Overclocking a Mac mini Got Me Hooked on Souping Up Macs
- 2008.09.04
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My first Mac helped to change my life for the better.
It was a 1.42 GHz G4 Mac mini, which later became 1.5 GHz thanks to overclocking. I was hooked from that moment on.
But I had to go further. I tracked down the rare 1.5 GHz G4 board with the expanded 64 MB of RAM and then overclocked the mini to a perfectly stable 1.67 GHz. I was playing games like Prey and Quake 4 perfectly in 800 x 600 - not that I ever would use a Mac solely as a gaming machine.
Hooked on Overclocking
Even though it was replaced by my MacBook Pro, I found it extremely fun to hot rod old Macs to give as gifts to my friends. PowerPC computers have this multitasking capability that is still unrivaled today.
I overclocked a clamshell 300 to 433 MHz and put in a 512 MB chip, AirPort, a new battery, and a 60 GB hard drive. I found the package to be way faster than my graphite 466 MHz clamshell, due in part to the old tangerine having a 512 KB cache instead of a 256 KB one. Both still run Mac OS X 10.4.10 "Tiger" with Safari 3 and Firefox 3 without problems.
I have
also dabbled in tray-loading
iMacs, overclocking the 233s to 300 MHz and upgrading
the RAM to 512 MB. Gotta try one of them G4 boards!
Tiger on G3 Macs
The main issue people have with Tiger on G3s is with YouTube. I have a simple fix. Use TubeTV for OS X, but only have it create the .flv file, not the full .mov. Then drag that .flv into QuickTime, because for some reason QuickTime utilizes that old video hardware and plays them full screen and with better sound quality than any browser could do.
These old machines are good for more than that, though. Run Photoshop CS, or perhaps Dreamweaver CS2 and do some web design. In fact, learning Mac programs and hardware has landed me some pretty swell jobs, and all I really wanted it for in the first place was to have something more reliable.
The G3 isn't dead - just disable Spotlight and Dashboard when using Tiger. Also use that software to clean out all the x86 code and Monolingual to remove localizations you'll never need.
We still get 10.4 security updates that correspond to the Leopard releases, and we can run the latest browsers, which is an issue running Mac OS 9 these days. I have XPostFacto to thank for lots of it.
Cheap Power
Here's a good value equation: Get a Power Mac 9600 for practically
free, and right now you can get the Sonnet
Crescendo/PCI G4 1 GHz board for $100. If you need a cheap
OS X machine and don't care about USB, there you go - 1996
reliability with modern software. It's good as long as you don't mind
the 66 MHz bus speed.
Share the story of your first Mac experience by emailing with "My First Mac" as your subject.
Recent My First Mac articles
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- More in the My First Mac index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
- Group of the Day: MichiMac is our list for Mac users in Michigan.
- December 3 in LEM history: 01: The future of low-end Macs - Internet charges and Low End Mac - 02: A smooth switch with Move2Mac - 04: Upgrading from Mac OS 9 to 10.3 - PC malware: The best reasons to use a Mac - No sympathy for bashing Macs in schools - 'Book fragility - 07: Switching to Mac tripled my productivity - Leopard on a G3 iMac (with a G4 upgrade)
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- OS X More Efficient than Linux, Snow Leopard and PowerPC Macs, and Eudora Woes, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 12.03. A user reports both Panther and Leopard run more smoothly and use memory more efficiently than Linux. Also thoughts on PowerPC abandonment in Snow Leopard and replacing Eudora in Leopard.
- The Leopard Experience at 867 MHz, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 12.02. Mac OS X 10.5 requires an 867 MHz G4 with 512 MB of memory, but is performance really acceptable on a minimum spec system?
- A Used 17" PowerBook as a Budget Notebook Alternative, Charles W. Moore, 'Book Value, 12.02. Sure, you can buy a refurbished 13.3" MacBook for under $900, but you could also have an expansive, feature laden 17" PowerBook in the same price range.
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- Apple Could Buy Dell, and Linux Is No Threat to Mac OS X, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 12.01. Apple has the cash to buy Dell outright, and the idea has some merit. Also, why Linux still isn't ready to displace the Mac OS.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best PowerBook G3 Deals, 12.03. Used 14" WallStreet G3/266 MHz, $90; Lombard G3/400 MHz, $150; Pismo G3/400 MHz, $300; 500 MHz, $350.
- Best 17" PowerBook G4 Deals, 12.03. Used 1.5 GHz, $685; 1.67 GHz, $699.
- Best Intel iMac Deals, 12.03. Used 17" 1.83 GHz, $550; 20" 2.0, $650; refurb 20" 2.4, $999; 2.66, $1,299; 24" 2.8, $1,549; 3.06, $1,899; rebates and free shipping on new.
- Best Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' Deals, 12.02. DVD upgrade from 10.3, $75; full version, $129; family pack, $200; 10-user Server, $350; unlimited users, $400.
- Best iMac G5 Deals, 12.02. Used 17" 1.6 GHz Combo, $400; 1.8 SuperDrive, $450; 1.9 iSight, $599; 20" 1.8 GHz, $500; 2.0, $600; 2.1 iSight, $700. Shipping additional.
- Best 17" MacBook Pro Deals, 12.02. Used 2.16 GHz Core Duo, $1,330; 2.33 Core 2, $1,499; close-out, 2.4, $1,800 after rebate; new 2.5, $2,000 a/r; new hi-res, $2,499 a/r; refurb 2.6, $2,399.
- Best iPod nano Deals, 12.01. Refurb 3G/4 GB, $79; new, $105; refurb 8 GB, $99; new, $115; 3G/8 GB, $134; 16 GB, $174. Prices include ground shipping.
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 12.01. Used 1.5 GHz SuperDrive, $481/C$599 plus shipping.
- Best Mac Pro Deals, 12.01. Used 3.0 GHz 4-core, $2,102; new 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,949 after rebate; 2.8 4-core, $2,099 a/r; 8-core, $2,515 a/r; 3.0 $3,320 a/r; 3.2, $4,099 a/r.
- More deals in our archive.
Go to the My First Mac index.
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