power pc g4 osx disk!!!???

Ginger-Menace · 26 Jun 2012 at 19:55

evening all,

a friend of the company i work for is moving and in the process discovered 2 power pc g4's,
he was going to chuck them so i said id have one for my gf.
he didnt have any of the disks for them and i want to do a format and re-install.
never used a mac before and wanted to know if i can, how i would go about it with out having the disks,i want to spend as little as possible on this btw

thanks for any help

GM

^187 · 26 Jun 2012 at 20:09

Wouldn't bother, they are pre Intel chipsets and are pushing 15+ years old. They maybe worth a bit to collectors etc, have a look on fleabay.

Ginger-Menace · 26 Jun 2012 at 20:14

seems to be working fine, she will only be using it for facebook and stuff, better than her dead laptop

lamboman · 26 Jun 2012 at 20:38

^187 said:
Wouldn't bother, they are pre Intel chipsets and are pushing 15+ years old. They maybe worth a bit to collectors etc, have a look on fleabay.

What? PowerPC systems were completely killed off in 2006. We have no idea what machine this could be (could be a Mac mini that isn't even seven years old).

To the OP, which machine is it exactly? We'd need to know that in order to know exactly how old the system is (as well as what the last supported operating system is). If you can get Tiger or Leopard on there, it would be absolutely fine as a basic browsing system.

You could use a serial number decoder site such as this one, or use www.apple-history.com to help.

Doug · 26 Jun 2012 at 20:42

Depending on the processor speed you'll be able to put either Tiger or Leopard on.

Either way you'll be looking to get your hands on a retail DVD, the 'bay (either one

) is your best bet for that.

Ginger-Menace · 26 Jun 2012 at 20:43

it already has tiger on it i think os x 10.4? its from 2002 on the back it says power mac g4
in the system panel its says power mac g4, powermac3,6

i think in the wiki its this one. Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003)

Ginger-Menace · 26 Jun 2012 at 20:48

Doug said:
Depending on the processor speed you'll be able to put either Tiger or Leopard on.

Either way you'll be looking to get your hands on a retail DVD, the 'bay (either one ) is your best bet for that.

i see what you did there lol i will have a look. i didnt know if there were hidden recovery parts for me to use so i dont have to spend monies

lamboman · 26 Jun 2012 at 20:49

You'll probably know already then, the maximum OS is the last version of Leopard. Should be quite easy to source. Linux is an alternative.

FreeStream · 26 Jun 2012 at 23:07

It'll run Leopard and do what you want it to do.

But it is going to be slow, noisy and heat your house up like no tomorrow.

SimonR · 27 Jun 2012 at 22:27

It sounds like a G4 quicksilver. I run one as file server with a pair of 1tb sata drives in. Serves music round my house and movies to my living room and MacBooks. Plus has my files backed up to it. Hardly a dead machine by a long stretch. People are too keen to write of perfectly viable hardware these days.