Hey I am looking into buying a powermac G5 off craigslist. The guy says everything works but he took the hard drive. So this made me think the operating system is gone. Therefore I would have to find a copy of leopard, plus its a non intel machine. Am I in over my head or could I actually get this thing running with minimal effort? thanks
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PowerMac G5
- Thread starter Klae
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You'd need to add a SATA hard drive, of course, which is pretty easy in a G5. As you know, you would need a copy of Leopard. Given those, there shouldn't be much effort required.
I hope he's not asking much. I wouldn't be happy if I couldn't see that the computer actually boots.
I hope he's not asking much. I wouldn't be happy if I couldn't see that the computer actually boots.
According to everymac.com, that G5 was originally configured with Tiger (10.4) so you could go that route instead of Leopard. Leopard might be faster, but Tiger would be cheaper. In any case, that looks like a fair price for a pretty nice computer.
Ebay, but they are not cheap.
One of these G5's on Amazon, which come complete might be a better deal.
If there is a Mac discussion thread relatively local to you, you might be able to get a copy through them. eBay is also a good bet, as jbarley says, but he's right about the expense. I was looking at this recently, and a copy of Leopard alone will pretty much equal the cost of the computer. For the hard drive, try to find a SATA2; SATA3 in my experience can be a little hit-or-miss. In my G5, I tried two from WD, and one worked and one didn't, even after I jumpered them down to SATA2.
The specs on your G5 look pretty good, though I would not be surprised if you could find one with a hard drive for not much more than $110.
Hope everything works out for you.
The specs on your G5 look pretty good, though I would not be surprised if you could find one with a hard drive for not much more than $110.
Hope everything works out for you.
I think there's someone selling a copy of Leopard in the marketplace for $100... just an idea of how much it is.
Does he have the original discs that came with it (I didn't look at the ad). If you can get that, at least you can get Tiger on it after finding a hard drive.
Does he have the original discs that came with it (I didn't look at the ad). If you can get that, at least you can get Tiger on it after finding a hard drive.
I have disc number 1 for Tiger for that machine. You could maybe find no. two somewhere?
I just bought last week almost the same machine 2x 2ghz ppc with 2gb but mine came with two hardrives(500gb & 2500gb both 7200rpm) and a leopard disk with the new apple bluetooth keyboard and magic mouse for 150euro
There still a fantastic machine i put all my itunes library on it and riped about 30 dvd's on it so far internet is super fast but it doesn't handle youtube at 720p and 1080p tho at 480p is blazing have all my old dos games on it too.
Basically using it as NAS but i do surf the web/emails(Love the mail app)
Put Microsoft office and adobe photoshop cs4 on it running blazing fast.
Even some of the applications that say they don't support ppc run fine.
No problems with printer etc, i honestly think its alot better of a machine then a 300 euro Desktop pc right now
So i say its worth the hassle of banging a new hdd or ssd in and putting leopard on. Even with a 7200RPM it boots in around 25secs
The only negitive is that its heavy REALLY heavy and it only has 3 usb ports, but i put a usb port pic card in it and having no probs.
There still a fantastic machine i put all my itunes library on it and riped about 30 dvd's on it so far internet is super fast but it doesn't handle youtube at 720p and 1080p tho at 480p is blazing have all my old dos games on it too.
Basically using it as NAS but i do surf the web/emails(Love the mail app)
Put Microsoft office and adobe photoshop cs4 on it running blazing fast.
Even some of the applications that say they don't support ppc run fine.
No problems with printer etc, i honestly think its alot better of a machine then a 300 euro Desktop pc right now
So i say its worth the hassle of banging a new hdd or ssd in and putting leopard on. Even with a 7200RPM it boots in around 25secs
The only negitive is that its heavy REALLY heavy and it only has 3 usb ports, but i put a usb port pic card in it and having no probs.
With my magic mouse and wireless key board I barely use the usb ports at all. I have 3 on the power mac and another 2 on the apple cinema display. My external drive is using the FW800 port, it is much faster than a USB 2 interface.
Yea, but im coming from a windows world. So maybe i have more usb stuff then most
Printer
2x2TB external drives
My phone is usually charging of the tower
Gamepad, when my sister is at my house
+ whatever misc. usb drive or device i have pluged in at any time
I'm loving the bluetooth keyboard and mouse its a really nice touch
btw i picked up a 2x usb pci card for 7 euro in my local pc shop works a charm
I see where you're coming from. I have my usb printer network thru airport express, that way i can access the printer wirelessly from any device thru wifi or wire connection. I can also connect my speaker on the airport express and it can still play music from my iTunes, that can be two cables taken out of my rig, and I charge my ipod, iphone and other devices on the wall. The only thing that uses my usb port on the powermac is a usb thumb drive. I have moved most of my files on the cloud using drop box so I can access it anywhere, home, office, coffee shop, field work.
I am saving for a NAS that way I don't have to connect an external to my powermac.