I was looking around on macofalltrades.com and found that a Power Mac G5 was available to buy. Its specs are: Dual 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5 processors, 2GB Ram, NVIDIA Geforce FX5200 (64MB), and a 160GB hard drive; all for $400. Does it fare well in most areas that we all use today? If I get it, I would get Leopard on it immediately since I greatly prefer its desktop appearance over Tiger. I would get this as my main computer apart from my laptop, a Dell (see sig). In my school, we have some older Macs, the newest being a 800MHz iMac G4, which unfortunately does not play flash videos well, and neither does my 700MHz eMac. Does the Dual G5 processor configuration on this Power Mac play flash videos better? Obviously the speed is a huge jump, and there are two processors on the logic board. I watch youtube and a lot of CNETTV. I would be heavy on iTunes (music and a ton of purchased videos), iWork, and do some light Photoshop (CS3 or CS4??). Thanks for any advice
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Power Mac G5 Performance?
- Thread starter MaxMike
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it does...okay
I have two powermac g5's the closest one to the config you listed is my dual 2.0 with 4gb ram and a flashed 7800. I got all of it except the video card for $250 it was a great deal so i just had to. It plays regular flash okay just don't try and play HD youtube videos, as it doesn't exactly go well, a lot of dropped frames and such. Now itunes works great and so do 720p videos and movies they play great in any program so that shouldn't be an issue, but 1080 i honestly don't know as i compress my blu-rays because of apple tv's. Now i do extremely light photoshop so i don't know what you do, but it works fine for what me its not too awful slow but then again i'm not expecting it to outperform my macbook pro, for me it was a good cheap desktop for me and my fiancee for school, storage, and controlling the apple tv's.
You didnt say the specs of your dell so i really cant compare but if your looking to get your first mac i'd say its not a bad choice.
Any other way i can help let me know.
I have two powermac g5's the closest one to the config you listed is my dual 2.0 with 4gb ram and a flashed 7800. I got all of it except the video card for $250 it was a great deal so i just had to. It plays regular flash okay just don't try and play HD youtube videos, as it doesn't exactly go well, a lot of dropped frames and such. Now itunes works great and so do 720p videos and movies they play great in any program so that shouldn't be an issue, but 1080 i honestly don't know as i compress my blu-rays because of apple tv's. Now i do extremely light photoshop so i don't know what you do, but it works fine for what me its not too awful slow but then again i'm not expecting it to outperform my macbook pro, for me it was a good cheap desktop for me and my fiancee for school, storage, and controlling the apple tv's.
You didnt say the specs of your dell so i really cant compare but if your looking to get your first mac i'd say its not a bad choice.
Any other way i can help let me know.
I would really just be experimenting with Photoshop, since in my major at my school (vocational), we do more Cisco Networking and computer repair. That, and I am waiting for a Mac OS X version on Sun's NetBeans for my Java programming. My Dell Latitude D620 has a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM (3.25 available, stupid Windows lol), Windows 7 Professional, 160GB HD, and a NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M (64MB). My eMac (700MHz PPC G4, 512MB RAM) is ok, so I guess that would be my benchmark for this Mac. But the eMac kinda slows down after some use, so the 2GB RAM in the PM G5 would be appreciated. Plus I am sure I could find some RAM for it. I was looking at a iMac G4, but I like the design and power of the Power Mac G5 more (I'm not a huge fan of the iMac G5, btw).
I think for what your trying to do it will do fine i mean it will definitely be faster than the emac and g4 and g5 imac. (And yes, i would not recommend a g5 imac to you they are just too slow overheat and break its not a good machine.) I do a lot of networking with mine so i bought a normal PCI gigabit network card because the built in one is slower so transferring large files just wasn't happening. I upped my ram to 4 gb from 2 it helped a bit but ever since i went to 4 i haven't had a problem at all, just remember matched pairs or it wont boot.
If you did end up getting it i would eventually try and replace that graphics card as its kinda slow, and i'm sure it wouldn't hurt in photoshop. They are hard to come by, the ones that work in the AGP g5's. If you look around on this site and google im sure you can find a list and look for ones that are in your price range and whats good is you don't have to get it all right now you can space it out not at all once.
Also i don't know if this matters to you very much but compared to the g4 powermac's its a lot quieter which is good if your putting it near where you sleep.
