Apple Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2002) vs Apple Power Macintosh 8600/300

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Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2002) compared with Power Macintosh 8600/300

	ApplePower Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2002)	ApplePower Macintosh 8600/300
Overview
Released
Released	August 2002	August 1997
Performance
Processor
Processor	2 × PowerPC G4 867 MHz (Power Mac Mirrored Drive Doors 2002), 2 × PowerPC G4 1000 MHz (Power Mac Mirrored Drive Doors 2002) or 2 × PowerPC G4 1250 MHz (Power Mac Mirrored Drive Doors 2002)	PowerPC 604e 300 MHz (Power Macintosh 8600/300)
CPU cores
CPU cores	2	1
Graphics
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce4 MX (32 MB) or ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (64 MB)	–
Memory
Memory	256 MB, 512 MB or 2 GB (better)	32 MB
Storage
Storage	60 GB to 120 GB (better)	4 GB
CPU
CPU	Dual 867 MHz, dual 1 GHz or dual 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 processors; each physical processor has 256 KB on-chip L2 cache. 867 MHz and 1 GHz have 1 MB DDR SRAM L3 per processor; 1.25 GHz has 2 MB. System bus 133 MHz on dual 867, 167 MHz on dual 1/1.25 GHz. CPU count describes physical processors; supplier is not inferred.	300 MHz PowerPC 604e with 64 KB L1 cache, 1 MB L2 cache, 100 MHz cache bus and 50 MHz system bus
GPU
GPU	Dual 867 MHz: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 32 MB DDR. Dual 1/1.25 GHz: ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64 MB DDR. Optional NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 128 MB; independent CTO options are not expanded into unsupported stock combinations.	Built-in video with 2 MB VRAM, expandable to 4 MB; the latter is required for video mirroring
Memory type
Memory type	Dual 867 MHz: 256 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM at 266 MHz. Dual 1 GHz: 256 MB PC2700 DDR at 333 MHz; dual 1.25 GHz: 512 MB PC2700. Four DIMM slots support up to 2 GB. Configurations preserve stock processor/drive/graphics ties at base and maximum memory.	32 MB standard with eight 168-pin DIMM slots, expandable to 512 MB according to Apple
Storage type
Storage type	60/80/120 GB 7200 rpm Ultra ATA/100 stock drives respectively. Dual 867 MHz has Combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW (CD-R 16x); faster models SuperDrive (DVD-R 2x, CD-R 8x). Four hard-drive bays support two ATA/100 and two ATA/66 drives, or up to four SCSI drives with a separately sold PCI card. Two optical bays, one occupied; optional second Combo drive. Maker optional storage choices remain in details rather than assumed CPU cross-pairs.	4 GB internal SCSI hard drive, 1.44 MB floppy, 24× CD-ROM and built-in Iomega Zip drive
Expansion slots
Expansion slots	Four open full-length 64-bit 33 MHz PCI slots and dedicated AGP 4x graphics slot.	Three PCI slots; Apple's launch release also describes a pre-wired 5.25-inch SCSI expansion bay and two 3.5-inch drive bays
Display
Screen
Screen	None built in	None built in
Connections
Ports
Ports	2 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack	Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet	1 Gb/s	–
External displays
External displays	Up to 2	–
Front ports
Front ports	Headphone jack and built-in speaker.	–
Back ports
Back ports	Two FireWire 400, two USB chassis ports (maker four-port total includes two keyboard ports), Gigabit Ethernet, 56K V.92 modem, ADC/DVI, stereo audio line-in/out and Apple Pro Speakers minijack. Optional 11 Mbps AirPort 802.11b card. Bluetooth is a separately listed adapter, not built-in. No FireWire 800 in this 2002 generation.	Apple Desktop Bus, external DB-25 SCSI, two serial ports, AAUI and 10BASE-T Ethernet, DB-15 video, stereo audio input and output, S-video and RCA video input and output, RCA audio input and output
External displays
External displays	Two displays in extended desktop or mirroring modes; ADC and DVI with included DVI-to-VGA adapter. Connecting two ADC displays requires a separately sold DVI-to-ADC adapter.	–
Speakers
Speakers	Built-in speaker; optional Apple Pro Speakers.	–
Keyboard and mouse
Keyboard and mouse	Apple Pro Keyboard, optical Apple Pro Mouse, DVI-to-VGA adapter and modem cable.	–
Design and power
Type
Type	Tower	Tower
Weight
Weight	19.1 kg	–
Width × depth × height
Width × depth × height	227 × 468 × 432 mm	–
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Size and weight detail
Size and weight detail	Exact maker reference weight 19.1 kg varies with configuration and manufacturing process; height 43.2, width 22.7, depth 46.8 cm. These published dimensions differ slightly from earlier G4 sheets and are retained.	Apple lists 17.3 × 9.7 × 17.3 inches (height × width × depth) and 35 lb
Power supply
Power supply	100–125 V AC or 200–240 V AC, 50–60 Hz. Maximum current 6.5 A at low voltage or 7.5 A at high voltage; maker publishes no maximum wattage here.	Apple lists a 560 W maximum
In the box
In the box	Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar as default startup system, plus bootable Mac OS 9.2.2; iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes and iDVD for SuperDrive. Maker August 13 release says dual 867/1 GHz available that week, so first sale uses August month precision. Actual dual-1.25 GHz shipping confirmed 18 September. January 2003 FireWire 800 models and June 2003 reissue are separate generations.	Apple's 5 August 1997 announcement says the 8600/300 was available immediately worldwide with Mac OS 8. Its support sheet lists original system software as 7.6.1.