Power Mac G4 (1.25 GHz, “mirrored drive doors,” 2003)

The Power Macintosh G4/1.25 GHz “Mirrored Drive Doors” tower used a 1.25 GHz PowerPC 7455 G4 processor, 256 MB RAM, an 80 GB hard drive, a 12X DVD-ROM/CD-RW “Combo” drive, and allowed wireless using an optional AirPort (802.11b) card. This model was released along with new Power Macintosh G5 models to provide a lower-cost alternative for users who did not need the power of the G5 and still wanted to boot with the MacOS 9 operating system.

While similar to the previous “Quicksilver” model, the front of this tower retains the silver opaque color, but adds a mirror-finished plate over the two available optical drive doors in the center. Although two drive spaces are available, this example only uses one “Combo” (CD/DVD reader/writer) drive in the top position. The prominent drive doors also include the power button at the top-center and an “interrupt” button off to the right. A single speaker is placed above the doors. Four conspicuous ventilation holes span the bottom of the front of this tower.

The back of the tower was flipped compared to previous similar tower designs (G3 blue and white, G4 graphite, and G4 Quicksilver), in that the expansion slots are placed at the top. This tower has spaces for five slots, but only uses slot 1 (at the bottom) to house a VGA port and ADC (proprietary Apple Display Connector) port; slots 2–5 are unused. Ports are included below with two USB, two FireWire (400), one ethernet, a space for a modem port, and side-by-side microphone (line-in)/speaker (audio-out) 3.5 mm jacks. A dedicated Apple speaker port is included to allow Apple’s crystal-clear spherical speakers to be used.

The right side of the tower included a latch with a circular rubberized grip that allowed the entire side of the tower to be opened on a hinge, revealing and providing relatively easy access to all internal components. Plug-in slots (such as video, memory, and wireless) were attached to the hinged side, while components such as drives and fans remained attached to the internal metal frame of the tower.

A design concept worth noting in this tower is its two-layer round-hole pattern on the back. The internal layer features smaller, closely spaced holes in silver metal, while the larger outer holes are spaced further apart in light-silver plastic. The concept is similar to the somewhat-maligned “cheese grater” design used in the 2019 Mac Pro tower. The 2019 Mac Pro uses a “machined spherical array” of ventilation holes in a distinctive design—”The lattice pattern on the Mac Pro is based on a naturally occurring phenomenon in molecular crystal structures.” To be clear, the 2019 design is a single piece of machined metal—not two separate layers—but the designs are related visually. In both the 2003 and 2019 towers, the holes are used simultaneously as design, structure, and ventilation.

Source: Everymac, Apple

Speaker Grille (for Power Mac G4 “mirrored drive doors,” 2002)

This Speaker Grille for the Power Mac G4 “mirrored drive doors” model was included to protect its single front speaker. The previous Power Mac G4 (“Quicksilver”) included a similar speaker design, but the speaker was located at the bottom-center of the tower and no grille was included. The Power Mac G4 “mirrored drive doors” design had four air vents across the bottom in the same position of the speaker on the “Quicksilver” design.

The manual references the speaker grill twice:

On page 11, “Don’t put anything in the recessed speaker opening except the optional speaker grille. Touching the speaker can damage it.”

And on page 15, “Speaker—Use the recessed internal speaker to hear sound from the computer. Take care not to let anything touch the fragile speaker mechanism. To protect the speaker from damage, a speaker grille is included with your computer. However, you’ll receive better sound quality without the grille.”

Source: Apple

Apple Mouse (white, M5769, 2003)

The Apple Mouse was very similar in design to the Apple Pro Mouse released in 2000. However, the Apple Mouse was white and removed the ability for the user to control the click-force setting on the bottom of the mouse.

The surface of this mouse was crystal clear acrylic with a base insert in white that matched the keyboard that shipped with it.

This mouse was included with the Power Mac G4 (mirrored drive door), Power Mac G5, eMac, iMac G4, and iMac G5. 

Source: Wikipedia.com

Apple Mouse (white, unopened, M5769, 2003)

The Apple Mouse was very similar in design to the Apple Pro Mouse released in 2000. However, the Apple Mouse was white and removed the ability for the user to control the click-force setting on the bottom of the mouse. The surface of this mouse was crystal clear acrylic with a base insert in white that matched the keyboard that shipped with it.

This mouse was included with the Power Mac G4 (mirrored drive door), Power Mac G5, eMac, iMac G4, and iMac G5. 

Source: Wikipedia.com