Leopard and G4's less than 867mhz?
 

I've got a DA PM G4 that I love to death. It's been a loyal and true soldier and even though it's not the fastest (at 466mhz), I hate to part with it.

Recently, the system requirements for Leopard were supposedly raised to 867mhz G4 or faster. I know that OS X installer doesn't supposedly like processor upgrades, but I'm curious:

Have there been hacks in the past for getting OS X to install on upgraded machines? If so, I'm hoping that buying a processor upgrade for the G4 might get me into Leopard when it comes out.

I wouldn't worry. I'm sure that Leopard will run just fine on your machine.

Leopard = $129
Processor Upgrade = ???
Installation = Free, assumeing you are doing it yourself
Resale value of current machine?

I find that just buying a new machine, even if it's a just a generation old Apple Store's refurb it is well worth any additional costs as you'll get a much faster machine. From RAM speed and capacity increases, frontsode bus and L2 cache increases, HDD capacity, brighter LCD with higher resolution, etc.

You may want to look into that as a viable option.

i have been running the dev. copy of 10.5 on a G4 500 w/ no problems... it is not the latest. but works just fine

That's encouraging. I'd heard that the Installer would refuse to install on < 800mhz machines.

One of the "selling points" that I keep mentioning to those interested in switching to Mac is that, here I am running a 6 year old machine, yet I can run the latest version of the OS. Do that with Vista! HA!

Thanks for the replies, folks. I appreciate hearing from y'all on this, as my G4 and I are a smoothly working pair and I'd hate to try and dig up the money to replace it.

Either you are admitting to violating your NDA (by mentioning this on the forum) or else you are admitting to running an unlicensed illegal copy of OS X 10.5. Neither of those are supported on this forum.

Please refrain from discussing illegal and/or contract violating activities.

If there is any further discussion on this thread of illegal and/or contract violating activities, the thread will be locked and perhaps deleted.

Trevor

I didn't think the NDA kept you from mentioning that you are using 10.5, just discussing unannounced features.

My NDAs for OS X 10.3 and OS X 10.4 kept me from even mentioning that I was using it until after Apple officially released the OS.

I can discuss those NDAs since OS X 10.3 and OS X 10.4 are now released.

Trevor

System requirements for Leopard
 

Hi, I noticed the above thread posted some while ago. I have a G4 AGP 500 MHz processor and find that I am unable to install Leopard. Will I be able to if I upgrade the processor to 1.8 GHz? I also notice some restriction relating to displays requiring an Apple supplied video card. I don't know if mine is.

Trying to install Leopard, I get an error that the Folder manager is being asked to create a folder (asav) while running as uid0. What does this mean?

Can anyone help with the above to get me running Leopard?

regards, Robert

Low End Mac has posted instructions for fooling the Leopard Install disc into thinking that you have a faster computer, using Open Firmware (which exists on all G4s including the PowerMac G4 AGP 500 MHz). Instructions are here: http://lowendmac.com/osx/leopard/openfirmware.html

Trevor

It's been theorized that when Apple says "867MHz G4," they may not be talking about processor speed alone. Other hardware components may be required for a certain version OS X to work, and those components may only be present in Apple-manufactured Macs starting with that processor type and speed. Which means that bumping up an older Mac to the right CPU speed might not do it alone. It's just that since Apple knows what its hardware configurations are, it feels it doesn't have to list them all, that it's a lot easier for customers to read the very short and simple "867Mhz G4" knowing what else they built into that model.

It is very true that once you hit a certain number of dollars on hardware upgrade costs, a new machine, like the $799 MacBook seen on dealmac.com today, starts to look like a better deal, representing an incredible jump in performance compared to any G4 laptop or desktop.

Perhaps, but Apple wasn't shy with Tiger (or was it Panther?) in specifically stating that the Mac in question must have both Firewire and a G3 processor, so I don't think the "clock speed means other hardware" line of reasoning is valid.

