August 13, 2002: Apple unveils the final face-lift for its Power Mac G4, the Mirrored Drive Doors model.
The distinctive-looking computer borrows visually from the previous QuickSilver G4, released a year earlier. However, it adds a different front panel, with a mirrorlike finish for the media drive doors. It’s the last visual redesign of Apple’s Power Mac G4.
Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors: Faster, better, louder
The Mirrored Drive Doors Power Mac G4 boasted much faster components than previous G4 computers. Unlike the QuickSilver models, all Mirrored Drive Doors machines came with dual processors, regardless of the price point. They also came with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar preinstalled.
“You can now get a dual-processor G4 system with Xserve architecture and DDR memory, pre-loaded with ‘Jaguar’ for just $1,699,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release announcing the new computers. “These are the fastest Macs ever, and ‘Jaguar’ really makes the dual processors sing.”
At the entry level of the Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors lineup, Apple released a dual 867 MHz machine, followed by dual 1 GHz and dual 1.25 GHz models.
The new Macs also offered support for up to 2GB of double data rate RAM at 333 MHz, an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card, and storage of up to nearly half a terabyte. The computers shipped with Mac OS X 10.2, although they also could run OS 9. According to Apple’s press release, the Mirrored Drive Models could run “professional applications like Adobe Photoshop up to 90 percent faster than a 2.53GHz Pentium 4-based PC.”
Bruce Chizen, president and CEO of Adobe, called the new Power Macs “faster than any PC we’ve seen” at running Photoshop.
These impressive specs came at a cost, though. Macs previously earned a reputation for running incredibly quietly. Not so with the Power Mac G4 with Mirrored Drive Doors. Instead, some observers called it “the Wind Tunnel” due to the noise generated by its variable-speed fans.
After several months of complaints about noise, Apple introduced a firmware update in November 2002 that improved the behavior of the computer’s fans. The update also reduced high-speed fan cycling when users ran Mac OS 9.
Photo: Apple
The end of the line for the Power Mac G4
Apple upgraded the Power Mac G4 line once more, in 2003, although those machines retained the same design as the Mirrored Drive Door models. Cupertino ultimately replaced the Power Mac G4 with the Power Mac G5 in June 2003.
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