The Power Macintosh G4 (1999)

[@aa-au]

Between a supplier and I, we purchased about 1600 PowerMac G3s/G4s from a Telco and its call centres in Australia around 2005. They mainly consisted of 350/400Mhz Sawtooths, but had quite a few 350/400Mhz Yikes, and not so many Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Audios, and PowerMac G3 blue and whites. The supplier mainly wholesaled his portion, but I retailed most of them. The Sawtooth G4 was the most reliable and upgradeable machine I had for a while, until the recent Mac Pro 2010/2012 which I am still selling today in 2021.

[@65scribe]

Very interesting information! I'm glad you can validate what I said about the Sawtooth's long term value. And, yes, there's something similar to be said for the Mac Pro 2010/2012. Thanks for sharing more of your experiences!

[@aa-au]

@King Of The Kill Not as much as we used to sell them. We probably have about 10-12 in stock, which we will go through and keep some and create a video, then sell the rest.

[@aa-au]

@King Of The Kill I have to find the PowerMac G3s, sort through them, create a video, post on KZbin, keep some, then sell the rest. They will be listed on our website, and yes we have some 450Mhz models. We are also based in Australia. Contact me through my channel.

[@adventureridergirl]

I think what all your viewers really want to know is, where is Sarah now? Does she still work at the oil history museum? Does she still do the dance? Did she get in trouble for showing taking you into the office and showing you privledged info? Inquiring minds want to know.

[@_..-.._..-.._]

She’s marriage material, hopefully she met a great person and got married. Or not 🤷 to each their own.

[@mspeter97]

That screensaver story is still amazingly funny

[@sclogse1]

I was in the Apple STore in San Francisco around 1995. I was up at the top of the beautiful clear stairs just coming down. From behind me a heard a series of smashes and then saw a giant green 21" Studio Monitor, the biggest ball model they had, come bouncing down the stairs to the bottom. You don't forget something like that. My lucky day.

[@65scribe]

Wow, that would have been something to witness. It might have been later, though. The big green monitor was 1999.

[@sixteenbitify]

Did Apple Stores exist in 1995?

[@willsta21]

Wow that’s a ‘baller’ moment 😅

[@_..-.._..-.._]

@@sixteenbitify I doubt it, mostly catalog and direct sales.

[@mattblumenstein]

I love these videos and I gotta say, silly as it may seem, they helped me out a lot during a really unhappy period. For me the entirety of 2019 was basically an entire year of depression, overwork at well over 40 hours per week, professional mistreatment, barren social life, toxic home environment, and a bunch of other unpleasant stuff too. Saturday nights were pretty much the only alone and free time I had during the entire week and I loved to spend them just relaxing with a couple beers and watching tech videos on KZbin to unwind, as it was more or less the only downtime I had in the entire week. I watched a lot of these videos on those 2019 Saturday nights and it was "damn!" near the only time I ever felt relaxed and content to any extent in a given week, and I spent so much of Sunday through Friday looking forward to the next Saturday night when I would finally get my only time to myself where I could actually decompress amidst all the miserable stuff I was dealing with. Weirdly therapeutic. 2019 was a godawful year but those Saturday nights and watching these videos are a genuinely warm memory from that otherwise terrible time.

[@65scribe]

Good to hear you made it to the other side of that year. I am amazed that these goofy videos actually had a meaningful impact. I appreciate you taking the time to share that. Keep that Saturday night vibe going!

[@grimreboot]

"Damn!"

[@ps5hasnogames55]

welcome to the real world. no one likes working. man up

[@_..-.._..-.._]

Does this do anythin?

[@blueeyedbaer]

The G4 tower is probably the most beautiful computer design ever. I'd love to have a modern computer in that case.

[@BenHelweg]

I lost it at the Marathon bit. Also love that you keep showing bits of the oil museum.

[@65scribe]

Thanks Ben! Those were fun bits to throw in there.

[@Theunihornable]

I laughed so hard with the A&E hoarders bit because as a computer collector of 3 old computers, my mom sees my room as that XD

[@scj643]

They just don’t get it

[@retrodude6215]

Welcome to the club

[@paulmuaddib451]

That Heat Sink section is *insane*.

[@Cyber_Horse_Studios87]

🎵” Heat Sinking, Heat sinking… we know how to BEEF it!”🎵 Apple: 2003 to 2005

[@kirishima638]

"After playing with the OS you'd go back to OS9 to do actual work" hahaha sooo true. I stuck with OS9 until Panther came out.

[@desther7975]

I was more eager for OS X (it was SO nice having preemptive multitasking and protected memory at long last) and transitioned to it just as soon as I was able. Funnily, Panther is the only version I skipped!

[@sneakyfox4651]

Now that sounds interesting to an old Mac fan. How on Earth is that possible at all? I mean, perhaps you could get iCab to visit a few web pages, but what about HTTPS in general (most pages won't even load in Safari on SnowLeo) and contemporary e-mail protocols? P.S. The best IT-interface ever HAD to be Cyberdog, Apple's OpenDoc internet suite. Man, that was lightyears ahead of Netscape or Explorer on the Windows platform in the late nineties. I ran it for quite some time on my Performa 475. Very stable, very low resource demands.

