FromAllAspects' Apple Collection

[FromAllAspects]

Hi all,

I thought I would change things around. Normally, I collect Sony related equipment (I'm a fan of the company in general), but since last year, I decided I would go down a different path when certain Sony/PlayStation items weren't on the market, ranging from All In One computers such as the iMac, towers such as the Power Mac and Mac Pro and elusive computers such as the Power Mac G4 Cube.

The Apple related equipment I'm currently collecting is mostly the older/retro stuff as I feel the innovation they had were huge and a huge key to Apple's history, unlike the design the iMac has had ever since 2007. (well, apart from the disc drive-less iMac series that was released in 2012)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my Apple collection and it gives you as much as joy as it has done for me! Please find the pictures attached in the spoiler section (mostly not to spoil the experience and to save as much room on this thread)

Apple collection:

Spoiler

Computers from left to right (in chronological order; year manufactured):
- 1998/1999 iMac G3 Grape
- 1999/2000 iMac G3 Lime DV (doesn't work at the moment; component failure)
- 2000 Power Mac G4 Cube (Holy grail. Once owned by the University of Melbourne, or College for those of you who are in North America. Limited run; only 100,000 were ever made from 2000 to 2001)
- 2003 iMac G4 20" (20-inch) (allegedly a holy grail in the G4 lineup; working! Also, the last revision of the G4 before the iMac G5 came around in 2004)
- 2003 Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors (MDD) (slightly modified; has Mac OS 9 and Mac OSX Tiger as dual boot options. Last ever revision of the Power Mac G4 tower)
- 2004/2005 Power Mac G5 1.8GHz (pre-liquid cooled model)
- 2006/2008 Mac Pro 1,1 2.66GHz Dual Core (has a modified version of Windows 10 on it as a dual boot option; also modified slightly to run macOS El Capitan)

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

 

[StevO9389]

Those iMacs bring back memories. Are you daring enough to dive into PiP!N/Atmark?

 

[FromAllAspects]

Those iMacs bring back memories. Are you daring enough to dive into PiP!N/Atmark?

Thanks for the kind words! It's great to see that people are still nostalgic for technology such as this. Ooh. That's actually a good question. I've been looking around for them, but they seem to have gone up in price quite a fair bit. I heard they run Mac OS on them, which is quite intriguing. I'm still considering going down that path. Just a shame the Apple/Bandai PiP!N/Atmark never took off.

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

 

[MSX]

I've recently started getting into vintage Macs. I have 2 late 2005 PowerMac G5s (the last air cooled dual core and last water cooled quad core) as well as a 2002(?) PowerMac G4. I had teal iMac G3 as a kid, but since I knew nothing about OS9 or had any software, it sat on my desk off most of the time (Windows guy). My dad worked for a university where one of their campuses were Apple fanboys. They were swimming in G3s at the time which is how I got mine for free. Ended up donating it to my third grade class. Probably gave many classmates their first Apple experience, or computer experience in general.

 

[FromAllAspects]

I've recently started getting into vintage Macs. I have 2 late 2005 PowerMac G5s (the last air cooled dual core and last water cooled quad core) as well as a 2002(?) PowerMac G4. I had teal iMac G3 as a kid, but since I knew nothing about OS9 or had any software, it sat on my desk off most of the time (Windows guy). My dad worked for a university where one of their campuses were Apple fanboys. They were swimming in G3s at the time which is how I got mine for free. Ended up donating it to my third grade class. Probably gave many classmates their first Apple experience, or computer experience in general.

That happened to be my first Apple tower, the PowerMac G5. (mine is the original air cooled one, but it's the lesser 1.8 GHz processor) Great computer, just a shame the hardware isn't as powerful as it used to be. (at least its successor, the Mac Pro, is still up to scratch as it has Intel processors) Out of all of the towers, my favourite has to go to the PowerMac G4, but the one tower I've been trying to find here in Australia (if they ever came here at all), is the PowerMac G3. (not the beige tower one; the one that was transparent. They looked so cool!)

There were so many great colours of the iMac G3 (or flavours, if you will. Hahaha), that's what made the entire lineup so unique. At least it's great to see that many people are still very fond of the older Apple hardware, it's something I guess that will be etched into their history. A history filled with unique design, hardware and so much more. I just wish that Apple would continue doing what they did best. We've got the latest Mac Pro, which looks good compared to the trash can, but everything else unfortunately looks the same, like the iMac for example.

