Hi Dave, I think you are the one I just bought the 1.5 mac mini from!  It showed up today, very nice packaging.

I have a random Wal-Mart monitor that I will try a dvi-hdmi converter with. Otherwise I guess I'll have to order the Apple Cinema Display?  What's the best solution, right now, for these silent upgrade mac minis?

Hi Vanceone,
Yes, the converter should be fine. Although the converters vary in quality. I have found some work better than others. Also, be sure to try a lower resolution. I also have a couple extra Apple DVI-VGA adapters. If you have VGA potential on a monitor you own let me know and I'm happy to send you one, just PM me. No charge of course since you bought the computer
Best,
Dave

yet another piece of software that could be worth hacking/modifying ! If your G4 doesn't have a Superdrive (Apple exclusively) the app won't even launch 

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/idvd-101-os9

encore un logiciel à hacker/modifier car si votre G4 n'a pas de SuperDrive (Apple exclusivement) l'appli ne se lance pas 

@Jubadub, in answer to your question regarding the old mercury thermometer… I needn’t tell you to be careful? But personally, I’d try it. And a couple of things - given that those usually required 3 minutes to measure a temperature, maybe insert it @ 10 minutes and wait until 13 minutes elapses before reading?

Also a warning to keep your eyes on it (perhaps behind a face shield) in case it exceeds 107˚ which was their normal top temp range, when it might actually explode. So, don’t let it get that high / hot. [However, if you’ve re-pasted your heatsink, it’s unlikely that it might get that hot in 10-13 minutes anyway.] One other minor thing is that their low temperature measurable range likely may not register at, or even below 76˚.

I no longer have one of those mercury thermometers because I’d like to test that too. And given the time, I might eventually try a “related” laboratory thermometer because they have an extended range. (Around $10.00.)

Have also considered the newer, 30 second read-time digital thermometers - but they too have a limited temperature range.

And just as I won’t spend the higher prices for a G4 mini these days, I won’t suggest that anyone spend any money on other temperature meters, but I did find one for about $10.00 less than I paid for a dual meter, which might just suit the purpose, should one wish to purchase one. $18.89

https://www.amazon.com/Thermometer-Thermocouples-328%C2%B0F-2501%C2%B0F-Thermocouple-Temperture/dp/B0D5M27WZY?ref

                   



Still looking forward to Bolkonskij’s findings and any other temperature reports from others that might follow.

Now again, back to testing here.

I think you're right, and an SSD is especially influential. It tells the motherboard that the HDD is too hot, and the fan speeds up. This happened to me with an M.2 SATA, right after powering on.

Is there any software that can read the fan RPMs on a Mini G4?

Party pooper here. Wearing EE hat
Guys, any increase of temperature inside the Mini will be compensated by increased speed of variable speed fan until almost the same thermal equilibrium is reached. It is a closed loop system after all. The difference between any two conditions will be so small that it will fall under measurement error. To make the proper comparative temperature measurements you have to use the fan with constant rotational speed and have your temperature probes rigidly fixed always in the same place.
Also, no two Minis are the same. The temperature will also depend on other electronic parts that are mounted inside - what kind of drive, DVD-ROM mounted or not, screw holes covered or not, exhaust intake obstructed or not, extra PCBs, larger RAM and so on. More turbulent or laminar airflow over the heatsink because of those extra parts. Room temperature is only one part of the equation.

What's the best solution, right now, for these silent upgrade mac minis?

It's all in my table in the first post.
The safest bet for all Minis is any 17" or 19" display. If the color stability over longer period of time is important, then look for display in that range with LED backlight. My personal favourite is Fujitsu B19-7. Not the largest gamut in the world, but for non critical work (high end photography, pre-press) it is very nice.
For larger than 19" sizes, consult my table or ask other users.
As to the Apple displays, those with CCFL backlight, if they were used extensively, might be faded out and not reproducing colors correctly. The same also applies to other displays with CCFL backlight.

Quote

IIRC, the problem with 3rd party formaters was that they all installed their own drivers, which not always were up to date in regard to latest technologies or OSes.

Yes, this is spot on... the big "danger" in using 3rd party drivers (and dynamic drive overlays) is that you can end up in a situation where you desperately need data off a drive and you have to hook it to another mac (without the utilities installed) and... BAM... no mountable volume... which can really suck.  FWB was notorious for this, and even various versions of FWB were glitchy with each other.

So basically, the general rule of thumb is...

1) If you are always going to boot from the same volume with 3rd party drivers and 3rd party software installed... everything will be peachy keen (unless you corrupt your boot volume). If you do, you better remember exactly what version of 3rd party stuff you had installed, so you can make another boot drive with the exact software and then you can read your stuff as a non-boot volume.

2) Play it safe and use the Mac OS drive setup only

I use the latter for maximum inter connectivity

About those rules of thumb, I generally agree with them.

But I have to say, using Silverlining Pro 6.5.9 from 2007 (and hopefully will soon try out 6.5.9.1 once that is uploaded), aside from my personal experience being nothing short of fantastic with it, I noticed its volumes were all perfectly detected and mountable in both Mac OS 9 (without its drivers installed nor loaded from the booting Mac OS 9 partition) and OS X (both Tiger and Leopard) for any repair or maintenance purposes.

So... Yeah, Drive Setup 2.1, and 1.9.2 for FireWire drives, are awesome... But Silverlining Pro 6.5.9(.1) is king!

@aBc I will have to locate and buy a proper thermometer first... I will keep an eye out for one to try it out. All I have at home is a regular, oldschool, small mercury thermometer, and something tells me it won't work too well on a mini's vent. (Will it?)

My pleasure. It's honestly a very fun implementation of Minesweeper, as with nearly all Minesweeper implementations on Mac OS.

I expected it to have the usual "black top border" window style as with ALL DAs I have ever seen, but this one looks just like a usual Mac application, window-wise, which I find interesting.

personally i enjoy 5:4 Sony SDM Series TFT Active Matrix LCD monitors