[@JasonStevens]

My workflow was Unix based so it was great for me, although any Mac apps basically meant booting to 8. Bluebox was so delicate, although by the time 10.0 shipped it was so much better

[@lepidotos]

@@sneakyfox4651 TenFourFox and Leopard Webkit. They were both ports of relatively modern versions of Firefox and Webkit respectively, the former even coming with specifically optimized versions for each processor starting with the G3. TFF was open source so there's a continuation of it in the form of InterWebPPC, but it's still fundamentally Firefox. TFF works pretty decently on my 900MHz iBook, and alright enough on my 450MHz AGP G4.

[@sneakyfox4651]

@@lepidotos I got an iMac G5 for a friend wtih TFF pre-installed by the previous owner, but (on that machine) it didn't work properly. However, I had som old PPC Firefoxes laying around that worked with most web pages, but browsing wasn't the first priority anyway, since he more uses that iMac to run som old graphics software and nostalgic games.

[@Eyetrauma]

I come from the future year of 2020, you’ll want to hold on to that PPE and facemask.

[@65scribe]

LOL

[@ian_b]

I am from 2025. Move North of the Arctic Circle.

[@desther7975]

@@ian_b Why not Antarctica? More land down there.

[@ian_b]

@@desther7975 I cannot tell you why. It is better you do not know.

[@GarthBeagle]

Working my way back through your videos and finding myself wanting to know more about the oil museum and it's gift shop...

[@MrKeech666]

My first Mac I bought on my own was the PowerMac G4 466 Mhz Digital Audio. It's final form was upgraded with an ATi 9600 Pro 256 MB AGP, 2.0 Ghz CPU upgrade, maxed out 1.5 GB of RAM, and a 24-bit/96 Khz Firewire DAC. My friend ending up using it right up until WoW no longer supported the PPC Mac.

[@williamjames9211]

These are the best apple and vintage KZbin videos I’ve ever seen. I’m binging every one of them

[@65scribe]

Thank you William! That's great to hear!I hope you enjoyed the binge.

[@vulcanitu2578]

You sound like a less depressed version of vwestlife

[@BilczaTheHedgehog]

lol.

[@decimat777]

I honestly thought this was a second channel of Modern Classic

[@csabasanta5696]

@@decimat777 me too, and it's not?

[@ciprianpopa1503]

That's what you get after a lifetime of apples.

[@_..-.._..-.._]

@@ciprianpopa1503 Keeps the doctor away shrug 🤷

[@andrew3139]

I remember vividly when these came out and to this day did not know much about the hardware inside. I enjoyed the video, thanks for putting it together.

[@65scribe]

Glad to hear you enjoyed learning more about the tower, Andrew!

[@swarmland]

I love all your videos, thank you for the work you put into them! The hardware specs, historical context and most importantly humour makes these, in my opinion, the best videos about these old Macs on KZbin :- )

[@65scribe]

Wow! Thanks very much.

[@dronejunglistplatoon]

Lmao! The "wah-wah" and "damn" sound effects get me every time! 😂😂😂

[@CassandraCarter]

Another classic is the "does it do anything?"

[@Fmontes]

That's because you are easily amused. Which... is a blessing.

[@ryeb]

I am so glad this channel came up in my recommendations. I've already watched some of these several times. There's a nice coziness to them.

[@65scribe]

Thanks for sharing your impression of the videos. Good to know the channel got recommended to you and that some videos are even good for multiple viewings!

[@kyle8952]

The heatsink section says a lot about late PowerPC. What you didn't mention was the noise factor, the quicksilver was really loud and we all know what went on with the MDD. Sometimes I find quicksilvers with blow holes cut in the top for extra cooling.

[@65scribe]

Interesting! I never did try to compare noise levels, but, of course, I've heard the 'wind tunnel' complaints.

[@MicrobyteAlan]

This is when I started noticing Apple again after the 70s & 80s. Beautiful machines. Thanks

[@StephenSullivan504]

You can perfectly imagine that intro startup song as something Steve heard at Pixar and then insisted it had to be used for this G4 intro video.

[@65scribe]

Ha! I never thought about that, but it makes a lot of sense!

[@StephenSullivan504]

65scribe Yea definitely wasn’t clear to me till now. And I was repairing them back then, I’ve heard those intro songs so many times.... you start making up your own lyrics to them eventually.

[@65scribe]

I can see that happening, too. Ha!

[@maximedfz6891]

When I bought my iMac DV special edition in 2011 (It was my first computer, I was 11), I thought that the music for the first booting video with the accordion was just a wink to French customers like me ! But no, I'm really surprise. Sure it's not apropriate at all ! Thanks for this excellent video !

[@65scribe]

Maxime Dfz You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing your experience with the iMac DV special edition. Very funny!