While I agree that spoofing the installer isn't the best way to go, I also understand (having started this thread) that we can't always afford a new Mac but want the advantages of the new OS. And of course there are processor upgrades available from third parties that will give you the performance of a faster clock speed Mac without having to buy a new or used Mac that meets the specs.

The minimum specs for Leopard is the Processor Speed and it must be a Mac that shipped with a G4 or better processor. Leopard will not install in the G3 Blue/White, even if it's been upgraded to G4.

That's what Solipsism covered above. You pay your typical $129 for Leopard plus $300 for your G4 upgrade, plus tax and shipping, and you're at or near $500, and the rest of the machine is still old. For just a few dollars more, you can have a new Mac mini, or if you wait for the refurbished minis to come around again, you may find that it costs no more than a G4+Leopard upgrade. If you also have to buy RAM and/or a larger hard drive for the old machine, the Mac mini could actually end up costing less.

True. I'll wait to see what I can pick up an upgrade for (used from eBay perhaps?) and see if I can beat the cost of a Mini. While you mention that Leopard plus a Mini is roughly $500, I would need the 799 model to duplicate the functionality of my current DA G4 with a superdrive. When you add Leopard, I'm approaching $1000, not $500.

So, I'm still shopping...:)

Greetings All ( + )!( + )

I've upgraded my G4 AGP Graphic 350 MHz (1999) with a PowerLogix PowerForce7455 G4/1.2GHz w/2MB L3 Cache for PowerMac G4 AGP Graphics/Sawtooth $167.50

I installed 10.5 clean install and selected to reformat my drive and used the "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)," I would recommend against this format if you plan to also use OS X 10.3 located on another disk. I've found out that when you have booted your platform from the 10.3 disk that you can not restart from the 10.5 disk. All that I can figure out is that the 10.3 OS can not recognize the Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) formated disk.

I've also found out that my ATY,Rage128Pro AGP video card is not recognized by the 10.5 OS as an acceptable video card for "Quicktime" it won't even load the Quicktime application.

I have a question for the members, What would be the best AGP Video card to install in place of the Rage 128Pro? I'm not a gamer and all that I want to do is occasionally watch a DVD.

Thanks for all suggestions.

The best by what standard? The fastest video card that will work? Probably the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB Mac Edition Retail version (not the Apple OEM version, and not the 256 MB version).

Or the best for the least amount of money? Probably the ATI Radeon AGP Mac Edition (with no further number--the first Radeon).

Trevor

Greetings ( + )!( + )

I'm sorry I should have stated the APG Video card is for general use. Like I said the most that I want to do is to be able to watch DVDs. And yes, the best for the least amount of money.

I think that I currently have the ATI Radon AGP Radeon AGP Mac Edition which is what came with my machine. It get reported as "ATY,Rage128Pro" in the System Profiler.

Thanks for your suggestions, if you could list a couple of cards, it would make it easier in locating one for a replacement.

Gifutiger

Well, for a (somewhat) cheaper Mac from a trusted store, there's always the Apple refurbs.

A few days ago I saw some slightly older MacBooks (Core Duo, not Core 2 Duo) going for something like $750. I didn't think Apple would ever discount MacBooks that much, even for refurbs. I was thinking of buying one. An few hours later, when I checked the page again, the offer was gone! Man was I ticked... :mad:

No, you have an ATI Rage 128 Pro. There was a big jump in function between the Rage series and the Radeon series, which is (I assume) why they renamed it.

Trevor

I'll vouch for that! I just removed my 128 Pro and replaced it with a (fairly old) Radeon 7500, and the difference is obvious. While I couldn't get decent frame rates in Doom or Quake, I can now get 30fps. I couldn't watch iTunes TV shows before at all, now they are fairly well viewable, just a few small dropouts on some depending on the original video encoding (h264 is still a problem, MPEG4 is fine). Dashboard activation, Exposé, and CoverFlow just work, where before they were slow, kludgy, and almost unusable.

You can find older Radeons (like the 7500, 8500 series) for cheap (mine was $25) and they make a great difference. If you can afford a newer one, by all means buy one, but even an older one is worth your money.