I just bought my first Mac, yay! Please help!

Shoka

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I just picked up an (old) Mac for £50.

Its only a Power Mac G4 400 mhz, so pretty lame by todays standards. So its going to need a bit of work before its probably useable. Its my first foray into Mac so not to bothered about it being the newest, just want to get used to it before shelling out real money on a new one.

The guy I bought it off is going to do a clean install of OSX Tiger for me and supply me with the discs.

I'd be looking at putting a new hard drive in it, and adding a whole heap more RAM.

Can someone answer a few questions for me?

If I rip out the old hard drive and just shove in a new formatted one is it just a case of sticking the OSX disc in the drive and it installs itself, like installing a MS OS? or is there more I need to do? the same with the RAM do I just shove it in and it will reconize its there?

I went to the apple shop yesterday and got a mighty mouse and new keyboard, the keyboard says it needs OSX 10.4.10 I presume tiger is 10.4.0? can I get the updates to 10.4.10 from the apple website?

Can I expand using using PCI cards? as far as I know it does not have USB 2.0 ports (only 1.1 and firewire), however I have a spare USB 2.0 card, can I chuck it in and it will recognize it or do I need to get drivers etc first?

Same with a network card, I can't see why it wouldn't have one but just in case I have a spare one here to chuck in.

Also I know its old but can anyone recomend some essential software that I should have.

thanks
 
Glad you've joined the club - I hope you enjoy it !!

There is a disk formatting utility on the OSX install disc - so if you put a new HD in then boot from the OSX disc (restart and hold down C), format the disk and then install Tiger ...

Depending on when the Tiger discs were bought they may be 10.4.1 or later - anyway the software update function - once OSX is installed - will bring you up to the latest version of 10.4 ...

AFAIK you can put a usb2 PCI card in - but be careful in selecting one - not all cards are mac-compatible - I'd suggest checking out Belkin for a start ...

You'll have an ethernet connector built in to the mac - no need for a network card ...

You'll probably find that you might need to hunt for an older copy of iLife - maybe '06 - as not all of the latest versions of apps will run on a G4 ...

HTH

Jon
 
Glad you've joined the club - I hope you enjoy it !!

There is a disk formatting utility on the OSX install disc - so if you put a new HD in then boot from the OSX disc (restart and hold down C), format the disk and then install Tiger ...

Depending on when the Tiger discs were bought they may be 10.4.1 or later - anyway the software update function - once OSX is installed - will bring you up to the latest version of 10.4 ...

AFAIK you can put a usb2 PCI card in - but be careful in selecting one - not all cards are mac-compatible - I'd suggest checking out Belkin for a start ...

You'll have an ethernet connector built in to the mac - no need for a network card ...

You'll probably find that you might need to hunt for an older copy of iLife - maybe '06 - as not all of the latest versions of apps will run on a G4 ...

HTH

Jon

Thanks for the tips, the usb card is ironically a belkin one.

just got a copy of airport (software) and a thing that plugs into the mains for free off a mate, what is the mains thing? anyone know?
 
Sounds like an Airport Express - will allow you to wirelessly connect to printer plugged in to it, stream itunes music to it when it is connected to an amp/powered speakers or wirelessly share an internet connection ... nice mate you have ;-)

Jon
 
Even if you put in an unformatted hard drive, when installing OS X, you can start the disc utility before the install begins. This will allow you to partition and format the drive to your heart's content.

You can use software update the get the latest updates, but you might find it quicker to get the latest 10.4.x combo PowerPC update from Apple as a direct download (just google it).

Indispensable software? iSquint. Converts any video you might have to iTunes format. Handbrake for ripping your DVDs into iTunes format. My two top freebies.
 
Sounds like an Airport Express - will allow you to wirelessly connect to printer plugged in to it, stream itunes music to it when it is connected to an amp/powered speakers or wirelessly share an internet connection ... nice mate you have ;-)

Jon

Thanks, I'm picking it up tonight so hopefully will be back later bugging you for help :D

With the airport express thing do I need a airport card to go in the machine or should this already be present?
 
Thanks, I'm picking it up tonight so hopefully will be back later bugging you for help :D

With the airport express thing do I need a airport card to go in the machine or should this already be present?

Go to System Preferences and Network and see if you can turn on Airport. It will tell you if there is a card present or not.
 
OK, so just got it home and set it all up.

What I need to find out is:

How do I find out details of the system, ie what OS it has (I belive its Tiger) Ram, etc etc

Its only got a 10gb hard drive but appears to have a space for another one, is it easy to install a 2nd hard drive, any one know where there is a nice guide? if I format a hard drive on a windows PC and then shove it in will that work?

EDIT: Just found how to get the system info - Via the "apple menu"
 
Go to the Apple menu (the symbol in the top left of the screen) and choose 'About this Mac' then 'More Info'.

OK you got that but go "About..." again and see the "Version xxx" in grey? Well click it and it will tell you the build # and then again for the serial # should you ever need it.

A useful site for specs on all Macs is EveryMac.com you should be able to identify yours and it will tell you what is/n't possible in terms of mods. HTH
 
Hiya Shoka
congrats on what seems like a super price (so long as it works well for ages cool as!!!)
Where did you get the machine for that price???
I fancy one myself as am fed up of worrying my pc is gonna get sick with some nasty virus or worse so I never download on this windows machine... hence not many albums bought for my mp3 as cd's are a rip off money wise!!
 

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