[SOLVED] G4 Upgrade to?

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Jackrabbit69

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Apr 21, 2015
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A friend is giving me a G4. Didnt know what it was so I looked online... Any possible upgrade options for gaming? Or just a PC my dad can use for documents?
 
Solution
Basically the G4 is the older PPC processor. This is important because OS X Lion (10.7) killed Rosetta, which enabled PPC to work. So you will have to run Snow Leopard (10.6) or another previous OS X version if you want a "modern" operating system. Some of the G4's came with OS 9 as the default operating system. The era of the G3/G4 and colorful iMacs was about the time OS X was in beta stages.

If you can run it, lots of people are happy with Snow Leopard.

Don't expect fast. It's old hardware and has basically ZERO street value. But if it's free and works, it makes a nice project. Personally I'd consider dual booting and running Linux if you like to fiddle. Back in that era, I had good luck with Yellow Dog Linux. Seemed to...
First of all, as everyone has stated it is old as dirt, like when a high end computer had 128 MB of system memory (not even 1gb yet) and 10GB hard drive is HUGE.

Secondly, even if this was a 2 year old Mac with high end hardware, it is still a mac so you cant game on it at all.
 


I was meaning running Mac OS, not running MS Windows in parallels.
I'm sure with $500-1000 in upgrades to "max it out" it could run facebook games!
 


A full sized ATX? No way.

I know this because I built an iPC into a G4 box a decade ago, all I could fit in there was a m-ATX board, I used the Microstar MS-6368 and I had to modify 4 upright can capacitors because they were hitting the removables when closed. Is do-able but you are looking to do some modding, this is no newbie project.

kt3616XOt8N_NGFVw0nHygIzG5RYbeQNItOkjLyH-i-T00zbEg8hNHOyHyMap2WhKT2VCd3A9uGclQ0U-rcNt44LN-c_HaBL6xo5bJLKhYljVIsxxZzk4zOWMHtSYr-Q6eLlr79oLtU-ol_uq1KHoovsMq6qZXvmthVv2HWGp-gDDW3jEWQep8gcMoHlbbrQPw-8H2edsvr_-ivFG0-cIPALQutozwLw3yuggvFmbB-rJAd_OZrZAVorYJ3CFBvDomqOIy4Ths5PzgOycE5Am-Z8WmSDTd1aEBX5NM52pPNAuh0xZGtrUmF9kSNr1I6tKzG0t6LExHIsg1PcmbdX0BKR8_EP7A7ePC_VbRrOC9y4UOc0GWkWLQW5UdKgC0pQwm_VtlWqYN4hr-hncONOJZMTOKhPPDCrLV_vCWX1oe7rGm6eK3ORLLFpYO2L73uwWDGdC6q-pFrgRgZbsOE-xZ6xA0_X7dU1Ff4Uf9njRmLP5QcHNIT3nhaH1n67yRMv3EpTgFW9CNQYH6vgX5g9QvnkbKYYbnAiF-Q9Wbgp9xVtjpP3LOXiFVm4_wl8NEIaNZU7ERxEdEp19vCxS-7VQfaqydg0-9Y=w574-h525-no
 

nolimits76

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Jul 18, 2016
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Basically the G4 is the older PPC processor. This is important because OS X Lion (10.7) killed Rosetta, which enabled PPC to work. So you will have to run Snow Leopard (10.6) or another previous OS X version if you want a "modern" operating system. Some of the G4's came with OS 9 as the default operating system. The era of the G3/G4 and colorful iMacs was about the time OS X was in beta stages.

If you can run it, lots of people are happy with Snow Leopard.

Don't expect fast. It's old hardware and has basically ZERO street value. But if it's free and works, it makes a nice project. Personally I'd consider dual booting and running Linux if you like to fiddle. Back in that era, I had good luck with Yellow Dog Linux. Seemed to integrate well with the PPC processors and Mac hardware.
 
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