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[tone007]

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=M9687LLB-PB-2R

Not sure if this is a super deal or not and they're "almost gone," but seemed like it might be a good place to go besides eBay.

[takemehomegrandma]

Originally Posted by tone007

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=M9687LLB-PB-2R

Not sure if this is a super deal or not and they're "almost gone," but seemed like it might be a good place to go besides eBay.

Good catch!

Price seems kind of fair IMHO, although you can certainly get them much cheaper with some luck and some more extensive search. But if you value things as being refurbished, low risk and the warranty it comes with, then why not...?

You'd probably want 1GB of RAM though (although 512MB is plenty for MorphOS, RAM is cheap however)! Possibly a bigger HDD as well, and maybe a better optical drive? There are some good resources on upgrading RAM, upgrading HDD, Optical Drive, and also *overclocking* the Mini in this thread:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=34069



General comment for people looking to buy a Mac Mini G4 for running MorphOS:

Mac Mini's are *very nice* MorphOS computers! Extremely small, good looking, silent (when using it for "normal" stuff, and the fan isn't old and all worn out), and pretty much as powerful as the PPC ever became on the desktop, not very far from it at least. But always make sure it's 64MB VRAM (and not some OC'd one with 32MB, not that this is particular common at all, but anyway). Those 64MB versions may be a bit more rare, but it's worth the extra search. And sometimes those 64MB variants aren't even listed as "1.5GHz", but 1.42 GHz (there was some confusion with the "silent update", some people doesn't seem to know the exact specs of the machine they have).

Look for *both* M9687LL/B (and/or explicitly "1.5GHz") *and* 64 MB Video Memory in product descriptions (Some M9687LL/B's are simply the results of the M9687LL/A's being souped up with 512MB RAM as standard instead of the previous 256MB, AirPort Extreme + Bluetooth as standard instead of optional, but still with 32MB VRAM and 1.42GHz CPU. Apple did not assign a new model number for the 1.5GHz/64MB VRAM configuration that later followed, hence the "silent update" term)

Go get'em! MorphOS 3.0 is coming!

[JJ]

The mac mini i bought was listed as 1.42 but was the silent upgrade version when it turned up, had got fed up of geting snipped on silent uprgrades and them going for well over £200. got mine for £150

[takemehomegrandma]

Originally Posted by JJ

The mac mini i bought was listed as 1.42 but was the silent upgrade version when it turned up, had got fed up of geting snipped on silent uprgrades and them going for well over £200. got mine for £150

£150 is about $240 — also a good price IMHO! I got mine a lot more expensive than that, but that was several years ago and I was very eager and didn't want to wait and search much, and prices has dropped much since then...

Anyway, the 32MB VRAM versions *works* with MorphOS, and is often cheaper. You might want to disable triple buffering on some screens, etc, there are many posts if you search a bit describing how to turn off the bells and whistles that might be nice to have but you could easily live without, and will make MorphOS work/run better on this low VRAM. This can be an option if money is scarce, the Mini is small and light weight and cheap&easy to transport, and you can get 1.25GHz versions for under a hundred dollars with a bit of a search.

You can easily overclock those as well, perhaps while you have opened it up anyway to put in more RAM or a new HDD (to a 5400RPM with a bigger size). Look at my link above to a useful thread which has much resources and info about this!

Note that there were a "silent upgrade" with the lower end 1.25GHz version as well — "Officially, the Apple Mac mini G4/1.33 does not exist, as Apple never formally introduced it. However, starting on September 27, 2005, Apple silently upgraded the Mac mini G4/1.25 to include a 1.33 GHz PowerPC 7447a (G4) processor with the AltiVec "Velocity Engine" vector processing unit and a 512k on-chip level 2 cache, 512 MB of 333 MHz PC2700 DDR SDRAM memory, and a faster 5400 RPM 40.0 GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive." (M9686LL/A -> M9686LL/B) So *this* "silent upgrade" doesn't include the 64MB VRAM, only the "M9687LL/B 1.5GHz" does...

[Kesa]

@TMHG. Wait, you paid more than $240 for a silent upgrade macmini?

I think you may have been ripped off.

The value of one G4 mac mini with 64mb ram is equal to:



=



+



+



+

[Kesa]

Originally Posted by JJ

The mac mini i bought was listed as 1.42 but was the silent upgrade version when it turned up, had got fed up of geting snipped on silent uprgrades and them going for well over £200. got mine for £150

That was a good deal. I got mine for £95 but is only the 32mb version. But it came with Airport and BT keyboard.