[@paianis]

The original PIII was essentially a PII with SSE support. The Coppermine revision alongside AMD's Athlon was the beginning of the end of PowerPC's performance lead.

[@65scribe]

That's some good supplementary information, Paianis. Thanks for posting that.

[@vyl-za]

Ah man, memories of my mom bringing home her new G4 with a copy of Quake III Arena.. that G4 was running all the way up until last year, when she sold it (I wish she hadn't)

[@65scribe]

I know what you mean. Our iMac DV got sold in 2003, but I wish now that we'd kept it. It was sold to finance an iBook G4, which was a great machine, but no one cares about that model now.

[@vyl-za]

@@65scribe funnily enough, I ended up fixing Apple computers for a living, we have quite the collection EXCEPT iBooks, people seem to hang on to them here in South Africa

[@marcioaugustofiorezilapast1093]

A Powermac G4 Yikes! 350Mhz once appeared here in Brazil for about 20 bucks. I tried to buy it but i couldn't get it due to the seller's incompetence in posting it in the mail. I did got my money back but I would love to get that Yikes! because on the seller's photos it was all original inside. Anyway, pretty nice and informative video

[@gnrl_mayhem]

I just picked up a power macintish g4. Only 1 owner. Great condition and now it's mine to play around with. I love the design aesthetics during this period.

[@65scribe]

That's great! I hope you have fun with it. And, even when you're not using it, the aesthetics never get boring.

[@donjames5761]

even though I have a 2019 iMac. I still use my iMac g3 sometimes. it has a full installation of adobe photoshop sure it doesn't have as many tools as the new photoshop. but I also dont have to deal with cloud. and I have all of my old business/school software. I appreciate the simplicity of older software vs new.

[@lolmygoodness]

hey scribe, just came back to watch this again. One of your best vids for sure. Cheers and merry xmas

[@65scribe]

Thanks for coming back. Interesting times made for a good video. Merry Xmas to you!

[@michaelhill6453]

I spotted this, eagerly clicked and realised I'd already seen it. I watched it again and still laughed out loud. Sorry, LOL. As usual, an outstanding slice of history, beautifully presented and very, very funny. Thank you. I understand these videos take a lot of effort and skill to produce, I suppose they wouldn't be so special otherwise which is why I always find myself checking your channel for new instalments. Wonderful stuff, please keep releasing your fantastic documentaries.

[@65scribe]

Thank you, Michael, for the great feedback. If I ever needed a "viewer testimonial" to advertise the channel, I'd use this one.

[@HappyJigg]

One of my favorite toucches in your videos is how you always manage to work in your trip to the oil museum... Comedy gold.

[@65scribe]

Thanks for your feedback. The well will eventually run dry on those clips (pun intended), but I think I’ll have another in my next video coming soon.

[@Tonestronaut]

I got a G4 in 2003, my first Mac since an 8100/100AV back in 1995. Mirrored drive door Firewire 800 model with two 1.25Ghz 7455s. The first computer I was completely happy with. No excuses, it just delivered professional results on time. OS X had pre-emptive multitasking and supported a two-button mouse, both of which I was familiar with from the Amiga I'd had since 1988 and sorely missed on the 8100. One curious moment I remember, I was upgrading the OS as Apple released new versions, and at one point the OS just sort of collapsed and used up all the space on the hard drive. I had to reinstall from disk. After that I got a 10.4 DVD just in case. The G4 is still in service driving Nikon professional film scanners. I installed a Zip drive that helped me bring over all my Amiga files for use in an emulator.

[@65scribe]

Thanks for sharing your personal history with the 8100 and G4 coming from an Amiga background. Interesting to read someone else's perspective.

[@theREDpanda2002]

Great video! Love these older Macs! they have nice designs and they are just a time-capsule of the late 90's.

[@65scribe]

Thank you!

[@jameshenry3350]

This video was far more entertaining and informative than I thought it would be! mad props

[@65scribe]

Thanks James! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@sushimamba4281]

So many good moments in this. The drummer. Marathon (I spent about 50% of the 90's playing it). The heat sinks. The cute girl in the Oil Museum. p.s. We had an unused dusty dual Quicksilver G4 at work sitting in the storeroom. One day I noticed it was no longer there, so I asked our IT guy, "Hey where's that Mac G4?" "Ah, I had a clean out yesterday and threw it in electrical products dumpster." Too late! Gone.

[@65scribe]

Too bad about the Quicksilver. So close... I have many similar stories, so you're in good company. Thanks for posting your review of the video. Great to hear what viewers enjoyed the most in the video.

[@sushimamba4281]

@@65scribe Thanks for your reply. p.s. the hamster on the book shelf should rate a mention too!

[@65scribe]

Sushi Mamba Hah!

[@agamemnon8163]

arguably the most interesting time for macs in terms of design. very nostalgic.

[@65scribe]

By far my favorite mac that I bought through the years.

[@raskolnikov9067]

Great movie! So many nostalgic memories. It simply was more fun back in those days.

