.com/>)
or Crucial (<http://www.crucial.com/>).
An essential utility is MacTracker (<http://www.mactracker.ca/>) A
utility that gives you details on every Mac produced (it runs on Mac or PC).
Also Chipmunk (<http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html>)
will let you type in the serial No of your Mac and give you details such
as When and where it was made, and it's specification when it left the
factory. (well worth a look!).
If you wanted to use Serial drives with this Mac you would have to fit a
PCI SATA card, this will give you faster drives and allow you to fit
newer and larger drives in the future.
Hope this is of some help, all the best with what is a very nice machine.
Ben.
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

In article <null-BA96C7.22001016012008.DeleteThis@newsgroups.comcast.net>,
Greg Buchner <null.DeleteThis@none.invalid> wrote:

> In article <fmmh94$v2s$1@news.albasani.net>,
> "Sarah D." <not_valid.DeleteThis@notvalid.address> wrote:

> > Are these IDE drives or is this a serial drive? Thanks!
>
> Those are parallel ATA (or IDE) drives. Often referred to as PATA these
> days. I do believe that model is not subject to the 128GB (or 137GB
> depending on how you count) limit so you can stick some fairly large
> HD's in there.
>
> It's an ATA-66 bus, but it should support the 48 bit LBA drives.

IIRC, I think you have to run Panther at a minimum to address an HD
larger than 120 GB. Can anyone else confirm that? And btw, I run 2
Seagate Barracudas in my (867 MHz) Quicksilver and they are really nice
drives with a long warranty.

Also, I hope the OP is aware that Apple set a minimum of 867 MHz for
running Leopard.
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

Ben wrote:


>>
>> —40GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
>> —60GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
>> —80GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA
>>
>>
>> Are these IDE drives or is this a serial drive? Thanks!
>>
>
> This will take standard IDE drives, no size limit on these machines,
> 300GB are quite a good price at the moment, you can run OS9.2.x or
> OSX up to 10.4.11 with no problems, if you want to run 10.5.x there
> is a small hack you have to do to fool the installer
> (see: <http://lowendmac.com/osx/leopard/openfirmware.html>)



Where's the best place to buy the OSX 10.4.11 or 10.5.x? Are these
ever sold used?

Where can I find the best deal (read cheap) on a functional mouse and
keyboard?



> The Mac will take standard PC RAM (Up to 1.5GB)(However it is best
> to get ram that is certified to work, as Mac's are less tolerant of
> out of spec memory)
> Good places to try are Memoryx (<http://www.memoryx.com/>)
> or Crucial (<http://www.crucial.com/>).
> An essential utility is MacTracker (<http://www.mactracker.ca/>) A
> utility that gives you details on every Mac produced (it runs on Mac
> or PC). Also Chipmunk
> (<http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html>) will let
> you type in the serial No of your Mac and give you details such as
> When and where it was made, and it's specification when it left the
> factory. (well worth a look!). If you wanted to use Serial drives
> with this Mac you would have to fit a PCI SATA card, this will give
> you faster drives and allow you to fit newer and larger drives in
> the future. Hope this is of some help, all the best with what is a
> very nice machine. Ben.



Great info. Thanks!
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

In article <null-BA96C7.22001016012008 RemoveThis @newsgroups.comcast.net>,
Greg Buchner <null RemoveThis @none.invalid> wrote:

> In article <fmmh94$v2s$1@news.albasani.net>,
> "Sarah D." <not_valid RemoveThis @notvalid.address> wrote:
>
> >
> > Jeez ... sorry. I didn't realize there was more than one model. This
> > is apparently a 2002 quicksilver with a single 800 mhz processor.
> > Checking on the Apple site gives me the ram specs as pc133.
> >

> > Are these IDE drives or is this a serial drive? Thanks!
>
> Those are parallel ATA (or IDE) drives. Often referred to as PATA these
> days. I do believe that model is not subject to the 128GB (or 137GB
> depending on how you count) limit so you can stick some fairly large
> HD's in there.
>
> It's an ATA-66 bus, but it should support the 48 bit LBA drives.

The QS 2002 is the first model to support large drives (>128Gb). The
prior version, the Quicksilver does not. So make sure it is indeed a QS
2002 if you want large drive support.

--
Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting

"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

Sarah D. <not_valid DeleteThis @notvalid.address> wrote:

> Where's the best place to buy the OSX 10.4.11 or 10.5.x? Are these
> ever sold used?

You can't buy 10.4.11 directly: the retail product is 10.4, 10.4.3 or
10.4.6 depending on how new it is/was. 10.4.11 is then a free (but quite
large) update which you can download.

