Thread 106915499

Found one of these at the thrift store for $50, figured fuck it, I love this era of Apple aesthetic. Not turning on so I ordered a new PRAM battery.

I haven't used a Mac since my old iMac I had as a kid, what's the best I can upgrade this to and what can I feasibly do with it in the big 25?

they should have paid you $50 to take it. but seriously tho, the G4 is upgradeable. there are g5 cpu cards, and should boot from sata ssd without an adapter. there's a character on yt called action retro and they've done some wacky things with older g4/g5 upgrades. fwiw, these days vintage apple users call it a bridge machine because it will run software for older powerpc and 68k systems.

>>106915545
They actually had a G5 there but they wanted $120. I'll look in to his videos for sure. Speaking of old Apple shit I do have an Apple IIe from the same store I picked up about a year or so ago, had all the expansion slots full but I've never gotten around to recapping the power supply. Apple stuff tends to end up on my backburner for ages since I never really used Apple products.

>>106915582
the mdd g4 is a great design. it will likely appreciate in value, just like your IIe. some of the best systems apple ever made.

>>106915608
I always remember seeing it in the Apple store at my local mall as a kid and wanting it as an upgrade to my iMac. Unfortunately when I moved after high school and had to downsize I simply donated my iMac to Goodwill like a retard. Complete with the box to boot. That decision haunts me to this day. Now over a decade later I'm seeing the color variants and wanting to get them until I look at the price.
Guess I'm lucky this thrift store gets old Apple shit since I won't get raped on shipping. Fingers crossed I can find a G3 iMac some day.

>>106915582
>all the expansion slots full

Damn. Curious to know what's in there.
Most machines would just have a disk controller, printer card, and extended-80. Maybe a modem too.

>>106915499 (OP)
the g4 is actually a golden age mac desktop
it doesnt have intel management engine in the cpu, so you can have true anonymity

>>106915662
I have it in my closet I can probably dig it out real quick. I have everything pulled out and in anti-static bags. One of the cards had a big Varta battery that was leaking but luckily it only leaked on to the slot it was in and didn't seem to damage anything on the board itself.
>>106915664
But how much of the modern web can I use with it? If I can at least post on 4chan then I'm definitely using it as a shitpost machine.

>>106915675
in terms of modern web, as long as you upgrade the ram (and toss in a low to mid range gpu to relieve the pressure from your cpu) you will be able to do pretty much anything a 2015 macbook pro can do aside from the lack of security and OS updates

>>106915688
The thing only had one ram stick so I'm gonna be upgrading that regardless.

>>106915625
It was bulky. It couldn't run all the cool new stuff. It was "worthless." You did what made sense at the time.

Years ago I donated a bunch of "worthless" IIe units with drives and misc cards to a local school.
Can't remember the system they ran, but the school had them networked with each other and other schools running the software.

>>106915499 (OP)
Not an expert in that model but maxing out the RAM and replacing the HDDs with SSDs would be a good start. Some Macs have this quirk where they accept more RAM than the specs list, it was true for some MacBooks at least.

This is maybe not your alley but I like
to LARP I'm living in the past. "If I had had this hardware back in the day, what would've been the absolute peak I could've done with it?"

>>106915499 (OP)
i think you can turn it into an amiga.

>>106915662
Cards in order I grab them out:
>Timemaster II H.O.
>Mockingboard
>Xebec card
>FingerPrint Plus (this also came with a ribbon cable power switch with a fingerprint pattern etched on the board)
>ComputerEyes Video Digitizer
>RamWorks III card
>printer and floppy cards
>RC output board
>>106915704
Yeah, even as a teenager I was hardly booting it up, so it did make sense, especially since I wasn't so much interested in retro computing as much as retro video gaming.
>>106915706
>"If I had had this hardware back in the day, what would've been the absolute peak I could've done with it?"
I've had the thought to do with with an XP machine for a few years now, and I know I can go pretty wild with that for sure.
>>106915740
Is that even worth doing?

>>106915758
yes. turning it into an amiga will provide infinite fun.

>>106915758
Interesting set of cards. Clock and RWIII suggests Appleworks/business use. Perhaps combined with some graphic media given the FingerPrint and Computereyes.
But the Mockingboard is a surprise. All the software for that is either games, or music. The Apple // wasn't exactly a multimedia force.

Or whoever owned it before was just a big nerd with money and got all the cool stuff for it. Just missing an accelerator and mouse.

>>106915499 (OP)
Those don't require a PRAM battery to turn on so be prepared to do further diagnostic work.

>>106915499 (OP)
Just bodge a mini-ATX PC in it.

>>106915499 (OP)
Based. MDD are gorgeous.

>>106919587
>>106915499 (OP)
Plenty of options.

>>106919587
>hdd led

Once you get your PRAM battery you may need to reset the PMU: https://www.scribd.com/document/449196297/Resetting-PMU-on-Power-Mac-G5-Power-Mac-G4-Power-Macintosh-G3

>>106915499 (OP)
I broke one by overclocking. I had a fucking 7800GS in it. Top 2 GPU options.
Still have the case if I ever decide to modify it to fit ATX. The layout is just shit though.
I still have the 7800GS but nothing with AGP to stick it in. Considered buying something, you know, normal, x86, would be comfy. But is hard to find anything thats a good fit for it. S754 is ass, S462 is a fucking fossil, S939 is better off as PCIe, S478 is ass but would be a good fit but is hard to find here. Fuck.

>>106915545
>there are g5 cpu cards
... For the G5 motherboard.
>and should boot from sata ssd without an adapter.
With a SATA card in the PCI slot...

>>106915499 (OP)
Just use it as a case, gut it and build something modern inside of it. If you really want the old software aesthetic you can use Xfce with the Platinum9 theme

>>106915499 (OP)
i did the same thing a few years back, powermac g4(quicksilver i think, 733mhz)) and then an imac g3 having never been an apple user before. they're pretty fun to mess with, you can easily convert to sata with a startech adapter, but you'll be limited to 120gb unless you get a pci card.

as for software and games:
>macintoshrepository org
good search filters, limited descriptions and limited downloads. find what you might want here then download from
>macintoshgarden org
much better descriptions on which files for which system, no DL limits

>Not turning on so I ordered a new PRAM battery.
probably not gonna fix anything, my g4 tower has no battery at all. no bongs on boot?

>>106915740
huh, i've a spare g4. gib links

>>106915758
>>106920792
I think anon means MorphOS but I'm not sure if MDD was supported, too lazy to look it up but google it.

>>106920586
>ack-shually

>>106921470
>ACK!

>>106921510
you just can't help yourself and have to shit up a decent thread with your overused meme.

>>106920792
>>106920897
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmigaOS_4

>>106920586
>... For the G5 motherboard.
Duh. But this is a G4 and there are G5 cards for it too