[@hmorris]

Love this 4:3 aspect ratio, so retro and refreshing

[@65scribe]

Thanks, Hayden! Good to know that viewers like the style.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Helped create Playstation 2 at Sony on that puppy. I just did a full refurb on one of these and will have a complete refurb tut site up soon.

[@JohnjrtChicago]

Great video and history, thank you for all the work you put into this. I am thinking of setting up my old G4 again for 8 year old son to play on off line.

[@65scribe]

Appreciate the feedback, thanks!

[@rwdplz1]

I still have one of these I use occasionally, the cool monitor broke though. G4 Digital Audio dual 533 Server. Upgraded it back around 2007, maxed out the RAM, upgraded the HD, added USB 2.0 PCI card, airport 802.11b, DVD burner, AND a NOS ZIP drive upgrade!

[@65scribe]

Nice! I still remember the debates about whether the dual 533 or the 733 was the most powerful.

[@AlexVanChezlaw]

The girl from that museum was cute.

[@jasonc0]

Probably has 2 kids and a douchebag husband by now, unfortunately

[@65scribe]

As far as I know, she’s actually avoided all that. More career-minded, I think.

[@TurboPikachu]

@PrivateCheeselaw I was just about to type that myself lol

[@zuur303]

@@65scribe Is there a word for a postponed historical crush?

[@blujack100]

Going to power up my G4 sawtooth. Still have the original os9 drive too. I loved this computer so much. Used it for 10 years. Has 1ghz CPU upgrade.

[@dysfunctionalwombat]

I love the G3s and G4s. I am the proud owner of an iMac G3 233 MHz Revision A and a recently picked up iMac G4

[@levicassidy9312]

for me i have 2 iMac g3 slot loaders and 1 Emac g4 all 3 i found in the trash and they work great

[@ParthaDey97]

Building that collection!

[@karlforman936]

Just bough one from a friend. Booot up OK then won't boot up. No display.?

[@StephenSullivan504]

The G4 tower coffee table is super cool. Way better than my buddy’s XServe coffee table. (Sorry Mikey)

[@tainc]

HEY ಠ_ಠ

[@vlogmaster9568]

'' and your pentium coputer, its harmless'' What a burn.

[@CassandraCarter]

Accurate depiction of Mac Hoarding contained within. Also, jealous of your collection, lol. (Also funny how AirPort cards were $99, now you can't give them away.)

[@65scribe]

Thanks, lol. And good point, no one wants to drag down their wireless network with those old cards.

[@65scribe]

slightlyevolved Yes, I’ve heard a 802.11b connection can really slow down a network.

[@gentuxable]

At least the 22 inch Cinema Display came with a stand.

[@65scribe]

:)

[@wendysremix]

Unless the stand breaks which is common on those Apple displays.

[@sclogse1]

This is entertaining. Near the beginning, he mentions that his G4 tower is still running. All about the fans. I aim a vintage Vornado fan right at the back of my 2011 27" Imac. Always, even on cold days. What a difference.

[@65scribe]

That's a great tip! Thanks for sharing that!

[@AndersEngerJensen]

Haha.. three years later, and I'm having a field trip down memory lane and my years at university studying graphical engineering and printing! We had the coolest lab of all, with G4s specially for the design group. Can't remember which ones, probably the mid range as they were ridiculously expensive in Norway! But such fun times! ^_^

[@65scribe]

That's very cool, Anders! Thanks for sharing that, and glad you enjoyed the look back at the past.

[@null_carrier]

Recently got my G4 - currently in the restoration process. The machine runs but the battery is dead and there was no RAM nor HDD. I put in one 128MB PC133 SDRAM module and an old 80GB WD hard disk and now I need to burn OS X 10.3 Panther and try to install it. Never had much experience with Apple products but is this is a beautiful machine indeed. This video of yours was a great inspiration for me to see this restoration project through.

[@65scribe]

Thanks, Milos. Have fun with your project!

[@jero_mendez]

Love this channel! The speach and humer are superb!

[@65scribe]

Thanks very much!

[@ssplintergirl]

God tier classic video editing. This brings me back.

[@KOSMOS1701A]

I kind of wish they had kept the power PC architecture and bright colors, i mean those are what made apple unique, now everything is just standard PC parts in un-openable aluminum bricks

[@Purpill]

KOSMOS1701A I can fix anything

[@frankthespank]

Are you smoking crack?!?! I worked at Apple during this era and the IBM PowerPC RISC bullshit almost killed Apple. OS9 was alright but when OSX came around the PowerPC architecture showed how much of a dog it was and that it had no future. I remember all the hype for the G5 but when I had some alone time with it I was really disappointed, all hype.. then we got the new G5 and went from air cooling to water cooling and I knew we were done for, I even asked in the meeting we had for it if Apple was now condoning overclocking because that’s what the new G5 was, an overclocked Mac with water cooling, the Apple nerds didn’t think I was funny. Thank god Steve knew what a piece of shit the G5 was and ditched it. BTW I worked in Elk Grove California, we built the PowerMac’s and Mac Pro’s there and had the AppleCare call center (one of them) there and some other shit.

