An indication of what Apple thinks about Intel based Macs today.

wstrohm said:

I was joking, of course. In $$, they are indeed worthless, even though I paid $4K for mine in 2005. And then Apple almost immediately made the PowerPC CPU obsolete, excerpt maybe for its "James Webb Space Telescope" application. But mine has value other than monetary... how many of you can play "Obsidian" (by Rocket Science) on demand, these days? The Journeyman Projects 1 and 2? Etc that require Classic (Mac OS 9.2.2)? Mac OS Tiger 10.4.11 is on the last Macintosh that can do that.

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Sheepshaver?

Or maybe... but still better to have a PPC G5 running 10.4.11.

I had never heard of this Sorbet Leopard project until I saw a YT video today. Looks interesting. I might try it on my now ancient G4 Mac mini.

Sorbet Leopard can be thought of not only as something of an entirely new Mac OS X distribution, but also as an effective version 10.5 and 10.6 hybrid. This means that while the base system was built off of the rock-solid foundation of Mac OS X 10.5.8, as many parts and components as possible have also been transplanted from Mac OS X 10.6.8, in addition to custom updates, refinements, and performance optimizations having been bolted on. As a result, Sorbet Leopard boasts the following system refinements built right in:

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o Improved startup times and application launch times
o Smoother graphical performance in most applications
o Faster network performance in all system operations
o PowerPC-optimized binaries
o Reduced disk activity
o Reduced CPU / RAM / disk usage

trs96 said:

I had never heard of this Sorbet Leopard project until I saw a YT video today. Looks interesting. I might try it on my now ancient G4 Mac mini.


o Improved startup times and application launch times
o Smoother graphical performance in most applications
o Faster network performance in all system operations
o PowerPC-optimized binaries
o Reduced disk activity
o Reduced CPU / RAM / disk usage

Sorbet Leopard - Your Power Mac Unleashed (Revision 1.5 Released)

Introduction (Read in Tim Cook's voice) It's safe to say that a great many users in the PowerPC community (used to) rely on Mac OS X Leopard regularly and leverage its useful features just as often. However, there are certain elements laced throughout the default user experience that have...

forums.macrumors.com

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Hmmm, I've got a G4 and MP G5 systems sitting on the shelf. I think I've got my rainy day project. Thanks for sharing, @trs96!

Stork said:

I've got a G4 and MP G5 systems sitting on the shelf. I think I've got my rainy day project.

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I've found a way to replace the original 4,200 RPM IDE drive in my G4 mini with a 2.5" SSD. Should make it really fly with that maxed out 1GB of DDR Ram. All it takes is an 8 dollar IDE to Sata adapter. So a new life for the old boy.

I recall checking what Apple wanted for that 1 gig upgrade back in about 2006. It was $400 ! I passed on that and did it myself for a lot less money.

Here's the PATA/IDE to Sata SSD adapter if anyone's interested.


Because of space limitations, I'll probably have to take the 2.5" SSD out of it's case before connecting it to this adapter. Very easy to do that, especially if it's Crucial. Those SSDs have four small phillips screws to open them up. Other brands require a pry tool for the enclosure removal.

To avoid any of that the alternative is to use an older mSATA SSD which comes without an enclosure. These adapters fit in the G4 mini with no problem.

trs96 said:

Here's the PATA/IDE to Sata SSD adapter if anyone's interested.

View attachment 554777
Because of space limitations, I'll probably have to take the 2.5" SSD out of it's case before connecting it to this adapter. Very easy to do that, especially if it's Crucial. Those SSDs have four small phillips screws to open them up. Other brands require a pry tool for the enclosure removal.

To avoid any of that the alternative is to use an older mSATA SSD which comes without an enclosure. These adapters fit in the G4 mini with no problem.

View attachment 554778

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mSATA SSD drives are very inexpensive. https://www.amazon.com/SKC600MS-512G-256-bit-XTS-AEX-encryption/dp/B08ZNSQYXS/

trs96 said:

Here's the PATA/IDE to Sata SSD adapter if anyone's interested.

View attachment 554777

View attachment 554778

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There's no way to lose, but keep in mind that IDE was a 66/133 MB/s interface, and the whole SW stack were organized for its era of drive performance.

In context, the CPU was at least 20x
slower single core than todays kit and 200–500x slower multi. And where Apple once bragged the G4 was a "Personal Supercomputer" because it hit 1 GFLOPS, a midline GPU now hits 8 TFLOPS, which is an 8000x number crunching performance increase. At the time Apple bragged about the G4, Intel was delivering ASCI Red to Sandia Nation Labs for 50,000,000 dollars and megawatts of site power and AC. ASCI Red was notable for hitting sustained 1 TFLOPS in scientific computing.

BTW I really enjoyed the reference to the macOS build project that's keeping G4/G5 era running! Thanks

MacMan said:

mSATA SSD drives are very inexpensive.

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Looks good. After reading the MacRumors forum on this Leopard retrofit project, I've learned that drives over 500 GB won't work. The Leopard OS doesn't "see" them. So the better choice is the 256 or 128GB options for an mSATA or SSD drive in a G4/5 Mac. My G4 mini came with a 40GB spinner drive installed when Apple made it, back in '05.

Some valuable info if you want to re-use some older Sata 2.5" SSD in a PPC G4 Mac mini.

If the 2.5" drives have a metal case instead of plastic, it's best to avoid them. The 64GB M4 crucial on the right is easy to open up (4 screws) but the PCB inside is the length of the casing. Not usable in the mini. It's too long.

The PNY CS1311 128GB (left) is shorter than the case enclosure, but it also has a metal case. You can easily pry it open (remove the top) but the metal under the SSD is very rigid and can't be bent easily without damaging the SSD's PCB. Very well built, I might add.

Moral of the story: Use a newer 128 or 256 GB 2.5" drive that has a plastic casing around it.



One of these Timetec SSDs for 19 bucks would be a better choice.

Or use an mSata SSD that has no case, with the alternate type of IDE adapter.