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[Dementhor]

Hi there,
I'm about to get a Power Mac G4 for free, so I think I'm set to jump on the MorphOS bandwagon. To be more specific what I'm getting is the innards - it comes from a fella who wants to use the case for some sort of crazy project, so I'm getting the mobo, graphics card, RAM and PSU. The parts have been a bit hard to identify, but I finally got access to the case which happens to be the Mirrored Drive Doors model and on the back it says Model no. M8570 , from which I assume it is supported, but the graphics card isn't clearly marked. Can I assume it is ATI in that model range? If not can I just pick up any of the MorphOS supported cards provided it's AGP? I'm also curious if those cards will support 16:9 LCD screens.
Also I could use some advice about the RAM modules I should look for should I try to upgrade that.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Dementhor

[amigadave]

Originally Posted by Dementhor

Hi there,
I'm about to get a Power Mac G4 for free, so I think I'm set to jump on the MorphOS bandwagon. To be more specific what I'm getting is the innards - it comes from a fella who wants to use the case for some sort of crazy project, so I'm getting the mobo, graphics card, RAM and PSU. The parts have been a bit hard to identify, but I finally got access to the case which happens to be the Mirrored Drive Doors model and on the back it says Model no. M8570 , from which I assume it is supported, but the graphics card isn't clearly marked. Can I assume it is ATI in that model range? If not can I just pick up any of the MorphOS supported cards provided it's AGP? I'm also curious if those cards will support 16:9 LCD screens.
Also I could use some advice about the RAM modules I should look for should I try to upgrade that.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Dementhor

You can't assume that the video card is an ATI Radeon card, as some of the G4 PowerMacs came with NVidia video cards and the Radeon card was an optional upgrade item. I did not take the time to look up on the Apple site which model the M8570 is, but you should do that before you spend any money on RAM upgrades, to make sure you get the right modules for your motherboard. If your video card is not a MorphOS2.x supported Radeon, try to find a 9000Pro. It will probably be the easiest Mac version to find that is compatible and has decent performance. Yes, it will support 16:9 LCD screens, as I think all of the MorphOS2.x supported graphics cards will also.

Congrats on getting your free G4 PowerMac and good luck setting up MorphOS2.x on it and having some fun.

[Dementhor]

Originally Posted by amigadave

You can't assume that the video card is an ATI Radeon card, as some of the G4 PowerMacs came with NVidia video cards and the Radeon card was an optional upgrade item. I did not take the time to look up on the Apple site which model the M8570 is, but you should do that before you spend any money on RAM upgrades, to make sure you get the right modules for your motherboard. If your video card is not a MorphOS2.x supported Radeon, try to find a 9000Pro. It will probably be the easiest Mac version to find that is compatible and has decent performance. Yes, it will support 16:9 LCD screens, as I think all of the MorphOS2.x supported graphics cards will also.

Congrats on getting your free G4 PowerMac and good luck setting up MorphOS2.x on it and having some fun.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I actually looked the M8570 up at www.everymac.com and it turns out to be a whole range - single and dual CPUs, 867 MHz to 1.42 GHz. Thing is I most likely won't be able to boot up the OS-X to check the hardware - would it make sense to post photos of the components (I've already tried to take some with my phone's crappy camera, but they're a bit too blurry to make anything out)?

As for the fun part - that will actually be the building of an original case. :-)

[pVC]

If you can power it up, just burn MorphOS ISO to the CD and try to boot from it to see what happens. Press C key on startup or select from alt-menu to boot from CD.

Graphics card must be with Mac BIOS, so standard PC cards won't work even if they're listed as supported models.

If you have to get new gfx card, I'd recommend you to get R8xxx or R9xxx serie models. R7500 has reported to have some slowness issue on PowerMacs by some people. For example R9000pro is a good choise as said. And more the gfx memory, the better.

[A1260]

Originally Posted by Dementhor

Hi there,
I'm about to get a Power Mac G4 for free, so I think I'm set to jump on the MorphOS bandwagon. To be more specific what I'm getting is the innards - it comes from a fella who wants to use the case for some sort of crazy project, so I'm getting the mobo, graphics card, RAM and PSU. The parts have been a bit hard to identify, but I finally got access to the case which happens to be the Mirrored Drive Doors model and on the back it says Model no. M8570 , from which I assume it is supported, but the graphics card isn't clearly marked. Can I assume it is ATI in that model range? If not can I just pick up any of the MorphOS supported cards provided it's AGP? I'm also curious if those cards will support 16:9 LCD screens.
Also I could use some advice about the RAM modules I should look for should I try to upgrade that.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Dementhor

you heard of this place?... http://www.morphzone.org/ i suggest you go there. you will not regret it.

[Dementhor]

Originally Posted by pVC

If you can power it up, just burn MorphOS ISO to the CD and try to boot from it to see what happens. Press C key on startup or select from alt-menu to boot from CD.

Thanks, will do that.

Originally Posted by A1260

you heard of this place?... http://www.morphzone.org/ i suggest you go there. you will not regret it.

Erm, yes, I have. I've just tried to register but couldn't get past the captcha (I tried 5 times). And I'm not particularly blind. And no, my caps lock wasn't on ;-) But I'll keep trying.

Btw is it possible to hook up an Amiga keyboard to that thing?

[Kronos]

Originally Posted by Dementhor

Btw is it possible to hook up an Amiga keyboard to that thing?

This should work:
http://www.vesalia.de/e_keyrah%5B4761%5D.htm

(only A600/1200 kbd, but you might get awaw with placing an A1200 one into an A2/3/4000-kbd case).

[Dementhor]

Originally Posted by Kronos

This should work:
http://www.vesalia.de/e_keyrah%5B4761%5D.htm

(only A600/1200 kbd, but you might get awaw with placing an A1200 one into an A2/3/4000-kbd case).

Thanks, that sounds sweet (^__^ ) The keyboard is getting a new housing anyway. So now I only have to find one.