That would've been cool to see a few G3's around, but swimming in them? That would've been another story. Hahaha. That would've been lucky to get one for free! (my Lime was for free, but only because the screen doesn't come on)

In terms of first experiences, it's also great to see that others can also experience any form of Apple hardware, old or new. Does your G3 still work?

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

 

[MSX]

but the one tower I've been trying to find here in Australia (if they ever came here at all), is the PowerMac G3. (not the beige tower one; the one that was transparent. They looked so cool!)

The G3 blue and white. A PowerMac G4 case, but with G3 internals. I believe they only came in the blue and white color. They were the only computer that was able to run the OSX developer preview.

Does your G3 still work?

Not sure what ever happened to that computer. I was part of her last class, as she moved after that. I remember seeing it when I was in fourth grade (it was set up next to the door into the room), but it was gone when I was in fifth grade. By that time, it was 2005.

 

[FromAllAspects]

The G3 blue and white. A PowerMac G4 case, but with G3 internals. I believe they only came in the blue and white color. They were the only computer that was able to run the OSX developer preview.


Not sure what ever happened to that computer. I was part of her last class, as she moved after that. I remember seeing it when I was in fourth grade (it was set up next to the door into the room), but it was gone when I was in fifth grade. By that time, it was 2005.

Yes, that's it! I've seen a few on eBay in the US, but unfortunately, they're either broken or the shipping is just excessive, mostly due to weight. I guess now they've reached a bit of niche market, much like the G4 Cube's.

That's sad not to know what happened to it, but I guess in the past, we believed they were disposable pieces of equipment that could be replaced, but in reality, nothing would ever replace the unique nature of them. (another computer like that for its uniqueness is the iMac G4. I've always loved the chrome arm and its bottom cylindrical base design.) One thing I wanted to do, even though it might offend the Apple community, is actually turning one of my old broken (for now) 17 inch iMac G4 into a Hackintosh. If that never happens, I might even consider saving up for the new colossal Mac Pro. The design kind of reminds me both of the Mac Pro 1,1 - 5,1 and the G4 Cube. (the only thing I find is weird is the fact they no longer possess a disc drive, but they would rather you pay for an external one that wastes more room and is actually more faulty; I've got one for my 2015 iMac and it barely does what it's supposed to do)

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

 

[Traace]

@FromAllAspects you have a great collection there. I like it a lot.

You can put two quad core in your Mac Pro 1,1. Maximum RAM should be 64GB. My 1,1 (flashed to 2,1) has 32GB installed, that is enough for most applications.

MacPro2,1 - Geekbench Browser

Benchmark results for a MacPro2,1 with an Intel Xeon X5355 processor.

browser.geekbench.com

I suggest to keep the iMac G4 Original if you are able to restore it to a working condition. They value will increase to a ridiculous point one day, because this is iconic hardware. Rather than a stock x86 which is mostly not very special among collectors.

I own several PowerPC Mac Systems, too, while backed up many old software goodies.

So if anyone need help regarding getting a GPU flashed, need any specific software, overclocking, HDD compatibility help or even getting a MMORPG running and connect to a huge 4K player base in 2019, then don't hesitate to write me

I also compile several stuff from source time to time. Allowing us to run the current version of some applications on our old devices.

This is a small, but unfinished setup. I got many more stuff, still not listed yet
Wiki: https://wiki.fopnu.pw/index.php?title=Mac_PowerPC
MacPorts custom repo: http://ppcports.fopnu.pw:8844/


And the new Mac Pro ? Unfortunately we can build a similar spec x86 computer for around 2-3K $. Paying almost 2X the price for the hardware of that new Mac Pro isn't great.
Its the most expensive Mac Pro ever and contains Intel's CPU architecture which is considered broken these days with all its security holes. Beside that nobody knows if Apple will switch to ARM CPU's in 1 or 2 years already leave all Intel users left out in the rain like they did before. I wouldn't buy any new mac these days. I rather preferring a well build computer (ofc. it could run hackintosh, too. Even AMD CPU's can with some patches).

 

[Arcadia]

Cool collection. Were there only 100,000 cubes in total ever made, or is that some special model? I can swear they were maybe not common here, but definitely not rare.

 

[Pazzard]

I've got Tonnes of Apple stuff, A Macintosh 64k, A Macintosh Colour Classic, A Macintosh HDFD, A "Pizzabox" style Macintosh II with matching 21" Beige Apple pro 21" CRT, 2 Quadras, a 20th Anniversary Mac, 2 G3 Power Macs with matching 15" Blue/Clear LCD Apple screens, Most of the G4's, including the cube, 2 G5's, and a G5 case that I managed to buy mint with the blue plastic still on it for £50 running High Sierra (hackintoshed) with an i5 3570k and 16GB ram and an Nvidia 1070 GTX, and 2 Mac Pro's, a 3.1 and a 2.1 which I was given free as a replacement for my 2.5Ghz G5 that had a coolant leak, about 4 years after the warranty ran out because they were extremely dangerous.