[@jblyon2]

@@frankthespank PowerPC had a certain set of operations for which it was extremely fast. These are what Apple used for their marketing materials comparing them to x86. Averaged over a wide range of tasks the later G4 models had nearly MHz for MHz performance parity with Pentium 4-B (2.26-3.06 GHz speeds). That is to say, the G4 couldn't even come close.

[@ian_b]

@@frankthespank Reminds me of the good old days (up until the day Apple announced the switch to Intel) when Mac users would loudly insist that the PowerPC was an inherently faster, more efficient chip and x86 was a bloated dead end that could never compete. Seems so long ago now.

[@frankthespank]

jaxxstraw - I know, lol. I started at Apple working for AppleCare and I would explain how our CPU’s ran at a lower clock speed but did more work per clock cycle. I’d use the metaphor of a race between two guys with wheelbarrows that are loaded with bricks, the Intel guy could run faster but the Apple guy could carry more bricks. Eh.. I felt dirty... I knew Intel was faster, at the time I had a Pentium III overclocked. I also had a G4 Cube I built myself when a I worked at the production area, I still have my G4 Cube, even though my PC was way faster that G4 Cube was a piece of art. I even saved the box it came in, that was the computer that made me love Apple, along with OSX. I hated Apple with its OS9 and before OS’s, they were so outdated and their hardware was expensive and crap with stuff like the “Performa 8000” or the “Performa 9000” etc., I liked the iMac but the G4 Cube and OSX was just bliss! Steve Jobs WAS Apple.

[@LloydLynx]

I found mine on the side of the road, missing hard drive but other than that it works perfectly.

[@65scribe]

Nice! Gotta love those finds.

[@yueibm]

Thanks for the video! I just got a first gen G4 tower. I wonder what the oil museum person is doing these days.

[@65scribe]

Congrats on the G4! I believe Sarah from the oil museum is practicing law overseas. So she went pretty far from the days of the museum.

[@yueibm]

@@65scribe Thank you! And I'm glad your guest star Sarah isn't dealing with Windows screensavers anymore!

[@burntoutelectronics]

My gosh that's a big collection of macs. I wish I had that many!

[@wishusknight3009]

Man, I held onto my 7100/66 until my dual 800 quicksilver. Granted i did upgrade the cpu and such along the way, but it was a long wait.

[@MattExzy]

11:04 - I can SMELL those pages of that Macworld magazine. I remember as a kid seeing those full page ads and desperately wanting the G4. And still now, my brain defies logic and still thinks this would be the ultimate must-have computer. Argh.

[@65scribe]

Great memory of the impression the G4 tower made at the time. Thanks for sharing that!

[@fascinatedbyeverything]

Same!!

[@mattblumenstein]

get one and convert it into a hackintosh, that's what I'm in the process of doing

[@antibodiesagainstkookery3871]

I know at least one person who "upgraded" from a faster, more modern PC to a five-years-older G4. Only briefly. He did think the G4 would be faster.

[@lepidotos]

@@mattblumenstein I'd advise against it for anyone reading this comment section, because eventually the motherboard you put in there is going to become incompatible with new stuff and you just end up with a cut up old case you can't put a new motherboard in, leading to the same problem except now without any sort of interesting hardware, just boring old amd64. Especially with ARM Macs here. Power Mac G4s are still excellent machines for music production due to all the now cheap professional hardware and software you can pair with them in the massively snappy Classic OS, almost all of which are impossible to take advantage of with emulation.

[@ssupertutorial]

Am I the only one who loved the PowerMac G3 colors?

[@65scribe]

You are definitely not the only one. I got lots of comments of love for the Blue&Ice theme through the years. I've grown to like it, too, but my reaction when it was introduced is what I tried to show in the video.

[@jputnam85]

you deserve so many more subscribers than you currently have

[@itstheweirdguy]

I got one donated to me at my work. You can open the thing and it opens up right there! She's a DA (Digital Audio) G4. Someone upgraded the RAM in there. Temporarily swapped in a dvd drive and got a higher macOSX installed, still dual boots OS 9 too. Came with that 4000$ monitor too!

[@65scribe]

Excellent donation!

[@TuNnL]

I was a college student and member of the student video and film organization when I first used a Mac G3 tower. I remember hating it and being totally frustrated, but forced myself, because I was interested in video production. We had a linear analog editing system that I had trained for hours to use, and had finally edited a few videos on. Then, our new equipment manager announced we were switching to digital, "because everyone else is doing it." Despite my frustration, it simply became convenient by virtue of the G3 being new and more available, since all the other kids were using the analog system. By the time our equipment guy was debating whether to order the G4, we were all begging him to hurry up, as in just three semesters, our G3 was experiencing noticeable signs of wear. 🖥️

[@65scribe]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing that. I had the same problem in my college days (except it was 1989). The professional linear editing system was so booked up, I couldn't get any time on it. I couldn't wait 10 years for the G3 to show up, so I had to write an essay instead of producing a video. Now I'm probably the only one in that class still doing video production.

