Apple released the PowerMac G4 in 1999, and then launched its new iterations until 2002. I would say that this computer’s outdated, to be honest, as it’s too much of an old version of this table. It’s still an old CPU and GPU. It lacks almost all modern interfaces. Don’t worry that it is possible to use modern parts without a single fault. But that didn’t deter Pierre Dandumont fromJournaldulapin.com. What does Apple’s Power Mac G4 look like in the early 2000s? PCI. No PCI Express, or a PCI slot, or that could be used to install several add-in-cards like graphics boards (yes, it’s based on a Power processor, but it lacks AGP too). There are also PCI-to-PCIe adapter boards which let you install PCIe hardware into PCI slots, but with a few limits. Plugging everything in isn’t enough for an efficient PCIe user to get a power, portable computer. Because it’s obvious that this system doesn’t support the NVMe protocol used by modern fast SSDs. Even though it appears to support the AHCI protocol, commonly used in modern hard drives, some PCIe SSDs, and all SATA SSDs. The Power Mac G4 comes with SCSI and Parallel ATA HDDs, and it looks like Apple used PATA controllers to support AHCI, but we’re speculating here. This AHCI support can be used to use PCIe SSDs which use this protocol, such as Samsung’sSM951. Even picking up the right SSD isn’t enough to be able to make a relatively new drive work in a Power Mac G4 that’s about 20 years old. In order to allow a drive to boot, a different BIOS (or Open Firmware in this case) is needed, and a new version of Mac OS X is required, which in that case shows how to install. After all, there will still be performance limits, such as the 133MB/s bandwidth supported by an 32-bit 33MHz PCI bus (not to mention the a half-duplex interface here). However, it’s not an option for us. One legitimate question about the possibility of creating a new SSD as a system with such a performance-capping interface is whether it would be much easier and faster to plug in an external SSD without a USB connection. Apple’s Power Mac G4 only has two USB 1.1 ports and now a 12 MB /s data rate (1,5 MB/s) is a matter of magnitude slower than a 32-bit 33 MHz PCI interface. Of course, using a FireWire 400 (around 50 MB/s) connection would be faster, but a modern SSD and a FireWire interface would probably be even trickier than using a PCI slot. A lot longer, because as a whole the best Raspberry Pi projects, the addition of a new component to an outdated Power Mac G4 is less a convenience than a bit more an unused performance, rather it is a hobby but it is a good idea to know what’s possible. In such a vein, this endeavor has clearly been a success.
