[Bryson]

I found (literally found, abandoned by the dumpsters in my apartment complex) a PowerMac G4 tower today. It's in really good condition cosmetically, so I couldn't just let it go in the garbage. So..what shall I do with it?

Ideas?

I looked at using it as a hackintosh case, but it looks perhaps beyond my hardware hacking skill level.

[Dorian Gray]

Get a SCSI card for it and use it to run an old Imacon Flextight film scanner and its PowerPC scanning software? These virtual-drum scanners are still available new from Hasselblad (at a price), but you could get a pre-FireWire model from the late 1990s or early 2000s for under $2000 on eBay, since nobody wants the hassle of using an old Mac with a SCSI connector.

The scan quality is brilliant, far better than a flatbed scanner, though not quite as good as a real drum scanner with a photomultiplier tube (the Flextight uses a CCD instead). Hey, you could advertise scanning services in a photo magazine and make a fortune! Just beat ScanCafe’s prices and you’re a made man.

[Matsu]

I was going to say gut it and stuff the insides with a mini and a bunch of drives wired up via usb3, but I like Dorian's idea better.

Is it a quick silver or the older black and white tower ?

[Bryson]

It's an older B&W Graphite. (I think it's the 400mhz AGP model.)

i haven't attempted to boot it yet, so I don't know if it works.

[Bryson]

Well, it boots:



It's a 466Mhz with a capacious 30Gb HD. Running Mac OS 9.2. Works just great. Timewarp!

[PB PM]

You could always use it as a music server, or play old school Mac games on it. Can't think of much else useful you could do with it.

[FFL]

The case is definitely much cooler than the guts.

Too much work & expense to make it useable (new HD, more RAM, OS X), and even maxed out it is just barely useable at best.

A stealth Mini as suggested by Matsu..... or maybe just a gutted case for storing other antiquated crap like your optical media collection.

[Matsu]

Keep in the attic for a few decades with working roms and all that. Might be worth nothing to your grand kids.

[billybobsky]

dynamite

i mean stuff it with dynamite

set it off in an abandoned quarry

record it at very high speed

upload to youtube

profit

[Bryson]

I like you.

[Matsu]

Was that a Haiku?

[Bryson]

Dynamite. I Mean stuff
It with dynamite.
Set it off in an abandoned quarry.

Not quite. 6,5,9, not 7,5,7.

[drewprops]

My 2nd Mac was a Blue & White G3.

It was glorious.

I also bought the very first LCD screen that Apple made.

Still have them both and fire it up occasionally.

OS 9.x is still hella fast... surprisingly so.

Just not so good at multi-threading.

I miss owning a relevant expandable tower.

Now I make the sad face at the thought of destruction occurring to ANY Blue & White machine... and if it's a B&W then it should have a great big G3 on the inside of the frosted side.

Meaning that your thread title is incorrect.

Google Image Search

...


...

[Matsu]

You know I forgot what these things were called. B&W, Graphite, and Quicksilver, I meant to ask if it was Graphite or Quicksilver, but I invented my own model, the black and white

[Bryson]

Oops, I followed Matsu's lead. It's a Graphite. 466mhz G4.



I just listed it on Craigslist, actually. I think the hardware hacking is beyond me.

[PB PM]

There was also the short lived Gigabit Ethernet (one of which was the first Mac that I owned). I remember rocking along with the blazing 400 Mhz G4 and 512MB of RAM. I later upgraded it to a 1Ghz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and loaded 10.4. I loved that tower, and the design is great. Sadly the power supply went on it in 2007, so I bought a another used tower for $20 on eBay. Gave it to my Dad, who still uses the thing for email and the like.

[709]

Load that baby up with the Marathon Trilogy! Even with the awesome strides made with Aleph One, I still fire up my old Quicksilver downstairs to relive the glory days. There's nothing quite like playing Marathon in OS9.

[rampancy]

Originally Posted by 709 Load that baby up with the Marathon Trilogy! Even with the awesome strides made with Aleph One, I still fire up my old Quicksilver downstairs to relive the glory days. There's nothing quite like playing Marathon in OS9.

I second that! I'd turn it into a retro gaming machine. If you scrounge around thrift shops or eBay I'm sure you're bound to find a whole bunch of old school OS 9 games kicking around. Anyone remember Dark Vengeance, Tanaka, or the original Red Faction?