[kickstart]

I have a 32mb too and enought for me.

[takemehomegrandma]

Originally Posted by Kesa

@TMHG. Wait, you paid more than $240 for a silent upgrade macmini?

I think you may have been ripped off.

The value of one G4 mac mini with 64mb ram is equal to:

Well, it was refurbished and maxed out in RAM, I got the transportation for free, and I got the two latest versions of MacOS original disks, not copies or just pre-installed on HDD, and it was pre-configured with MorphOS and MacOS in a dual boot setup. I know that it was expensive (even back then already), but I thought I got some extra value for it, and was prepared to pay a little extra for that and not waiting and searching any more. And general prices have fallen since then, so it's a little difficult to compare.

PowerMac's can be *very cheap though*, often much cheaper than a Mac Mini, that is true, some goes for as little as $20-$50, some are even for free. And often those ultra cheap ones work just fine for MorphOS. But if you want one of the newer ones, with more CPU power, a more powerful (maybe re-flashed) GFX card, etc, then it usually climbs in price, often up to $200-$300.

Redrumloa over at MorphZone.org has two "big boxes" for MorphOS, one MDD and one Quicksilver. He looks at it as a sport to find cheap deals on e-bay, and quite recently he scored a dual 7448 CPU card @1.8GHz, which he has OC'd to 2.0GHz. It doesn't get much faster than this, for practically no money at all! It beats by far (or is about on par with, depending on what you measure) *any* system for *any* PPC based Amiga OS, practically for free. Very interesting to follow his posts on MZ...

I however, has never looked at the PowerMac as an option. I don't have room for yet another big box computer. The Mac Mini was completely perfect for me, so slick and small, yet so powerful. But a little more expensive, yes, but worth it for me, and to connect to your mockery joke comparison in your post above -- it's far, far cheaper than a Sam460 (the only OS4 HW available for sale), it's far more powerful (about 2x I'd say), and it works perfectly; you won't see a Mac Mini MorphOS user making the kind of posts about problems with basic and fundamental things that isn't working or isn't stable, that is now kind of flooded over at Amigaworld.net...

[takemehomegrandma]

Originally Posted by kickstart

I have a 32mb too and enought for me.

Yes, 32MB VRAM works *fine*. I think Piru's (the MorphOS Developer) Mini has 32MB VRAM as well. There are some situations where it could mean a limitation, but you could easily walk around those.

But if you have one 32MB for sale on a table in front of you, and one 64MB next to it, I'd choose the 64MB version even if it would cost a little bit more...

[JJ]

Well in all honesty I got mine for free.

There was an paypal issue and they refunded the money because they suspected a third party had accessed my account.

I tried 10 times to contact the seller thorugh ebay and paypal. never heard anything

So actually ended up having it free.

The dvd drive doesnt read burned dvds or burn dvds but there u go

[Kesa]

Originally Posted by JJ

Well in all honesty I got mine for free.

There was an paypal issue and they refunded the money because they suspected a third party had accessed my account.

I tried 10 times to contact the seller thorugh ebay and paypal. never heard anything

So actually ended up having it free.

The dvd drive doesnt read burned dvds or burn dvds but there u go

Oh that's cool. It gives it character

[takemehomegrandma]

Originally Posted by JJ

Well in all honesty I got mine for free.

There was an paypal issue and they refunded the money because they suspected a third party had accessed my account.

I tried 10 times to contact the seller thorugh ebay and paypal. never heard anything

So actually ended up having it free.

Nice!

It's more often the other way around, if anything goes wrong...

The dvd drive doesnt read burned dvds or burn dvds but there u go

But then (having got the computer for free) I guess you can afford to put in a proper one yourself!

[zylesea]

Once 3.0 will be out, the 32MiB VRAM versions will probably catch up since 3.0 is said to come with proper AGP support. Copying data from and to VRAM should be pretty quick then. For games or programs like blender more VRAM will still be a strong benefit.
Anyway, as long as 3.x is not out this is of course only speculation/theory.

[Wolfe]

Looking at the alternative's in the community for PPC systems, they're dirt cheap . . . !

[_ThEcRoW]

I have a 32mb vram mac mini and is enough for the actual apps available in amigaland.