Apple Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003) vs Apple Power Macintosh 8600/250

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Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003) compared with Power Macintosh 8600/250

	ApplePower Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003)	ApplePower Macintosh 8600/250
Overview
Released
Released	June 2003	1997
Performance
Processor
Processor	PowerPC G4 1250 MHz (Power Mac MDD 2003) or 2 × PowerPC G4 1250 MHz (Power Mac MDD 2003)	PowerPC 604e 250 MHz (Power Macintosh 8600/250)
CPU cores
CPU cores	1 or 2	1
Graphics
Graphics	ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (64 MB)	–
Memory
Memory	256 MB or 2 GB (better)	32 MB
Storage
Storage	80 GB (better)	4 GB
CPU
CPU	Stock single 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 with 256 KB L2 cache and 1 MB L3 cache. Contemporary Macworld reporting of Apple Store configurations also documents dual 1.25 GHz processors, each with 2 MB L3; this custom build is labelled in configuration details rather than presented as a second stock base.	250 MHz PowerPC 604e with 64 KB L1 cache, 1 MB L2 cache, 100 MHz cache bus and 50 MHz system bus
GPU
GPU	Stock ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64 MB DDR in an AGP 4x slot. Macworld also documents a custom dual-processor build with NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium; that build has other upgrades and is not treated as a freely interchangeable stock configuration.	Built-in video with 2 MB VRAM, expandable to 4 MB; the latter is required for video mirroring
Memory type
Memory type	Stock 256 MB PC2700 DDR333; four DIMM slots, maximum 2 GB. The single-processor configurations retain the stock drive and graphics at base and maximum memory. The documented dual-processor custom base has 256 MB.	32 MB minimum with eight 168-pin DIMM slots, expandable to 512 MB according to Apple
Storage type
Storage type	Stock 80 GB 7200 rpm Ultra ATA/100 hard drive; up to four internal drives. Tray-loading Combo drive reads DVD at 8x and CD at 32x, writes CD-R at 16x and CD-RW at 10x. Macworld documents a dual 1.25 GHz custom base with 80 GB, Combo drive and Radeon 9000 Pro, and a separate upgraded build with 2 GB RAM, two 160 GB drives, SuperDrive and GeForce4 Titanium. The two-drive build is described here without flattening its drives into a single capacity.	4 GB internal SCSI hard drive, 1.44 MB floppy, 24× CD-ROM and built-in Iomega Zip drive
Expansion slots
Expansion slots	Four PCI slots and an occupied AGP 4x graphics slot.	Three PCI slots; Apple's launch release also describes a pre-wired 5.25-inch SCSI expansion bay
Display
Screen
Screen	None built in	None built in
Connections
Ports
Ports	2 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack	Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet	1 Gb/s	–
Front ports
Front ports	Headphone connection and built-in mono speaker.	–
Back ports
Back ports	Two USB 1.1, two FireWire 400, Gigabit Ethernet with Auto-MDIX, ADC and DVI display connectors, audio line-in/out and Apple Pro Speakers connection. The maker lists a V.92 modem. Optional original AirPort; the contemporary Apple-spokesman report confirms no AirPort Extreme, internal Bluetooth or FireWire 800.	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	ADC and DVI connectors with included DVI-to-VGA adapter. Digital resolution up to 1920 × 1200; analogue up to 1600 × 1200. The exact sheet does not publish a simultaneous display count.	–
Speakers
Speakers	Built-in mono speaker and connection for Apple Pro Speakers; no built-in microphone.	–
Keyboard and mouse
Keyboard and mouse	Black Apple Pro input devices and DVI-to-VGA adapter.	–
Design and power
Type
Type	Tower	Tower
Weight
Weight	19.1 kg	–
Width × depth × height
Width × depth × height	226 × 467 × 432 mm	–
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Size and weight detail
Size and weight detail	Maker dimensions: height 43.2 cm, width 22.6 cm, depth 46.7 cm; weight 19.1 kg. These published metric values differ slightly from the FW800 sheet.	Apple lists 17.3 × 9.7 × 17.3 inches (height × width × depth) and 35 lb
In the box
In the box	Mac OS X 10.2.4 and bootable Mac OS 9.2.2, install/restore DVD and Apple Hardware Test. First sale uses the 23 June 2003 Macworld report that these models were for sale at Apple’s online store; a 29 June report quotes an Apple spokesman confirming manufacture and sale. The first day is contemporary Apple Store reporting rather than a retained maker launch notice.	Apple lists 5 August 1997 as introduction and describes the 8600/250 as offered outside the US. Its French-Canadian launch release says the new 8600 models came with Mac OS 8, while the later support sheet lists 7.6.1 as original system software. An exact first-sale date for the 8600/250 was not separately established.