If you did end up getting it i would eventually try and replace that graphics card as its kinda slow, and i'm sure it wouldn't hurt in photoshop. They are hard to come by, the ones that work in the AGP g5's. If you look around on this site and google im sure you can find a list and look for ones that are in your price range and whats good is you don't have to get it all right now you can space it out not at all once.
Also i don't know if this matters to you very much but compared to the g4 powermac's its a lot quieter which is good if your putting it near where you sleep.
How is Airport in the PM G5? Do you know? I would probably put it in my room, and I don't really wanna make my dad run an Ethernet cable through the walls in my house just so I can be on a wired connection.
Airport is okay on the earlier powermacs, better on the final revision machines which have built in antennas into the case.
Yes but ONLY if the computer comes with (or you buy separately) the antenna. It's almost non-existent without it.
I'd say $400 is fair considering the security of buying from a reputable reseller (and Macofalltrades are pretty good, I bought a laptop from them years ago). The dual 1.8gHz is ok, the graphics card will be stable but not ideal for anything with high frame rates, especially HD video. For Flash videos (I assume you're talking about online stuff like Hulu?), it'll be ok but replacing the graphics card will help that out dramatically. Also, with the PPC line, upping the RAM will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS improve performance, way more than on the Intels in my experience, so I'd look into maxing it out (either 4gb or 8gb). Though honestly for a hundred or so more you can probably find a used mac mini that would be equal to or superior to a G5 tower...
If you're going to buy a G5, check out ebay. I got my dual-core G5(Late 05) for under $300 from a reputable seller. They may be discontinued and not supported any longer but there's still lots of software that will still work on it and will run pretty good for being a 4+ year old computer. Just load up the RAM and it will be a great machine.
He has other G5s listed too. http://shop.ebay.com/intechraparts-columbus/m.html?_nkw=g5&_sacat=0&_trksid=m270&_odkw=&_osacat=0.
He has other G5s listed too. http://shop.ebay.com/intechraparts-columbus/m.html?_nkw=g5&_sacat=0&_trksid=m270&_odkw=&_osacat=0.
I have a dual core 2.0 and it's great. Mind you- I've upgraded the RAM to 8 gigs and the video card to a 256 Radeon x1900, so it runs really well. I've had no trouble with HD at all. It does a great job with it. I'll use it as a server when the time comes.
Someone on mac-forums.com suggested that I get a Mac mini Core Duo instead. Currently, powermax.com has a Mac mini Core Duo (1.83GHz, 1GB RAM, Intel 950 graphics =\) that, in the end, comes out to the same price as the Power Mac G5. Should I go with that instead? Again, I would do iTunes, Java code writing, some light Photoshop, watch online flash video (Hulu, YouTube, CNETTV, etc.), and the iWork and iLife suites. Just want to get multiple opinions. The Mac mini stated can be found here: http://www.powermax.com/parts/show/c-u68229 
I'd only "upgrade" to a Mini over my G5 if it had the 9400m graphics card in it and not the crappy GMA950 graphics. Check Apple's refurbished store often for refurbed Minis but I'll warn you that they go quick!
I believe there's someone selling a 2.0C2D 9400 on this site's Marketplace for around $500.
edit: Found it > https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/845481/. But you may not be able to access it with your lack of posts?
I believe there's someone selling a 2.0C2D 9400 on this site's Marketplace for around $500.
edit: Found it > https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/845481/. But you may not be able to access it with your lack of posts?
I can't access the Marketplace yet because I have only been a member for 1-2 months. I would offer $450 (same as the price of the PM G5 on macofalltrades.com with the shipping charge) for that Mac mini, and for it with the Core 2 Duo and 9400m, I wouldn't pass that up!
I can't access the Marketplace yet because I have only been a member for 1-2 months. I would offer $450 (same as the price of the PM G5 on macofalltrades.com with the shipping charge) for that Mac mini, and for it with the Core 2 Duo and 9400m, I wouldn't pass that up!
Check your PMs.
Someone on mac-forums.com suggested that I get a Mac mini Core Duo instead. Currently, powermax.com has a Mac mini Core Duo (1.83GHz, 1GB RAM, Intel 950 graphics =\) that, in the end, comes out to the same price as the Power Mac G5. Should I go with that instead? Again, I would do iTunes, Java code writing, some light Photoshop, watch online flash video (Hulu, YouTube, CNETTV, etc.), and the iWork and iLife suites. Just want to get multiple opinions. The Mac mini stated can be found here: http://www.powermax.com/parts/show/c-u68229
Look for a Mac Mini early 2009 ....
Much better for your needs.