 

[FromAllAspects]

@FromAllAspects you have a great collection there. I like it a lot.

You can put two quad core in your Mac Pro 1,1. Maximum RAM should be 64GB. My 1,1 (flashed to 2,1) has 32GB installed, that is enough for most applications.

MacPro2,1 - Geekbench Browser

Benchmark results for a MacPro2,1 with an Intel Xeon X5355 processor.

browser.geekbench.com

I suggest to keep the iMac G4 Original if you are able to restore it to a working condition. They value will increase to a ridiculous point one day, because this is iconic hardware. Rather than a stock x86 which is mostly not very special among collectors.

I own several PowerPC Mac Systems, too, while backed up many old software goodies.

So if anyone need help regarding getting a GPU flashed, need any specific software, overclocking, HDD compatibility help or even getting a MMORPG running and connect to a huge 4K player base in 2019, then don't hesitate to write me

I also compile several stuff from source time to time. Allowing us to run the current version of some applications on our old devices.

This is a small, but unfinished setup. I got many more stuff, still not listed yet https://wiki.fopnu.pw/index.php?title=Mac_PowerPC



And the new Mac Pro ? Unfortunately we can build a similar spec x86 computer for around 2-3K $. Paying almost 2X the price for the hardware of that new Mac Pro isn't great.
Its the most expensive Mac Pro ever and contains Intel's CPU architecture which is considered broken these days with all its security holes. Beside that nobody knows if Apple will switch to ARM CPU's in 1 or 2 years already leave all Intel users left out in the rain like they did before. I wouldn't buy any new mac these days. I rather preferring a well build computer (ofc. it could run hackintosh, too. Even AMD CPU's can with some patches).

Hi Traace,

Thanks for the kind words, I really do appreciate it! I just can't believe it started small and then rapidly became large. (it kind of reminds me of my PlayStation collection. Hahaha)

For my Mac Pro, I was actually thinking about doing that, as I feel it feels like it's lagging behind. The performance figure wasn't bad though, I think somewhere around 7-9,000 on GeekBench. (I'll have to check that) Is it easy to reflash the system BIOS if it hasn't been done yet? (I bought it from the previous owner who managed to install both Windows 10 and macOS El Capitan)

As for my iMac G4's, I'll keep them original as like you said (and as I felt; I didn't feel confident at the time), the prices will rise and especially since I don't want to butcher them. Hahaha. The design of the G4's is truly unique, especially with how much hardware they crammed into that cramped cylindrical construction. To me, even now, its ahead of its time. The hardware is very iconic, I believe my 20 inch has slightly modified PowerPC hardware. (it has a few strange features I've never seen before on any other PowerPC platform) My 17 (which is broken, unfortunately) and my 20 inch will only ever have preventative maintenance to ensure it'll last forever and as for my 17 inch, that requires the arduous task of replacing the IDE HDD. (it only ever booted up once when I bought it; it's apparent nickname was Lampshade, which was rather fitting. Hahaha)

Funnily enough, I was given several pieces of software related to the PowerPC Macs, ranging from I believe Adobe programs and more.

I'll definitely give you a message if I ever feel the need to ask you a few questions regarding reflashing or hardware modifications. I'm actually quite interested in this type of stuff, so this will be another thing to learn.

I'll take a look at your setup, it'll be quite interesting!

I thought that would be the case regarding the new Mac Pro. Exactly, I believe Apple is pricing things way out of their league, but this will only continue if people buy it. (for example, the iPhone. AU$2,000 for an XS Max!!) It's ridiculous. I should've watched that video about the potential breakup Apple will have from Intel and go to ARM. It'll be interesting... Apple have done it before, much like the sudden departure from IBM (PowerPC) to Intel. Even my 2015 iMac 4K Retina isn't up to scratch. (and that was from factory!) The fans will blow out of random (to 100%, mind you) at any given point. It'll crash (it has done a kernel panic before, other times it'll just shut down), wallpapers no longer exist for it (it just goes to its default Sierra one; it'll only exist if you're on the log on screen) and other times, it'll randomly corrupt itself. (this is very rare to happen, but nonetheless, it happens; it'll corrupt the images of programs, it won't show words when you prompt it) At the least the only thing it has going for it is, Boot Camp Assistant. But all Intel Macs have it anyway. Hahaha.

