My new Mac Mini G4

[Piru]

So I finally got myself this Mac Mini G4 I've always wanted. G4 1.42GHz, 512MB and 80GB, CD-RW/DVD combo drive, bluetooth, airport (wlan).

Well, 512MB seemed a bit tight, and the 80GB HDD was pretty sluggish 4200RPM. So hmm, lets add 1GB DDR-stick, 160GB 5400RPM HDD, dual layer 8X DVD-RW drive and while at it, why not OC the thing, too.

Mac Mini at 1.58GHz

dnetc:

Code: [Select]

[Jan 25 12:19:06 UTC] RC5-72: using core #4 (KKS 7450).
[Jan 25 12:19:25 UTC] RC5-72: Benchmark for core #4 (KKS 7450)                      
                      0.00:00:16.14 [16,608,622 keys/sec]
[Jan 25 12:19:58 UTC] OGR-P2: using core #1 (KOGE 2.0 Hybrid).
[Jan 25 12:20:16 UTC] OGR-P2: Benchmark for core #1 (KOGE 2.0 Hybrid)
                      0.00:00:16.39 [37,324,508 nodes/sec]
Sweet :-)

[Piru]

You didn't fancy a CoreDuo one then?

No, not really. I already have a peecee with E6320 overclocked to 2.8GHz ;-)

[Piru]

There is no ü in finnish, only ä and ö. å is needed when writing swedish, but isn't stricly speaking part of the finnish alphabet (finnish keymap have it, though).

[Piru]

In case someone wants to attempt this overclocking thing  on his/her Mac Mini G4, here's the required information:

Opening up Mac Mini G4 and accessing the motherboard:
Installing Logic Board
Alternative method for opening the Mac Mini (that's Mac Mini Intel in the doc, but it's easy enough to adjust the method)
'Memory  / Optical Drive  / Hard Drive Installation' video (this helped a lot!)

To overclock upto 1.58GHz:
Overclocking Apple Mac mini

To fix the frequency display for 1.58 GHz:
Mac mini 1.58 overclock correction (NOTE: This is only needed for the 1.58GHz OC!)

[Piru]

@takemehomegrandma

So it is overclocked from 1.42GHz to 1.58GHz?

Yes.

Is that difficult to do on a Mac?

It was fairly simple. There's tons of good documentation on how to work on Mac Mini G4. The 1.42->1.5 and 1.42->1.58 overclocking only involve removing a resistor (2 for 1.5, 1 for 1.58). The resistors are really tiny though. Steady hand is a requirement. For links, see my previous post in this thread.

No heating problems or such as a result?

1.42->1.58 is just 11.26% overclock. I ran dnetc (100% CPU usage, both integer and altivec unit) for hours without any trouble. I did remove the heatsink and replace the thermal paste with better material, though.

Are they still available in stores, or is second hand the only option?

G4 models are second hand only. I paid 320 EUR for mine (mostly because I stayed within finnish auctions.. I bet they're cheaper elsewhere).

[Piru]

No heating problems or such as a result?

Small update: I was a bit sloppy when putting the heatsink back and failed to check if the pins had locked properly. As a result the one of the 4 pins had popped up, causing the heatsink to sit unevenly, and the CPU heated up more than it normally would.

It was simple to fix though: I just reopened the case and pushed the pin thru, making sure it locked properly.

The Mac Mini does have thermal shutdown feature, that is if it overheats it will suspend the machine rather than fry the CPU.

Anyhow, if you do remove the heatsink, be sure to check the pins lock properly when you put it back.

[Piru]

Will I have to do that in order to replace the hard disk?

No.

See HDD replacement instructions

[Piru]

[::dancingbanana::]

Some quick FAQ:
- It is not available for public alpha or beta testing
- It is not completed yet, so no release is imminent either
- Yes it says MOS 3.0 there, but that's just the "working title", MorphOS 2.x has priority for now

[Piru]

@orange

No. I'm not interested in OS4.

[Piru]

@little

Will it be released next year or are we talking about a 2010+ release date?

It's always hard to predict these things, but I guess it's safe to say it won't be released before it's deemed ready. :-)

[Piru]

@cv643d

Piru: When it is released, do you think it will work on G4 notebooks? (you can just tell me yes or no, the usual answer ;]])

For now I can only confirm Mini. Even the Mini port is not ready.

@amigadave

Is it likely that MorphOS2.x, or 3.x will only run on one exact version of the PPC Mac Mini, or will there be more work done to allow it to run on other PPC Mac models?

It ATM runs on all PPC Mac Minis. Other models depend on the team motivation. Also, some models are clearly out (anything with other than Radeon gfxcard for example, or anything too ancient to be worth considering).

Any advice you can give me without breaking your NDA?

No NDAs to break, I just don't want to promise something we can't deliver.

So in short, if you want MOS right now, get a Pegasos or EFIKA.

[Piru]

@Painkiller

how does that Leopard feel? Is it a whorty upgrade over 10.4.11?

Tiger is a bit faster, but it's ok. It really likes to gobble memory so you'd better have the max 1GB for Leopard.

@Kickstart

Im lokking for a boot selector and just find some for intel macs, anyone knows some for ppc?

http://yaboot.ozlabs.org/

[Piru]

@HammerD

How is the performance of the Mac Mini @ 1.58GHz vs Pegasos 2 G4 1.0GHz running MorphOS 2.0? Is it noticably better?

CPU performance is obviously 1.58 times the Peg2 G4. The CPUs are identical (except for revision), and thus the CPU clock directly denotes the performance.

Memory performance is noticeably better on the Mac Mini. CPU VMEM access is slower (than my radeon 8500LE), however. Gfxcard is slower (naturally), too, but not too bad. The original Apple HDD is pretty shuggish 4200RPM, but it can be upgraded to 5400 or 7200 RPM, modern drive.

The Mini has some other drawbacks, too, such as having no PCI expandability. On the other hand it has USB2, and with a HUB you can connect a lot of devices. On the other hand the Mini is very handy for travel (at least if the destination has a monitor and keyboard).

In short: Yes, noticeably faster, especially in CPU and memory bound tasks.

[Piru]

@Painkiller

About the GFX chip isn't it actually faster to use when accessing from the system and not using the VRAM as Mac Mini has a real AGP 4x port where as PEG II has some sort of PCI to AGP hack to my understanding.

I haven't done any benchmarking on that, but even if it would be faster, it is still quite irrelevant since 9200 doesn't have that fast GPU.

[Piru]

@barana24

would morph '3' simply _run_ on a g5(it doesnt have to take advantage of it ie 64 bit)with little modifycation?

I don't think the CPU is that much of a problem, but the actual HW differences, missing drivers and so on. MorphOS itself is certainly limited to 32bit for any forseeable future, so running that on 64bit CPU would seem a bit wasteful, too.