[@TuNnL]

@@65scribe what is exciting for me is I just learned you can run Final Cut Pro 7 on Mac OS 7.5.8 Leopard, contrary to the system requirements listed by Apple as Mac OS 7.6. My MacBook Pro died shortly before the pandemic, and I've decided it is just cheaper and a better value to edit on a desktop. I initially was triggered by the realization that the max OS for PowerMac G4s and G5s was Leopard, but with any luck, Sorbet Leopard 7.5.9 should be plenty for my needs. Now, I can purchase a (hopefully) dirt cheap Power Mac G4 MDD (FW800), upgrade where needed, and get back to editing on the most beautiful PPC Mac engineered by Apple. 🍎

[@HarmonicVector]

"Cinema Display costed $3,999" Wow... History is an infinite loop.

[@evibes512]

Really enjoying your videos. Keep up the great work! I still have a few older Macs in my collection. G5 Dual 2GHz, Mac Mini G4 (overclocked to 1.25Ghz) Quadra 700 with a 50MHz 040 accelerator, and a Powerbook 520c. Went through a period where I really enjoyed tinkering with old Macs. Systems I had to part with due to space were a IIci, IIfx, Quadra 900, LC 475, LC 550, 7100/66, 6100/66, 9500/200 and various Performas and Power Computing clones. I had a ton of fun hunting them down at yard sales and working on them. Each one had oddities that made them unique, giving them character which you show very well in your videos. That character in hardware really seems lost these days. Another oddball item I have are key chains of PowerPC cpus, 601, 603, 604 and 620. Always wanted to see a 620 Mac, but it never came. Motorola's G3 design was just too good. Thanks again for the trips down memory lane.

[@65scribe]

Thanks Jeff. Those are some interesting Macs that you've hunted down through the years. I definitely know what you mean. It's a fun sport, though they were easier to find 10 years ago. Also, the key chains. I'm wondering where those originated? Anyway, glad you're enjoying the videos!

[@evibes512]

@@65scribe The story behind the key chains goes back to my high school days. I wrote a paper about Apple's transition from a CISC to RISC architecture, and sent a letter to IBM discussing my paper and project. I kindly asked for any marketing materials they could send to me. I honestly didn't think I'd get a response but within a couple weeks they sent me a plastic IBM logo envelop with key chains and stickers with real PowerPC processors embedded in them. I was blown away at the time, and have kept it all these years.

[@evibes512]

@@65scribe I uploaded some photos of my IBM swag from back in the day. imgur.com/qUQoUMJ imgur.com/UE3W4dA imgur.com/CIRlQF4 imgur.com/T2X0n3b imgur.com/yHiiipf imgur.com/twbRFhf imgur.com/Eux41w0

[@cassandralyris4918]

I gotta admit, these were pretty cute towers. I'm not a huge MAC person, but I still kinda wished I had one of these.

[@em4957]

This video cracked me up!! I want a g4 so badly- just for non- internet browsing uses.

[@lepidotos]

The G4 is still perfectly viable as an Internet machine, albiet maybe without very much KZbin... at least not on a single 450. Other than that, I can't really say I've had any issues with 10.4Fx doing too terribly with modern webpages, even ones with a Google log in prompt. My G3 certainly handles it pretty well at double the clockspeed.

[@TheJuanvisu]

I am waiting for the powermac G5 vídeo 🙃

[@diegoknyte]

Love the G4 AGP. Maybe 10 years ago I cuatom cased one by taking the G3 smokey plastics and the graphite parts from a G4 and combined them. A G4 case with smokey details, looked really slick IMO. The case parts were interchangable for the most parts.

[@777jones]

Quite agree. Y2k was a time of rapid developments to the modern, OS X and iOS era. Thanks for the binge-worthy channel.

[@A-V]

Fun walk down memory lane! Makes me want to go out into the attic of my garage and get my graphite G4

[@A-V]

Nope - it's still just sitting there collecting dust :) And now that I come to think of it, I believe its actually a mirrored drive door variety... not graphite

[@motofingo]

2001-2002 all my work was working on macintosh g4.. i can't forget it.. in those year's I wouldn't even think to work with another pc..

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

I had a Power G4 in 2001/2, large monitor, MAC OS 10.4, thanks, Mass. Rehab. and Professor Philip Ruderman, a Graphic Designer from Springfield Technical Community College. This one came after the SE.

[@stevef6392]

What a fantastic video! For some reason I've been watching way too many G3/G4 related videos lately, and this one is the best. As much as I wanted a G4 tower on my desk (mainly because it looked a hell of a lot sexier than my beige Dell), I never believed Apple's highly biased G4 vs Intel comparisons. I used a P3-600 in 2000 and most of the time it felt faster/"snappier" than the Macs of the time. Running Win2000, it had no problem software-decoding DVDs whilst running other programs--something the original G4s indeed had lots of trouble with. Although, how much of that had to do with OS 9's archaic multitasking implementation, I don't know. Despite all of that, there is absolutely no doubt that Apple made REALLY COOL computers back then (especially that cube...oh man!)

