Dual processor PowerMac G4 Kit : To buy or not to buy...? \ VOGONS

Dual processor PowerMac G4 Kit : To buy or not to buy...?

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First post, by MaxWar

Posted on 2012-10-11, 04:22

MaxWar Offline

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Posts: 769
Joined: 2011-04-12, 23:32
Location: Canada

Ok im a bit thorn right now.

Someone in my town sells a pretty nice Power Mac G4 computer kit, heres a translation from the original add:

I sell my old file server: dual 1Ghz PowerMac, 1.5Gb RAM, 2 x 150GB disk + 1 x 300GB and Superdrive. ATI Radeon 9000 64MB DVI + ADC. 10/100/1000 NIC, 2 USB + Card 4 x USB 2.0 + 2 x Firewire 400. Runs great on Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard Server, but will be redone in regular Leopard for sale. Leaves with Apple Cinema Display 22 "ADC and ADC to DVI adapter + to connect the screen on any computer. Keyboard and mouse and includes original Leopard disk. The case of the computer has a few aesthetic grafignes of the use, but nothing dramatic. machine to Belle as a file server to house a computer to surf the net.

Ok so basically thats

-Dual 1 ghz proc G4
-1,5 gb ram
-600 gb HDDs
-Ati radeon 9000 64mb ( DVI and ADC )
-Gigabit Nic
-USB 2.0 Card
-Original OSX Disks
-Whatever DVD, CD drives comes with the computer.
-22" LCD monitor ( Cinema display )
-Keyboard+ Mouse
-DVI -> ADC official Apple Adapter

Seller says everything is working great. From the pictures stuff looks mint. Guy Ask 250$ to deliver it to my door. ( might be bargainable )

-To buy or not to buy?
-Good price or not?
-I think i could use it as a "portable" AV capture station, using a Matrox RTmac capture card. ( bought separately ).
-Would make a nice addition to my collection?
-What you guys think?

FM sound card comparison on a Grand Scale!!
The Grand OPL3 Comparison Run.

Reply 1 of 3, by Jorpho

Posted on 2012-10-11, 15:09

Jorpho Offline

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Is that one of the older G4s that can still run OS 9 directly?

If you want to do AV capture, you could probably find a much more effective solution for a more current system for $250, I reckon. On the other hand, if you need the extra monitor it seems like a pretty good deal, assuming that it's a nice monitor (i.e. decent response times).

Reply 2 of 3, by Old Thrashbarg

Posted on 2012-10-11, 16:41

Old Thrashbarg Offline

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Location: Central FL

The description points to it being a first-gen 'Mirror Drive Door' version, which will indeed run the classic OS natively.

It would make a very nice OS9 machine (in fact, it's the best OS9-bootable machine you can get), and it's still serviceable as a general-purpose OSX machine if you want an OSX machine... you can run Leopard on it, and there's still a fair amount of 'modern' PPC software out there, including up-to-date web browsers. And you have the option of dual-booting, so you can run both OSes if you like.

It would work OK for video capture/editing, as long as you don't need HD capability... Sure, there are better options out there, but a G4 with an RTMac can still hold its own pretty well against modern 'consumer class' stuff.

As far as whether to buy it... it's not a spectacular deal, but I'd say it's worth the price, primarily because of the monitor and ADC adapter. The machine itself I wouldn't pay more than about $100 for, but the 22" Cinema Display is quite nice, and the ADC adapters tend to go for $70-80 by themselves. I wouldn't get it just for the purpose of video capture, but if you feel like playing around with a Mac and have the cash to spare, it'd be a worthy addition to the stable.

Reply 3 of 3, by CapnCrunch53

Posted on 2012-10-11, 20:09

CapnCrunch53 Offline

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Joined: 2012-01-31, 02:02
Location: Indiana

Yeah like they said, its a reasonable deal. $250 might be a little more than I'd spend on a G4, but the hard drive space, USB 2.0 card, having the original discs, peripherals, and especially the monitor all add to the value quite a bit. If it's not a Firewire 800 MDD it'll be great for OS9, and of course it should be quite speedy with OSX as well. I have a similar system (dual 867MHz MDD, 1GB ram, and just got a TI4600 which is the fastest gpu supported in OS9) and I dual boot OS 9.2.2 and 10.4 Tiger. It's been a great little system to play around with.

PCs, Macs, old and new... too much stuff.

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