My Macs 1: Tonmeister
First up, the Dual G4 450. (Tonmeister, Douglas, Longtooth)
Photo 1: Outside
-Removed the top case cover and inserted a few stickers I had lying around, New Tribe (my tattoo shop), “BENT”, Piglet, and a couple of others.
Internals:
3 hard drives, a 60 GB Maxtor, an 80 GB Quantum, and a 120 GB Western Digital.
[Split into a total of 5 partitions, they include my main Jaguar boot drive, my main Panther boot drive, and dedicated audio, video, and document/backup drives. I tend to reinstall my main OS every 8-12 months in a fresh install from a freshly blanked disk.] -written before Tiger
The 60 GB is split into 2 partitions, for my audio and documents, with the 120 GB holding all my listening music. (More on that in an upcoming article, focused on working with iTunes’ sorting system.) The 80 GB was blanked and became my Tiger drive. This is the first time I have run this machine with only one OS since I got it. Still not sure how I feel about that, as it’s usually preferable to have other systems installed for troubleshooting and having backup systems in place.
Dual G4 Processors, running at 450 MHz. I have considered o’clocking, but am leery to mess with a machine that has been so rock-solid. (I know, I know, typical Mac user.)
1.2 GB RAM, up from the original (laughable) 128 MB. However, I had it bumped to 256 immediately when it was purchased (new) so I have two 128 sticks that will become somewhat useless once I buy another 512 MB chip or two. Prices are still dropping.
Optical drive used to rotate almost weekly, between the stock DVD-ROM and Rusty’s CD-RW. I have since bought a Pioneer DVR-109, which works like a charm, burn support in iTunes and Toast. Even though Patchburn is as safe as it can be, it’s still nicer to not have to run it. I also had a Zip drive put in when I bought it, but replaced that with a third hard drive instead of buying an IDE controller card. The speed difference isn’t noticeable for my documents drive and it works great, though I never see it recommended as a solution on upgrade sites and such.
Externals:
30 GB Quantum HD in Lava IDE -> FW Bridge drive case. The top is usually left off the case so drives can be swapped easily and regularly. Pre-Oxford 911, I have had zero issues with it (Lava, a no-name model) save for the power adapter’s connector, which looks like it would be a pain to keep from getting bent or to replace once bent. (nothing new there, I can’t stand Lacie’s and other companies’ usage of nonstandard adapters)
Modded my keyboard a bit with keys from a dead keyboard. I may rearrange them so they match up with Logic and GarageBand’s ‘Musical Typing’ onscreen musical keyboard.
D-Link 4-port DI-604 router, have had no issues with it. Easy setup, easy administration. I have the ports I need forwarded where they need to be. AFP (login from remote Macs) port 548.
The Epson Stylus 760 printer is getting on in years, and even though Panther had support built-in, Tiger has switched to using the GIMP-Print drivers. The only negative thing about this is the lack of the Epson Utility that lets you clean print heads, check ink levels and so forth. I’m sure I can grab the full driver package from Epson, just haven’t bothered to look yet since it works fine with the GIMP-Print drivers.
If your surge protector(s) have mounts on the bottom for wall-mounting, I definitely recommend doing this, as it will keep your cords cleaner, less cluttered, and make the power bar a lot more accessible.