[@65scribe]

Hey, great reading your comment. Thanks! I'd say Windows 2000 is probably the best OS Microsoft ever made. And the Apple speed runs and slams against 'Wintel' were fun to watch, but really, it was way more important to buy what you liked (or needed) to use. Apple was a very interesting story for many years, which can be told through it's unique products. Suffice it to say, I won't be doing a video featuring a late 90's Dell.

[@JoeyVictorVideos]

This video was really funny and the inclusion of home videos made it heart warming. Subscribed!

[@theViomax]

G3 Tower was a beauty! I would stare at the back of my chemistry teachers machine longingly in class all the time. Wish I had one to this day. :(

[@65scribe]

Good memories.Yes, I've heard from many who share your opinion. Having now got one, I've come around to your way of thinking too.

[@onceandfuturetech]

Great video. Thanks for sharing and putting the effort in. The original G4 tower design is still my favourite of the G3-G5 era.

[@65scribe]

I agree with you on the original G4 design. Although, you probably gathered that from the video. I'm glad you liked it!

[@orglarovin]

Love this!!! Nerdy soothing and entertaining as hell :D

[@danieldougan269]

That was an incredible ad with the tanks. Wow.

[@malus314]

I think this is my favorite video. Something about it just reminds me of the days when getting a new computer to replace your tired old one was a really exciting, fantastical thing and using a new computer versus a 6-year old one was like night and day and opened up so many new functions. I still love getting new hardware but the excitement of it isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago

[@65scribe]

Very well said. You summarize the the difference between then and now perfectly.

[@maverickbna]

I love your use of sound effects. What SFX library are you using, is it a stock library or something? Keep up the great content!

[@65scribe]

The sound effects are mostly ones I collected myself back in the 80's for my 'great' video productions when I was a teen. Others are from '100 Sound Effects, vol 1-4' that was originally made in the 70's, I think. Thanks for the feedback!

[@joeturner7959]

The G3/DVD daughter card had an additional feature, you could play a movie on the desktop. We saw dev-9600s with the glowing button, if we promised not to tell anyone. The 8600 had them too, but not the 7600. The dev-9600 also had the one-button opening, which carried over to the G3/Beige.

[@65scribe]

Very cool you got a first look at the glowing button! This G3/G4 tower design would have been a lot more impressive if the 8600/9600 case design wasn't already so amazing. Instead of doing a video on those great machines, I made a video on the 9500. I guess I enjoy a challenge.

[@MorgonautHackintosh]

yeah, those days were great, forever in my heart

[@techstuff0918]

you are hilarious! I waited so long since your last upload and I was not disappointed! I really hope you upload more often cause your content rocks. You also sound like youtuber VWestlife xD Cheers!

[@65scribe]

Thanks for your patience. Good to hear you enjoyed it! Also, maybe I've been living in a cave, but I don't know VWestlife. You are the second to make that comparison.

[@Gmoney6422]

Techstuff091 definitely, you sound like a Canadian vwestlife

[@MrGeek187]

They both sound like Clint Eastwood :D

[@thudtheace]

Those G3/G4 I think were some of the prettiest Apples made...

[@Daniel-lv8ze]

My god this is some spicy editing!

[@drygnfyre]

Recently discovered your channel, really enjoying it so far. Lots of little things I didn't know about the PowerMac G4. For example, the real reason why dual processors were offered. I agree with you that the late 90s/early 00s was a really interesting time in Apple's history. Their products are a bit boring today (but very effective), whereas that era was still Apple recovering, so they were a little more willing to take risks and try out crazy things. Some worked, some didn't.

[@65scribe]

Good to hear, Joseph. Thanks for checking out the other videos.

[@RavenLittle]

OmL I love your coffee table so much, a true style icon!

[@65scribe]

Thanks very much! I’m glad to hear that.

[@transitengineer]

Great video! As for myself, I have always loved the look and style of the Blue and White G3 Tower but never liked the looks of the G4 Tower. So, for a vintage G4 model my goal is to pick-up a power mac G4 Cube running apple computer's classic OS 9.2, with the clear see through CRT display.

[@65scribe]

I always loved apple’s beige macs and was pretty bitter in 1999 when the G3 B&W was presented (which I convey in the video) but in later years I’ve appreciated it more. I like your vintage G4 goal. I would like to get the same for a G4 Cube video. Thanks for leaving a comment!

[@transitengineer]

My first apple computer was a 5400 All-in-One with a 603e processor running at 180 MHz. While it died in the 1990's a few years ago, I was able to pick up a replacement with the same form factor a 5500 All-in-One and after installing my apple video card, apple TV/FM radio card with remote control, and G3 processor upgrade card it is just like my old computer has come back to life. When apple changed the form factor of the beige All-in-One with the G3 All-in-One model, I thought it was outstanding because it had a built in Ethernet port, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, and 100 Mb Zip drive plus it came with three (3) open PCI card slots for expansion (to add USB ports, Firewire ports, etc.). I could never see why, so many others preferred the imac since it had no internal floppy drive, 100 Mb Zip drive, or any PCI card slots.