Apple is still selling 10.4.6 through some outlets, but I expect there
will be a fair number of second hand copies on the market as people
upgrade to 10.5.

Try eBay, but tread carefully.

You have to make sure you are buying the standard retail edition of
10.4, not an "Upgrade" or "CPU Drop-in" DVD, or one which is for a
specific model. The retail, Upgrade and CPU-Drop-in DVDs are mostly
black in colour, with a big grey X on them, while the model-specific
ones are a grey label mentioning the computer model. The Upgrade and
CPU-Drop-in ones say so on the label, whereas the standard retail
edition says "Install DVD" on the left side, with the exact version
number (e.g. 10.4.6) in small print below that.

(The Upgrade and CPU Drop-in editions require an existing install of Mac
OS X 10.3, so they won't work if you have no operating system. They are
also not supposed to be sold separately from the OS and computer they
were supplied for.)

You may encounter a "Family Pack", which has a licence that allows
installation on up to five computers in one household. This cost about
twice the single licence version, so you would be paying a premium for
it.

There was a 6 CD edition of 10.4, only available through special order
from Apple, so it is rare and might sell at a higher price. (Two of the
CDs contain the developer tools and may have been omitted.)

You may also encounter "Mac OS X Server". You definitely don't want
that.

There may be a few second hand copies of 10.5 for sale, but I'd
recommend staying with 10.4 on that model to avoid complications with
getting 10.5 on there in the first place, and potentially sluggish
performance.

The same general rules apply if you are buying a second-hand copy of
10.5. The standard retail (Install), Upgrade and CPU Drop-In editions
have the standard 10.5 purple-tinted outer space background on the
label, with the type of DVD mentioned on the left side. I expect the
model-specific DVDs are still grey. There is no CD edition for 10.5.

You could also go for 10.3, which will be a lot cheaper than 10.4 on the
second hand market. Again, the same rules apply, except this version was
distributed on a set of three CDs (black background), plus a fourth CD
with the developer tools (white background).

Avoid 10.2 or earlier. You won't enjoy the experience.

> Where can I find the best deal (read cheap) on a functional mouse and
> keyboard?

Almost any USB mouse will work fine, including two-button ones with a
scroll wheel. (More than that and you may need special software to
support the extra features.) I quite like Logitech ones.

For the keyboard, you can also use almost any Windows USB keyboard, but
it may be a good idea to look out for an Apple one, since there are a
few special keys which are handy: Eject for opening the optical drive,
and having the Command key next to the space bar is better than using
the Windows key as a workaround (you can swap them in software, so this
isn't a big issue).

Try looking for an older "Apple Pro Keyboard" (black), which is what
originally came with the computer, or a newer "Apple Keyboard" (white)
which is functionally identical.

The latest "Apple Keyboard (Aluminium)" requires recent system software
and may require USB 2.0 so isn't the best choice for a QuickSilver G4.

The original "Apple USB keyboard" (black keys and smaller) is missing
the numeric keypad and Eject key, but it may be easier to get cheap.

--
David Empson
dempson DeleteThis @actrix.gen.nz
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

David Empson <dempson RemoveThis @actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

> You have to make sure you are buying the standard retail edition of
> 10.4, not an "Upgrade" or "CPU Drop-in" DVD, or one which is for a
> specific model. The retail, Upgrade and CPU-Drop-in DVDs are mostly
> black in colour, with a big grey X on them, while the model-specific
> ones are a grey label mentioning the computer model. The Upgrade and
> CPU-Drop-in ones say so on the label, whereas the standard retail
> edition says "Install DVD" on the left side, with the exact version
> number (e.g. 10.4.6) in small print below that.

Also, retail Mac OS X installer discs do *not* come with iLife,
AppleWorks, or (10.2 and later) a copy of OS 9. If the description on
eBay includes any of this additional software, what's being sold is
probably a set of OEM discs.
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower 

David Empson wrote:
> The latest "Apple Keyboard (Aluminium)" requires recent system software
> and may require USB 2.0 so isn't the best choice for a QuickSilver G4.
>
> The original "Apple USB keyboard" (black keys and smaller) is missing
> the numeric keypad and Eject key, but it may be easier to get cheap.

I'm using the new keyboard on a Leopard dual 1.25 which has USB 1.1 and
it's great, though the mapping of function keys are different (from my
replaced white pro keyboard).
--
/los "I was a teenage net-random."
 >> Stay informed about: Power Macintosh G4 Tower