Local barebones Digital Audio $66 AU

[Bunsen]

MINE MINE MINE!!!

Local pickup too...

[TheNeil]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccceeeeeeee

[Bunsen]

Picking it up tomorrow. Then to investigate the ATX power mod and transfer all my RAM and drives over from my beige.

[MultiFinder]

Argh, you lucky little...

Nice man! That's gonna be a step up from a beigy!

[MacG4]

nice score

[LCGuy]

*envies*

[MacMan]

Nice find! Digital Audios are good machines.

[Bunsen]

Four PCI and one AGP woohoo! 133MHz bus woohoo!! Upgrades to dual 2GHz woohoo!!!

Question though: I don't have any AGP video cards. Can I boot this one with a PCI card for testing porpoises?

[MacG4]

should be able to

[Mr. 680x0]

The ATX power supply mod is easy. Two wires need to be spliced into to others. Took me like 5 minutes.

[Bunsen]

Wicked. Got a link?

The CPU is the same as what I'm running now in the beige, but the bus speed is double, and of course it takes much sniftier upgrades. ATA should be faster too, let alone being able to install 10.3 (without XPF) and run Quartz Extreme (when I get an AGP card).

Anyone got AGP card recommendations? I'm looking for suggestions in the following categories:

1. Barely adequate and cheap as possible
2. Bang for buck, dual head, TV I/O optional
3. Ultra

[Bunsen]

Oh also I picked it up a couple of days ago. Looks in fairly good nick.

[Bunsen]

The ATX power supply mod is easy. Two wires need to be spliced into to others. Took me like 5 minutes.

There's a bit more to it according to the Frankenmac pages:

you can use a PC ATX power supply to power your G4 / Depending on the motherboard you go with, you may be in for alot of extra work. / 'Yikes' and 'Sawtooth' systems can use a PC power supply with a two wire mod. 'Gigabit' and later systems require +28v feeds / You can get around the 28v problem using an extra wallwart power supply. /

The 28v feed is really approx 24v /

/ I recomend a regulated unit. The 28v feed operates some of the power management sections of the motherboard. A surge or undervoltage event can result in random locks, or a system that won't power up. You have been warned.

I've got a couple of spare 30V supplies around - I might decase one and regulate it down to 24-28V. Or I can source a 12-24 stepup and run it off a 12v HD line.

[Quadraman]

Nice find but you won't be able to swap RAM from a beige. The Digital Audio uses PC133 memory. The power supply is also specific to the Gigabit Ethernet/Digital Audio models. ATX hacks won't work without a separate 28v connection. For AGP cards, the official Mac solution for those is the 9800 Pro Mac Edition, but be sure you don't get the G5 specific model. Other possibilities are PC cards that have been flashed with a Mac ROM. You would need at least a nVidia FX5xx0 or Radeon 9500 or higher model for Core Image compatibility. I'd pass on an nVidia 5200, though. They were billed as the cheapest DX 9 cards in their day, but were just too slow to run DX 9 games, so they likely won't do Core Image very well, either. It was more of a talking point than a useful feature in those models. You'll need at least a 5500 if you plan to go nVidia. The Altivec engine in the G4 can handle Core Image needs when a suitable GPU is not present, but better to offload the work to the video card rather than to slow down the CPU with it.

[Bunsen]

Nice find but you won't be able to swap RAM from a beige. The Digital Audio uses PC133 memory.

The RAM in my beige is all matched IBM double sided 256 MB CL2 PC133. I've been planning to jump ship to a New World machine for a while, for >10.2 and easier *nix installation.

The power supply is also specific to the Gigabit Ethernet/Digital Audio models. ATX hacks won't work without a separate 28v connection.

Thankyou, but see above. There's a step up I can get locally which will put out 26V from a 12V drive line.

Alas, this makes the whole deal a bit more expensive than I first though. I could have just got a working DA shipped down from Sydney. They've been sitting on AU$100-150 for a year or so.

For AGP cards, the official Mac solution for those is the 9800 Pro Mac Edition, but be sure you don't get the G5 specific model.

They can be hacked.

PC cards that have been flashed

Pass.

You would need at least a nVidia FX5xx0 or Radeon 9500 or higher model for Core Image compatibility. I'd pass on an nVidia 5200, though. / You'll need at least a 5500 if you plan to go nVidia

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

[Quadraman]

Yes, you can hacksaw the edge connector on the G5 cards to make them fit as the early G5's use an AGP Pro slot instead of the AGP 4x in the Digital Audio, but I didn't think you wanted to do that. Flashed cards aren't that bad. I have a flashed Radeon 9700 in my Digital Audio and it works great. There are several ebay sellers who specialize in flashed video cards. If you are implying that you might want the nVidia 5500 I mentioned above, then that would be a flashed card. nVidia never officially supported the Mac that far back except with weak sauce cards like the GeForce2MX. As I said, if you want an officially supported card not requiring any mods, then the 9800 Pro Mac Edition is as good as it gets. Oh, Macs also have a problem with 8x AGP cards because Apple used two pins in the AGP slot for something else before the 8x standard was announced. You have to mask two pins with tape to get them to run at 4x. You can google the instructions easily.

[funkytoad]

Sounds like quite a job

[Bunsen]

If I didn't want to hack, why would I buy a $66 barebones machine with no PS when I could get one for $150 already running?

Gigabit / require +28v feeds / is really approx 24v /

*HEADDESK*

There's a box of working Powerbook power supplies with busted case/cables right next to me.

[Quadraman]

I don't think a Powerbook PSU puts out enough juice to power a G4 tower. I think the G4 TiBook one only puts out something like 65 Watts. I know the stock one for my Wallstreet only does 45.

[Bunsen]

The 24-28V is only needed on one line. The ATX PS takes care of the rest.

[Quadraman]

I thought you were trying to replace the Digital Audio PSU with a Powerbook PSU. Sorry. Anyway, can you pull 24-28v from a Powerbook PSU? Would it be possible to bundle together 2-12v lines from an ATX supply to make the needed 24v?

[Bunsen]

No, because they'll both have the same ground. So you'd end up short circuiting one of them.

[Bunsen]

Just adding a few links for my own reference.

Some G4 clocking/cooling photos

Dual G4 533MHz Overclocking

[bigD]

Welcome to the club, Bunsen!

[Bunsen]

*BONG*





In other words: power up has been achieved, AGP video is working. Boots to the OS X installer from CD.

That's as far as I can get without a *#*&% USB keyboard and mouse.

I used the +5VSB standby power (purple) lead for the +28V feed. I will have to label the Firewire ports NO POWER.

The case fan is running from the unused ATX floppy power plug. I cracked the shroud off the case fan connector and shoved the pins in.

Boy that case fan is a noisy beast! I'll be keeping an eye (ear?) out for a silent substitute.