[@geeeeeeo]

I love the style of your videos - and they're really informative!

[@65scribe]

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed.

[@danieldougan269]

Wow, he is soooo dry. And that's a compliment!

[@65scribe]

Thanks for all the comments, Daniel. :)

[@neirubo]

One of the BEST videos on KZbin, congratulations. i LOVED it. Steve Jobs for EVER.

[@65scribe]

Much appreciated!

[@dr.christopherdiaz4473]

My G4 was my first computer that could actually record multitrack audio projects. Of course, it required an ATTO scsi accelerator card, and an external glyph scsi drive that spun at 10k with an 8mb cache. I worked on that setup for YEARS because I HATED OS X. I kept booting OS9 and running Emagic Logic Platinum with no problem, but if you dont remember, NOTHING worked on OS X for the first three versions. EVERYTHING was buggy, and the changes altered the entire Macintosh experience. I abandoned Mac when they finally abandoned OS 9. After that, I moved to Windows XP and used that amazing OS until Mac OS X 10.7. By then, they worked out all the bugs, and things FINALLY worked like they used to...sort of.

[@65scribe]

Very interesting hearing about how you used the G4. Sounds like a great set-up. I remember the G4 just roared with OS9 and OS X just dragged it down. I spent a couple years just using OS X as a curiosity, and I can understand why you left.

[@PatrickGoodspeed]

An old dead power Mac looks like a good subject for raspberry pi 4 project. Mmm, Apple Pi...

[@garricksl]

Thanks for the history of Apple in the late 90s and early 2000s. I didn't know about Mac platform in that time.

[@65scribe]

I'm glad you got something out of that. The machines are a lot more interesting if put in their historical context.

[@garricksl]

I understand the software history of Mac OS X. I still confused the origin of iMac and Power Mac Cube.

[@Voltasaur]

First computer I bought to edit videos in college. Loved it!

[@ElysiumNZ]

The best part “sold to a geek to install Linux” 😂

[@mspeter97]

You wouldn't believe how many of these I worked on to restore them to a factory setting and found out some genius tried to install a "modern" version of Linux that was barely optimized for a G4 or a G3

[@mitchelvalentino1569]

Hahahahaha 😂 TRUE!!!!

[@psychicist]

@@mspeter97 I bought all of my Powermac G4 and G5 machines to run and develop software for Linux, although OpenBSD is a better fit for a G4 these days. Especially G5 machines run quite well with modern Linux.

[@LloydLynx]

That was the first thing I did when I got mine.

[@JakeHambyZ80]

@@psychicist I did the same, but some years ago. I've been working on getting a version of Gentoo Linux that's easy for people to install and also optimized for G3, G4, and G5. There has been a lot of "bit rot" over the past few years but it is possible even to support large hard drives on old G4's like the one in this video (I own the same model).

[@100Underscores]

Please make more videos. You’re the best

[@1bit]

Thank you so much for the reviews.. huge fan! Anecdotal but apparently I was lucky cause my 450mhz G4 died within only a couple years where as my Mirrored Door dual 1.25ghz (which I ordered on release day) is still going strong today and was my primary computer until 2014. Also, the built-in Zip drives are still in perfect operation on all 3 Power Macs I have with em and when the G4 was introduced I was soooo happy to have bought the blue/white G3 just 9 months earlier because on purely asthenic grounds I found it to be a much more cohesive and attractive design. I’m in the minority but feel the later mirrored drive “wind tunnel” was the only equally beautiful machine in that case design.. Only feel bold enough to say that as I am an artist and designer

[@65scribe]

Sounds like the “bizarro world” version of my experiences. Completely opposite! :) Aesthetics are very subjective, and I’ll say I’ve come around on the G3 since the time that saw it introduced. Actually pretty nice now that I have one. I kinda played-up my 1999 reaction for the video. And Good to hear your MDD served you well.

[@1bit]

@@65scribe I totally get that and often assert hyperbolic opinions to be funny. Really enjoy your sense of humor in the vids. The comedic timing is always great! If this was an Art school critique and I was making an argument for the Yosemite G3 being the superior aesthetic design I’d say the curves and translucent plastic were most true to bright blue color and HUMONGOUS “G3” silk screen. It fit the materials and playful design. Where as “graphite” and shiny clear plastic was trying to look like glass and something serious, which wasn’t true to the materials and design. It was like a hippy dressing up for a job interview by putting their dreds in a ponytail and wearing a boring shirt. IMO all of them are beautiful machines and you’re obviously right about aesthetics being subjective. Somebody somewhere unironically feels the molar Mac looks insanely great!

[@240p_is_enough]

That double up mouse pointer made me laugh hard, you've got great comedic timing, were you ever in the entertainment industry?

[@65scribe]

Thank you very much! This is as close as I've gotten to the entertainment industry, but I appreciate the compliment!