Thanks for the tips, Traace. I appreciate it and I'll definitely consider this!

Cool collection. Were there only 100,000 cubes in total ever made, or is that some special model? I can swear they were maybe not common here, but definitely not rare.

Thanks, Arcadia! Sources tend to vary on the G4 Cube since it seems they only have sales figures up to January, 2001, which is unfortunate. They'll either say 100,000 or 150,000, so it's kind of hard to believe which one is true. At least I managed to find one here in Australia, as they tend to be a rather hard find. (most people here in Australia tend to grab them, working or not. One person even turned theirs into a Windows computer with a Blu-Ray drive, which was out of this world) Hopefully I'll be able to update this thread sometime soon with some more older Apple hardware. I was thinking about purchasing a 2G iPhone, but the prices for those are just catastrophic.

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

 

[FromAllAspects]

I've got Tonnes of Apple stuff, A Macintosh 64k, A Macintosh Colour Classic, A Macintosh HDFD, A "Pizzabox" style Macintosh II with matching 21" Beige Apple pro 21" CRT, 2 Quadras, a 20th Anniversary Mac, 2 G3 Power Macs with matching 15" Blue/Clear LCD Apple screens, Most of the G4's, including the cube, 2 G5's, and a G5 case that I managed to buy mint with the blue plastic still on it for £50 running High Sierra (hackintoshed) with an i5 3570k and 16GB ram and an Nvidia 1070 GTX, and 2 Mac Pro's, a 3.1 and a 2.1 which I was given free as a replacement for my 2.5Ghz G5 that had a coolant leak, about 4 years after the warranty ran out because they were extremely dangerous.

Wow! Yours actually sounds cooler than mine! (but then again, I've only started with mine) You should send a few pictures of yours, it sounds awesome. I've been trying to find a 20th Anniversary Macintosh, but they're just so rare here in Australia. Are Hackintoshes rather easy to live with or do they have their quirks that are unique to such systems? I heard about the coolant leaks that occurred on the liquid cooled G5's. It sounds quite gnarly.

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

 

[Traace]

Wow! Yours actually sounds cooler than mine! (but then again, I've only started with mine) You should send a few pictures of yours, it sounds awesome. I've been trying to find a 20th Anniversary Macintosh, but they're just so rare here in Australia. Are Hackintoshes rather easy to live with or do they have their quirks that are unique to such systems? I heard about the coolant leaks that occurred on the liquid cooled G5's. It sounds quite gnarly.

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

AFAIK all G5 liquid coolers use rubber based seals called O-Rings
Some owners are very proud and still saying "It will never leak! Its a strong, good machine." that's just a excuse to not maintenance that thing (which is a pain, tho). But in fact the o-rings will start to crack and leak one day because the plasticizer disappears. Its just a matter of time. People who love their G5 with liquid cooling should give it a maintenance together with a new set of o-rings.



A hackintosh is pretty easy to build, there are a couple of kext (drivers) that can handle majority of the hardware well. If you run it on a Intel CPU for example: vanilla (unmodified) osx kernel will just boot (with help of fakesmc kext - a SMC Chipset emulator).
List with most of the kext needed for a hackintosh:

Keep in mind that once Apple has removed a feature its hard to get it back. For example they removed VGA support from intel gpu framebuffer. But whatevergreen (hackintosh gpu helper kext) is not a complete driver, its just a bidge between PC hardware and the native osx intel gpu driver. So I had two very stable working hackintosh but both with dead VGA Ports, I migrated them to arch_linux afterwards.

 

[Pazzard]

Wow! Yours actually sounds cooler than mine! (but then again, I've only started with mine) You should send a few pictures of yours, it sounds awesome. I've been trying to find a 20th Anniversary Macintosh, but they're just so rare here in Australia.

Kind regards,

FromAllAspects

A lot of my stuff is in storage at the moment, but here is some stuff I keep in my studio... (Yup) it's a mess, but that sums me up...

(The original G3 Blue and white monitor is hiding behind the G5, I only keep it because it looks cool, (and had no shit... Component input built in! So I can play my MD and my Snes on it with really good picture quality without having to mod them) but I use an old Office HP on the G3 usually, the screen is better and it goes way higher than the official G3 monitor which tops out at 1024x768.

