G4 Mini

[waynestewart]

Spent $20 of my hard earned money and picked up a 1.25ghz G4 Mac Mini. The RAM was maxed but the hard drive and combo drive were original, Was going to change the hard drive before I realized it was ATA. I don’t have any 2.5” ATA hard drives larger than 40gb. So I thought I’d install a DVD burner from a dead G5 iMac. It fit perfectly but with it installed, I couldn’t see the hard drive so I assume that they are both set to master. Could change the jumper on the hard drive but that’s more work than it’s worth at this time. Don’t have a lot of need for an internal burner in this mini.

 

[TheMacGuy]

Nice! I'd love to have one of those Minis. They make great lower-power desktops.

 

[haplain]

Put it in a G4 Cube

 

[TheMacGuy]

Only if the Cube is completely toasted like the one I bought.

 

[waynestewart]

I've had a few thoughts

I do have a 1.83 core duo Mini lying around gathering dust that I had thought of fitting inside a Cube. I’ve also wondered if that dual 1.8 upgrade I have could work in a Cube.

I was also thinking about my Takky and how I could wire the crt to connect to a minis video port.

Alas right now I have too much work ahead to have the spare time to do much more than dream. Maybe by summer though.

 

[haplain]

You got a dual 1.8Ghz chip in your Cube? That's bad a**

You should drop that mini in a Cube...

 

[trag]

I don’t have any 2.5” ATA hard drives larger than 40gb.

Yes, the large capacity 2.5" ATA drives got expensive pretty much the moment they were discontinued. The Western Digital 320 GB 2.5" PATA is still available, or was not too long ago: WD3200BEVE

Price is north of $100 these days though. I don't think it ever got below $80. Kind of a tough sale for a Mini that cost you $20.

At this point in time the best solution for 2.5" ATA and 1.8" ZIF/ATA, if one wants largish capacity, is to get the proper mSATA adapter and install a 240 GB mSATA SSD. It's generally cheaper than buying the old stock hard drives with 240 GB or larger capacity.

 

[waynestewart]

You've a nice looking, well done Cube. If I was going to go through the trouble, I think I'd want to at least use a 1.5 ghz or possibly an intel Mini.

The dual 1.8 is in a Digital Audio G4. I've been meaning to try it in a cube. My fastest Cube has a 1.2ghz

You got a dual 1.8Ghz chip in your Cube? That's bad a**
You should drop that mini in a Cube...

 

[waynestewart]

I haven’t really thought about what I want to do with the mini. The price was cheap and buying it gave me a reason to play hooky from work. Once I find a purpose for it then I guess I’ll decide what to do storage wise. If nothing else, I have a number of small external drives I’ve retired in the 300gb – 1tb range. Nothing wrong with the drives except they’re too small.

I don’t have any 2.5” ATA hard drives larger than 40gb.

Yes, the large capacity 2.5" ATA drives got expensive pretty much the moment they were discontinued. The Western Digital 320 GB 2.5" PATA is still available, or was not too long ago: WD3200BEVE

Price is north of $100 these days though. I don't think it ever got below $80. Kind of a tough sale for a Mini that cost you $20.

At this point in time the best solution for 2.5" ATA and 1.8" ZIF/ATA, if one wants largish capacity, is to get the proper mSATA adapter and install a 240 GB mSATA SSD. It's generally cheaper than buying the old stock hard drives with 240 GB or larger capacity.

 

[Hotdog Zanzibar]

You got a dual 1.8Ghz chip in your Cube? That's bad a**
You should drop that mini in a Cube...

Whats that gray "Imp" gadget next to the Cube? Looks like an old time clock or something.

 

[haplain]

Dude you've got a keen eye.

So that's called a IMP slot machine. It's from the 30's-40's and would have been located in bars across america. It was a penny cigarette gambling machine/gum ball machine. The reel has different brands of cigarette, and should you hit the jackpot then the bartender would have given you a pack of the winning cigarettes. The coolest part about it was that those types of machines were entirely illegal, so how did they get around that aspect? There was a flip down plate that covered the reel and looked like a radio dial (barely if at all haha). When you put in the penny to play and pull the arm the mechanism (regardless of the plate being over the reel or not) it will release a gum ball from the bottom left corner. It was how they would throw off Johnny law and say now it's a gum ball machine. Too funny and we could never pull that kind of stuff these days, it's so obviously it's funny but it also worked enough to fool people for awhile! I've got 2 of them, both cigarette reels, they also made a fruit reel (much less cool in my eyes).