With the SSD programs start tangibly faster and disk access in general feels quicker, still it is apparent that the whole system doesn’t provide a greater performance due to its real limiting components: 1) the processor and bus speeds and 2) the maximum supported memory and 3) the graphics card.
Mac g4 desktop adapter for mac os x#
While the graphics card is very sufficient for Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” and quite usable under Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”, when using Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” the Radeon 9200 AGP 4x additionally slows down the whole experience, as it doesn’t fully support Core Image. Also the memory cannot be expanded beyond 1 GB, which is a pity. The G4 7457 with its 1.5 GHz is actually a fast G4 model, but with only one core (some high end Power Macs used dual processors) and its bus with only 167 MHz is simply too slow to shift data around. Whatever I am running on this/my Mac mini G4 1.5 GHz (Late 2005)-be it Mac OS X 10.2.8 (unsupported, runs with issues), 10.3.9 (only the original model, but once installed it also runs on the Late 2005 models), 10.4.11 or 10.5.8-the real culprit for not getting off the ground is the processor and the memory. XRP 2.5″ 7+15P SATA SSD HDD Hard Drive to 2.5″ 44P IDE Compact Adapter Converter Horizontal Type.Since the cable is female, it would not have fit if the IDE connector on the adapter was also female! Parallel ATA (PATA) aka ATA aka IDE (the connectors on 3.5 inch cables look almost the same, so take them as a reference)… The IDE connector for the cable would have had to be male, not female.
Mac g4 desktop adapter serial#
This is the time to take a close look at Serial ATA (SATA)… Since the connector on the HDD/SDD is with the pins visible: if the adapter card has the same, it’s most likely the wrong adapter. One way to distinguish one from the other is to check if the SATA connector is male or female. But we want it exact opposite, because the mainboard of the Mac Mini G4 still has a IDE interface and we want to connect a modern SATA drive to it! You have to be extremely careful to get the right adapter! Most adapters are for the other way around: to connect an existing IDE drive to a SATA connector on the mainboard.
IDE 2.5 inch (44-pin) to SATA adapter, smallest possible size.A 2.5 inch drive is about 10cm long, so the cable would have to be a little longer. But how then connect the SATA connector of the HDD/SSD with the 44-pin IDE connector on the other side? The solution could have been quite simple: use a 44-pin ATA/IDE cable.
Mac g4 desktop adapter install#
So I though that it might be a possible solution to install the SATA HDD/SSD turned by 180° with the connector towards the speaker in front. A show stopper would be if the adapter doesn’t fit in at all, because its connector is placed as such that the adapter is displaced in relation to the HDD/SSD, making it impossible to fit them both at the same time.
Another problem could be the height of the adapter and the resulting displacement of the 2.5 inch HDD or SSD. Such an adapter would therefore have to be very small in dimensions. The problem: the Mac mini G4 doesn’t provide much space for additional adapters. So, a solution is to use an adapter to convert from 44-pin IDE to SATA. That is very unfortunate, especially since the Mac mini G4 came with drives of 40 to 80 GB capacity, which is not much compared to today’s standards (2015).īut, once you decide to upgrade, you face the current market situation, where IDE 44-pin 2.5 inch HDDs are much more expensive than regular 2.5 inch SATA HDDs or even 2.5 inch SATA SSDs! The strategy, in theory…
One of the problems of the original Mac mini (2005, G4 PowerPC processor) is that it still uses 2.5 inch parallel ATA (PATA) drives.