Power Mac G4

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The original Apple Power Mac G4 was introduced at the Seybold conference in San Francisco on 31 August 1999, with 400 MHz, 450 MHz and 500 MHz configurations available. In October 1999, Apple was forced to postpone the 500 MHz due to poor yield of the 500 MHz chips. In response, Apple “speed dumped” the processor speed in each configuration by 50 MHz but caused some controversy by not decreasing the price of the machines.

Specs:

• G4/500 introduced 1999.08.31; available 2000.02.16 at US$3,499
• requires Mac OS 8.6 through OS X 10.4.x, 10.5 not officially supported
• CPU: 350/400/450/500 MHz PPC G4
• bus: 100 MHz
• L2 cache: 1 MB 2:1 backside cache
• performance:
  • Geekbench 2: 232 (350 MHz), 245 (400 MHz), 291 (450 MHz), 343 (500 MHz)
  • Speedmark: 146 (450 MHz), 159 (500 MHz)
  • MacBench 5 (Beige G3/300 = 1000): CPU/FPU: 1218/1438 (400 MHz), 1321/1609 (450 MHz)
  • Speedometer 4.02 (Quadra 605 = 1.0): CPU: 23.4, FPU: 850 (350 MHz)
• RAM: 64/128/256 MB standard on 400/450/500 MHz models, expandable to 2 GB (although Mac OS 9 will only recognize 1.5 GB) using PC100 SDRAM (3.3V, unbuffered, 64-bit, 168-pin, 100 MHz) in 4 DIMM slots
• VRAM: 16 MB
• Video: ATI Rage 128 Pro in AGP 2x slot (was Rage 128 prior to December 1999); supports resolutions to 1600 x 1200 with 32-bit support, includes VGA and DVI ports.
• hard drive: 10/20/27 GB 7200 rpm Ultra ATA/66 on 400/450/500 MHz models. Maximum IDE drive size is 128 GB without third-party support.
• DVD-ROM on G4/350, 400, original G4/450; DVD-RAM on newer G4/450, 500
• internal Zip drive (optional on G4/350)
• 3 64-bit PCI slots
• optional internal 56k modem
• microphone: standard 3.5mm minijack, compatible with line-level input including Apple's PlainTalk microphone
• three 400 Mbps FireWire ports (one internal, not on latest revision of G4/400)
• two 12 Mbps USB ports for keyboard, mouse, and peripherals
• no ADB port
• 10/100Base-T ethernet connector on back of computer
• antenna and connector for AirPort card (same card used in iBook)
• size (HxWxD): 17.0" x 8.9" x 18.4"
• weight: 30.0 lb.
• Gestalt ID: n/a
• PRAM battery: 3.6V half-AA
• upgrade path: via CPU upgrades
• part numbers: M6921, M7232, M7824, M7825, M7827

Matthew J.
PowerMac industries
Created on December 14, 2007
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