Since the Mac Mini Group appears dead, I guess I'll post here... I bought a G4 Mini about six months ago to use as a compact iTunes server for the house, replacing the big hulking Beige G3 tower I've been using.
I'm finally configuring the thing and have a few questions. 1) Does anyone know what the Wifi slot is? From the Apple Hardware Developer Note, it looks like it's probably a combination PCI slot and USB connection (Wires for both on one connector). If one has the riser card does that provide a standard Mini-PCI connection, or is it still proprietary? I'm half-heartedly looking for a way to get SCSI on the thing, so it can also run my household backup system as well. If I do anything with this SCSI idea I'll need an Airport card or combo Airport/Bluetooth card from which to reverse engineer the connections. Anyone have a dead one they'd like to dispose of? Failing that, is there an inexpensive source of these cards or have they become expensive? 2) I opened it up last night. I thought that tiny hole on the lower right was a port for a manual eject pin to the optical drive, but it looks like there's an IR receiver behind it. Does the G4 Mini have an IR receiver? I researched this a while back and thought that only later Minis could use an IR remote. 3) The Mini I bought has a CD-RW/DVD-ROM and I want to install a DVD- RW drive. I have a Toshiba TS-632 and a Hitachi AGW-4080 on hand. Any opinions on which is the better choice? 4) Everything I've read says the maximum RAM is 1 GB. Anyone ever successfully install more RAM? The Apple Developer Note (which also claims 1 GB maximum) states: "Signals A[0] - A[12] and BA[0] - BA[1] on each RAM DIMM make up a 15 bit multiplexed address bus that can support several different types of SDRAM devices." Now, that statement isn't super-accurate, because while the address is multiplexed the Bank address is not. So the maximum addressing possible is 13 address bits twice (twice is what the multiplexing means) for 26 address bits or 64M addresses, and the two Bank bits yield up to four banks. So, if one builds a DIMM out of sixteen 64M X 4bit X 4bank parts, one would have get a 2 GB DIMM. Hmmm, checking some memory datasheets, it looks like there may never have been 64M X n X 4 bank parts. They all seem to go to 8 banks before they go to 64M addresses. Thank you for any helpful or humorous answers. Jeff Walther -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
