Quicksilver G4 - worth it?

[quinterro]

Yesterday at the flea market I found a Quicksilver G4/867 with memory and a hard drive. I don't know the amount of memory or the size of the hard drive, only that they are installed.

They want $35 for it.

Currently I have a Sawtooth G4/450 dual processor with 1.75GB memory and I'm debating on if I should get the Quicksilver. What would it give me over the Sawtooth?

 

[finkmac]

Faster CPU, Gigabit ethernet...

Did it have a Video Card installed?

 

[quinterro]

Yes. Not sure which one. Didn't see a fan or an ATI logo on it.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Iff'n you want one at all, it ain' never gonna come close to that price point even for just half the cost of shipping. OS9 forever! :approve:

 

[commodorejohn]

Talk 'em down to $20. I've gotten Quicksilvers and MDDs at the recycle center for $10.

 

[TheMacGuy]

I would try talking them down too. $35 is a little too much in my opinion for an original Quicksilver from 2001.

 

[quinterro]

I'll work on the price next weekend. Considering I'm not supposed to pick up anything over 20 pounds for a couple of weeks (recovering from hernia surgery) I'm not in a rush to get it right now. It's the first time that I have seen a Quicksilver at the booth. There were some Sawtooth G4s, a single Yikes G4, some eMacs and a G5 as well.

It would be nice if I could buy things from the recycler around here, but once something is dropped off there it can't be removed. Rather sad actually, since on the few occasions that I have dropped things off there some of the equipment on the palettes was better than what I was using at the time.

 

[commodorejohn]

It would be nice if I could buy things from the recycler around here, but once something is dropped off there it can't be removed. Rather sad actually, since on the few occasions that I have dropped things off there some of the equipment on the palettes was better than what I was using at the time.

That really is an atrocious policy...but hey, if people could just get used stuff that still worked, the economy would collapse and the terrorists would win!

 

[quinterro]

I'm not a big fan of it either. The recycling center is run by the county as part of the "convenience center" - AKA a place to drop off your trash - and doesn't have a building to offer things for sale.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

If I thought Wake county had the smarts to sell the stuff for professional recycling to help offset operating costs, I'd be slightly less outraged than I am about Goodwill's decision to relegate all computer products to the technological chop shop in this area. They are an organization with dedicated buildings meant as clearinghouses for used items, and even pay lip service to the notion of helping customers and employees, but that's another topic.

Dickering for a better deal is customarily built into the asking price for flea market items, but if you really want one, the condition of a $$$S-n-carry Quicksilver may make it worth the sticker money. Even a Rage 128 for driving a StudioDisplay will set you back a considerable portion of that on eBay without factoring in shipping costs.

 

[RickNel]

Same problem for me since the government outsourced "eWaste Management" to choppers and our local recycle shop was privatised. I suspect some reseller has done a special deal to get first look at everything, or maybe some staff are running eBay accounts for themselves. Hardly worth a visit any more - all trash, no treasure.

Rick

 

[quinterro]

I got it and I have a question. How do you eject the DVD drive if you don't have an Apple keyboard? I tried the mouse button without success.

 

[finkmac]

If you're running OS 9, there is a Control Strip Module that does this…

If you're running OS X, install the Eject menu… (/System/Library/CoreServices/Menus/)

Or, just restart while holding the mouse button down.

 

[Unknown_K]

Pick up an OEM dual G4 module now while they are pretty much worthless. Seems like IDE hard drives in the 120-320GB range are being dumped cheap these days if you need more HD space since everyone uses SATA anymore (make sure you have a revision 2 QS or you are stuck with the 120GB limit).

 

[quinterro]

I have to admit it's rather speedy compared to my dual G4/450. Currently I have two 40GB hard drives in it - one with Tiger and one with Leopard. I have a 200GB and a 250GB I could use but I need to back up with is on them first.

What is the fastest dual-processor module that will work in this Mac? I have seen a dual 1.25 ghz on eBay for $27 and a dual 1ghz for $23.

This is one of the older QS G4 systems - single core 867mhz with a GeForce MX2 video card.

 

[Unknown_K]

I think dual 1Ghz was the fastest for the QS (OEM).

 

[MacJunky]

If you're running OS 9, there is a Control Strip Module that does this…If you're running OS X, install the Eject menu… (/System/Library/CoreServices/Menus/)

Or, just restart while holding the mouse button down.

Or in OS X just hold the F12 key. In OS 9 there is an Application Extra on some install media that you can assign F12 to run, and it ejects/injects.

 

[quinterro]

To eject the drive using Open Firmware:

Command-Opt-O-F

eject cd

mac-boot

When you are starting from scratch MacOS 9 or X isn't on there yet so you can't eject using a menu item.

The dual 867mhz modules are pretty cheap - $10-15.

 

[supernova777]

i just bought a 867mhz quicksilver for 40$

its pretty perky compared to both the g4 450mhz agp + the DP MDD 867mhz (it has 1mb more backside cache then the mdd)

cant say im complaining i just need to find a pci card to add serial port to this thing..