I was just given a mint PowerMac G5, what next?


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I was literally just handed a heavy ass PowerMac G5 about 30 minutes ago. I love how clean it is!!!

 

Specs are;

 

PMG5/DC 2.0/512MB/160GB

 

I want to upgrade the memory and the hard drive and might even upgrade the processor. Problem is, I don't think I can just hop on Newegg and buy Mac parts. Or can I? Where can I buy compatible parts? Thanks!!

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I would strip it and see if you can reuse the case for building a PC. It's a nice case. The rest is obsolete.

 

You could still install OS X on it if you rebuilt it using PC parts. The problem with the G5 is that hardly any new software supports it.

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I would strip it and see if you can reuse the case for building a PC. It's a nice case. The rest is obsolete.

 

That sucks lol. The case is amazing though so no harm I guess. I wouldn't be able to replace Mac parts?

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That sucks lol. The case is amazing though so no harm I guess. I wouldn't be able to replace Mac parts?

 

I'm sure you could, but I remember selling some old 2004-2006ish Mac parts on eBay just last year and people were paying a lot of money for them. Not sure what your budget is.

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I'm sure you could, but I remember selling some old 2004-2006ish Mac parts on eBay just last year and people were paying a lot of money for them. Not sure what your budget is.

 

Don't really have one. I'll just stop spending when i don't feel like doing it anymore lol

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hackintosh it. g5 isn't terrible if you wanna run office2004 and maybe a 8 year old safari 

 

Damn, that bad? Okay so I'll hack it. Now I have to find out the dimensions.

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Don't really have one. I'll just stop spending when i don't feel like doing it anymore lol

 

Then put a SSD in there. I think I remember seeing one that was compatible with the G5.

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Does it boot to OS X (in 1-2 minutes)? If so, you're fortunate - you have a good machine. A lot of G5s had memory controller issues: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1676857 I have a G5 with the problem described, and it won't go past the Apple logo (even after 20 minutes). It's case is in fair condition, but I did get it of an ewaste heap.

 

Expect the machine to be noisy and pretty power hungry. The engineering that's gone into the machine offsets this. I just love the cooling system. It was a step above the design of the Power Mac G4.

 

You don't need Mac parts - I've installed PC RAM and hard drives in many Macs without issues. The only thing you can swap are graphics cards, however if you really want to, you can flash a card's firmware to become Mac compatible.

 

I wouldn't hack it. Install Tiger and have some fun with some software available on the Mac Garden (mainly Classic apps).

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What parts can I get that will fit this case? I've never hacked a Mac before.

Perhaps you can get some ideas from these:

http://www.mineos.phant0m.net/Things/PowerMac_i7.html

http://build-its.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/how-to-fit-your-pc-in-power-mac-g5-case.html

 

hackintosh it. g5 isn't terrible if you wanna run office2004 and maybe a 8 year old safari 

PowerPC native apps will speed along. The G5 is still a powerful machine overall - just sometimes noisy and pretty power hungry.

 

Then put a SSD in there. I think I remember seeing one that was compatible with the G5.

There's nothing proprietary about the SATA ports on Apple's logic boards, from my understanding, so an SSD should work. But you won't get TRIM support.

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It's a computer that was sold at the latest around 2005 and to be honest even at the time it was pretty weak. I had one when they announced the switch to Intel, then the dev kit leaked and I installed it on my old pc i used to have before I got the PowerG5....and it was booting way faster and felt more responsive. At that time I knew PPC was dead, put it on craigslist and managed to get most of my money back and put it all on a brand new 1st gen Macbook Pro, great computer that still runs today

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Some people here are exagerating. There still a decent amount of software that support the PPC architecture.

 

I recommend you to visit http://lowendmac.com/

 

Lot of software and hardware news for old macs.

 

I know a movie studio that still do render jobs on a maxed out G5 (16 gb ram, G5 compatible SSD, OS X 10.5.8). If they can do render jobs then you can use it for productivity and much more.

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