The one FDHD Macintosh I have there actually runs Snow Leopard, and is just the original case and floppy drive with the internals from a Dell Mini 10v - The first Hackintosh perfect laptop that was pretty much a 2006 mac mini in a dell case; same Intel internals, same graphics, same networking and same wifi chip. Also added a 7.5" 1024x768 security LCD panel with VGA input, and an Apple keyboard/mouse to usb adapter hidden round the back. (Originally built it in 2009 so it's showing it's age, but I keep it around just for show really, because it looks nice just with the Flux screensaver going on).

My other Hackintosh G5 looks terrible on the inside, but outside it looks completely stock, (and that's the one with the brand new never fitted with internals case that I was lucky to get for £50) because I cut the back off a non working G5 motherboard (just the ports) and wired it to extensions coming off another mini ITX running an Ivylake High Sierra build. It's my go-to Mac now. My Imac isn't as fast and has integrated graphics so all that does is sit there and get used for the occasional spreadsheet:



In case you are wondering, I run a design studio and printworks (screenprinting mainly), but I also have enough space to load up with my personal hobby which is vintage Macs and Vintage Ataris. (and lego and beer which you might be able to make out in the last pic)

Are Hackintoshes rather easy to live with or do they have their quirks that are unique to such systems? I heard about the coolant leaks that occurred on the liquid cooled G5's. It sounds quite gnarly.

If you research well and are not trying to force MacOS on an existing system, then a Hackintosh can be just as solid as a real Mac, and faster and a quarter of the price. My hack G5 is faster than any stock Mac Pro but mainly due to the fact I have a great graphics card, 32Gb Ram and several SSDs. BUT you need to research your parts beforehand and make sure they are gonna be 100% compatible.

I've run mine natively though 3 operating system upgrades just by going to the APP store. El Capitan > Sierra > High Sierra, and all the updates inbetween, and I'll honestly say it's easier than Windows for me. Everything works, but you just have to do it right. I wouldn't use my Hack G5 as my main computer otherwise, because I need it for work, and can't afford downtime Think the last time I shut it down was about 8 months ago, and it still runs fine.

I heard about the coolant leaks that occurred on the liquid cooled G5's. It sounds quite gnarly.

Yeah, the 2.5's you wouldn't even know it had leaked until you start seeing bright green liquid cooler on your desk. By the time it was that bad, it had pretty much eaten right through the 1000w power supply and was just a bomb waiting to go off. That's why Apple replaced any and all of them here in the UK with a fresh top spec Mac Pro if you had one, regardless of warranty, and no questions asked. I made a few thousand bucks buying burned out G5's on eBay around 2009-2010 for between £100-150, and then just taking them to the Apple store and getting them replaced for brand new £4600 Mac Pro's and then selling them back on eBay for £3500 each.

 

[darcagn]

Cool collection! I also have a little Apple collection going on myself:

- Apple ][e Enhanced with Super Serial Card, DuoDisk, and Apple monochrome monitor (all with original boxes!)
- Apple SE/30 upgraded from 1MB to 128MB of RAM, expansion LAN card installed, clean 32-bit ROM card installed, 8GB "SSD" installed (8gb SD card with SCSI2SD inside), fully recapped and new internal battery -- this thing is a beast for its age, and can still browse the web
- Apple iMac G3 Graphite (the most powerful of the CRT iMacs) -- speakers working! for now...
- Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium 867 MHz -- the 867 MHz and 1GHz models were the last, most powerful Mac notebooks capable of native booting into OS9, so I treasure this laptop
- Apple MacBook 2006 -- with box - one of the first Intel MacBooks offered, this was the first Mac I ever bought brand new, and I used for college
- Apple MacBook Pro 2009 -- with box - another college laptop
- Apple MacBook Pro 2013 -- I still use this one, although it's not my main computer anymore

 

[Pazzard]

- Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium 867 MHz -- the 867 MHz and 1GHz models were the last, most powerful Mac notebooks capable of native booting into OS9, so I treasure this laptop

Were they the ones that were 12" and looked just like the first and second iterations of the Macbook Pro?

If so, damn, they were great, about 5 years ahead of every other laptop. I had one myself but traded it for the 2nd gen Macbook Pro 15 with the dodgy NVIDIA 8600 chipset that got recalled." (mistake).

Also, on another note, anyone remember the original AppleTV? it was basically a Mac Mini and with a little bit of tinkering, you could install full OS X on it.

The original Intel Mac Mini was a great deal too if you got the cheap one, you could replace the 1.5Ghz Core solo chip (socketed) to a 2.66 Core2Quad, and whack it up to 4GB ram from the original 256MB. Only thing let it down was the integrated graphics, but I could still play GTA SA on it with no frame skips with WINE.