[TriLUG] somewhat OT: mac hardware

[Jaimie Livingston]

Others have chimed in, but here's my direct experience with the Mac's.

As a rule of thumb, to run OSX you need a Mac with built in USB. The
beigebox G3 tower's and Rev 1 Powerbooks don't qualify, for example, since
they do not have built-in USB. Most anything else, including the Blue &
White G3's, iMacs, iBook, and G3 Cube do qualify. There are exceptions to
the rule, and Apple and some others will list some older G3 systems as being
able to support OSX 10.2.x. An example where documentation does not meet
reality is the Beige G3 (Gossamer) towers. Some doc's list this system as
being able to support OS 10.3.x, but I can tell you that the one on my desk
will not - much to my annoyance ;^{   I have found that this chart for
firmware updates for various systems to run OSX is a good place to start. If
a system is not on this chart, it probably won't run OSX.

The only systems that I have heard of that can successfully support dual
booting OS9 and OSX are the G3 PowerBooks, Platinum iMac, and the G3 Cube.
That said, any USB system that has the ROM's to support a clean install of
OS9 AND has built-in USB _should_ support dual booting.

Most of the Mac's in question use 3.3V unbuffered SDRAM. Apple is generally
switching to DDR for newer systems, but that's not written in stone, either.
Check the tech specs at Apple.com for better information on specific models.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19456

Video on Mac's is a mixed bag, and depends on the video system the unit was
purchased with. Most newer one's will have either a standard PCI/AGP VGA
adapter or a built-in DVI interface, and some may have both. Those that have
DVI should have come with a DVI>VGA adapter. Don't assume that a given PCI
or AGP video card that works in a Wintel system will work in a given Mac.
Some do and some don't.

Apple.com provides good information on what systems can run which OS's and
makes technical specs available for every model Apple has ever sold. If you
have a specific purchase in mind, get the model number and check Apple.com
before making a final decision.

In my opinion, the best $$ value for an OS10 system is the Power Macintosh
G4's with the 733Mhz PPC 7450 chip and DVD SuperDrive. They were
discontinued in mid-2001 and I've seen them on eBay for as little as $500.
After that would be the Dual PPC G4 QuickSilver from 2002, but they don't
come up often.

Good hunting,

Jaimie

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf
Of Jason Tower
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 9:09 PM
To: trilug at trilug.org
Subject: [TriLUG] somewhat OT: mac hardware


in order to better support a couple of clients who run macs, i'd like to 
get myself a mac that i can use to acquaint myself with OS9 and OSX.  
doesn't need to be a speed demon, but i shouldn't be a slug either.  
i'm well versed in x86 hardware but clueless about macs - i've done 
enough homework to know that i want a G4 (not a G3) to support the 
altivec stuff, beyond that i have no idea what i should be looking for.  
i know that quite a few triluggers run macs, so if anyone can help 
point me in the right direction i'd appreciate it.

also, a couple of related questions:

- do G4's take standard PC100/133 ram?  i seem to recall someone saying 
that they require 5v rather than the more common 3.3v stuff, is this 
true?

- do they typically have ps/2 kbd/mouse ports and vga video?  i want to 
hook it up to my raritan ps/2 kvm switch, due to space constraints a 
seperate kbd/mouse/monitor are not an option.

thanks all - jason
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